Blog
Marketing guides for business owners
Plain answers on search, paid ads, social media and websites, written for the people who run the business rather than the people who run the marketing.
SEO
Guides on getting found when someone searches for what you sell, written for owners rather than specialists.
How to set an SEO budget when you are not a big brand
Setting a realistic SEO budget for a growing business, and how to spend it where it counts.
How to tell if your SEO agency is doing real work
The signs that SEO work is genuine, what to ask for each month and the reports that tell you nothing.
Local SEO for service businesses
How local SEO works for trades and service businesses, what actually moves the needle and what to ignore.
What does SEO cost in Australia
What Australian businesses pay for SEO, what drives the number and how to judge a quote before you sign.
How long does SEO take to work
How long SEO takes to show results, what moves first and how to read progress before rankings arrive.
SEO or paid ads where to start when the budget is tight
Choosing between SEO and paid ads on a limited budget, and how the two work together once things settle.
Technical SEO issues quietly holding your site back
The technical problems that stop a business website from being read properly, and which ones are worth fixing first.
AI SEO
Guides on getting named when buyers ask an AI tool who to trust, and how that work overlaps with search.
How to optimise your website for LLM search engines
How to make a business website easy for AI tools to read, quote and recommend, in practical steps.
Answer engine optimisation versus SEO
The difference between answer engine optimisation and traditional SEO, and why most of the work is shared.
How to track mentions in AI answers
How to check whether AI tools mention your business, what to measure and how often to look.
Do AI search tools replace Google for local businesses
Whether AI answer tools are replacing Google search for local service businesses and what to do about it.
How to get your business named in ChatGPT answers
Practical steps for getting a business cited when someone asks an AI tool who to trust.
What is AI SEO and does it matter yet
What AI SEO means, how it differs from search engine optimisation and whether it is worth attention now.
Google Ads
Guides on paid search that ties spend to enquiries instead of clicks.
Why your cost per click is high and enquiries are zero
High click costs and no enquiries usually mean the wrong traffic. What to check before you spend another dollar.
Why paid traffic needs its own landing page
Why sending ad traffic to a dedicated landing page converts better than a home page, and what that page needs.
Google Ads mistakes that waste budget early
The early account mistakes that burn budget, and what to set up properly before the first month of spend.
What counts as a good cost per lead
How to judge whether your cost per lead is healthy, and why the number means little without the value behind it.
Why your Google Ads spend is not turning into enquiries
The common reasons ad spend produces clicks without enquiries, and the order to check them in.
What does Google Ads cost in Australia
What Australian businesses pay for Google Ads, what drives the number and how to read a quote before you commit.
Meta Ads
Guides on Facebook and Instagram advertising for businesses that need work in the door.
Writing ad creative that gets enquiries
What makes social ad creative produce enquiries rather than likes, and how to write for the person reading it.
Retargeting and why it produces the cheapest leads
How retargeting works, why it costs less than reaching new people and how to run it without being annoying.
Why your Facebook ads get clicks but no leads
Why Facebook and Instagram ads can earn attention without producing enquiries, and what to change first.
Facebook ads versus Instagram ads
Where Facebook and Instagram ads differ, where enquiries come from and how to choose between them.
What do Meta Ads cost for a small business
What Facebook and Instagram advertising costs, what the budget buys and how to decide what to spend.
Social media
Guides on keeping a presence running through the months when the work gets busy.
How to keep content shipping through busy months
How to keep marketing running during the busiest months of the year without adding to the workload.
Does social media actually bring in work
Whether social media produces enquiries for service businesses and how to tell what it is really doing.
What social media management costs in Australia
What Australian businesses pay for social media management and what the fee should cover.
What to post when you are too busy for marketing
Practical things to post during the busiest months, and how to keep the presence alive without time.
How often should a small business post
A realistic posting rhythm for a small business, and why consistency beats volume every time.
Websites
Guides on the site carrying the traffic through to the enquiry.
When to rebuild your website instead of fixing it
How to decide between repairing an existing website and rebuilding it, and the signs that point either way.
What to put on a service business website
The pages and sections a service business website actually needs, in order of how much they matter.
How fast should a business website load
How quickly a business website should load, why it matters for enquiries and what usually slows it down.
Signs your website is costing you enquiries
The signs a business website is losing enquiries it should be converting, and where those leaks usually sit.
What does a business website cost in Australia
What a business website costs in Australia, what the figure covers and how to tell a good quote from an expensive one.
Choosing a provider
Guides on buying marketing well, whoever you end up buying it from.
Why marketing feels like a cost instead of an investment
Marketing feels like a cost when nothing connects it to work. What to change so the spend can be judged like any other investment.
What to do when the report shows clicks instead of work
Why agency reports lean on clicks and impressions and the questions that bring the conversation back to enquiries.
How to tie marketing spend to the enquiries it produces
Connecting marketing spend to real enquiries using records the business already keeps, without buying another tool.
Questions to ask before hiring a marketing agency
The questions worth asking before hiring a marketing agency and what a good answer sounds like.
How to set a marketing budget for a service business
Setting a marketing budget for a service business, and how to decide where the money should go first.
What a marketing agency does month to month
What actually happens each month when an agency runs your marketing, and what you should expect to see.
Should you hire a marketer or use an agency
Choosing between hiring marketing staff and working with an agency, and what each option actually costs.