I Fixed My Own Slow Website. Here’s What I Learned.

I’ll be honest with you: for a while, my own website was slow. Like, really slow. (Yes, the web designer’s website. I know.) There’s an old saying about the cobbler’s kids having no shoes, and it turns out it applies to designers too. I spend my days making sure client sites look great and work […]

Your Website Photos Are Doing More Work Than You Think

Here in East Tennessee, most of my first conversations with a new client go about the same way. They know what they do. They know who they help. They can tell me in two minutes flat why their customers keep coming back. Then I ask about photos, and the room goes quiet. If that’s you, […]

Why Can Some Businesses Get Away with AI Content?

Here in East Tennessee, I’m seeing more and more small businesses experiment with AI tools. Some are writing website copy with a little help from ChatGPT. Some are generating logos, posters, social graphics, or product images. And here’s the thing that trips people up: some of it looks okay, and some of it looks… off. […]

DIY vs. Hiring a Designer: What’s Best for Small Business Websites in Blount County?

If you’ve been putting off your website because you can’t decide whether to build it yourself or bring in a designer, you’re not alone. It’s one of the first big questions almost every small business owner runs into, and there’s no universal right answer. It really comes down to your budget, your time, and what […]

Do You Need a Designer, or Can AI Handle It?

“Do I need a designer, or can AI just handle it?” I hear some version of that question a lot lately, and it’s a fair one. There are logo generators, AI website builders and tools that’ll spit out a color palette in seconds. It’s tempting to wonder if you need to hire anyone at all. […]

What to Spend On When Your Website Budget Is Tight

When someone tells me their website budget is tight, my first thought isn’t “well, we can’t do much.” It’s “okay, let’s put it where it counts.” Some of the most effective small business websites I’ve seen weren’t the most expensive ones. They were the ones built on smart decisions. That’s what affordable web design really […]

Local SEO Basics Every Small Business Owner Should Know

Think about the last time you needed a plumber, a hair stylist or somewhere to grab lunch. You probably pulled out your phone, typed something like “plumber near me,” and called one of the first few businesses that popped up on the map. That little map and those top results are what local SEO is all about. […]

5 Signs It’s Time to Rebrand Your Small Business

I just went through a full rebrand of my own this fall. My old branding wasn’t bad, it just felt too corporate and stiff for who I actually am and how I work with people. Every time I sent someone to my website, it felt like I was introducing a slightly different person. That gap […]

How to Choose the Right Website Platform for Your Small Business

“Should I use WordPress or Squarespace?” is one of the first questions I get on almost every discovery call. And it’s a good one to ask early, because the platform you pick shapes almost everything about your website later on: how easy it is to update, how it looks, what you can add to it […]

What’s Included in a Small Business SEO Package

If you’ve ever searched for something and wondered how certain businesses always end up at the top, that’s search engine optimization, or SEO, doing its job. It’s how Google figures out which websites to show when someone looks for what you sell. When I talk with small business owners about SEO, the first question is usually […]