The Manual

The accessibility basics that are also just good sense, what you can fix yourself in an afternoon, and why the one click widgets are not the answer.

For your trade 6 min read

What a veterinary practice website has to answer for a frightened owner late at night, including the answers that send them somewhere else.

For your trade 6 min read

What a studio website has to show before a stranger will send an inquiry, from whose books are open to what you turn down and why.

For your trade 6 min read

How to decide whether your trade needs a single services page or a page per job, the test that settles it, and what belongs on either one.

For your trade 6 min read

A booking app takes the appointment from someone who already decided. Here is the deciding part, and why it has to live somewhere you own.

For your trade 6 min read

After a storm your phone rings for two weeks. What a roofing website has to say in that window, and what to check before it starts.

For your trade 5 min read

Storm season is the one stretch of the year your roofing site does real work. What is worth doing in the quiet months, before the phone starts.

For your trade 6 min read

Your Google listing already has the menu and the hours. Here are the jobs only your own restaurant website can do, and the ones it cannot.

For your trade 6 min read

Your menu exists in six places online and no two of them agree. Here is how to pick the copy that is the real one and keep the rest pointing at it.

For your trade 6 min read

Every field on a quote form costs you people, so here is which ones earn their place, which ones look useful and are not, and what to ask later instead.

For your trade 6 min read

What a privacy policy on a small trades site is actually for, when you genuinely need one, and how to write the page without paying anybody.

For your trade 6 min read

Most plumbing websites answer the wrong questions. Here are the six a homeowner with water on the floor actually asks, in the order they ask them.

For your trade 5 min read

An emergency search gives you roughly thirty seconds and one phone call. Here is where that chain breaks, and the plain fix at every link.

For your trade 6 min read

Someone who found droppings this morning wants answers today. Here is what a pest control website has to settle before they call you.

For your trade 6 min read

The quote is the whole decision. Here is what a moving company website has to answer so somebody can ask for one without worrying.

For your trade 6 min read

Mobile friendly means more than shrinking to fit. Here is what a website has to do for somebody holding a phone in one hand, standing outside, in a hurry.

For your trade 6 min read

A locksmith is a stranger someone lets in at their worst moment. Here is what your website has to prove before anybody calls you.

For your trade 6 min read

Every photograph on a landscaping site was taken in July. How to show your work, your calendar and your dormant months so the page reads true all year.

For your trade 5 min read

Your work has four seasons and your website has twelve months. Here is how to take a booking in the months you are not working and fill the next season early.

For your trade 6 min read

Where a license number and proof of insurance belong on a small trades site, in a form somebody can actually check, without a wall of badges.

For your trade 6 min read

Nobody hesitates over a gym because of the price. Here is what a gym website has to answer about the first ten minutes, the schedule and getting out.

For your trade 5 min read

A class schedule is a table on a page somebody at the desk can edit, not a PDF and not a reason to buy booking software. Here is what each row has to say.

For your trade 6 min read

The FAQ page is the six questions you answer on the phone every day, written down once, in the words your customers actually use to ask them.

For your trade 5 min read

A directory gives you a category and a star rating. Here is the work an electrician can only explain on a page they own, and what to keep listing for free.

For your trade 5 min read

How to handle the inquiry that wants a price for a job nobody has looked at, what to publish instead of a number, and which photo actually helps.

For your trade 6 min read

Nobody calls a dental practice casually. Here are the eight things a person settles on your website first, and what happens when a page will not say.

For your trade 6 min read

Your front desk already knows every question a new patient asks. Here is how to collect them, answer them in the patient's own words, and put them online.

For your trade 6 min read

Why most small trades sites do not need a cookie banner, what actually puts cookies on yours, and why the wrong banner is worse than none at all.

For your trade 7 min read

A quote is one number on one page. What a contractor website has to show alongside it before a homeowner will sign anything at all.

For your trade 6 min read

Hiring a cleaner means handing a stranger a key. Here is what a cleaning business has to put in writing so that decision is easy to make from a phone.

For your trade 5 min read

A one-off clean is an interview. Here is what to put on your website and say afterwards so the good ones turn into a standing every two weeks booking.

For your trade 6 min read

What somebody who has never seen a chiropractor is trying to work out before booking, and how a practice website answers it without overselling.

For your trade 6 min read

Three questions get settled on a phone before anyone reaches your door. Answer them plainly and the rest of the website barely matters.

For your trade 6 min read

Two things decide whether a stranger walks through your door. Everything else on a barber's website is decoration, and most of it gets in the way.

