Field notes / 32 posts
RSSYou Are Paying Google to Send People to a Website Google Can't Read
I see local businesses spend real money on Facebook and Google ads every month. Then I open their website, and the SEO is not done at all. The ads bring people to the door, but the door has no sign on it. Fix the website once, then buy the ads.
Read itThe archive
- 202612 posts315 min
AI Can't Fix a Process That Is Not Written Down
People see how I run my business with AI and ask how they can get the same thing. My first question is always the same: how many of your processes are written down? If the answer is zero, AI has nothing to follow. Here is how to fix that, and why many steps do not need AI at all.
- 304 min
I Get Ten Scam Calls a Day So You Do Not Have To
Every time I register a domain for a client, my phone lights up. Fake renewals, fake Google, fake "web services department." It happens at least ten times a day. That is exactly why your domain sits with me, and why you should be glad it does.
- 294 min
Three Days After Launch, My Client Paid $39 to a Company He Had Never Heard Of
A client's new website went live on a Monday. By Thursday a company in Colorado had made a listing for it, emailed him, and taken $39 through PayPal. He thought the charge came from us. Here are the real emails, and what to do when one lands in your inbox.
- 287 min
WordPress Is Dead. Let's Make It Official.
WordPress was sold as the easy way for a small business to run a website. In 2026 it is a plugin update treadmill with a security problem and a growing bill. Here are the incidents, the numbers and the costs, with sources.
- 274 min
$9,000 for a Push Notification? It Is Time to Take the Power Back
In two weeks of client meetings I heard a $4,000 price tag for an office booking tool and a $9,000 setup fee to send phone notifications. Software is not that hard anymore. Here is why you do not need to rent it forever from a startup that has never heard of your town.
- 265 min
Your Next Customer Is a Machine, and Your Website Cannot Talk to It
The web you built your business on is being replaced underneath you. Search results, browsers, and the idea of a "visitor" are all changing at once. Here is what that means for a small business, and why you need one person on your side who gets it.
- 254 min
Go Test Your Own Website Right Now. I Will Wait.
Google gives every business a free report card on its website. Most owners have never opened it. Here is our score, and here is how to get yours in about ninety seconds.
- 244 min
How a Kootenay Business Gets Found on Google Without Paying a Retainer
You are not competing with the internet. You are competing with four other businesses within driving distance, and most of them have done none of this.
- 235 min
Case Study: Finding the Gap in a Market Worth 225,500 Searches a Month
We scored 2,423 keywords and captured 18 live search result pages for Lake Louise. The head term is unwinnable. The gap underneath it has no owner at all.
- 223 min
How AI Can Help Your Business Without Producing Slop
The reason AI output reads as slop is not the tool. It is publishing the first draft. Here are the rules I use on real client work.
- 214 min
If You Cannot Walk Away From a Supplier, You Do Not Own Your Website
Five things decide whether your website is yours: the domain, the DNS, the code, the content, and the history. Most small businesses hold two of them.
- 204 min
WordPress Is Expensive, Vulnerable, and Shrinking
11,334 new vulnerabilities in one year. Market share falling faster in six months than in all of 2025. Here is what that means if your business runs on it.
- 20252 posts192 min
A Font on a Client's Website Nearly Cost Them a Lawsuit
A client received a legal notice with a three-day deadline over a typeface. It was real, the font came from a common design tool, and the site had been live for over a year.
- 182 min
Most Agencies Disappear the Day Your Website Launches
Build, bill, and leave is the standard model. It is why so many businesses own a website nobody has looked at since the day it went live.
- 202411 posts172 min
Where to Spend Your First Few Thousand Dollars in a New Business
New owners spend early money on protection and paperwork. Spend it on the things that bring in a customer, and protect what works later.
- 162 min
How to Set an Ad Budget Without Wasting the First Month
Work backwards from what a customer is worth to you. Every other method is guessing with a bigger vocabulary.
- 152 min
Nonprofits Are Skipping the Cheapest Staff Member Available
Teaching marketing to nonprofits and small businesses showed me the same gap every time. Almost nobody was using AI tools, and the reasons given were the wrong ones.
- 142 min
That Domain Renewal Notice Is Probably a Bill From a Stranger
Domain registration is public information. Companies mine it, then send official-looking notices designed to move your domain for a higher fee.
- 132 min
How a Phishing Email Actually Takes Down a Small Business
The email that works is not the one full of spelling mistakes. It is the one that arrives about a job you are already worried about.
- 122 min
A Stolen Password Should Not Be Enough to Take Your Business
Two-factor authentication is the single highest-value security change a small business can make, and it takes ten minutes per account.
- 112 min
Most Small Businesses Do Not Need More Software. They Need Less.
The usual IT problem is not a missing tool. It is six tools that do not talk to each other and a person retyping the same information into all of them.
- 102 min
Domains, Hosting, and Email Explained in Four Minutes
These are four separate things you buy from up to four separate companies. Confusing them is how businesses lose control of their own website.
- 092 min
Is SEO Worth It for a Small Business? Yes, and Here Is the Honest Trade.
SEO works for small businesses. It is slower than ads and cheaper than ads, and most competitors give up before it pays.
- 082 min
Five Business Decisions Your Website Data Can Settle This Month
Analytics is worth nothing as a report. It is worth a lot as an answer to a decision you are about to make anyway.
- 072 min
Stop Remembering Passwords. You Are Bad at It.
Every password you can remember is a password worth guessing. A password manager removes the problem instead of managing it.
- 20236 posts061 min
Talk to the Person Who Actually Builds Your Website
An agency puts an account manager between you and the person writing the code. Every instruction loses something on the way through.
- 052 min
SEO Is Not a Mystery. It Is Answering Questions Better Than Anyone Else.
Search engines rank the page that answers the question best. Most small business sites never answer a question at all.
- 041 min
Why Your Logo Prints Wrong, and How to Stop It
Screens make colour with light. Printers make colour with ink. A logo that only exists in one system will disappoint you in the other.
- 032 min
The Four Kinds of Digital Marketing, and Which One to Start With
Most small businesses spread a small budget across four channels and get nothing from any of them. Pick one.
- 022 min
Your Website Already Knows What Is Wrong With It
Analytics is not a report you file. It is the only honest account of what visitors do on your site, and it is free.
- 012 min
Brand Standards Are the Cheapest Marketing You Will Ever Buy
A brand style guide is not a design luxury. It is the document that stops your business looking like four different companies.
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