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Receipts. Field guides. names of cowboys redacted.

Articles on digital rescue, agency theatre, SEO, AI-first delivery, and what's actually broken in UK SME websites. Written to be useful. Not written to rank.

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5 articles. More when they're worth writing.

Field guide 8 min

12 ways to spot you've been done by a cowboy

Login they won't hand over. CMS you can't edit. Plugins they invoiced for as 'custom development'. Twelve red flags. If three or more sound familiar, get in touch.

8 Apr 2026 Read
Playbook 7 min

Rescue or rebuild? A framework for deciding before you sign anything

The agency that's quoting you has a preferred answer before they've even looked at your site. Here's how to work out the real answer, five questions that cut through the sales narrative.

15 Apr 2026 Read
Ownership 8 min

Who actually owns your website? The legal reality check most SMEs never run.

Your domain might be in your agency's name. Your hosting might be on their tenancy. Your codebase might be in their GitHub. Your analytics might be in their workspace. 'Owning' your website isn't a single decision, it's ten of them, and most SMEs haven't checked even one.

17 Apr 2026 Read
Contracts 6 min

The 12-month retainer is agency theatre. Here's what to negotiate instead.

The 12-month minimum, the 90-day notice period, the rollover clause. These aren't standard terms, they're negotiated advantages dressed up as boilerplate. Walk away from the contract that won't budge on them.

10 Apr 2026 Read
Calling it out 8 min

AI didn't make your agency quote more expensive. It just gave them new words.

A senior with AI can now ship in a week what used to take a four-person team a month. The economics of delivery fell off a cliff. Agency quotes went up. Because 'AI-first' sounds more expensive than 'normal'. Here's how to tell the difference.

19 Apr 2026 Read

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