The Owner's Manual.
Website answers in plain English.
You shouldn't need to speak developer to understand your own website. These are the questions business owners actually ask us, answered the way we write our reports: what it means, what it costs you, and what to do about it. No jargon, no scare tactics, and no number presented as measured unless it was.
How do I rank higher on Google?
The three fronts rankings are earned on, the honest timeline, and what to refuse — including anyone guaranteeing #1.
Read the answer → Conversion · diagnosisWhy is my website not getting sales?
It's almost never a mystery — it's one of six measurable problems. The six-lens diagnosis, with the symptoms you can spot yourself in minutes.
Read the answer → Accessibility · riskIs my website ADA compliant?
What ADA compliance actually means for a website, the five checks you can run in ten minutes, and what a demand letter really is — without the fear-mongering.
Read the answer → Findability · complete guideWhat is SEO — and how do you actually improve it?
How search engines crawl, index, and rank; what they reward in 2026; and the full playbook — technical, content, authority — with a 30-day plan.
Read the guide → Findability · complete guideWhat is AEO — and why does it matter now?
AI assistants increasingly answer instead of listing links. How answer engines pick their sources, the full playbook, and how to measure whether you're being named.
Read the guide → Findability · complete guideWhat is GEO — and how do you get cited by AI?
Generative engine optimization without the hype: how AI systems build answers, what the research says gets cited, and the retrievable-quotable-trustable playbook.
Read the guide → Findability · comparisonSEO vs. AEO vs. GEO — what's the difference?
A ranked list, a named source, a research term: what each optimizes for, the ~80% shared core, and which to do first.
Read the comparison → Findability · AI visibilityHow do I get my business to show up in ChatGPT?
How ChatGPT picks the businesses it names — live search vs. training memory — and the six measurable moves that raise your odds.
Read the answer → Findability · AI visibilityWhat are Google AI Overviews — and how do you appear?
The AI summaries above the results: how sources get picked, the honest click math, and six moves toward being cited.
Read the answer → Findability · machine legibilityWhat is schema markup — and does my site need it?
The invisible labels that make your pages machine-readable: what they do, what they honestly don't, and the six types that matter.
Read the answer → Findability · AI visibilityWhat is llms.txt — and should your site have one?
The emerging root file that orients AI models: permission, inventory, meaning — and how to publish yours in minutes.
Read the answer →Web design services, graded
The commissioning page: custom design measured before and after on a public rubric — what a graded build gets you, the process, and the intake.
Start here → Build · process & costHow do I get a website built?
DIY, freelancer, or studio — the five real cost drivers, honest timelines, and the acceptance checklist that protects you with any builder.
Read the answer → Build · choosing a firmHow do I choose a web design company?
Judge by evidence, not galleries: test portfolios with a grader, verify who does the work, spot the red flags. Disclosure included — we're a firm too.
Read the answer → Build · customer modulesWhat is a customer portal?
The login area that turns repetitive emails into self-service — the signals you need one, the three build paths, and the security duties.
Read the answer → AI · attendantsShould your site or app have an AI assistant?
Grounded, guarded, honestly labeled — what an AI attendant can really do, the build paths, and the rules that keep it from embarrassing you.
Read the answer → AI · toolsChatGPT, Grok, or Gemini?
What each assistant is, how businesses actually use them, the one-week trial that beats any comparison chart, and the data questions to ask.
Read the answer → Security · threatsWhat is a DoS attack?
DoS and DDoS in plain English — what an attack looks like, the honest risk picture for small businesses, and the cheap protections that matter.
Read the answer →Every answer above comes from the same framework The Grader measures with. Each lens has a full guide:
SEO & AEO — being found and being cited
Search engines and AI answer engines, in owner language.
Open the lens guide → Lens · AccessibilityAccessibility (ADA / WCAG)
Who your site currently excludes, the real risk picture, and the fixes that matter first.
Open the lens guide → MethodHow we grade — the rubric itself
The six lenses, the 26 metrics, and why every number carries a Measured or Estimated label.
Read the methodology → Speed · diagnosisWhy is my website so slow?
The four usual causes — images, plugins, hosting, theme bloat — how to spot each one, and what slowness quietly costs you.
Read the answer → Security · fix todayWhy does my site say "Not Secure"?
What the browser warning means (not a hack), the three causes, and the fix — usually free, often same-day.
Read the answer →Trust · Reputation
The remaining lens guides are being written in the same plain-language standard — honestly labeled as coming rather than padded out today.
In progressRather skip the reading?
Run your site through The Grader — the six-lens reading these guides explain, in minutes, free.
Grade my site