The Bulletin.

Plain answers to the questions small businesses ask about websites, search and getting found.

50 entries

No. 050 Why a small business website should be built for phones firstGoogle doesn't just favor a mobile-friendly site. It looks at the phone version of your site to decide what your business even is. Desktop is the afterthought now, not the other way around. DesignSep 25, 2026 · 4 min No. 049 What a tree service website should includeTree work is among the most dangerous jobs in the country, by a wide margin. A website that takes that fact seriously, with real credentials and real insurance, stands apart immediately. Trade guidesSep 25, 2026 · 4 min No. 048 What a painting contractor's website should includePainting sells almost entirely on visible transformation, which plays to a website's strengths. It also carries a specific federal certification requirement most sites never mention. Trade guidesSep 25, 2026 · 4 min No. 047 What a house cleaning website should includeHouse cleaning is one of the few trades where letting a stranger into someone's home, alone, unsupervised, is the entire premise. The website's job is to answer that fear directly. Trade guidesSep 25, 2026 · 4 min No. 046 What a garage door company's website should includeA broken garage door spring is one of the more dangerous DIY temptations in home repair. That fact, stated honestly, is also one of the strongest reasons to call a professional. Trade guidesSep 25, 2026 · 4 min No. 045 Website design mistakes that cost contractors callsSome design choices look impressive in a mockup and cost real calls in practice. The image carousel is the clearest example, and the research on it goes back over a decade. DesignSep 25, 2026 · 4 min No. 044 Website accessibility basics for small businessThe federal accessibility rule that made headlines in 2024 applies to government websites, not yours. That doesn't mean accessibility is optional, or that lawsuits aren't real. DesignSep 25, 2026 · 4 min No. 043 Should a home service website have online booking?Online booking works well for some jobs and badly for others. The difference is whether the job can be priced without someone actually looking at it first. TradesSep 25, 2026 · 4 min No. 042 How to write content that answers your customers' questionsGoogle publishes the actual questions it wants content creators to ask themselves. Running a page through them, honestly, catches most of what makes content weak. SearchSep 25, 2026 · 4 min No. 041 How to find the questions your customers are askingThe best source for what to write about is data your own website is already generating for free. Most businesses never open the report that shows it. SearchSep 25, 2026 · 4 min No. 040 What a pest control website should includePest control is regulated more tightly than most trades, and some common marketing words are legally risky here in a way they aren't elsewhere. That's the place to start. Trade guidesSep 24, 2026 · 4 min No. 039 What a landscaping website should includeLandscaping sells on what a yard looks like after the work is done, and on whether the maintenance that follows is actually spelled out. Most sites only handle the first half. Trade guidesSep 24, 2026 · 4 min No. 038 Service schema: how to mark up each serviceLocalBusiness schema describes who you are. Service schema describes what you actually sell, page by page, and most sites that bother with schema at all skip this part. SchemaSep 24, 2026 · 4 min No. 037 Service area pages: what they are and how to write themA real service area page and a doorway page look similar at a glance. The difference is whether there's anything on the page besides a swapped-in city name. TradesSep 24, 2026 · 5 min No. 036 Licensing and insurance: how to show trust on your siteA license number sitting quietly in a footer does less work than it could. Most states let anyone verify it in seconds, and that's the fact worth building the page around. TradesSep 24, 2026 · 5 min No. 035 How to write a call to action that gets calls"Get Started" and "Learn More" ask nothing of a visitor and promise nothing back. The buttons that work say exactly what happens next. DesignSep 24, 2026 · 4 min No. 034 How to test your schema with the Rich Results TestGoogle's free testing tool checks something narrower than most people assume. Knowing what it actually covers keeps you from chasing an error that isn't really one. SchemaSep 24, 2026 · 4 min No. 033 How many articles does a new website need before it ranks?There's no number, and Google's own staff have said so directly. What actually moves the needle is a different question entirely. SearchSep 24, 2026 · 4 min No. 032 Designing a website for emergency service searchesSomeone searching "emergency plumber near me" has already decided to act. The only question left is which business answers fastest, and the website is part of that answer. TradesSep 24, 2026 · 4 min No. 031 Core Web Vitals in plain EnglishThree numbers, three plain questions. Google's own thresholds for "good" are specific, free to check, and worth knowing without the jargon. SchemaSep 24, 2026 · 4 min No. 030 Contact form or phone number: what gets more leads?For most trades, this isn't really a competition. The honest answer is both, weighted toward the phone, with the form catching what the phone can't. DesignSep 24, 2026 · 4 min No. 029 What should be in a website proposal?A proposal you can hold a designer to has six parts. A proposal that's just a price on a page has one, and it's the wrong one to judge by alone. PricingSep 23, 2026 · 4 min No. 028 Trust signals: what visitors look for before they callTrust isn't one thing on a page. It's a handful of specific, checkable signals, and the research on what they actually are is more consistent than you'd expect. DesignSep 23, 2026 · 5 min No. 027 Monthly website plans vs a one-time priceA monthly plan lowers the number you see first. What it actually buys, and what happens if you ever stop paying, is the part worth reading closely. PricingSep 23, 2026 · 5 min No. 026 How to add LocalBusiness schema