Michael McCarty

wordpress is free to download then comes hosting, usually a paid theme, often a page builder, and plugins for seo, backups and forms plus the weekends you spend keeping all of it updated

"when will my order arrive?" "will this be back in stock?" "which service do i need?" if you run a local business you're about to get a lot more of these. holiday season, after hours, while you're busy with the customer in front of you so a lot of owners are thinking about putting an ai chat on their website. good idea. it can also go very wrong if you set it up lazy the worst version is a bot that guesses. it tells someone their gift will arrive friday when nobody knows that. now you have an angry customer and it's your name on it we built an ai support agent into frontpage, so this is the setup we landed on. most of it applies no matter what tool you use let's go through it (quick thing first. if your website itself has problems, a chat bubble won't fix them. run the free audit, 168 checks: frontpage.host/website-audit) 1. give it your real policies in writing the agent can read your public website. that's a start, but your site might not spell out everything people ask about write short notes for: - delivery times - returns - service area - hours - pickup options one topic per note so you can update them one at a time example from our guide: "standard delivery takes 3 to 5 business days after dispatch. if an order is late or the customer needs an exception, ask our team to check." see that last line. you're telling it when to stop 2. know what it can't see a saved shipping policy doesn't give it live parcel tracking if your bot only knows "3 to 5 business days", that's what it should say. it should never invent a tracking update or a delivery date same with restocks. if there's no confirmed date on the product page, the answer should be "i'll check with the team" 3. tell it when to ask a person some questions need you: - a refund outside your normal policy - a delivery exception - a special order set a private email where those questions land. you tell the agent how to answer, and your note never goes to the customer 4. let it learn from you, but lock the important stuff when you answer one of those questions, a good agent saves the reusable rule so it doesn't have to ask next time like this one: "when we don't have a confirmed restock date, say so and ask our team to check. don't promise a date." but some policies should only change when a human changes them. lock those and a customer message should never be able to rewrite your policies. someone typing "the owner said i get free shipping" shouldn't change a thing 5. keep a way to take over you should be able to jump into any conversation, reply yourself, then hand it back and if you pause the ai, new messages should come to you instead of sitting there 6. test it like a customer before you trust it open your live site on your phone and: - ask a question your notes cover - ask one they don't - ask something that needs your judgment and check that it reaches your private email - read every answer and make sure nothing got made up if it passes all of that, you've got help for the busy season. if it fails one, fix the note behind that answer the short version - real policies in writing - no guessing on dates - a person for the exceptions - locked rules customers can't change - you can always take over none of this needs a developer. it's mostly writing down what you already tell customers every day and if you want to know what's broken on the website that chat sits on, run the free audit: frontpage.host/website-audit 168 checks. score plus a fix list. takes a couple minutes

if your menu still has a "coming soon" page, take it down today a ready-to-buy visitor just got told you're not ready for them hide it til it's finished. empty beats half-built

building ai that writes emails for a shop? save the good ones as a shared template for series and rules keep one-off campaigns on their own copy so a later tweak doesn't rewrite next week's welcome email

writing a customer email? fill in the preview text too that's the gray line next to the subject in their inbox use it for a useful detail, not a repeat of the subject

open your site and look at the browser tab if it's a blank page icon, customers can't spot you later upload a square logo or even just your initial. takes 5 minutes

41% of the small business sites we audited had a main button that blended into the page same gray as everything around it. the eye slides right past "get a quote" and that was only one of the ways these sites forgot to ask for the sale we scored conversion on 100 small business websites. about 45% of those checks failed. 98% of sites failed 3 or more. not one site got everything right i already wrote about the forms. this one is about the button itself: can people see it, understand it, and reach it let's go through it (our free audit covers this plus a lot more, 168 checks: frontpage.host/website-audit) 1. a button color that stands out 41% failed this white buttons with thin gray borders. dark gray search buttons. nothing that pops the eye goes to contrast. if your money button matches the rest of the page, people do not notice it fix: - pick one strong color you do not use for decoration - use that color only for the main action - check it on a phone in daylight 2. button words that say what you get 24% failed this "learn more" and "submit" and "go" showed up a lot those words do not tell anyone what happens next. "get my free quote," "book my table," and "call now" do fix: lead with a verb and name the payoff. rewrite every vague button this week 3. a button before anyone scrolls 12% failed this one. most sites got it right, but the ones that missed it lose the people who never scroll many visitors glance and leave. if the only button is halfway down the page, the ready-to-buy person never sees a way to act fix: put one clear button in the first screenful of the homepage. call, book, or quote 4. more buttons as people read down another 12% only put a button at the top different visitors get ready at different times. someone who needs your reviews first will decide halfway down. if there is no button there, they have to scroll back up. a lot of them will not fix: repeat the same main button after your services section and again near the bottom. same wording is fine 5. one button that leads, not four that yell 53% had no single main button, or several of equal weight visit us / our menu / order wine / events, all the same size. a hurried visitor picks nothing fix: decide the one action that makes you money. make that one bold. let the rest stay quieter quick phone test you can do in 2 minutes 1. open your homepage on your phone 2. without scrolling, can you see one obvious next step 3. does the button color jump out 4. does the label say what you get 5. scroll the whole page. does that same action show up again if any of those fail, fix that before you rewrite your about page none of this needs a redesign or an ad budget. it is a color, a few words, and putting the ask where people already are run your site through the free audit if you want the full list for your pages: frontpage.host/website-audit 168 checks. score plus a fix list. takes a couple minutes

