Building websites with AI, one post at a time.
Notes on getting online, getting found, and keeping a site up to date — by talking to the AI you already use. Written for people who own a website (or want one) and would rather not fight a page builder to get there.
Can I say I'm the best in town on my website?
Want to say you're the best, No.1 or award-winning on your website? The ASA's rules cover your own site. What its advice says about those claims, quoted.
Read →Should I swap links with other local businesses?
Swapping links with another local business? Google lists excessive link exchanges as link spam. What its spam policy actually says, quoted and dated.
Read →Can I put just my best reviews on my website?
UK law lists hiding bad reviews and favouring good ones as misleading. What the Act and the CMA's guidance say about picking reviews, quoted and dated.
Read →How to put a price calculator on your website
A working one to try, with VAT in the total and the word 'estimate' under it. What goes into one, and when a 'from' price does the job better.
Read →Do I need terms and conditions on my website?
Not by name. What GOV.UK and Trading Standards guidance say customers must be told before they agree, by phone or online, quoted and dated.
Read →Search Console says my page isn't indexed — what does each reason mean?
'Crawled', 'Discovered', 'Page with redirect', 'Duplicate': Google's own words for each reason, which ones are the report working, and the few worth fixing today.
Read →Do I need an accessibility statement on my website?
Probably not — that rule is for public sector bodies. But the duty to make reasonable adjustments is everyone's, and the regulator's own example is a website.
Read →Can I get star ratings next to my website in Google?
Not from reviews on your own site — not even your Google reviews, embedded. Google says so. Where your stars actually come from, and the exception for shops.
Read →Can I use any font on my website?
Google Fonts: free, even in a logo. The font you bought for your letterhead: read the licence, because a website is usually a different one.
Read →Can I use my supplier's product descriptions on my website?
Ask first — the words are someone's work. Then the harder question: why buy it from you rather than the forty other shops with the same paragraph?
Read →Do the prices on my website have to include VAT and fees?
A page on your website counts as an 'invitation to purchase', and VAT is a mandatory charge. What the CMA says, quoted.
Read →Someone keeps ringing saying they're from Google — is it really Google?
Sometimes it is. But a real Google call never asks for money — Google says so in as many words.
Read →How to make your website bilingual — English and Welsh
One language per page, a link to the other, and a note to Google that they're a pair. Plus where to get the Welsh checked.
Read →An email says it can get me on page one of Google — should I reply?
Google says to be wary of SEO firms that email you out of the blue — and admits it gets the same emails. What the usual claims mean.
Read →Someone has copied my website or my photos — what can I do?
Save what you found, check it's a copy you can object to, then ask — carefully. What GOV.UK and Google actually say.
Read →Can I have a website for a side hustle?
Yes. Say when you're available, keep it separate from the day job, and know where the £1,000 line is.
Read →How to put a job advert on your website
A page of its own, the pay and how to apply — plus what GOV.UK says an advert must not say.
Read →How to add a WhatsApp button to your website
One link, no plugin — the exact format, a UK number written in it, and why it should be the main button.
Read →How to make a QR code for your website
Make it static, point it at an address you own, never move it — and why some printed codes stop working.
Read →Can I put a trade body logo on my website?
Yes, if you're a member. It's a licence, not a badge — four conditions, in the schemes' own words.
Read →Is this domain renewal letter a scam?
If it didn't come from the company you bought the domain from, it isn't your renewal. The two-minute test.
Read →Can I use images from Google on my website?
Almost never. Every photo already has an owner — including the ones that feel like yours.
Read →Can people tell my website was made by AI?
Usually not — and not for the reason you fear. What actually gives a site away, and the two fixes.
Read →Do I need permission to photograph a job?
Ask on the day and it is never a problem. What to say, and what to keep out of the frame either way.
Read →Do I need a mailing list?
Mostly no — and a signup box you never send to is worse than not having one. The test, and what to do instead.
Read →How to change your domain name without losing what you've built
The old domain is where the forwarding lives. Let it lapse and every link dies on the same day.
Read →I changed my website but I'm still seeing the old version
Almost always your browser rather than the site. Ten seconds to tell which — and what not to do meanwhile.
Read →Do I need a website if I'm already on a marketplace?
Keep the shop. But it takes a cut of every job and it stands your competitors next to you.
Read →Do I need to register my business before I get a website?
No — but there are three things the site must not claim yet, and five that have to appear the day you do.
Read →What to put on a service page
One job, one page. The seven things it has to answer — and the line almost everybody leaves off.
Read →What is a favicon, and does your website need one?
The little icon in the browser tab. Why a missing one looks broken rather than plain, and what to use if you have no logo.
Read →What happens to your website when you stop trading
Retiring, selling up or winding down. Why letting the domain lapse is the worst option, and the one page worth leaving up.
Read →Can I get a bad review removed?
Usually not — Google says so in as many words. What it does act on, what never to put in a public reply, and when to stop.
Read →Why your website looks different on a phone
You approved it on a big screen. On a narrow one things have to queue up — and something chose that order. Probably not you.
Read →Does my business need a blog?
Probably not, and you're reading this on ours. What a blog commits you to, why an abandoned one is worse than none, and what to write instead.
Read →Do I need a business email address?
A free address is lent to you. The better reason to change it, the three ways to get one, and the trap in the cheapest.
Read →Do I need an app, or just a website?
Apps are for habits; websites are for decisions. The one question that settles it, and the cost nobody quotes you.
Read →When your AI can't reach your website
Your site and your AI's connection are two different things. Why your visitors are unaffected, and the five things to check, in order.
Read →How to ask customers for reviews
Ask on the day, not in February. The sentence to use, where to send them, and the two things Google's own policy forbids.
