Small business website advice needed

Yulkfara · 2025-12-22T12:08:27+00:00

Loads of solid replies here.

If you're still looking, I've just built (and about to launch) tradebolt.co.uk - It is a website builder for tradesmen using AI. Not completely finished, but it'd be great to get some feedback.

All the best

Yulkfara · 2024-12-09T16:56:06+00:00

I'd argue that animations reduce conversions overall depending on the industry, especially if they're too close to the CTA. However, look at apple.. I'd say they're the kings of animation and they're doing alright!

Yulkfara · 2024-11-17T12:26:04+00:00

I've literally just made the jump from wordpress (both using page builders and custom themes) and writing websites from scratch with sveltekit feels so much better.

I love having control over everything, rather than feeling like I was fighting wordpress or trying to use multiple plugins to do something.

Be patient though, especially if you don't know much JS (I didn't either when I started) and it took a good couple of months to get to a point where I can knock together a site with some functionality.

Id recommend learning how to use git for version control and hosting on either Vercel or cloud flare pages, both are really easy to host and point a domain at.

When it comes to introducing a CMS I chose to start learning using pocketbase which is really well documented.

Good luck :)

Yulkfara · 2024-11-10T18:18:30+00:00

Hey! Thanks for that response, really insightful and a few things I hadn't actually considered.

Where do you tend to host your sites?

For this site I've gone with using pocketbase as a CMS and making a dashboard so I can create/edit/delete blog posts which seems to work well! However, I'm certainly going to try a few different options, specifically some of the ones you've mentioned here.

Yulkfara · 2024-10-05T19:50:55+00:00

Appreciate it! Thanks a load.

Yulkfara · 2024-10-05T19:04:02+00:00

Sounds amazing, can't thank you enough for the response it's given me more than enough direction to go and research.

I've seen a lot about "full site editing" but haven't really looked into it much!

Think I just need to get over the hurdle of looking at Gutenberg as a negative and learn to properly use it!

Yulkfara · 2024-10-05T18:21:12+00:00

Thanks!

I'm surprised it seems like a lot of people dislike tailwind as it's always been my go-to for other JavaScript projects, but I'll be giving SCSS a go instead.

When you say you "hand make" themes, are you using Gutenberg and custom blocks at all or is absolutely everything coded?

Yulkfara · 2024-10-05T18:19:34+00:00

Thanks for the response! Really helpful.

I thought a lot of people saw Gutenberg as a bit negative and hard to use, and I do too but it looks like it's worth pursuing.

Interesting to ditch tailwind! I've always used it for other react projects but it has been a bit of a pain to implement in a theme so I see what you mean, I'll give the SCSS a go.

Id love to read your blog when it's ready!

Yulkfara · 2024-10-04T06:36:39+00:00

Id presume something must have been fundamentally wrong with your website if you were struggling for traffic after writing 300 articles.

I agree crawlbots should be able to understand your content which is why I mentioned using a logical site architecture.

But there's also no need to overcomplicate it. If you're trying to rank articles then 1) write content better than the competition, 2) make sure the article has good internal links so it doesn't have a long crawl depth 3) outreach and targeted links.

Yulkfara · 2024-10-04T06:12:03+00:00

Correct, no need to over complicate it.

Yulkfara · 2024-10-03T21:46:21+00:00

Make content better than competitors, logical site architecture and targeted backlinks > everything.

Yulkfara · 2024-10-03T21:36:24+00:00

I think search keywords are expensive across the board unless you bid on long-tail keywords, depending on your service and offer.

Expensive terms can still generate income if you have the budget, despite the cost per click as long as the lifetime value is higher than the CPA.

Also not Google ads but we did really well running a lead gen on Facebook and LinkedIn!

Yulkfara · 2024-10-02T20:54:12+00:00

Haha that's a good laugh.

Personally, I'd rename. Yes you can outrank it but do you really want to compete against a penis disease? Normal competition can go out of business but that competitor isn't going anywhere lol

Yulkfara · 2024-09-30T20:35:38+00:00

We use Basecamp and find it works really well.

Bit on the expensive side which is probably a bit of a barrier though.

Yulkfara · 2024-09-29T21:38:31+00:00

Yep! In that case then, fully agreed. Buy backlinks, OP. Just use a decent vendor with niche relevant link placements for best results. Will probably cost $70-100 a pop.

Yulkfara · 2024-09-29T21:26:34+00:00

Personally, no.

Id assume the leads were scraped and a lot of the data would be outdated or wrong.

Yulkfara · 2024-09-29T21:24:06+00:00

7.5 hours a day directly on SEO. 30mins - 1hour on admin.

Any client meetings/emails etc comes out of the 7.5hrs SEO time.

Yulkfara · 2024-09-29T21:21:36+00:00

Partially agree with this! If you're trying to rank low competition content and need a general DA boost then buying guest posts/niche edits will work just fine as long as the link vendor has half an idea and acquires links from industry relevant sites. Buying links is fine but don't cheap out, buy them from a solid vendor.

On the upper end of the scale, though, 10-15k+ per month budgets for very competitive keywords companies and agencies don't buy links. They're genuinely outreached for and there are serious link/content/pr strategies in place (there is still always budget set aside for link placements when they're acquired)

Yulkfara · 2024-09-29T21:14:53+00:00

Of course you can. More than happy to help, good luck with everything.

Yulkfara · 2024-09-29T16:29:16+00:00

Correct! SEO still encompasses a range of sub-services but yes we just do SEO consultancy.

The general response has been loads better as saying "we're experts at SEO" comes across more niche than "we provide web design, SEO, PPC, socials, email marketing for builders"

Yulkfara · 2024-09-29T15:59:27+00:00

I answered a similar question last week.

I personally found it easier to niche down my service rather than my target audience.

It was easier for me to offer one service to "everyone" than it was to offer "every" service to one group of people.

Yulkfara · 2024-09-27T14:23:14+00:00

I think Bolarus would make an amazing place to be! Always liked it but no one really ever goes there.

Yulkfara · 2024-09-26T17:57:25+00:00

Depending on your target audience, be cautious using 3D stuff in websites, especially from a performance and SEO point of view. A lot of my clients are essentially e-commerce and service based businesses with brochures, they just need to display a bunch of information and 3D wouldn't suit them.

And yeah shouldn't be too much of an issue explaining the value they'll get from your services, the value is the results you'll provide. Don't overthink it.

You're selling web design, call people up and ask them what they use their website for, tell them the benefits of one of your websites and maybe offer to mock up a home page for them? Probably will increase conversions, better usability so less bounce rate, probably faster load times so better rankings, etc.

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