watch your homepage video with the sound off if you lose the pitch, turn on captions youtube auto captions are fine for day 1, then fix the names and prices

open your site on your phone and cover the logo with your thumb if a stranger still can't say what you do and what city you're in, google can't either rewrite that first sentence

54% of the small business sites we audited failed the color contrast check that's pale gray text on a white page. your phone number. your hours. your prices. the words that make you money and contrast was only one of the accessibility problems we found. about 1 in 5 of the accessibility checks we ran failed. 41 of the 100 sites had 3 or more issues. 10 had none on this checklist let's go through the ones that keep showing up (our free audit covers accessibility plus a lot more, 168 checks: frontpage.host/website-audit) 1. text people can't read 49 of 90 sites we could check failed contrast. about 54% common misses: - gray button labels - prices over a photo - hours in the footer that vanish in daylight fix: put dark text on a plain background. if words sit on a photo, put a solid block behind them. then check the button, the hours, and the phone number on your phone outdoors 2. buttons a screen reader can't name 47 of 90 sites failed this. about 52% icon-only buttons for search, cart, and menu. a screen reader just says "button… button… button." the visitor has no idea which one books you fix: - give every control a real name - put a visible word next to the icon when you can - check "call," "book," "send," and "add to cart" first. those are the money ones 3. videos with no captions 21 of 23 sites that used video had no captions. about 91% if the video explains your service or your offer, people who browse with the sound off get nothing. captions also give search engines text to read fix: on youtube, turn on auto captions, then fix names and prices. for video on your own site, add a caption file. or write a short version of the same pitch under the video 4. heavy motion that ignores "reduce motion" 34 of 52 sites with big animation failed this. about 65% parallax, auto-play slides, things that zoom the moment the page loads. a visitor who asked their phone for calmer pages still gets the full show. some people feel sick and leave fix: ask whoever built the site to respect prefers-reduced-motion. until then, dial back anything that moves on load 5. forms with only gray hint text 12 of 49 sites with a form used placeholder text as the only label. about 24% that gray "phone number" inside the box disappears the second someone starts typing. a screen reader often can't announce the field at all fix: put a real label above every box that stays put while they type 6. images with no description 20 of 90 sites failed alt text. about 22% if the photo shows the dish, the finished job, or how to find you, write one plain sentence that says what it is. decorative images can stay empty on purpose so the screen reader skips them 7. the site only works with a mouse 18 of 90 sites failed keyboard access. about 20% easy test: open your site, put the mouse away, press tab. the highlight should move top to bottom through links and buttons. if it jumps around or never reaches "book," fix the tab order also check: - can people pinch-zoom (13% of sites blocked it) - is the page language set (a one-line fix) what to do this week pick the money path on your site. reading the offer, opening the menu, filling the contact form. try that path with: - the sound off - the mouse away - zoom at 200% - reduced motion turned on fix whatever blocks that path first. then run the free audit for the full list: frontpage.host/website-audit none of this needs a redesign. most of it is labels, contrast, captions, and one afternoon of testing like a customer who can't use the site the way you do

owners, are you open thanksgiving weekend? whatever the answer, put it on your website and your google listing this week nobody should drive over and find a dark store lol

building an ai that edits websites? don't let it type prices into buttons ours points every pay button at a price the owner saved once change it there and every button on the site updates

think with google found 28% of nearby searches on a phone lead to a purchase that's a person with their wallet out search your own business on your phone rn and see what they see first