Lighthouse Agentic Browsing Score: What It Means in 2026
TL;DR: Google has quietly added a new Agentic Browsing category to Lighthouse, the free auditing tool built into Chrome. It scores how ready your site is for AI agents rather than for human visitors, and you may have noticed it appear overnight. It is experimental, it does not produce a 0 to 100 score, and […]
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 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, […]
How web design affects SEO
TL;DR: Web design affects SEO directly and how Google crawls, understands, and ranks your site. Speed, structure, mobile usability, accessibility, and visual hierarchy all feed into ranking signals that no amount of content or backlinks can override. This guide explains exactly how each design decision influences SEO, with real UK examples and practical fixes you […]
SEO is Dead: why people say it and what is actually true
TL;DR: “SEO is dead” is really “lazy SEO is dead”. Search engines, AI tools and customers still rely on search. What has changed is how you earn visibility. This article is written for business website owners who want a clear, realistic view of whether SEO still works and how to adapt their strategy in 2025. […]
How to Get Cited by ChatGPT: What Actually Works in 2026
TL;DR: Getting cited by ChatGPT depends on how you structure your content, not how much you publish or how big your site is. QED web design, has tracked 20+ ChatGPT referral visits across six pages over six months. The pages that get cited share a pattern: specific factual content on niche topics, clear standalone answers, […]
GA4 ChatGPT Referral: How to Track Traffic From ChatGPT
TL;DR: GA4 ChatGPT referral tracking is straightforward once you know where to look, since the referral usually appears as chatgpt.com / referral. In the first hundred words of this guide, you will learn exactly how GA4 reports traffic from ChatGPT, how to build a report that isolates these visits, how to diagnose missing referral data, […]
What Is Local SEO ?
TL;DR: What is local SEO? It’s how nearby customers find you on Google when they search for what you do. Below are the real search queries that brought customers to one of our local clients, what actually drove the enquiries, and an honest look at a viral claim doing the rounds (that Google now reads […]