Guides & articles
Guides & articles
Plain-English guides and comparisons for small business owners deciding how to build a website. No fluff, no upsell, no "it depends" cop-outs. Just the information you need to make a call, even if that call is to not hire anyone at all.
Platform comparisons
Should you use a page builder, WordPress, or a hand-coded site? These comparisons lay out the real 5- and 10-year cost math, performance, SEO control, and ownership, including when the builder is the right call.
Squarespace vs. custom
Cost, page speed, Google's page-speed and stability health checks, ownership, and the long-term subscription math. And when you outgrow Squarespace.
Read →Wix vs. custom
Code bloat, page speed, ownership, and the 10-year cost. When Wix is fine and when it quietly costs you.
Read →Webflow vs. custom
Webflow is the best of the builders, but the export is partial. The comparison and cost math.
Read →Shopify vs. custom store
Subscription, transaction fees, the app-stack tax, and checkout control. When Shopify wins and when custom does.
Read →WordPress vs. custom
Security patches, plugin bloat, maintenance burden, and CMS access: what differs from a hand-coded build.
Read →Custom vs. page builders
Custom sites vs. Wix, Squarespace, and Webflow as a category: 5-year cost, performance, SEO, and lock-in side by side.
Read →Custom vs. template / theme
Most agencies sell a rebranded template and call it custom. Here's what differs and why it affects rankings.
Read →Self-hosted vs. SaaS builders
Ownership, portability, and the 5-year total cost: when you rent a SaaS platform, you rent your website.
Read →Freelancer vs. agency vs. studio
The freelancer gamble, the agency tax, and the one-person studio: cost, reliability, continuity, and communication.
Read →Cheap web design vs. custom
What a $500 website buys you, the hidden costs, the resold-template trap, and when cheap is the right move.
Read →ArdinGate vs. a traditional agency
No account managers, no PMs, no handoffs. What you get working directly with the developer who builds your site.
Read →GoDaddy vs. custom website
Load time, Google's page-speed and stability health checks, dark patterns, and the 10-year subscription math. When GoDaddy is a placeholder and when it costs you.
Read →Custom PHP vs. WordPress
Plugin dependency, security surface, performance floor, and update overhead: the tradeoffs and when each is the right call.
Read →Elementor vs. custom website
Bloated code that slows pages down, failing Google's page-speed and stability health checks, and being locked into their platform: the performance problem and when Elementor still makes sense.
Read →Cost & planning
What things cost, how long they take, and what to set aside in your budget, with the price drivers spelled out so the numbers make sense.
How much does a website cost?
What drives price in 2026, typical ranges by site type, and one-time build cost vs. ongoing subscription.
Read →How much does an ecommerce site cost?
Custom build vs. Shopify total cost, transaction fees, the app tax, and the ongoing costs nobody quotes you.
Read →How much does a redesign cost?
Redesign price ranges, redesign vs. rebuild, and the step that protects your rankings through the switch.
Read →How much does SEO cost?
Technical SEO setup vs. monthly content retainers, what cheap SEO buys, and realistic ROI timelines for each approach.
Read →How much does a web application cost?
Simple internal tools to customer-facing platforms: cost ranges by complexity, the 6 main drivers, and why apps are always quoted per project.
Read →How much does a landing page cost?
Standalone vs. campaign vs. homepage-as-landing-page: cost ranges, what should be on it, and why speed matters more on landing pages than anywhere else.
Read →How to measure your website’s ROI
What to track besides traffic, how to attribute leads, the 10-year cost math of custom vs. subscription, and realistic organic timelines.
Read →How much does web hosting cost?
Shared, VPS, managed, and dedicated: what you get at each tier, what drives the price, and what's usually not in the sticker price.
Read →What is managed hosting?
SSL, backups, uptime monitoring, software updates: exactly what managed hosting covers, what it doesn't, and when it's worth paying for.
Read →Hiring & decisions
How to know when you need a new site, how to find the right person to build it, and what to make sure you own before you sign anything.
