Guides
Guides for small business owners
Plain answers to the questions owners ask before a build, from what a site costs to how AI search picks its sources.
Updated September 24, 2026
In short
These guides answer the questions owners ask us before a build. Each one opens with a short answer, then explains the details in plain words, with its public sources and their dates listed at the end. Where a guide mentions a price, the figure comes from our price book, and the written plan for your own project carries the real number.
A guide never names a client or quotes a result. When it states a number, the number carries its source, and the source list at the end says when each page was published.
Search and AI answers
How search engines and AI answer engines find a business, and which parts of that an owner can control.
- What is GEO?What GEO, generative engine optimization, changes on a website, and what it can never promise a small business.
- How does AI search pick its sources?Which crawlers feed ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google, and how much of an engine's choice of sources a small business can influence.
- Local SEO or GEO?How local SEO and GEO differ, and where the two overlap for a business that serves one area.
What things cost
What a site, an app or a care plan costs from our price book, and what moves a price up or down.
- What does a custom CRM cost?What a custom CRM costs to build and to keep running, and how that compares with paying for every seat on an off-the-shelf CRM.
- What does a care plan cover?What a website care plan includes each month and what it leaves out, with the prices of our three plans.
- What does a small business website cost in 2026?What a small business website costs in 2026 at our three site tiers, and the running costs to plan for after launch.
Deciding what to build
The choices owners weigh before a build, with the case for each side and the point where the answer changes.
- Wix or Squarespace, or a custom site?When a site builder like Wix or Squarespace is enough, and when a custom site you can take anywhere is worth its price.
- When should a small business build an app?The signs that a small business is ready for its own app, and why the first one is often a web app rather than an App Store listing.
- Your own ordering system, or the delivery apps?What the delivery apps charge on each order, and how a food business can use them beside its own ordering without paying commission on its regulars.
- Automation, or another hire?How to tell whether a busy small business needs automation or another person, and which tasks belong to software rather than to a new hire.
How a project runs
How a project runs from the first call to launch, and who owns what once it is done.
Words these guides use
Each of these terms has a one-paragraph definition in the glossary and a page of its own that says where it shows up.
Start with a written plan
Tell us about the business and what you need. We reply with questions, then a written plan that lists the work and its price, and nothing starts until you have read it.