The questions I get asked.
These are the ones that come up on nearly every first call, answered here so you can read them without having to book anything. No sign-up, no download, no email — the answer is just on the page.
Websites and being findable at all
Whether you need one, what makes one expensive, and how much speed matters.
Should I block AI bots from crawling my website?
For nearly every small business, no. Which crawlers are which, what blocking really costs you, and how to check what your own site allows today.
How fast does a website have to be before it costs you customers?
Google publishes the number: 2.5 seconds, for real visitors. Where it comes from, why lab tests look far worse, and how to measure your own site.
Why do website quotes vary so wildly?
Three quotes for the same site can differ by an order of magnitude. Almost none of that gap is the website. What you are actually being charged for.
Do I need a website if I already have a Facebook page?
A Facebook page is somebody else's property, and it only reaches people who are already on Facebook. Here is what a website does that a page cannot.
Getting found — on Google, and in AI assistants
What SEO and GEO actually mean, and why your business isn’t on the map.
Do I need an "AI SEO" agency for my Pennsylvania business?
The label covers two different services and one of them is worth avoiding. What the legitimate work is, the questions to ask, and when to pay nobody.
How does ChatGPT decide which businesses to recommend?
There is no ranking to be on — the assistant searches, reads a few pages, and writes. What happens in those seconds, and what decides who gets named.
How do I get my business recommended when someone asks ChatGPT?
More customers ask an assistant instead of searching. Something decides which businesses get named — here is what that decision is made from.
What is SEO, in plain English?
Search engine optimisation without the jargon — what it consists of for a local business, what it cannot do, and how to spot someone selling nothing.
Why doesn't my business show up on Google Maps?
Usually one of six things, and most of them you can fix yourself this afternoon without paying anybody. Here they are in the order worth checking.
Small software built for one job
What is worth building, what is worth automating, and what it can talk to.
Can I get a custom tool that talks to the software I already pay for?
Usually yes, and it is often the cheapest useful software you can commission. How to find out whether your systems will cooperate, before anybody quotes.
How do I know whether a task in my business is worth automating?
A short test you can run yourself before spending anything: how to time the task honestly, and how to spot the ones nobody ever mentions.
What kind of software can a small business actually afford to have built?
Custom software has a reputation for being out of reach. For one job that eats a few hours a week, it usually is not. What fits and what does not.
If your question isn’t here, send it. If the answer is short I’ll just tell you, and if it turns out other people are asking the same thing it ends up on this page.
Tell me what you need