Booking Flow Monitoring: Does the Booking Still Book?
Uptime says the site is fine and the booking button has been broken for a fortnight. Why booking flows fail silently and how to monitor them properly.
Writing
Guides: what we have had to fix
64 write-ups from production, newest first. Each one is a problem hit on a real project and how it was diagnosed and fixed.
Can You Leave? How to Check a Care Plan Is Not a Lock-In
The questions that reveal whether a maintenance plan is a service or a trap: who owns the accounts, what happens to backups and licences, notice, handover.
Care Plans for Sites We Did Not Build: The Paid Look-First
Why taking on maintenance of a website built by someone else starts with a paid review, what it checks, what it can rule out, and what happens to the fee.
The Cost of No Maintenance: Three Sites and What Went Wrong
Three anonymised small business websites left alone for years: what failed, what recovery cost, and what a care plan would have cost over the same period.
Domain Expired, Hosting Lapsed: Renewals That Kill Sites
The renewals that quietly take business websites offline: domain, hosting, SSL, plugin licences and email. What happens when each lapses and how long you have.
The Plugin That Broke the Site: Finding It Without Damage
A WordPress site broke after an update and a plugin is the likely cause. How to find which one using the error log, recovery mode and a staging copy.
How to Get Your Website Logins Back From a Developer
When a developer, agency or former employee holds the keys to your website: the accounts that matter, the order to recover them, what to write, and escalation.
What Happens at 8pm on a Friday: Honest Response Times
What support response times mean from a small studio: what is answered in an hour, what waits until Monday, and what monitoring handles while nobody is awake.
Mobile Layout Broken After an Update: Causes and the Fix
The site looks fine on a laptop and wrong on a phone after an update. The usual causes, from cached stylesheets to plugin CSS, and what a proper fix involves.
Old PHP, Old WordPress: Why It Matters and How to Update
Your host says PHP is out of date and WordPress wants updating. What the warnings mean for security and speed, what breaks, and the safe order to update in.
Reading Google Search Console When You Are Not Technical
Google emailed to say your site has issues. What each Search Console report means for a business owner, which warnings matter, and what to send your developer.
Security Scanning Explained: What It Catches and Misses
What a website security scan actually does, the problems it finds and the ones it misses, why a clean scan is not a secure site, and what else a care plan does.
Speed Monitored, Not Checked Once: Why Performance Drifts
A site that was fast at launch is slow a year later and nobody changed the design. The five ways performance drifts and what continuous monitoring looks like.
Your Site Is Up but Nobody Can Find It: Indexing for Owners
The website works but does not appear in Google. How to check if it is indexed, six causes from a leftover noindex to a new domain, and how long fixes take.
Intake Forms With the Booking: What to Ask and What Not To
The questions a client answers when they book: what helps the appointment, what kills conversion, the health questions that need care, and where the form lives.
Waitlists: Turning a Full Diary Into More Bookings
How a booking waitlist refills cancelled slots automatically, which tools do it well, how to configure notice and first-come rules, and what a full diary costs.
Buffer Times, Travel and Set-Up: Configuring Booking Right
How to configure a booking tool for how you actually work: buffers, travel time for mobile businesses, set-up and clean-down, minimum notice and slot intervals.
Free vs Paid Booking Tools: Where Free Stops Being Free
Free booking tools work until they do not. The limits that push a small business to a paid plan, the hidden costs in free tiers, and when the upgrade pays.
Gift Vouchers Through Your Booking System, Before December
How to sell gift vouchers through your booking tool: which systems do it, value or service, expiry, redemption at booking, accounting, and the December rush.
Hosting for a Small Business Website: Costs and Who Pays
What hosting costs a small business, what each price band buys, why the account should be in your name, and how to tell if you are over or underpaying.
Photos for Your Website: Phone Shots vs a Photographer
Which website photos you can shoot on a phone and which need a photographer, the shot list for a small business, and why stock photos cost you enquiries.
Switching Booking Systems Without Losing Clients or History
How to move from one booking tool to another: exporting clients and appointments, the cutover date, future bookings, updating every link, and telling clients.
Two Weeks to Live: What Happens in Each Week of a Site Build
A day-by-day account of a two-week small business website build: what we need from you, what we do, where the time goes, and what stretches it to four.
The Website Handover Checklist, and If Yours Never Happened
The handover checklist for a small business website: logins, ownership, documentation, training and accounts in your name. Plus how to reconstruct one.
Why Your Website Should Load in Two Seconds on a Phone
The plain-words case for website speed: what two seconds means, what visitors do at three and four, how Google uses it, and how to check your site in a minute.
Writing Your Own Website Copy: The One-Conversation Method
How to write website copy for a small business without a blank page: record one conversation, answer eight questions, and edit the transcript into pages.
Broken Links and 404s: What to Redirect and What to Drop
How to find broken links and 404s on your website, decide which to redirect and which to leave, and set up redirects without hurting search rankings.
Care Plan or Hourly Support: Which Is Cheaper Over a Year?
Care plan or hourly support for your website: a year of costs side by side, what each covers, and the point where a plan becomes cheaper.
Basic, Growth or Scale: Choosing a Care Plan Tier
How to choose between Basic, Growth and Scale care plans by working out what an hour of your time costs and how often the site changes.
Images That Take Ten Seconds: Compressing a Whole Site
How to compress every image on an existing website: finding the heavy ones, choosing formats and sizes, batch tools, and keeping new uploads small.
Daily Website Backups: Storage, Testing and Restoring
How daily website backups should work: where they are stored, how often they are tested, how long they are kept, and how a restore actually happens.
