A lot of small business websites exist because someone had to build one, not because anyone decided what it should do. The result looks fine and achieves little: it does not rank for anything a customer would type, it is slow on a phone, or it was built five years ago and quietly stopped being updated.
The more expensive version of the problem is mismatch. A business pays for a full custom build and ongoing marketing when a fast, well-structured site would have done the job. Or the reverse, and a template site is being asked to carry growth it was never built for.
What I assess
Whether what you have, or what you are being quoted, matches what your business actually needs.
That covers the technical health of the site, meaning does it load quickly, does it work properly on a phone, and is it structured so search engines can read it. It covers your hosting, and whether you are paying for infrastructure you do not use. It covers your visibility for the handful of searches that would actually bring you work, including your Google Business Profile, which matters more than the website for most local businesses.
And it increasingly covers whether AI tools can understand and cite you. Google’s AI Overviews and assistants like ChatGPT are grounded in the same signals as normal search, so this is less a new discipline than a reason the old one matters more.
What you can buy here
Assess
Scoped to your business, fixed fee, a written report you keep.
Guide
What to buy and who from. Requirements, shortlist, contract review.
Oversee
Someone else delivers, and you have someone on your side of the table.
What I run myself, and what goes to a partner
For a small business, I build the site and look after it myself, at a fixed price: one, five or nine pages, on a care plan that covers hosting, and Google Business Profile upkeep if you want it. Those are on Services I run.
For anything bigger, such as an online shop, a custom build or ongoing marketing, I work out what you need, help you choose who builds it, and read their quote before you sign. If you would rather someone else built a small site too, I will judge their quote the same way.
Who this is for
Businesses unsure whether customers can find them, whose site has not been reviewed in years, or who suspect they are paying for hosting and marketing that does not match what they need. It applies equally if you have no website and are about to commission one, which is the cheapest possible moment to get advice.
Common questions
Do we need a full custom site, or would something simpler do?
Simpler does the job more often than the industry admits. Assessing the actual requirement before agreeing a build size is the point of this.
Can you just fix what is wrong with our existing site?
Often remediation is faster and cheaper than a rebuild, and it is the first thing I check.
How long before search changes show results?
Two to three months for meaningful movement, because search engines need to recrawl and re-evaluate. Anyone promising faster is describing something else.
Is this SEO?
Partly, and I am careful with the word because it has been thoroughly devalued by people selling monthly retainers for very little. What I do here is assess and advise; ongoing search work on a site I run is part of its care plan on Services I run. If ongoing work elsewhere is warranted I will tell you what it should cost and help you judge whether someone is delivering it.
Next step
If you are not sure whether your online presence is working as hard as it should, that is quick to check. Book a 20-minute technology conversation.