Redesign your website with confidence.
Plain-English guides to planning a redesign, the technology behind websites, the terms you’ll hear along the way — and how the web got here. Every article links to its sources.
Articles
24 articles
Signs Your Website Needs a Redesign (and When a Refresh Is Enough)
Practical warning signs that your website is holding your business back, from mobile problems to outdated software, and how to tell when a lighter refresh will do.
Read · 5 min read →Redesign GuidesHow to Plan a Website Redesign: A Step-by-Step Guide
A practical, step-by-step plan for a website redesign, from setting goals and auditing your current site to testing, launch and what to do afterward.
Read · 5 min read →Redesign GuidesHow to Redesign Your Website Without Losing SEO
Protect the search traffic you've earned during a redesign: inventory your URLs, set up 301 redirects, keep your content and titles, and monitor Search Console.
Read · 5 min read →Redesign GuidesHow to Run a Content Audit Before Your Website Redesign
A practical guide to inventorying your website's content, deciding what to keep, update, merge or remove, and writing better pages for the new site.
Read · 5 min read →Redesign GuidesMobile-First Redesign: Designing for Phones Before Desktops
What mobile-first design means and how to apply it in a redesign: responsive layouts, finger-friendly tap targets, readable text and fast pages on phones.
Read · 5 min read →Redesign GuidesAccessibility in a Website Redesign: A Practical Guide
The accessibility basics to build into a redesign: WCAG and its POUR principles, color contrast, alt text, headings, keyboard use and accessible forms.
Read · 5 min read →Web Tech ExplainedHTML, CSS and JavaScript Explained in Plain English
What HTML, CSS and JavaScript each do, a few everyday analogies, and how your browser combines them into the web page you see.
Read · 6 min read →Web Tech ExplainedDomains, DNS and Web Hosting Explained Without the Jargon
How domain names, registrars, DNS records and web hosting fit together, and what happens between typing an address and seeing a page.
Read · 5 min read →Web Tech ExplainedHTTPS and SSL Certificates Explained: What Owners Should Check
What HTTPS and TLS protect, how certificates work, why browsers show warnings, where free certificates come from, and what to check on your own site.
Read · 5 min read →Web Tech ExplainedCMS vs Website Builders vs Static Sites: Which Fits Your Business?
A neutral comparison of content management systems, hosted website builders and static sites, with the trade-offs that matter most to a small business.
Read · 5 min read →Web Tech ExplainedWhat Is a CDN? Content Delivery Networks Explained
How content delivery networks use caching and nearby servers to speed up websites, what they add for security, and when a small site actually needs one.
Read · 5 min read →Web Tech ExplainedPage Speed and Core Web Vitals Explained for Small Businesses
What page speed really means, how Google's Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP and CLS) are measured, how to test your site, and the most common fixes.
Read · 5 min read →Web BasicsTypes of Web Hosting Explained: Shared, VPS, Cloud and More
A plain-English guide to shared, VPS, dedicated, cloud, managed and static hosting, including who each option suits and the trade-offs to weigh.
Read · 5 min read →Web BasicsWhat Is Responsive Web Design? A Plain-English Guide
Responsive design lets one website adapt to phones, tablets and desktops. Learn how fluid layouts, flexible images, media queries and the viewport tag work.
Read · 5 min read →Web BasicsSEO Basics for Small Business Websites: Where to Start
How search engines find and rank pages, plus the practical basics Google recommends: clear titles, helpful content, local listings and Search Console.
Read · 5 min read →Web BasicsWebsite Security Basics Every Small Business Should Know
Practical steps to protect your website: keep software updated, secure your logins, keep tested backups, use HTTPS, choose add-ons carefully and know what to do if hacked.
Read · 5 min read →Web BasicsEmail on Your Own Domain: MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC Explained
Why [email protected] builds trust, and how MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records work together to get your email delivered and protect your name.
Read · 5 min read →Web BasicsStructured Data and Rich Results: A Beginner's Guide
What structured data and schema.org are, how markup can make pages eligible for rich results, LocalBusiness basics, and how to test your markup.
Read · 5 min read →Web HistoryThe History of the World Wide Web: From CERN to Everywhere
How a 1989 proposal at a Swiss physics lab became the World Wide Web, and why choices made in its first five years still shape every website.
Read · 6 min read →Web HistoryThe Browser Wars: Netscape, Internet Explorer and Beyond
How the battle between Netscape and Internet Explorer, and later Firefox, Safari and Chrome, shaped the way websites are built today.
Read · 6 min read →Web HistoryHow Web Design Has Changed: From Plain Text to Design Systems
A tour of web design history, from text pages and table layouts through Flash, Web 2.0 and flat design to today's responsive design systems.
Read · 6 min read →Web HistoryThe Mobile Web and the Rise of Responsive Design
How the iPhone, separate mobile sites, responsive web design and Google's mobile-first indexing changed what a website needs to be.
Read · 5 min read →Web HistoryA Short History of Search Engines and SEO
From Archie and Yahoo! to Google's PageRank and major ranking updates, how search engines and SEO evolved, and what lasts.
Read · 6 min read →Web HistoryWeb Standards and Accessibility: A Brief History
How the W3C, HTML and CSS standards and the WCAG accessibility guidelines developed, and why they matter for every business website.
Read · 5 min read →Website glossary
62 web terms explained in a sentence or three — from 301 redirects to WCAG.