Journal

Plain writing about what actually works.

No growth hacks and no jargon. Practical pieces on marketing, search, advertising and websites — written for the person who has to make the decision.

The anatomy of a service page that converts

Web DesignAugust 5, 2026

The anatomy of a service page that converts

Service pages do the actual selling and get the least attention. Here's the structure, section by section.

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Rebuild or refresh? How to tell what your website needs

Web Design·3 min

Rebuild or refresh? How to tell what your website needs

Rebuilding takes months and costs real money. Often the existing site is fine and the problem is something cheaper.

August 3, 2026

Brand positioning for small businesses, minus the workshop

Strategy·3 min

Brand positioning for small businesses, minus the workshop

Positioning isn't a logo or a mission statement. It's the sentence that makes you the obvious choice for a specific person.

August 1, 2026

Setting up analytics that actually tell you something

Strategy·3 min

Setting up analytics that actually tell you something

Most businesses have GA4 installed and have never learned anything from it. Four things to configure and four reports to read.

July 30, 2026

Email marketing for businesses that don't sell products

Content·3 min

Email marketing for businesses that don't sell products

Most email advice is written for ecommerce. Here's what actually works when your customer buys twice a year.

July 28, 2026

Keyword research without expensive tools

SEO·3 min

Keyword research without expensive tools

You don't need a subscription to find out what your customers search for. Five free sources and how to read them.

July 26, 2026

Mobile-first isn't a preference any more

Web Design·2 min

Mobile-first isn't a preference any more

Most of your visitors are on a phone. Most business websites are still designed on a large monitor and checked on mobile afterwards.

July 24, 2026

Why you shouldn't send ad traffic to your homepage

Paid Ads·2 min

Why you shouldn't send ad traffic to your homepage

Your homepage serves everyone, which means it persuades nobody in particular. Ad traffic needs somewhere built for it.

July 22, 2026

Customer lifetime value, without the spreadsheet theatre

Strategy·3 min

Customer lifetime value, without the spreadsheet theatre

The single number that tells you what you can afford to spend on marketing. Most businesses have never calculated it.

July 20, 2026

What to fix first when your website is bad

Web Design·3 min

What to fix first when your website is bad

You probably can't rebuild everything at once. Here's the order that gets the most return for the least work.

July 18, 2026

Content that ranks vs content that sells

Content·3 min

Content that ranks vs content that sells

These are two different jobs and most businesses try to do both in one article, achieving neither.

July 16, 2026

Building a review engine, not a review request

Local Marketing·3 min

Building a review engine, not a review request

Reviews decide whether people choose you. Asking occasionally produces occasional results — here's how to make it systematic.

July 14, 2026

Why nobody fills out your contact form

Web Design·3 min

Why nobody fills out your contact form

The form is usually the last thing anyone examines and the place most enquiries are lost. Eight fixable reasons.

July 12, 2026

Google Ads vs Facebook Ads for a local business

Paid Ads·3 min

Google Ads vs Facebook Ads for a local business

They do fundamentally different jobs. Picking wrong is the most expensive mistake in small business advertising.

July 10, 2026

Core Web Vitals in plain English

Web Design·3 min

Core Web Vitals in plain English

Three metrics Google uses to judge whether your site feels good to use, explained without the jargon, plus what actually fixes each one.

July 8, 2026

How to tell if a marketing agency is any good before you hire them

Strategy·3 min

How to tell if a marketing agency is any good before you hire them

Written by an agency, which you should factor in. These are the questions that make bad agencies uncomfortable.

July 6, 2026

Seven SEO myths that waste money

SEO·3 min

Seven SEO myths that waste money

Some of these were true a decade ago. Some were never true. All of them are still being sold.

July 4, 2026

How to write a homepage that actually converts

Web Design·3 min

How to write a homepage that actually converts

Six blocks, in order. This structure works because it answers a visitor's questions in the sequence they ask them.

July 2, 2026

Why your Facebook ads stopped working

Paid Ads·3 min

Why your Facebook ads stopped working

Campaigns that performed for months and then quietly died usually failed for one of four reasons. Only one of them is the algorithm.

June 30, 2026

Five things making your website slow (and how to check)

Web Design·3 min

Five things making your website slow (and how to check)

Speed affects rankings and conversions, but most advice is written for developers. Here's what actually causes slow sites, in order of how often we find it.

June 28, 2026

How much should a small business actually spend on marketing?

Strategy·3 min

How much should a small business actually spend on marketing?

Percentage-of-revenue rules are a lazy answer. Here's the arithmetic that tells you what you can genuinely afford to spend to get a customer.

June 26, 2026

What Google Business Profile actually does for you

Local Marketing·3 min

What Google Business Profile actually does for you

It's free, most businesses treat it as a formality, and for local search it often outperforms the website it links to.

June 24, 2026

The local SEO checklist for service businesses

Local Marketing·3 min

The local SEO checklist for service businesses

Nine things that decide whether you show up when someone nearby searches for what you sell. Most businesses have three of them right.

June 22, 2026

Your website gets traffic but nobody calls. Here's why.

Web Design·3 min

Your website gets traffic but nobody calls. Here's why.

Traffic without enquiries is almost never a traffic problem. It's usually one of five specific failures on the page — and all of them are fixable in an afternoon.

June 20, 2026