For your trade 6 min read

The questions a driver works through before handing a garage the keys, and where each answer belongs on the site so the phone stops carrying all of it.

For your trade 6 min read

How a garage takes a booking for work nobody has diagnosed yet, what the appointment should promise, and when a phone number is the better button.

For your trade 6 min read

What to do with the inquiry that lands at eleven at night, how to tell an emergency from a Tuesday job, and what your automatic reply should actually say.

For your trade 6 min read

The About page is where a stranger decides whether to let you into the house, and for a one-person business that takes a name, a face and a few checkable facts.

For your trade 5 min read

Where a wrong address on your Google listing comes from, how to correct both the address and the map pin, and what to do when the edit keeps reverting.

When it breaks 5 min read

What actually makes a small business website slow on a phone, how to test it honestly on your own mobile data, and the four things worth cutting first.

When it breaks 6 min read

What to do when your website shows pages you did not write, in what order, and how to decide between having it cleaned and starting again.

When it breaks 5 min read

A calm order of checks for a site that will not load, so you know within ten minutes whether the problem is the host, the name, or your own phone.

When it breaks 6 min read

How to find out who holds your domain and your hosting when the person who built your site stops replying, and what you can recover on your own.

When it breaks 7 min read

Why the padlock disappears from your website, what your customers see instead of your pages, and what has to happen before the warning goes away.

When it breaks 6 min read

What to do when another person or an old agency is verified on your Google listing, how requesting access works, and what happens if they never answer.

When it breaks 5 min read

What a suspended Google listing actually means, which rule you probably crossed, what to send with the appeal, and the one thing not to do while you wait.

When it breaks 6 min read

Why your quotes and replies land in customers' junk folders without anyone telling you, how to test it yourself today, and what to ask to get it fixed.

When it breaks 6 min read

Two Google listings for one business splits your reviews and sends calls to an old number, and here is how to find them all and merge them properly.

When it breaks 5 min read

What actually happens after a domain registration lapses, how long you have to get the name back, and why your email stopped at the same moment.

When it breaks 5 min read

Where the photograph on your homepage probably came from, what happens when its owner finds it, and what to do the day a letter about it arrives.

When it breaks 6 min read

How to tell whether your website form is still delivering inquiries, why forms fail silently for months, and what to change so you find out in minutes.

When it breaks 6 min read

Most website dashboards are noise dressed up as information. Three numbers tell you whether the site is working, and the rest you can safely ignore.

Getting found 6 min read

What to put on your site when you have two reviews instead of two hundred, which substitutes for proof actually work, and what looks worse than saying nothing.

Getting found 5 min read

How to set a service area on Google when the work happens at the customer's place, why hiding your home address is the honest answer, and how wide to go.

Getting found 5 min read

How to answer a Google review, including the one-star one, in a way the next person reading your listing will find reasonable.

Getting found 5 min read

Referrals are the work that arrives already trusting you, and paying for them usually ruins them. What to do instead, and what a recommendation runs into.

Getting found 6 min read

The Google listing fields that decide whether a homeowner with water on the floor taps your number, and the ones a one-van plumbing shop gets wrong.

Getting found 6 min read

Which photographs of your premises, your work and yourself are worth taking on a phone, and which uploads do more harm than good.

Getting found 5 min read

Why a newer business two miles away appears above you in local results, which parts of that you can change, and which parts you cannot.

Getting found 6 min read

The first day after a one-star review, which of the panicked options cost real money, and the response that costs nothing but a night's patience.

Getting found 6 min read

What a Google Post is, where it shows up, what nobody can honestly promise you about ranking, and the four kinds that are actually worth writing.

Getting found 5 min read

A plain walk through the Google Business Profile fields that decide whether a stranger taps your number, and the ones you can safely ignore.

Getting found 7 min read

What Google's review rules actually forbid, and a way of asking your customers that stays inside them and still gets you answers.

Getting found 5 min read

What happens after you buy reviews, why the paid ones take your real ones down with them, and the offers that count as buying without feeling like it.

Getting found 6 min read

How to photograph a job while you are doing it so the set is worth something afterwards, including the shots nobody takes and the captions that do the work.

Getting found 6 min read

Holiday hours are the ones nobody sets in advance, and the quiet week after Christmas is where it shows. Here is the year's list, written once and set early.

Getting found 7 min read

The opening hours errors that send callers to somebody else, and how to keep your listing, your website and your door in agreement.

