Website Help & Guides for Small Businesses

Name: Nerd Prescribed
Address: IE
Price range: €€€

Plain-English answers to the questions small business owners actually ask — website costs, SEO, design, and what to look out for when hiring someone to build your site.

Headless WordPress for Solopreneurs: What It Is and When to Switch
Headless WordPress splits your site in two: WordPress stays as the content store you already know, and Next.js becomes the fast front-end that visitors load. You keep every post, every page, and your editing workflow, and you swap the slow PHP front-end for one that loads in under a second. It's the right call when you have years of content worth keeping and a front-end that's costing you rankings. If your site is five pages and you rarely post, a clean rebuild is cheaper and simpler.
17 June 20267 min read
Core Web Vitals Explained — and How to Pass Every Single One
Core Web Vitals measure load speed (LCP), interactivity (INP), and visual stability (CLS). Most WordPress and template-based sites fail at least one. The fixes range from image optimisation to a full rebuild, depending on how deep the problem goes. A Next.js site passes all three by default with minimal effort.
10 June 20266 min read
Webflow vs Next.js: Which Is Better for SEO in 2026?
Webflow is a capable builder that gets the SEO basics right — meta tags, sitemaps, redirects, and clean URLs all work out of the box. But it has hard architectural limits on rendering strategy, structured data automation, and Core Web Vitals consistency that custom Next.js doesn't share. For solopreneurs competing seriously on organic search in 2026, Next.js is the better foundation. Webflow is fine until the day it isn't.
3 June 20266 min read
Hire a Web Developer in Limerick (Without a Single Call) — 2026 Guide
Custom web development in Limerick starts at €3,000 for a one-page site and runs to €25,000+ for a web app with booking, e-commerce, or authentication. A standard five-page brochure site from a qualified freelancer costs €4,000–€8,000 ex-VAT. The Trading Online Voucher (up to €2,500 from the Mid-West LEO) can cover half the cost for eligible businesses with under 10 employees. You don't have to take a discovery call to get a quote — a written brief is enough.
28 May 20267 min read
What Features Does My Website Actually Need?
The features your website needs depend on what your business does — not what looks good in a portfolio, not what your competitors built, and definitely not everything you've thought of at 11pm before a launch deadline. Most solopreneurs over-spec. The baseline is a page that explains what you do and gives people a way to reach you.
28 May 20265 min read
Do I Need a Website If Google Isn't Sending Traffic Anymore?
Google traffic is down and isn't coming back the way it was. But your website's job has changed — it's the source AI systems cite when someone asks about your niche. You still need it. The strategy just needs updating.
27 May 20264 min read
Why Your WordPress Site Is Slow (And How Next.js Fixes It)
WordPress is architecturally slow. It was designed to generate HTML on demand using PHP, querying a database on every request. Next.js fixes this by pre-building pages so they load from a CDN — no PHP, no plugin overhead, no render-blocking scripts. The result is sub-second load times and Lighthouse Performance scores that WordPress can't reach without stripping itself bare.
27 May 20268 min read
Do I Need a Website Maintenance Plan?
Most solopreneurs don't think about website maintenance until something breaks. A website maintenance plan covers security updates, hosting, backups, and bug fixes — the ongoing technical work that keeps a site running after launch. Whether you need one depends on how your site is built, how much your time is worth, and how much risk you're comfortable carrying.
20 May 20266 min read
Why I Don't Take Meetings (and Why My Clients Prefer It)
I don't take discovery calls before starting a web project. A structured brief replaces the kickoff call — covers the same ground in 15 minutes, in a format that's documented, referenceable, and faster for both sides. This post explains how brief-first actually works, how communication runs throughout the project, and why most clients say it's a relief.
20 May 20265 min read
Hired A Bad Developer From Bark? Here's How To Recover Your Website (And Your Money)
When a developer takes your money and doesn't deliver, you have four things to do: lock down your assets, attempt a chargeback through your bank, pursue legal recovery if needed, then decide whether the code left behind is worth saving. The order matters — here's how each step works in Ireland.
15 May 202610 min read
What Do I Put on My Small Business Website?
A small business website needs five things — a clear headline, a short offer description, one piece of social proof, a call to action, and a contact method. Most solopreneurs overcomplicate it. This post tells you exactly what to write on each section and page, and what to leave off when you're starting out.
14 May 20266 min read
The Website Brief Template I Use to Never Take a Kickoff Call
A website brief is a short document that replaces the vague kickoff call most web developers still insist on. This post explains why kickoff calls fail, walks through the seven questions in the brief I send every client, and gives you a free template to fill in before you hire anyone.
13 May 20265 min read
Next.js or Astro for a One-Person Business
Next.js and Astro are both fast, modern frameworks — but built for different jobs. Astro is designed for content sites with zero interactivity. Next.js handles static content equally well but also supports forms, auth, payments, and server-side logic in the same project. For a one-person business that plans to grow, Next.js is the better long-term foundation.