Fix or Rebuild? How We Decide, and the Numbers Behind It
How we decide whether to fix a website or rebuild it: the numbers we compare, the signs that settle it, and what each path costs.
Hacked Website: The First 24 Hours, in Plain Words
What to do in the first 24 hours after your website is hacked, in plain words: contain it, tell people, clean it, and stop it happening again.
Included Hours: Small Change or Separate Project?
What counts as a small change under a care plan's included hours and what is a separate project, with examples and how we tell you which it is.
Updates on a Staging Copy First: Why It Matters
Why website updates should run on a staging copy before going live, what staging is, and how it prevents the broken-site emergencies we see most.
Uptime Monitoring: Know It's Down Before a Customer Does
How uptime monitoring works for a small business website, what to monitor beyond whether it is up, and how to know it is down before a customer does.
'Not Secure' Warning: What the Padlock Means and the Fix
What the Not Secure warning in the browser means, why it appears, how it affects visitors and search, and the steps that restore the padlock.
The Monthly Note: What a Good Maintenance Report Tells You
What a good monthly website maintenance report should tell you: updates made, backups tested, uptime, speed, security and the decisions it asks of you.
What a $299 Website Diagnosis Looks For, Page by Page
What a $299 website diagnosis looks for, page by page: speed, phone layout, forms, search visibility, security and the fixes it recommends.
Why WordPress Sites Get Slow Over Time: The 3 Usual Culprits
Why WordPress sites get slow over time: plugin bloat, unoptimised images and a swelling database, and how to find and fix each one.
Adding Online Booking to a Website You Already Have
How to add online booking to the website you already have: embedding a widget, linking to a booking page, and the checks that make it work on a phone.
Appointment Reminders That Cut No-Shows: Timing and Wording
Which reminder timings and wordings cut no-shows for appointment businesses, and how to set them up so clients confirm, reschedule or cancel in one tap.
Booking Widget or Booking Page: Which Converts on a Phone?
Embedded booking widget or a separate booking page? What each does on a phone, where they break, and how to choose for a small appointment business.
Cancellation Policies That Hold Up: Wording Clients Accept
Cancellation policy wording that clients accept and that holds up when enforced: notice periods, fees, deposits, and where to show it in the booking flow.
New Website or Fix the Old One? A 10-Minute Check
A ten-minute check to tell whether your website needs replacing or fixing: speed, phone layout, enquiries, editing, and the signs that point each way.
Fixed Price or Hourly: Buying a Website Without Scope Creep
Fixed price or hourly for a website build? How each shifts risk, where scope creep comes from, and how to buy so the quote holds.
Google Business Profile and Your Website, Working Together
How your Google Business Profile and website feed each other: matching details, booking links, reviews, posts, and the fixes that lift local search results.
Multi-Staff Booking: Letting Clients Choose a Person
Letting clients pick a specific person when they book: when it helps, when it hurts, and how to set up staff choice, any-available and fair distribution.
Online Booking Systems Compared for Small Businesses
Online booking systems compared for small businesses: Calendly, Acuity, Fresha, Setmore and more, by cost, features, payments and how they embed in a site.
12 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Web Designer
Twelve questions to ask before hiring someone to build your website, covering ownership, hosting, timelines, revisions, SEO and what happens after launch.
Syncing Bookings With Google or Outlook Without Clashes
How to sync online bookings with Google or Outlook without double bookings: two-way sync, buffers, time zones and the settings that cause clashes.
The Website Mistakes We Fix Most Often on Inherited Sites
The website mistakes we fix most often on inherited sites: hidden phone numbers, slow images, dead forms, missing pages and weak calls to action.
Website Template vs Custom Build for a Local Business
Template or custom website for a local business? What each costs, how they perform, how easy they are to edit, and which suits your stage.
What a Booking System Costs Per Month, and What It Saves
What an online booking system costs per month for a small business, the fees that hide in the price, and the admin hours and no-shows it saves.
Which 8 Pages a Booking-Led Business Website Actually Needs
The eight pages a booking-led business website actually needs, what each must do, and the pages you can safely skip at launch.
Wix, Squarespace or a Studio: What Changes on Appointments
Wix, Squarespace or a studio build for an appointment business: what changes in booking, speed, search and cost, and how to choose.
Why Booking Confirmation Emails Land in Spam, and the Fix
Confirmation emails in spam cause no-shows and 'did my booking go through' calls. The three DNS records that fix it, explained for owners, and how to check.
Your Contact Form Stopped Sending and Nobody Noticed
Contact forms fail silently and cost months of enquiries. How to test yours in two minutes, why forms stop sending, and how to make sure it never goes unseen.
Who Maintains Your WordPress Website When Nobody Is Paid To?
Most small business WordPress sites have nobody responsible for them. What goes wrong in the first year, what maintenance involves, and how to make it a job.
Who Owns Your Website? Domain, Hosting and Logins Explained
The three things that make a website yours: the domain, the hosting account and the admin logins. Who should hold each, and how to check before it matters.
Should You Take Booking Deposits? What It Does to No-Shows
Deposits are the most effective no-show fix a booking-led business has. How much to charge, how to word it, which tools take them, and the two objections.
How Much Does a Small Business Website Cost in 2026?
What a small business website costs in 2026, what moves the number, what is usually left out of a quote, and how to tell a fixed price from a starting point.
Your Web Developer Has Vanished: What to Do This Week
The developer who built your site is not replying. A first-week plan: what to secure, what to check, what to write down, and how to get the site back.
What a Website Care Plan Covers, and What It Should Cost
What a good website care plan does every month, what it should never include, how to spot a lock-in, and what a fair monthly price looks like.