to a websiteThe code itself is short. What actually trips people up is where it goes, what has to match, and how to check it's working at all. SchemaSep 23, 2026 · 5 min No. 025 How long does SEO take for a new small business site?Google's own guidance is that it depends heavily on what changed and how established the site already is. For a brand-new site, that answer is closer to months than days. SearchSep 23, 2026 · 4 min No. 024 FAQ schema after Google's May 2026 changeGoogle stopped showing FAQ rich results entirely this year. The markup is still valid. Whether it's still worth adding depends on what you actually want it to do. SchemaSep 23, 2026 · 5 min No. 023 Do contractors need a blog?The word "blog" is part of the problem. What actually helps is a library of real answers to real questions, and that's a different commitment than it sounds like. TradesSep 23, 2026 · 4 min No. 022 Before-and-after photos: how to show your work onlineA before-and-after pair is the strongest proof a trades site can show. Most businesses still get the basics of presenting one wrong. TradesSep 23, 2026 · 4 min No. 021 Answer engine optimization for small businessesAEO has a real, useful meaning underneath the buzzword. For a small business, most of what it actually asks you to do overlaps with good SEO you should be doing anyway. SearchSep 23, 2026 · 5 min No. 020 9 signs your website is costing you customersA website doesn't have to be broken to be losing you work. These nine signs are quiet, and most businesses don't notice them until they're pointed out. PricingSep 23, 2026 · 5 min No. 019 LocalBusiness schema for contractors: which type to useSchema.org has a specific type for plumbers, electricians, roofers and more. Using the generic LocalBusiness type instead is the most common mistake. SchemaSep 22, 2026 · 5 min No. 018 How to write a services page that ranksGoogle's own guidance on titles, headings and links is more specific than most advice you'll read. Here is how to apply it to one service page. TradesSep 22, 2026 · 4 min No. 017 How to get your business recommended by AI assistantsMore people are asking ChatGPT and Gemini for a local recommendation instead of searching. Here is what the current research says actually earns the mention. SearchSep 22, 2026 · 4 min No. 016 How many reviews do customers need before they trust you?There is a real threshold where customers start ruling businesses out. Recent survey data puts a number on it, and on how a business is allowed to collect reviews. TradesSep 22, 2026 · 5 min No. 015 How long does it take to build a small business website?A custom small business site typically runs a few weeks to two months. What actually determines where you land in that range has less to do with code than you'd think. PricingSep 22, 2026 · 5 min No. 014 Google Business Profile vs your website: what each one doesA free Google Business Profile and a website do different jobs. Confusing them is why some businesses skip a website, and why others neglect their profile. SearchSep 22, 2026 · 4 min No. 013 Click-to-call: why your phone number belongs in the headerA phone number that isn't a real link costs you calls you'll never know you lost. Here is how to do it right, including the accessibility rule most sites miss. TradesSep 22, 2026 · 4 min No. 012 12 questions to ask a web designer before you hireA good designer will have clear answers to all twelve. A vague answer to any one of them is worth pausing over before you sign. PricingSep 22, 2026 · 4 min No. 011 What to put on a contractor's homepageMost visitors decide in the first screen whether to call or leave. Here is what has to be there, in what order. TradesSep 21, 2026 · 5 min No. 010 What pages does a contractor website need?Most contractor sites need fewer pages than agencies sell, but the ones they need have to do specific jobs. Here are the pages, in order of importance. TradesSep 21, 2026 · 5 min No. 009 What an HVAC website should includeHVAC gets two very different visitors: someone whose system just quit and someone planning a replacement. The site has to work for both, in every season. Trade guidesSep 21, 2026 · 6 min No. 008 What an electrician's website should includeHomeowners let electricians into their walls and panels, so trust and safety carry more weight here than almost anywhere. Here is what the site needs. Trade guidesSep 21, 2026 · 5 min No. 007 What a roofing website should include, and the deductible wording to keep off itRoofing is one of the few trades where common website wording can break the law. Here is what the site should show, and the deductible language several states now prohibit. Trade guidesSep 21, 2026 · 6 min No. 006 What a plumbing website should includePeople visit a plumber's website stressed and often standing in water. The site should get them to a call fast, then earn trust with plain pricing and real photos. Trade guidesSep 21, 2026 · 5 min No. 005 Website builder vs custom website: an honest comparison for a small businessA builder like Wix or Squarespace is the right call for some businesses and the wrong one for others. Here is how to tell which you are. PricingSep 21, 2026 · 5 min No. 004 How much should a small business website cost?A small business website costs anywhere from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands. What you get for the money varies more than the number does. PricingSep 21, 2026 · 5 min No. 003 Do I own my website? Domain, hosting and code, explainedOwning a website is really three separate things: the domain, the hosting and the code. Here is how to check who holds each one. PricingSep 21, 2026 · 6 min No. 002 What is schema markup, and does a small business need it?Schema is a short block of code that tells search engines and AI assistants what your business is. It takes an hour to add and does not guarantee rankings. SearchSep 18, 2026 · 4 min No. 001 Why a designer should ask for your own photosStock photos make every small business site look the same. Your own images, even imperfect ones, do more work than a polished stranger. DesignSep 14, 2026 · 4 min