Getting found 6 min read

A page for every town you might work in is a common piece of advice and a common way to make a site worse, so here is which town pages earn their place.

Getting found 6 min read

Why the reply window is shorter than it feels, what actually counts as a reply, and how to answer from a roof without pretending you are at a desk.

Getting found 6 min read

What Wix and Squarespace do well for a plumber, salon or roofer, where they fight a trade, and the four things to test before you commit.

Compared 7 min read

How to tell whether your website needs a handful of small fixes or a fresh start, and the four conditions that make patching the more expensive choice.

Compared 6 min read

What WhatsApp is better at than a website form, what it costs you, and how to set it up so it does not take over your evenings.

Compared 6 min read

What a template actually is, what people mean when they say custom, and which of the two makes any difference to a local trade getting phone calls.

Compared 6 min read

What building your own site really costs in hours and decisions, what paying somebody else buys, and a plain test for which one suits you.

Compared 6 min read

What a monthly SEO retainer buys a local trade, what you can do yourself for nothing, and how to tell in ninety days whether you are paying for anything.

Compared 6 min read

Online booking answers the phone while your hands are busy, and it changes your day in four ways worth understanding before you switch it on.

Compared 7 min read

Paying for clicks to a page that cannot turn them into calls is the most expensive mistake in local advertising, and it takes ten minutes to check.

Compared 6 min read

What a freelancer and an agency are really selling, when hiring nobody is the right call, and the questions to settle before any money changes hands.

Compared 6 min read

What a Facebook page genuinely covers for a local business, the four things it cannot hold, and how to tell whether you need a site of your own as well.

Compared 6 min read

The honest answer for a local trade in 2026, what a Google listing already covers on its own, and a short test that tells you whether a site earns its money.

Compared 7 min read

Which one belongs at the top of the page, which one belongs at the bottom, and why the two of them are catching completely different customers.

Compared 6 min read

Whether a gmail.com address really costs you work, what an address on your own name buys, and how to change it without losing ten years of mail.

Compared 7 min read

How to find out whose name is really on your domain, your hosting and your email, and what to ask for so all three end up under your control.

What it costs 6 min read

Eight questions that tell you what a web designer will actually be like to work with, what you will own at the end, and who answers when something breaks.

What it costs 6 min read

What actually disappears when you stop a monthly website payment, what keeps running, and the five things to get into your own hands before you cancel.

What it costs 7 min read

A plain account of what goes into the price of a small business website, what genuinely pushes it up, and how to compare quotes that look nothing alike.

What it costs 6 min read

What a monthly website care fee actually buys, what breaks on a site nobody looks after, and when you are honestly better off not paying anyone.

What it costs 6 min read

Hosting, domain and email are three separate things with three separate bills. Here is which is which, and how to tell from the symptom which one broke.

What it costs 6 min read

Most people find out what their website backup is really worth on the worst possible day. Here are the questions to ask now, and the answers to listen for.

What it costs 6 min read

How to move a domain to another company without the quiet week where your mail stops, including everything worth copying down before you start.

What it costs 6 min read

A quiet month is a season, a market, or something broken, and the three need different answers. How to tell which one you have before you panic.

What it costs 6 min read

Some jobs lose money before you arrive, and they have a shape you can learn to spot on the phone. How to see them early and decline without making an enemy.

What it costs 6 min read

The people who already paid you once are the cheapest work you will ever win, and for most local trades that list sits in a phone doing nothing at all.

What it costs 6 min read

What to work out before you move your number, how to tell the customers you want to keep, and an honest account of who leaves when you do.

What it costs 6 min read

The case for and against publishing prices as a local trade, three honest ways to do it, and what to write when the job genuinely has no fixed number.

What it costs 6 min read

How to put a real number on the calls you never get to, count them for two weeks, and fix the cheap causes before you pay anybody to answer your phone.

What it costs 6 min read

The bills, delays and dead ends that turn up after a cheap website is finished, and the questions that would have surfaced them before you agreed.

What it costs 6 min read

Hiring hands over the parts of your job you can explain, and keeps the rest. What has to exist on paper before somebody else turns up on Monday.

What it costs 6 min read

What domain privacy really hides, why the scam renewal letters keep coming anyway, and which of the extras on that checkout page are worth paying for.

What it costs 6 min read

A realistic hour count for building your own website, from writing the words to testing the form, and how to decide whether those evenings are worth spending.

What it costs 6 min read

How to pick a domain name that survives a phone call, a van door and the day you start working two towns over, and what to skip at checkout.

What it costs 6 min read