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EDUCATION

Understand a little. Decide with confidence.

Straightforward thoughts on websites, applications and the business around them. Start wherever you’re curious.

01 / THE STARTING POINT

What should a website actually do for your business?

Start with a job for the website, before choosing its pages or its design.

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A useful website helps a visitor understand your offer and take a meaningful next step. For one business that might be an enquiry. For another, it could be a booking, a purchase or simply finding the right information.

Choose one main goal, then work backwards. What does someone need to know, trust or compare before they act? That is the beginning of your content and page structure.

A website does not create demand by itself. Consider how people will discover it and how you will handle the interest it generates.

ONE THING TO TAKE AWAY

Before listing features, finish this sentence: ‘My website should help people…’

Explore website development

02 / CHOOSING YOUR TOOL

Do you need a website, or an application?

The difference starts with what someone needs to do, not how ambitious the idea sounds.

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A website is often enough when people need to learn about you, browse your work and get in touch. A clear page with the right next step may be more useful than a complicated system.

An application becomes useful when people need to complete recurring tasks: organise information, follow a learning journey, manage bookings or interact with a service.

An application does not have to mean an app downloaded from an app store. A web app works through a browser and can handle bookings, accounts or learning tasks. Whether you need a web app, an Android or iPhone app, or both depends on how people will use it.

Start with the smallest version that solves the actual problem. A focused first version makes it easier to learn what people need before investing in more features.

ONE THING TO TAKE AWAY

Describe the task in plain language. Choose the technology after that.

Website servicesAndroid & iPhone app services

03 / GETTING FOUND

A good website needs a way to reach people.

Positioning, search, email and advertising all connect back to the same question: who is this for?

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Clear positioning explains who you help, what you offer and why it is relevant. It gives the website a direction and helps a visitor recognise whether they are in the right place.

Search content can address the questions people already ask. Email can help you stay in touch with people who have asked to hear from you. Advertising can bring attention to a specific offer. Each needs a useful destination and a clear next step.

You do not need to start with every channel. Pick an approach that fits your audience, resources and ability to follow up. My role is to help you think through how the website supports that approach; specialist campaign delivery can be scoped separately.

ONE THING TO TAKE AWAY

Plan the journey to the website and the conversation that comes after it.

SEO for your websiteEmail outreach systems

04 / MAKING AI USEFUL

Where could AI fit into your business?

Begin with a specific task, a clear boundary and a human who can check the result.

Read the guide

Look for a repeated task involving information: organising an enquiry, preparing a first draft, or helping someone find relevant content. A small, well-defined use case is easier to evaluate than a promise to automate everything.

Decide what information the feature needs, what it should be allowed to do and when someone should review its output. AI can produce inaccurate answers, so the design needs a way to handle mistakes.

Sometimes a simple form, a clearer process or a conventional automation is the better tool. The aim is a useful outcome, and the technology should serve that.

ONE THING TO TAKE AWAY

Find the task first. Then decide whether AI is the right fit.

Explore AI features

05 / PLANNING A REDESIGN

Website redesign checklist: what to keep, change and test

Use your existing pages, customer questions and search data to prepare a useful redesign brief.

Read the guide

Before choosing a new layout, write down what your current website does well and where visitors struggle. These checks help you decide whether to improve a few pages or plan a broader redesign.

Before you redesign: six checks

  1. Choose the job your website needs to do

    Write down one main action: request a quote, make a booking or find the right service. List what a visitor needs to understand before taking it. Use that journey to decide what belongs on the page and what can wait.

  2. Record what already works

    List your current pages and their addresses. If you have Search Console or analytics, save a dated baseline of search clicks, useful visits and enquiries. Identify pages that already attract relevant visitors; preserve their useful content and addresses where possible instead of replacing everything for appearance alone.

  3. Try the journey on your phone

    Find a service, understand what is included and reach the contact details. Note unclear labels, missing answers, difficult text and broken links. Ask someone unfamiliar with the business to try the same task. Record the specific step that caused difficulty, not just whether they liked the design.

  4. Prepare the information people need

    Gather accurate service descriptions, contact details, approved photographs and examples you have permission to show. Mark information that needs updating and assign someone to supply it. Give each page a clear purpose before deciding its layout; do not carry outdated claims into the new design.

  5. Map any addresses that must change

    Keep useful page addresses where possible. If a page moves, record its relevant replacement and arrange a permanent redirect, then update internal links. Do not send every old address to the homepage. If no relevant replacement exists, agree how that removed page should be handled before launch.

  6. Test the preview, then the published website

    Check navigation, mobile layouts, keyboard use and redirects in both places. With the owner's approval, send a clearly labelled form test and confirm actual inbox delivery, not only a success message. Check search-access settings and the sitemap after launch, then compare later search data with your saved baseline.

A simple page plan

Imagine a small gardening business updating its website. This is a hypothetical planning example, not a client project or a measured result. Your decisions should follow your own pages and evidence.

On a small screen, scroll the table sideways to read all three columns.

Illustrative page plan for a gardening business
Current addressDecisionReason
/servicesKeep the address; improve the explanation.Visitors still need to compare the services before enquiring.
/garden-careKeep the useful content and address.In this example, the page already brings relevant search visitors; a redesign alone is no reason to remove it.
/old-contactPermanently redirect to /contact.The contact page has moved; old links should reach its replacement.

A redesign brief you can copy

Copy these five prompts into a document or email. The filled goal is an illustration; replace it with what your business needs.

Main goal
Example: Help local homeowners understand our gardening services and send an enquiry about the work they need.
Pages to keep
List their addresses and what is useful on each page.
Problems observed
Describe the task, where it became difficult and the device used.
Missing or outdated content
List what needs preparing, who will supply it and when.
Addresses changing
Pair each old address with its relevant replacement or removal plan.
ONE THING TO TAKE AWAY

Give each proposed change a reason, keep useful page addresses where possible, and check the real customer journey after launch.

See how a website redesign is scoped

SOMETHING IN MIND?

Let’s make something useful.

You bring the idea. We’ll find the next step together.

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