Field notes from the studio

Insights.

Plain-English essays on what makes a small-business website actually work — performance, conversion, and what the cheap-website market is really selling you.

Design 6 min

The mobile-first mindset most designers fake

Everyone claims to design mobile-first. Very few actually do. Here is how to tell the difference, and why it decides whether your site works for the 70% of visitors on a phone.

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Conversion 5 min

Why your contact form is losing you leads

The average contact form leaks 60% of the people who intended to fill it out. Six small changes recover most of them without adding a single line of tracking code.

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SEO 6 min

SEO basics that still work in 2026

Forget the tactics of the week. The boring fundamentals — intent, structure, speed, trust — are what still move rankings, and they have barely changed in a decade.

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Strategy 6 min

Your homepage is not a brochure

Most small business homepages read like a printed leaflet nailed to a screen. Here is what a homepage is actually for, and the structure that consistently outperforms the brochure.

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Business 7 min

The honest cost of a cheap website

What a $200 website actually costs you over 12 months — and the four things to look for so a budget build does not become a six-figure mistake.

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Performance 5 min

Core Web Vitals for non-technical founders

LCP, CLS, INP — the three numbers Google uses to rank your site, explained in plain English with the practical fixes that move the needle.

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Conversion 6 min

What makes a website actually convert (and why most don't)

A pretty site is not a converting site. The five things every business website must do in the first three seconds — and how to test if yours is doing them.

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