The Owner's Manual.
Website answers in plain English.
You shouldn't need to speak developer to understand your own website. These are the questions owners keep asking about theirs, answered the way we write our reports: what it means, what it costs you and what to do about it. We skip the jargon and the scare tactics, and we never present a number as measured unless it was.
How do I rank higher on Google?
The three fronts where rankings are won, how long it realistically takes, and what to refuse, starting with anyone who promises you #1.
Read the answer → Conversion · diagnosisWhy is my website not getting sales?
It's almost always one of six measurable problems. The six-lens diagnosis, with symptoms you can spot yourself in minutes.
Read the answer → Accessibility · riskIs my website ADA compliant?
What ADA compliance means for a website, five checks you can run in ten minutes, and what a demand letter really is, without the fear-mongering.
Read the answer → Findability · complete guideWhat is SEO, and how do you improve it?
How search engines crawl, index and rank pages, what they reward in 2026, and the full playbook for technical health, content and authority, with a 30-day plan.
Read the guide → Findability · complete guideWhat is AEO, and why does it suddenly matter?
AI assistants increasingly answer the question instead of listing links. How answer engines pick their sources, the full playbook, and how to measure whether you're being named.
Read the guide → Findability · complete guideWhat is GEO, and how do you get cited by AI?
Generative engine optimization without the hype. How AI systems build answers, what the research says gets cited, and a playbook for being retrievable, then quotable, then trustable.
Read the guide → Findability · comparisonSEO vs. AEO vs. GEO: what's the difference?
One chases a ranked list, one a named source, and one is a research term. What each optimizes for, the ~80% they share, and which to do first.
Read the comparison → Findability · AI visibilityHow do I get my business to show up in ChatGPT?
How ChatGPT picks the businesses it names, from live search or from training memory, and the six measurable moves that raise your odds.
Read the answer → Findability · AI visibilityWhat are Google AI Overviews, and how do you appear in them?
The AI summaries above the search results. How sources get picked, what they do to your clicks, and six moves toward being cited.
Read the answer → Findability · machine legibilityWhat is schema markup, and does your site need it?
The invisible labels that make your pages machine-readable. What they do, what they don't, and the six types that matter.
Read the answer → Findability · AI visibilityWhat is llms.txt, and should your site have one?
A proposed root file that hands AI models a plain map of what's on your site and what matters, plus how to publish yours in minutes.
Read the answer →Web design & development services, graded before and after we build.
Commission custom design that's measured before and after on a public rubric. What a graded build gets you, how the process runs, and how to start.
Start here → Build · process & costHow do I get a website built for my company?
DIY, freelancer or studio. The five real cost drivers, realistic timelines, and the acceptance checklist that protects you with any builder.
Read the answer → Build · choosing a firmHow to choose a web design company, the graded way
Judge by evidence instead of galleries. Test portfolios with a grader, confirm who does the work and spot the red flags. Disclosure included: we're a firm too.
Read the answer → Build · customer modulesWhat is a customer portal, and do you need one?
The login area that turns repetitive emails into self-service. How to tell you need one, three ways to build it, and the security duties.
Read the answer → AI · attendantsShould your website or app have an AI assistant?
Grounded, guarded and clearly labeled. What an AI attendant can do, three ways to build one, and the rules that keep it from embarrassing you.
Read the answer → AI · toolsShould your business use ChatGPT, Grok, or Gemini?
What each assistant is, how small businesses use them, the one-week trial that beats any comparison chart, and the data questions to ask.
Read the answer → Security · threatsWhat is a DoS attack, and should you worry?
DoS and DDoS in plain English. What an attack looks like, how much risk a small business faces, and the cheap protections that matter.
Read the answer →Every answer above comes from the framework The Grader measures with. Each lens gets a full guide:
An SEO & AEO audit for being found by Google. And by AI.
Search engines and AI answer engines, in owner language.
Open the lens guide → Lens · AccessibilityADA & WCAG accessibility is risk you can measure.
Who your site shuts out today, the real risk, and the fixes that matter first.
Open the lens guide → MethodThe rubric, in the open.
The six lenses, the 26 metrics, and why every number carries a Measured or Estimated label.
Read the methodology → Speed · diagnosisWhy is my website so slow?
The four usual causes (images, plugins, hosting and theme bloat), how to spot each one, and what the wait quietly costs you.
Read the answer → Security · fix todayWhy does my website say "Not Secure"?
What the browser warning means (you weren't hacked), the three causes, and a fix that's usually free and often same-day.
Read the answer →Trust · Reputation
The remaining lens guides are being written to the same plain-language standard. We'd rather label them as coming than pad this page out today.
In progressSkip the reading and grade your site
Run your site through The Grader for the six-lens reading these guides explain. It's free and takes minutes, and it runs in sample mode while live scanning rolls out.
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