Field notes & essays.
Working notes, lessons, and the occasional opinion — from building websites, software, and AI systems for real businesses.
Recently published.
The most recent essays and field notes.
Fast Loads, Slow Clicks: Why INP Is the Performance Metric Business Owners Should Care About
A plain-English guide to Interaction to Next Paint (INP): why fast-loading pages can still feel broken, what causes slow clicks, and how to fix the interactions that cost leads.
Accessibility Overlays Are Not a Compliance Plan: What Business Owners Should Do Instead
Accessibility overlay widgets promise one-line compliance, but real accessibility comes from fixing the website itself: markup, contrast, keyboard support, forms, content, and testing.
Is Your Website Ready for AI Agents? Booking, Quotes, Forms, and Service Pages in 2026
AI agents will expose weak website workflows. Here is how service businesses can make booking, quotes, forms, service pages, and contact paths ready for human and AI-assisted buyers.
More on SEO.
Recent writing in SEO.
Reviews Are Becoming AI Search Fuel: How to Build a Trust Profile Machines Can Understand
Reviews, testimonials, case studies, third-party profiles, and structured data now shape how both people and AI search systems evaluate service businesses.
When Google Answers Without a Click: What AI Overviews Mean for Small Business Traffic
AI Overviews and AI Mode change how people move from search to websites. Here is how small businesses should think about fewer clicks, better intent, and lead tracking.
AI Search Optimization for Service Businesses: How to Get Found in ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity
A practical AI search optimization guide for service businesses: what changed, what did not, and how to make your website easier for AI search systems to find, trust, and cite.
More on Software.
Recent writing in Software.
API-First Business: Why Your Systems Should Talk to Each Other
What data silos actually cost, REST vs webhooks vs events, picking integration platforms, master data management basics, and avoiding vendor lock-in.
Building an Internal Dashboard for Your Business: The Honest Tradeoffs
Retool vs Metabase vs Looker vs custom — query performance, role-based access, and the moment when canned reports stop being enough for your team.
How to Handle Recurring Payments and Subscriptions on Your Website
Stripe Billing vs Chargebee vs custom, dunning logic, proration, churn handling, and tax automation — what actually matters when you charge customers monthly.
More on Conversion.
Recent writing in Conversion.
Microcopy: The Tiny Words That Decide Whether People Buy
A practical guide to microcopy for service business websites: button labels, form helpers, error messages, empty states, and confirmations that actually convert.
Landing Page vs Homepage: When to Use Each (and Why It Matters)
When to send paid traffic to a landing page vs a homepage: message match, single CTA, audience temperature, and the conversion cost of getting it wrong.
Website Form Design Best Practices: Fewer Fields, More Leads
A practical guide to web form design for small businesses: cut fields, write better errors, use autocomplete, and turn more visitors into qualified leads.
More on Design.
Recent writing in Design.
Accessibility Overlays Are Not a Compliance Plan: What Business Owners Should Do Instead
Accessibility overlay widgets promise one-line compliance, but real accessibility comes from fixing the website itself: markup, contrast, keyboard support, forms, content, and testing.
Typography on the Web: The Decisions That Shape Readability
A practical guide to web typography for service businesses: line length, line height, font pairing, fluid type, font loading, and what makes text actually readable.
Website Accessibility (WCAG 2.2): A Practical Guide for Business Owners
A practical WCAG 2.2 accessibility guide for small business owners: legal landscape, color contrast, keyboard nav, alt text, and what cheap fixes really buy you.
More on Business.
Recent writing in Business.
The True Cost of Cheap Websites: What $500 Builds Actually Cost You
The hidden math behind cheap websites: lost leads, security risk, vendor lock, rebuild costs, and maintenance debt — with real numbers for service businesses.
Choosing a Web Agency: The Questions That Separate Good From Bad
The questions that separate good web agencies from bad ones: process, communication, team continuity, post-launch support, references, and pricing transparency.
Website RFP Template and Checklist for Non-Technical Business Owners
A plain-English website RFP template and checklist covering scope, integrations, payment terms, IP ownership, and the red flags that separate good agencies from bad.
More on Performance.
Recent writing in Performance.
Fast Loads, Slow Clicks: Why INP Is the Performance Metric Business Owners Should Care About
A plain-English guide to Interaction to Next Paint (INP): why fast-loading pages can still feel broken, what causes slow clicks, and how to fix the interactions that cost leads.
Why Your Website Is Slow (and the Real Cost of Doing Nothing)
Why most small business websites are slow — render-blocking resources, third-party tags, hydration, server response — and what slowness actually costs in conversions.
Image Optimization for the Web: Formats, Sizes, and the CDN Question
A practical guide to image optimization for small business sites in 2026 — AVIF vs WebP vs JPEG, responsive srcset, image CDNs, and Lighthouse impact.
More on AI Automation.
Recent writing in AI Automation.