Signs you need a website redesign
Slow load, broken mobile, zero leads, embarrassed to share your URL: the actual indicators, with practical self-check instructions for each one.
Read →DIY website vs. hiring a developer
When DIY is the right call and when hiring wins: a clear framework, including when page builders are fine.
Read →Questions to ask before hiring a developer
12 questions across ownership, process, tech, and cost, each paired with what a red-flag answer looks like vs. a good one.
Read →Website ownership: what to keep control of
Domain, hosting, code, database, design assets: what you should own outright when the project ends, and how to avoid the developer lock-in trap.
Read →Planning your project
What to decide before you build, what to check before you launch, and what happens to the site after it goes live.
What pages does a website need?
The core pages every service business needs, when to add more, what not to build, and how page count directly connects to SEO reach.
Read →How to write a website brief
The 8 things to cover before talking to a developer, including why being vague about your budget gets you padded proposals or no response.
Read →Website launch checklist
Content, HTTPS, load speed, sitemap submission, form testing, analytics: everything to verify before flipping the switch on a new or redesigned site.
Read →What does website maintenance include?
PHP updates, uptime monitoring, offsite backups, SSL renewal, security scanning, and a clear list of what is not included in a maintenance contract.
Read →Local SEO & growth
How to get found in your local market, set up your Google presence, and turn site visitors into actual inbound leads.
Local SEO for small businesses
The local pack and organic results are two different systems. What drives each one, NAP consistency, and how your website connects to your GBP ranking.
Read →Google Business Profile setup guide
Step-by-step: claim, verify, and fully optimize your GBP, the free listing that drives more local leads than most paid ads.
Read →How to get leads from your website
The three things that kill conversions, what drives form submissions, and the difference between a traffic problem and a conversion problem.
Read →Technical concepts
The technical fundamentals that affect your rankings, your security, and whether visitors stay or leave before you get a chance to sell them.
Mobile-first web design
Why 60%+ of traffic is mobile, what mobile-first indexing means for rankings, and how responsive-but-slow is different from actually fast on 4G.
Read →Website vs. web application
A website displays information. A web app does things. The plain-English spectrum between them, why it matters for cost, and which one you need.
Read →Website security basics
What gets small business sites hacked, what prevents it, and what happens when it does: WordPress plugins, weak passwords, shared hosting, and more.
Read →Website analytics 101
Search Console vs. GA4, what impressions and CTR mean, how to find pages that rank but do not convert, and which metrics matter for a service business.
Read →How to speed up your website
Images, JavaScript bloat, hosting, caching: what causes a slow site and what fixes it, in order of impact with no generic advice.
Read →WCAG compliance guide for small businesses
What WCAG 2.1 AA requires, the most common failures that trigger ADA lawsuits, what an accessibility audit involves, and the quick wins to fix first.
Read →How-to guides
Practical walkthroughs for the parts of a web project that trip people up: migrations, timelines, contracts, and performance.
How to migrate off WordPress
Move off WordPress without losing rankings: redirects, content porting, what happens to plugins, realistic timeline.
Read →How long does it take to build a website?
Realistic timelines by site type, the phases of a build, and the one thing that decides on-time delivery.
Read →What to look for in a contract
Ownership, scope, payment milestones, support, and the red flags: what belongs in a web developer contract before you sign.
Read →How fast and stable your site is
Google's three page-speed and stability checks: how fast your main photo or headline shows up, how quickly visitors can interact with the page, and whether things shift around unexpectedly. Why they affect your ranking, why builder sites fail them, and how to pass.
Read →WordPress to custom migration
The service-and-process view of leaving WordPress for a clean hand-coded PHP site that doesn't break on every update.
Read →Site speed optimization
What makes sites slow, how to measure it, and the specific fixes that move the needle. Not generic advice, but the real levers.
Read →The ArdinGate approach
If you only read one thing, read this. The complete guide to choosing a web developer pulls everything above together: freelancer vs. agency vs. boutique, custom code vs. WordPress vs. page builders, how pricing works, the red flags to avoid, and what belongs in the contract.
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