The Living Library
Owner's guides
Do I need a website, and what kind?
Whether you need a site, what to put on it, and what to buy first.
- Does a small business need a website?If your work comes from referrals and reviews, people still look you up before they call.
- Google Business Profile or a website: what each one does and how to set up bothSearch for your business on Google and two things usually come up: a box with your hours, phone number, reviews and a button for directions, and a link to your website.
- One page or multiple pages: how many pages does a small business website need?Is fourteen pages too many? For most small businesses, yes.
- Which features should a business website include first?Most website feature lists are wish lists with a budget problem.
- Do you need a domain name? What it costs, where to buy it and how to keep itDo you need your own domain name? Yes, for almost every business.
Hiring and paying for it
What it costs, who to hire, and what to check before you sign.
- What a small business website costsFive ways to get a site, from about $1,200 to more than $30,000 over three years.
- Should I build my website myself, hire a design firm, or find a freelance web designer?Every way of getting a website gets paid for in one of two currencies: your hours or your money.
- How to Find a Good Web DesignerYou already know how to search “web designer near me.”
- How long does it take to build a website for a small business?How long until a new site is live? Generally speaking, the “building” itself takes days.
- Pay-monthly website contracts: what to read before you sign“No contract, cancel any time.” It’s a common line on pay-monthly website pages, and it’s often true.
- Who owns your website?Most owners find out who owns their website at a bad moment: the designer stops answering, the subscription goes up, or they try to leave and can’t take the site with them.
- Do marketing agencies for contractors actually work?Sometimes, and you can usually tell which kind before the first invoice. The three reasons contractor agencies fail, what 'working' has to mean for a trade, and a 90-day test with a stopping point written down.
- How do you choose a marketing agency, and when shouldn't you hire one?Most advice on choosing an agency is written by agencies, and it assumes the answer is yes. Decide whether first. Then six written answers settle who.
- What does a marketing agency actually do for a small business?Most agency reports show numbers. This is what a month of the work itself looks like, what it costs at published prices, and the two-sentence test for any agency you pay.
Getting found
Why your site doesn’t show up in Google or in AI answers.
- Why isn't my website showing up on Google?You type your business’s name into Google, and your own site isn’t there.
- How do I get my business to show up in ChatGPT and other AI answers?At some point a customer mentioned she’d asked ChatGPT for a business like yours, and yours wasn’t on the list.
- Is Wix bad for SEO? (And what about Squarespace or GoDaddy?)Does a website builder hurt your rankings? Broadly speaking, no.
Reviews and proof
How to collect Google reviews and show your best work.
- How to get more Google reviews, and what to say when they arriveThe usual advice is to ask your happy customers for five-star reviews, and plenty of shops turn it into a sign by the register: “Love us? Leave us 5 stars!”
- How to show your work on your website: photos, before-and-afters and case studiesWe’re willing to bet the best photos about your business are probably on your phone right now.
Running, fixing and moving it
Hosting, speed, repairs, redesigns and moving off a site builder.
- Hosting and maintenance: what a small business is actually paying for each monthOpen last month’s card statement and find every charge with something to do with your website.
- Why is my website slow on my phone?Your site comes up instantly on the office computer.
- My WordPress site was hacked: what to do now and how to stop it happening againA client tells a small law office that she searched for the firm, clicked the top result and landed on a page selling sketchy looking pills.
- Does your website need a redesign?Most owners start thinking about a redesign because a competitor’s site looks newer, a customer made a remark, or the phone has gone quiet and the website is the easiest thing to blame.
- Leaving Wix, Squarespace or GoDaddy: what moves with you and what doesn'tMost owners who built their own site on a builder reach the same point: the business has grown and the site hasn’t, or the monthly bill went up, or a customer said the site doesn’t look like the company they hired.
For builders
Payload 3, Next.js and Tome, from our own codebase.
- Adding a custom block to Payload's layout builder (Payload 3 + Next.js)
- Payload CMS SEO in Next.js: the static sitemap that hid 55 pages from Google
- Why every Payload page ships every block's CSS, and how we cut ours from 444 KB to 112 KB
- Draft preview and live preview in Payload CMS (Payload 3 + Next.js)
- Revalidate Next.js pages when Payload content is published (Payload 3)
- Payload form builder done right: spam, errors and receipts
- Payload access control: what happens to the rules you didn't write
- Better Auth inside Payload: OAuth, account linking, roles, sessions
- Silent data loss in Payload: when the API says success and nothing saved
The thinking
The longer arguments.