How To Update Your AI Tools to the Latest Frontier Models
The exact update and /model commands for Codex CLI, Claude Code, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, and Cursor CLI — a playbook you can reuse every time a new frontier model drops, whether it is GPT-5.6, Fable 5, or the next Gemini.
How To Get Anthropic Fable 5 Back in Claude Code
Fable 5 is coming back to Claude Code, but it may not appear immediately. Here is the clean reinstall, update, and model-selection path for macOS, Windows, Linux, npm, Homebrew, WinGet, apt, dnf, and apk installs.
AI Automation Workflows for Service Businesses: What to Automate First
A practical guide to choosing the first AI automation workflows for a service business, with examples for leads, follow-up, reviews, quoting, and admin.
More on Operations.
Recent writing in Operations.
Disaster Recovery for Your Website: Backups, Runbooks, and the Day Things Break
A practical disaster recovery guide for small business websites — the 3-2-1 backup rule, RTO/RPO, runbooks for common incidents, and communicating outages.
GDPR, CCPA, and Cookie Banners: What Actually Applies to a Small Business Site
What GDPR, CCPA, and cookie banner laws actually require of a small business website — jurisdiction, consent, dark patterns, and when you don't need a banner.
The Business Case for Monitoring: Uptime, Errors, and Real User Performance
Why small businesses need website monitoring — uptime, errors, and real user performance — and how to set it up without paying for an enterprise stack.
More on Web Development.
Recent writing in Web Development.
Dynamic Element in Web Development: Definition, Examples, and Why They Matter for SEO
A practical definition of a dynamic element in web development, how it compares to static and other element types, how it's built across programming languages, and how it affects page speed and SEO.
How to Make a Clickable Phone Number in WordPress: The Complete Guide
A step-by-step guide to adding a clickable, tap-to-call phone number in WordPress — Block Editor, Classic Editor, every major page builder (Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder, Bricks, Oxygen, Breakdance), theme header settings, click-to-call plugins, click tracking, schema markup, and accessibility.
Is WordPress Multisite One Theme or Multiple? How Themes Actually Work in a Network
A clear answer to whether WordPress Multisite uses one theme or multiple, how the shared theme folder really works, when Multisite is the right call, and the best WordPress and non-WordPress alternatives.
More on Web Design.
Recent writing in Web Design.
Conversion-Focused Landing Page Design: Patterns That Actually Convert
Concrete landing page patterns that help small businesses turn more visitors into leads, including hero clarity, single CTAs, social proof, and form design.
Mobile-First Design: Why Your Mobile Site Decides Whether You Get the Sale
Most service business websites lose mobile visitors before they reach the contact form. Here is what mobile-first design actually means and what to fix first.
Website Trust Signals: 12 Things That Increase Conversions Without Redesigning
A practical checklist of website trust signals small businesses can add to an existing site to increase conversions without a full redesign or rebuild.
The full archive.
Every post, in chronological order.
Fast Loads, Slow Clicks: Why INP Is the Performance Metric Business Owners Should Care About
A plain-English guide to Interaction to Next Paint (INP): why fast-loading pages can still feel broken, what causes slow clicks, and how to fix the interactions that cost leads.
Accessibility Overlays Are Not a Compliance Plan: What Business Owners Should Do Instead
Accessibility overlay widgets promise one-line compliance, but real accessibility comes from fixing the website itself: markup, contrast, keyboard support, forms, content, and testing.
Is Your Website Ready for AI Agents? Booking, Quotes, Forms, and Service Pages in 2026
AI agents will expose weak website workflows. Here is how service businesses can make booking, quotes, forms, service pages, and contact paths ready for human and AI-assisted buyers.
Reviews Are Becoming AI Search Fuel: How to Build a Trust Profile Machines Can Understand
Reviews, testimonials, case studies, third-party profiles, and structured data now shape how both people and AI search systems evaluate service businesses.
How To Update Your AI Tools to the Latest Frontier Models
The exact update and /model commands for Codex CLI, Claude Code, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, and Cursor CLI — a playbook you can reuse every time a new frontier model drops, whether it is GPT-5.6, Fable 5, or the next Gemini.
When Google Answers Without a Click: What AI Overviews Mean for Small Business Traffic
AI Overviews and AI Mode change how people move from search to websites. Here is how small businesses should think about fewer clicks, better intent, and lead tracking.
How To Get Anthropic Fable 5 Back in Claude Code
Fable 5 is coming back to Claude Code, but it may not appear immediately. Here is the clean reinstall, update, and model-selection path for macOS, Windows, Linux, npm, Homebrew, WinGet, apt, dnf, and apk installs.
Should You Let AI Crawlers Read Your Website? Robots.txt, GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, and Google-Extended
A plain-English guide to AI crawler controls for business websites: what GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, Googlebot, and Google-Extended actually mean.
AI Search Optimization for Service Businesses: How to Get Found in ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity
A practical AI search optimization guide for service businesses: what changed, what did not, and how to make your website easier for AI search systems to find, trust, and cite.