13 May 20264 min read
Custom Website vs DIY Builder: How to Actually Choose
A DIY builder is the right call when you're pre-revenue, testing an idea, and need something live fast. A custom website makes sense once you're driving real traffic, need features the builder doesn't support, or your current site is actively costing you clients. The question isn't which option is objectively better — it's which one matches where your business is right now.
9 May 202614 min read
Bark.com For Web Design: Honest Review From A Developer (And A Cheaper Alternative)
Bark.com is a legitimate platform — not a scam. But the way it makes money changes the incentives for every designer who contacts you, and most buyers don't realise that until after they've hired someone. It works well for simple, fixed-scope jobs. For solopreneurs who need strategy, ongoing support, or anything beyond a basic build, the lead marketplace model creates quality problems that are genuinely hard to see from a quote.
9 May 202610 min read
How Much Should a Small Business Website Cost in Ireland 2026?
A small business website in Ireland costs between €900 for a basic one-page site and €25,000+ for a custom e-commerce build. Most Irish small businesses — 5–8 pages, no e-commerce — pay €3,000–€10,000 ex-VAT. The Trading Online Voucher can cover up to €2,500 of that cost for eligible businesses with fewer than 10 employees.
6 May 202612 min read
Is Your WordPress Site a Candidate for Headless?
A WordPress site is a good candidate for headless if it has a page builder slowing it down, a mobile PageSpeed score below 50, or a WooCommerce store growing faster than the site can load. The upgrade keeps WordPress as the content editor while replacing the slow front-end with a fast Next.js layer. Not every site needs this — a small brochure site does not. But if your site is revenue-critical and visibly slow on mobile, the performance gap is large enough to justify a proper audit before committing to anything.
4 May 20266 min read
What's Wrong With My Website? A Solopreneur's Diagnostic
Most website problems fall into one of three categories: nobody can find it, people arrive and leave too quickly, or visitors don't get in touch. Each has a different cause and a different fix. This post walks through how to identify which one you're dealing with, using free tools.
4 May 20266 min read
When to Leave Carrd, Linktree, or Stan Store
Carrd, Linktree, and Stan Store are tools for getting started — not for growing. Each one has a concrete ceiling. Once you hit it, you're not fighting the platform, you've simply outgrown it. Here's what hitting the ceiling actually looks like for each tool, and what you get when you leave.
29 April 20265 min read
What a Website Actually Costs a One-Person Business in 2026
A one-page business website costs €3,000 to build professionally, plus €150–€600/year for hosting and a domain. Ongoing management — updates, backups, security — starts at €350/month on the Foundation plan. Most solopreneurs underbudget because they plan for the build and forget everything after launch.
22 April 20265 min read
What Actually Makes a Website Fast in 2026 (And Why Your WordPress Site Probably Isn't)
A fast site in 2026 is about real people: they see your main message quickly, taps feel instant, and the page doesn't jump while it loads—not chasing a perfect score in a testing tool. The usual culprits are oversized images, weak or crowded hosting, too many plugins and tracking scripts, and whether your host serves a ready-made copy of each page instead of rebuilding it every time. WordPress often feels slower than a modern custom-built site because it tends to piece together each visit from stored content unless caching is set up well. Fix the big, obvious problems first; tiny tweaks rarely help if you're still shipping huge photos and half a dozen widgets.
12 April 20268 min read
The DIY Website Trap: Why Solopreneurs Waste Months on Wix and Squarespace
Wix and Squarespace won't stop you from wasting months. The tool isn't the problem — the decisions the tool can't make are. Offer, copy, proof, what to cut. If you've spent 20+ hours and still don't have a one-page site that explains what you sell and collects leads, stop iterating. Either cut scope to a one-page MVP or hire someone and treat your time as the expensive resource it is.
7 April 20266 min read
What Is AEO and GEO — And Why Solopreneurs Need It More Than Traditional SEO in 2026
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) structures your content to be cited in AI-generated answers. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) positions your site across all AI search platforms — Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Bing Copilot. In 2026, solopreneurs who only do traditional SEO are optimising for a version of search that fewer people use every day.
4 April 20266 min read
How Much Should a Solopreneur Spend on Their Website?
A solopreneur website costs between €3,000 and €15,000+ depending on what you're actually building. A single-page site with a contact form starts at €3,000 and takes five days. Add-ons like booking systems and e-commerce scale the price from there. Monthly managed plans at €350 or €650 cover hosting, updates, security, and backups so you never have to think about the tech again.
3 April 20266 min read
How Much Does a Small Business Website Cost in 2026?
A small business website starts at €3,000 for a single-page site. Most businesses spend €3,000–€10,000 depending on pages, features, and whether they want ongoing management. Here's exactly what drives the price — and where most small business owners overspend or underspend.
2 April 20269 min read