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.
Writing
Website Rescue: what we have had to fix
28 write-ups from production, newest first. Each one is a problem hit on a real project and how it was diagnosed and fixed.
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.
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.
The Site Was Built by Someone the Manager Knew: Now What
A dental practice website built years ago by a contact, now unmaintained and unowned. How to find out what you have, recover the accounts.
When a Cheap Fix Costs More: Three Rescues That Said Rebuild
Three anonymised website rescues where the client asked for a small fix and the diagnosis said rebuild. What each fix would have cost and hidden, and the call.
Getting a Second Opinion on a Web Developer's Quote
A quote landed and you cannot tell if it is fair. How to read a web development quote, the questions that reveal padding or under-scoping.
Page Builders That Slowed Your Site: Elementor, Divi, Fixes
Why page-builder sites get slow, how to tell if the builder is the cause on yours, the settings that claw back speed, and when to leave the builder behind.
Inheriting a Website: The Two-Hour Audit Checklist
You bought a business or took over marketing and the website came with it. The two-hour audit that tells you what you own, what will break.
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.
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.
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Your host says PHP is out of date and WordPress wants updating.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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Auditing an Inherited WordPress Theme: The 90-Minute Method
A repeatable ninety-minute audit for a WordPress theme someone else built: what to read first, what to grep for, and how to write up fix or replace.
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.
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.
'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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.