Question 1

Do I need an SSL certificate?

Accepted Answer

Yes, without exception. Browsers actively warn visitors that a site without HTTPS is "Not Secure", which destroys trust instantly regardless of how good the rest of the site is. SSL is also a confirmed (if minor) Google ranking factor, and most modern hosting providers now include free SSL certificates by default, so there's rarely a reason not to have one. Our free audit checks this automatically as part of every scan.

Question 2

How do I get more website enquiries?

Accepted Answer

Beyond driving more traffic, the fastest wins usually come from improving conversion on the traffic you already have: a clear, visible primary call-to-action above the fold, a simple contact form that doesn't ask for unnecessary information, genuine testimonials placed near your CTA, and trust signals (accreditations, reviews, guarantees) that reduce hesitation. Our free audit checks all of these conversion factors and estimates the enquiry uplift available from fixing what's found.

Question 3

How do I improve my SEO?

Accepted Answer

Start with the fundamentals Google uses to understand your page: a unique, well-written title tag (30-60 characters), a compelling meta description (50-160 characters), a single clear H1 heading, and structured data (schema.org) so Google can understand what your business does. From there, focus on genuinely useful content, fast page load, and consistent local signals if you serve a local area. Our free SEO checker scans your site against all of these in under 30 seconds.

Question 4

How long should a website audit take?

Accepted Answer

Our automated AI audit completes in under 30 seconds — you enter your URL and get a full, categorised report instantly. A deeper manual audit from an agency (covering full-site crawls, competitor analysis and strategic recommendations) typically takes a few days to a couple of weeks depending on site size. Starting with our free instant audit is a good way to see exactly where the biggest issues are before deciding if deeper manual work is worth commissioning.

Question 5

How many pages should a small business website have?

Accepted Answer

There's no fixed number — what matters is coverage, not page count. As a baseline, most small business sites benefit from a homepage, a dedicated page per core service, an about page, a contact page, and (for multi-area businesses) a page per location served. More pages aren't automatically better, but thin, generic pages that don't add unique value can actively hurt SEO — genuinely useful, unique content per page is what counts.

Question 6

How much does a website cost?

Accepted Answer

It depends heavily on scope — a simple brochure site typically costs less than an e-commerce platform or a site with custom booking/quoting functionality. Rather than guessing at a budget, the more useful first step is understanding what your current site is actually costing you in lost enquiries: run a free audit to see exactly which issues are holding your site back, then get a tailored quote based on what genuinely needs fixing or rebuilding.

Question 7

How often should I update my website?

Accepted Answer

Business details (hours, prices, services, contact info) should be updated the moment they change — outdated hours or a wrong phone number directly costs enquiries. Beyond that, adding fresh content (blog posts, new project photos, testimonials) every month or so signals to Google that the site is active, and a fuller technical review — checking for broken links, outdated plugins, and new SEO opportunities — is worth doing every few months. Our free audit gives you a quick way to check in on your site's health at any time.

Question 8

What's the difference between SEO and paid ads?

Accepted Answer

SEO (search engine optimisation) earns free, ongoing traffic by improving how well your site matches what Google's algorithm and users are looking for — it takes longer to show results but keeps working without ongoing spend. Paid ads (like Google Ads) buy immediate visibility at the top of search results, but traffic stops the moment you stop paying. Most small businesses benefit from both: paid ads for immediate visibility while SEO fundamentals (which our free audit checks) build up long-term organic traffic.

Question 9

What is a Google Business Profile and do I need one?

Accepted Answer

A Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is the free listing that shows your business in Google Maps and the local "map pack" results above organic search results. For any business serving local customers, it's one of the highest-impact things you can set up — it directly affects whether you appear for "near me" searches, and it's where most of your reviews will live. Our free local SEO checker looks for a properly linked Google Business Profile as part of every audit.

Question 10

What is Core Web Vitals?

Accepted Answer

Core Web Vitals are three specific metrics Google uses to measure real-world user experience: Largest Contentful Paint (how fast your main content appears, ideally under 2.5 seconds), Cumulative Layout Shift (how much elements move around while loading, ideally under 0.1), and Interaction to Next Paint (how quickly the page responds to clicks and taps). They're a confirmed Google ranking factor, and our free website speed test measures all three using the same data Google itself uses.

Question 11

What is website accessibility and why does it matter?

Accepted Answer

Website accessibility means your site can be used by everyone, including visitors using screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, or who have visual impairments — covering things like alt text on images, sufficient colour contrast, labelled form fields, and a logical heading structure. Beyond serving roughly 1 in 5 visitors with some form of disability, accessible sites tend to have cleaner underlying code that also helps SEO, and accessibility is increasingly a legal requirement in many sectors. Our free accessibility checker covers the highest-impact issues in seconds.

Question 12

Why is my website slow?

Accepted Answer

The most common causes are unoptimised images (large files not resized or compressed for the web), render-blocking CSS and JavaScript that delay the page from displaying, missing text compression, and no browser caching for returning visitors. Google's Core Web Vitals (Largest Contentful Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift and Interaction to Next Paint) measure exactly these issues. Run our free website audit to see which of these apply to your site, with real data from Google PageSpeed Insights.

Question 13

Why isn't my website ranking?

Accepted Answer

Usually it's a combination of a few fixable issues rather than one big problem: missing or weak title tags and meta descriptions, no structured data, slow page speed, thin or duplicate content, or a missing sitemap.xml preventing Google from finding all your pages. For local businesses, an incomplete Google Business Profile or inconsistent business details across the web can also suppress local rankings significantly. Our free audit checks all of these against your actual site.

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