Brooks & Grant

Blog Roll

Our thoughts on building websites that actually work

No jargon, no fluff. Just honest thinking about web development, performance, and why most business websites underperform.

Pinned
Web Development10 min read

The design rules the biggest brands all follow (and most small businesses don't)

Apple uses three colours. Nike has no carousel. Selfridges built an entire identity on one shade of yellow. These are not aesthetic choices. They are design decisions backed by decades of research. Here is what they know that you do not.

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Pinned
Web Development5 min read

We broke our own rule

We wrote a blog telling small businesses not to pretend to be bigger than they are. Then we looked at our own website. It sounded like a ten-person agency. It is two people. Here is what we changed and why.

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Industry Guides5 min read

Your menu should not be a PDF

You spent money on a website. You uploaded your menu as a PDF. Now someone searches "fish and chips near me" and your restaurant does not appear. Google cannot read the words inside that file. Your menu is invisible to every search that mentions a specific dish, a dietary requirement, or a price point.

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Industry Guides5 min read

Your corner shop could deliver. It just does not know it yet.

It is 7pm. You are cooking dinner and you have run out of eggs. You open Deliveroo. You see Co-op, Tesco Express, Sainsbury's Local. Your local corner shop is two streets away. It has eggs. But it is not on the app, it does not have a website, and as far as the internet is concerned, it does not exist.

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Web Development5 min read

"I get all my work through word of mouth. I don't need a website."

Your business runs on recommendations. Someone mentions your name, and the job is almost yours. But between the recommendation and the phone call, there is a step you never see. They Google you. They find your website. And what they see either confirms the recommendation or quietly kills it.

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Industry Guides7 min read

Your tattoos last forever. Your Instagram reach does not.

You spent years as an apprentice before you touched real skin. Your work is permanent. It lives on someone's body forever. But your online presence is an Instagram page where 2 to 3 percent of your followers see each post and a Linktree that Google cannot find. Your art deserves better than an algorithm.

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Web Development5 min read

Websites don't work

You say websites don't work. Then you open Google to find a plumber. You check Amazon for next-day delivery. You book a table on a restaurant's site. You compare prices on John Lewis. Websites work. It is yours that does not.

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Industry Guides7 min read

Body piercing. You are a jeweller who pierces. Your website does not know that.

You stock 14-karat gold from BVLA and hand-finished titanium from Junipurr. Your cabinets hold hundreds of pounds worth of jewellery. But your entire online presence is an Instagram page and a Linktree. Your website, if you have one, says "piercing shop." It should say "jeweller."

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Web Development6 min read

The chat bubble nobody answers

You installed a live chat widget because you wanted to seem responsive. It sat on your website for a week, maybe two. Then you stopped checking it. The bubble is still there. Still promising instant help. Still going unanswered.

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Web Development6 min read

"Creative" menu labels are confusing your customers

You renamed "About" to "Our Story" and "Services" to "The Lab" because you wanted your website to feel different. It does. It feels harder to use. Every second a visitor spends decoding your navigation is a second they are not reading your content, finding your prices, or getting in touch.

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Web Development6 min read

"I do": your buttons are proposing to the wrong person

Changing "Start your free trial" to "Start my free trial" lifted clicks by 90%. But changing "Create Your Account" to "Create My Account" dropped conversions by 25%. First-person CTAs are not a universal rule. They are a scalpel. Here is when to use them and when to put them down.

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Web Development6 min read

That Instagram feed on your homepage is an exit sign

You embedded a live Instagram feed on your homepage because it makes the site feel current. It does not. It slows your page down, pulls attention away from your call to action, and sends visitors to a platform you do not control. Every click on that widget is an exit.

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Web Development6 min read

Stop writing "Click Here" on your buttons

Your button text is doing more work than you think. It is read aloud by screen readers, indexed by Google, and it is often the last thing someone reads before deciding whether to act. "Click Here" is lazy. "Get Your Free Quote" is a reason to click.

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Web Development7 min read

Your website might be breaking the law (and you don't know it)

The Equality Act 2010 already applies to your website. The European Accessibility Act adds another layer. 95.9% of websites fail both. If someone with a disability cannot use your site, that is not a design flaw. Under UK law, it is discrimination.

