Insights
Notes on building better websites
Occasional, practical writing on the things that genuinely help a business online. No jargon, no filler, just what we would tell you over a coffee.
Where to begin
Some subjects take more than one article to cover properly, so we write them as a series. Each one starts with the whole picture, then goes deeper on each part in a piece of its own. New parts arrive as they are written.
- Series · 10 partsSEO
Being found by the people who are already looking for you
Search is not a competition to be first for a word. It is the far more useful business of being the obvious answer when somebody nearby has a problem you solve. A walk through the work that actually moves that, and the work that only looks like it does.
Start the series - Series · 10 partseCommerce
Getting more from the eCommerce site you already have
A walk through the shopping experience your customers actually have, from the moment they start looking to the email that arrives after the parcel does, and the changes at each stage that tend to make the biggest difference.
Start the series - Series · 8 partsEmail
Making your business easy to contact, and keep up with
Being reachable and being on top of what arrives are two different problems, and most businesses have quietly solved neither. A walk through the channels you offer, what every reply says about you, and what to do when one inbox stops being enough.
Start the series
More articles
- eCommerce
Are your delivery charges costing you sales?
Unexpected postage is the most common reason a full basket gets abandoned. The charge itself is rarely the problem, though. The surprise is. Here is how to work out what yours is doing and what to change.
Read the article - Email
Microsoft 365 email on your phone and desktop
Microsoft 365 mailboxes do not need server settings entered by hand. Added as an Exchange account, everything configures itself, stays in step across your devices, and works properly with multi-factor authentication.
Read the article - eCommerce
Photographs and descriptions that do the selling for you
Nobody can pick your product up, so the photographs and the words have to stand in for that. Most shops give them one image on a white background and a paragraph from the manufacturer, and then wonder why the page does not convert.
Read the article - SEO
What an AI-ready website actually means
Everyone is being told their website needs to be ready for AI, and almost nobody is being told what that means. It is less exotic than it sounds, and most of it is just doing the ordinary things properly.
Read the article - Email
What your contact page should ask for, and promise
The contact page is where your most interested visitors end up, which makes it the last place to be casual. Every extra field costs you enquiries, and every promise you make about replying is remembered.
Read the article - SEO
When your pages are not showing up, and how to find out
Before you assume you are ranking badly, check that you are ranking at all. Being absent and being buried look identical from where you are sitting, and they need completely different fixes.
Read the article - Email
Which contact channels actually suit your customers
Adding another way to be reached feels like it can only help. But a channel is not a line on a website, it is a promise that somebody is watching it, and an unanswered one does more harm than the one you never offered.
Read the article - eCommerce
Who owns your reviews, and what you can do with them
Reviews gathered through Google, a marketplace, or a platform you pay for come with different rules about what you may display and what you can take with you. It is worth knowing before you build a page around them.
Read the article - eCommerce
Helping people find the thing they came for
A shopper who cannot find the product does not email to ask where it is. They leave, and you never learn they were there. Navigation, filters and search are the three places that happens, and all three are usually built around your catalogue rather than your customers.
Read the article - Web design
What "your images are too big" actually means
It is the most common thing we say to anyone who looks after their own website, and it is almost always heard as a remark about width and height. What a picture weighs is a separate matter, and it is usually the one causing the trouble.
Read the article - eCommerce
Anxiety busters: what belongs on a product page, and where
Anything that gives somebody pause before they add to basket is anxiety, and everything you do to answer it is an anxiety buster. Here is what to put on the page, and why position matters as much as content.
Read the article - eCommerce
The reviews you already have, and what they are telling you
Customer reviews are the cheapest research a business will ever get, and most shops read them only for the score at the top. Here is how to read them properly, and how to turn what you find into changes on the site.
Read the article - Email
What to do when your mailbox is full
Every mailbox has a ceiling, and years of attachments will find it eventually. Here is how to work out what is taking up the room, what is safe to clear, and what your options are when tidying up is not enough.
Read the article - Web design
What is responsive web design, and do I still need to ask?
Responsive design stopped being a feature you pay extra for a long time ago. The more useful question now is not whether your site technically adapts to a phone, but whether it is any good on one.
Read the article - Email
Setting up multi-factor authentication on Microsoft 365
Microsoft now requires multi-factor authentication on Microsoft 365 accounts. Here is every step, with a picture of each screen, so you can check you are in the right place as you go.
Read the article - Email
Setting up email on your iPhone or iPad
Adding a business email account to an iPhone takes a couple of minutes. Making sure it is set up securely, and that it behaves across all your devices, is worth a couple more.
Read the article - SEO
The website basics to fix before you chase rankings
Before pouring budget into rankings, it pays to make sure the site underneath is doing the fundamentals well. Here is where to look first, and how to check each one yourself.
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