Google Search Is Not Dead: 5 Myths Small Businesses Need to Stop Believing After Google I/O 2026
TL;DR: Google Search is not dead. It is changing shape, and the changes announced at I/O 2026 are real, but the panic is overblown for most small businesses. The data shows that websites cited in AI Overviews earn 35% more organic clicks and attract visitors who convert at 4.4 times the usual rate. Local and […]
Do You Need Backlinks to Rank? I Tested It and the Answer Surprised Me
TL;DR: Do you need backlinks to rank on Google? Not necessarily. Google’s own Gary Illyes confirmed at PubCon Pro in September 2023 that backlinks are no longer a top three ranking factor, and QED Web Design tested this with a real experiment that proved it. For UK small businesses being told they need to spend […]
Website Design Cost UK: What You Will Actually Pay in 2026
TL;DR: Website design cost in the UK runs from £500 to £10,000+ in 2026, and most small business projects land between £1,500 and £6,000 depending on who builds it and what the price actually covers. The Department for Business and Trade counted 5.7 million private sector businesses in the UK at the start of 2025, […]
What is search intent?
TL;DR: What is search intent ? It’s the reason behind a search query, and understanding it is now more important than choosing the right keywords alone. Google’s algorithms have moved well beyond simple keyword matching. They now assess whether your content actually answers the question behind the words someone types into the search bar. For […]
Study: Michelin Green stars websites 2026
TL;DR: Michelin Green stars restaurants do, on average, run lighter and lower-carbon websites than a random control group in the 2026 dataset, but the gap is not as clean as people assume. The headline for 2026 is this: Green Star sites average about 1.92g eCO₂ per visit versus 2.29g for the control group, and they […]
Eco website design – It’s a win/win
TL;DR: An Eco website is a performance-led site that reduces data transfer and script bloat, so it loads faster, feels more trustworthy, and is easier for Google to understand. In the UK, “eco” is not just a values badge. It is a practical route to better Core Web Vitals, clearer UX, and fewer friction points […]
Website trust signals checklist for UK sites
TL;DR: Website trust signals checklist: if your site looks legitimate, secure, and accountable, you convert more visitors and you reduce the risk of Google and AI tools treating you as “unreliable”. In the UK, trust is not just a design preference. It is tied to basic expectations like clear contact details, privacy transparency, secure forms, […]
Getting Google Business Profile leads
TL;DR: Google Business Profile leads increase when your listing is complete, specific, and aligned to how customers search, not how you describe the work internally. The conversion engine is a fast one-page site that confirms service area, trust signals, and contact options immediately on mobile, because proximity is fixed and you win on relevance, proof, […]
The Cost of a Hacked WordPress Website
TL;DR: The cost of a hacked WordPress website incidents are rarely just a one-off clean-up fee. In most UK small businesses, the biggest bill is downtime, emergency labour, and the follow-on trust and SEO damage. As of the UK Government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025, the average self-reported cost of the most disruptive breach for […]
What is Hosting
TL;DR: Hosting is the service that stores your website’s files on a server and delivers them to visitors when they load your site. No hosting, no website, no email. It shapes your speed, uptime, security and cost, and through the energy your data centre uses, your site’s carbon footprint too. The greenest, fastest result comes […]