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Industry Guides7 min read

Your coffee shop needs more than an Instagram page

You post the latte art. You share the flat lay. You story the new seasonal blend. But Instagram is not a website. And when someone searches "coffee shop near me," your grid full of cappuccino photos is nowhere to be found.

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Web Development7 min read

You already know what a good website looks like

You shop on Amazon. You browse Apple. You order from Next. You know exactly what a good website feels like. So why does your own business website not meet the same standard you expect from everyone else?

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Web Development9 min read

Something is wrong with my website but I don't know what

You look at your website and something feels off. You cannot point to a specific thing. The logo is there, the pages load, the contact form works. But something is not right. So you close the tab and get on with your day. Your customers are doing the same thing. Except they are not coming back.

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Web Development10 min read

Why every recipe website is terrible (and what it means for yours)

You wanted a chicken tikka masala recipe. What you got was a 4,000-word memoir about a sunset in Goa, fourteen pop-ups, a layout that jumps every time an ad loads, and a PageSpeed score that would make a dial-up modem wince. Recipe websites are the worst pages on the internet. They are also the best lesson in what not to do with yours.

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Web Development11 min read

Is Shopify really the best option for your online store?

Shopify looks like the obvious choice. Easy to set up, plans from twenty-nine pounds a month, thousands of themes. But once you factor in the apps you need, the transaction fees you cannot avoid, and the performance ceiling you will eventually hit, the real cost tells a very different story.

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Web Development5 min read

First visit syndrome: why your website is slowest for the people who matter most

You check your website and it loads fine. Of course it does. Your browser has seen it before. It has cached the images, stored the fonts, resolved the DNS. A first-time visitor has none of that. They get the cold version. The slow version. The version that decides whether they stay or leave.

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Web Development5 min read

Website vs social media: which one actually matters?

You post every day. You reply to every comment. You run ads. Your social media is active, consistent, and on-brand. But when someone searches for what you do, you are nowhere. Social media is not a website. And treating it like one is costing you the customers who are ready to buy.

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Web Development5 min read

Why we don't use WordPress (and when you should)

WordPress powers 40 percent of the web. It is also responsible for some of the slowest, most vulnerable, most over-engineered small business websites on the internet. Here is why we chose not to build with it, and the rare situations where it might still make sense for you.

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Web Development5 min read

The real cost of a free website

Free sounds like a good deal until you see what it actually costs. A free website builder gives you someone else's domain, someone else's branding, and a site so slow and limited that it actively drives customers away. The price you pay is every customer who never finds you.

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Web Development5 min read

Why your website needs to load in under two seconds

You check your website on your office computer and it looks fine. Your customers are not on your office computer. They are on a phone, on a patchy connection, standing in a queue. If your site does not load in under two seconds, they are gone.

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Web Development5 min read

Why your website loses customers before they read a word

Your visitors are not reading your homepage. They are judging it. In less than a twentieth of a second, they have decided whether your business looks credible. If your website looks outdated, cluttered, or cheap, they leave before a single word registers.

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Industry Guides5 min read

Why your dental practice website looks like every other one

Same stock photo of a smiling patient. Same list of treatments. Same pastel colour scheme. If your dental website was built by an industry provider, it looks identical to every other practice in your area. And your patients can tell.

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Industry Guides5 min read

Does your gym need a website? Your Instagram isn't enough.

You have got thousands of followers, your reels get decent engagement, and your DMs are busy. So why would you need a website? Because Instagram cannot rank on Google, cannot display a class timetable, and decides who sees your posts for you. Your website is the one thing you actually control.

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Industry Guides5 min read

Your estate agency website is losing you instructions

You are paying thousands a year to Rightmove and Zoopla. Your own website is a dated template that does nothing the portals do not already do. And when a vendor searches for an estate agent in your area, they check your website before they pick up the phone. If it does not impress them, they call someone else.

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Web Development5 min read

Schema markup: the SEO advantage most businesses don't know exists

You are paying for SEO. Your developer says the site is optimised. But when you search for your own business, you get a plain blue link while your competitor shows up with star ratings, opening hours, and a description that actually makes sense. The difference is schema markup. And you probably do not have it.

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Web Development5 min read

Why cheap websites cost more in the long run

You got three quotes. One was five hundred pounds. One was five thousand. One was somewhere in between. They all said they could build you a website. So why is the price difference so enormous? Because they are not offering you the same thing. And the cheap one will cost you more than you think.

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Industry Guides5 min read

What every accountant's website gets wrong

You are qualified, experienced, and trusted by your clients. But your website looks exactly like every other accountancy firm in the country. Same stock photos, same bullet points, same vague promises. And that is exactly why it is not bringing in new business.

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Industry Guides5 min read

Does your restaurant need a website? Yes. And here is why.

You are on Google Maps. You are on Just Eat. You have an Instagram with great photos. So why would you need a website? Because none of those things belong to you, and every one of them is costing you more than you realise.

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Web Development5 min read

Your website is your best salesperson. Is it doing its job?

Your website works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It never calls in sick, never takes a lunch break, and handles every enquiry simultaneously. But unlike a real salesperson, it cannot adapt on the fly. If it is slow, confusing, or outdated, it is losing you business around the clock.

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Web Development6 min read

What a five-page website actually involves (and why "it's only five pages" misses the point)

Five pages sounds simple. A homepage, a services page, a gallery, an about page, a contact page. How hard can it be? Harder than you think. And understanding why is the difference between a website that works and one that just exists.

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Web Development5 min read

What your PageSpeed score is actually telling you

You have probably heard of Google PageSpeed. You might even know your score. But do you understand what it is actually measuring, what a bad score is costing you, and why the quick fixes your developer tried did not work?

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Industry Guides5 min read

Why most tradespeople don't have a website (and why it's costing you work)

Word of mouth is great until it dries up. If you are relying on Checkatrade, Facebook, or your reputation alone, you are invisible to the people actively searching for exactly what you do.

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Industry Guides5 min read

What every hair salon needs from their website (and what most get wrong)

Your booking page is not a website. If your online presence starts and ends with Fresha or a free Wix template, you are invisible to every potential client searching for a salon right now.

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Web Development5 min read

Why the best websites look like they were easy to build

Simplicity is not the absence of complexity. It is the result of relentless decision-making, engineering precision, and the discipline to remove everything that does not serve your customer.

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Web Development5 min read

One page for everything is an SEO disaster

You offer plumbing, heating, bathrooms, and boiler installs. You listed them all on one page. Google does not know which search to show you for, so it shows you for none of them. Your competitors with four separate pages are ranking above you for every single service.

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Web Development5 min read

Stop spending on ads before fixing your website

You are paying Google to send people to your website. They arrive, wait three seconds for the page to load, and leave. You just paid for that click. And the next one. And the next one. The average Google Ads account wastes over a third of its budget on clicks that generate no return.

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Web Development5 min read

Your £2 hosting is killing your website

You chose the cheapest hosting you could find. Two pounds a month. Your website shares a server with hundreds of other sites, many of them unoptimised, some of them spammy. When one of them spikes, yours slows down. When the server gets blacklisted, your emails stop arriving.

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Web Development6 min read

Google Business Profile: the free listing you are not using properly

You claimed your Google Business Profile two years ago. You added your phone number and your address. You have not touched it since. Meanwhile, 44 percent of people searching for local businesses click on the map pack results, and your profile is sitting there half-finished, losing you clicks every day.

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Web Development6 min read

Who owns your domain name?

You paid for the website. You paid for the logo. You have been paying monthly hosting for years. But if someone else registered your domain name, they own your address online. And if they disappear, so does your website.

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Industry Guides7 min read

Your building company does not have a website. Your competitors do.

You have been in the trade for 15 years. You have never needed a website. Word of mouth has always been enough. But 73 percent of homeowners now Google a builder even after getting a personal recommendation. If you are not there, someone else is.

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Web Development7 min read

Is your website GDPR compliant?

The honest answer for most small business websites is no. But before you panic, you need to understand what the rules actually require. Some sites need very little. Others are breaking the law without knowing it. The difference is what your website collects.

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Web Development8 min read

Stop trying to rank nationally. Own your postcode first.

You are a plumber in Leicester competing with every plumber in Britain for the word "plumber." Meanwhile, "plumber Leicester" has buyers ready to call and barely any competition. Local SEO is a different game, and it is the one you can actually win.

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Industry Guides6 min read

Every law firm website says the same thing

Open ten law firm websites. You will see the same handshake, the same gavel, and the same promise of "bespoke, tailored solutions." There are 8,916 SRA-regulated firms in England and Wales. Most of their websites are interchangeable. If your potential clients cannot tell you apart, they will choose whoever shows up first on Google.

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