Read →Do you need an online booking system?
People ask for a calendar and mean a deposit. Three questions that settle it, and why a calendar you don't keep current is worse than none.
Read →Your website is live. Now what?
Going live is the starting line. Where the address needs to go, who to tell individually, and the two-friend test worth running first.
Read →Nobody is visiting my new website
There is no street outside a website. Who your first visitors actually are, why your own business name is the search that matters, and when silence is a real problem.
Read →What to photograph for your website
Six photographs that earn their place, why daylight beats kit, and the one nobody ever takes — which is you.
Read →How to write the words for your own website
You already explain your business well — the awkwardness only appears at the keyboard. Two tricks that fix most of it, and what to cut on sight.
Read →How to build a portfolio website
A portfolio isn't a gallery — it answers whether you can do the job in front of you. How many pieces, why captions beat photographs, and choosing for the work you want next.
Read →How to make a one-page website
Most small businesses need fewer pages than they think. When one page is right, the six sections in the order people actually ask — and what to leave out.
Read →What if the person who built your website disappears?
Three questions decide how bad it is — who owns the domain, where the files live, and whether you can get them. All three answerable this afternoon, without him.
Read →How long should it take to get a website?
The building stopped being the slow part. Where the time really goes, the four things that stall a project, and why live on Tuesday beats perfect in six weeks.
Read →My website has vanished from Google
Usually nothing has vanished. The ten-second check that tells you whether you're gone or just not ranking — and why searching for yourself proves nothing.
Read →Someone told me my website isn't secure
It sounds like you've been hacked. You almost certainly haven't. What the warning is really about, the three causes, and the one that's actually urgent.
Read →Domain, hosting, website: what the three words mean
Three things, up to three bills, and nobody ever explains it. The fourth word nobody mentions, three ways people pay twice, and why only one of the three failures makes a noise.
Read →Website, or just a Facebook page?
For some businesses the honest answer is no. When a page is genuinely enough, what a site does that a page can't, and why the access risk cuts both ways — from people who sell websites.
Read →Do you need a privacy policy?
It's a description, not a disclaimer — so the work is finding out what your site actually collects. The four routes in, the bit everyone forgets, and a two-minute inventory.
Read →AI builders vs talking to your own AI
Two things wearing the same word. What builders genuinely do better, the three differences that bite later, and the one question that decides it — from a company that isn't neutral.
Read →What should a small business website cost?
Ballpark prices for every route, when paying an agency is genuinely right, four things not to pay for — and the number that matters, which is what it costs to change on a Tuesday.
Read →Nobody is sitting where you are
Not in your light, not with your eyes, not on your screen. Six readability fixes that cost nothing and help everyone — starting with the pale grey text that vanishes outdoors.
Read →Right in four places, written four ways
Not out of date — inconsistent. Something has to decide whether five versions of your address are one business. Plus the number in your logo that nobody can tap.
Read →You can't test your own website
You know where everything is, so you never use it like a stranger. A mechanical twenty-minute list for the failures that make no noise — the form to a dead mailbox, the number nobody dialled.
Read →Two businesses, two websites, one account
You can. The harder question is whether you should — splitting one business across two sites halves everything that makes either findable. A three-part test for deciding.
Read →Do you actually need a cookie banner?
A banner exists because something stores data on your visitor's device. If nothing does, there's nothing to ask about — and most owners have never checked which they are. A two-minute test.
Read →You might not need to rebuild it
If the folder your old developer left has an index.html at the top, that folder is your website — and it goes back online in one upload. The only real import there is.
Read →Maps, video and booking widgets
Every embed is someone else's website running inside yours — their weight, their outage, their cookies. Which ones earn it, why the map almost never does, and the load-on-click trick.
Read →Your opening hours are wrong in nine places
Changing them on your site takes a sentence — and fixes about a ninth of the problem. Why Google shows the Business Profile instead, and the two copies of your hours on your own page.
Read →A searchable, filterable list — with no database
A timetable you can narrow to Tuesday evenings, a menu filtered to the vegan dishes. Each page describes itself and the browser does the rest — plus which filters actually earn their place.
Read →A page for each town you cover — without the doorway pages
The usual advice is a page per town with the name swapped in. That's a doorway page, and Google names the pattern in its own guidelines. The 150-word test that decides which pages deserve to exist.
Read →Getting photos off your phone and onto your site
Your pictures are on your phone; the conversation isn't. No emailing yourself, no cable, no hunting in Downloads — a link, four taps, about a minute.
Read →Your website is already backed up
Snapshotted every night, kept 30 days, nothing to set up. The bit nobody explains is what a restore actually does — and why the undo button is a sentence instead.
Read →Lots of photos, without a slow website
A phone photo is 4MB and 4,000 pixels wide; your page shows it at 800. What the numbers should be, the iPhone format trap that makes photos vanish for some visitors, and why twelve beat sixty.
Read →Changing a page's address without losing your traffic
Rename a page and you break every link to it — including the directory entry, the newspaper write-up and the QR code on five hundred leaflets. What a 301 does, and the mistake that makes it useless.
Read →Why your menu shouldn't be a PDF
Google indexes PDFs — that was never the problem. The problem is the person holding a phone, and the five jobs a page does that a file can't. Applies to price lists too.
Read →How to move your website off Wix, Squarespace or GoDaddy
There is no import button anywhere, and no builder gives you a usable export. The route that works, in the order that keeps your traffic — plus the domain step people get wrong.
Read →Day 13: I built a coffee roastery a website
Ray builds Slipway Coffee — a Belfast roastery — and puts “if you drink it with milk, get this one” above the altitude and the processing method. Jargon is a filter. Live URL inside.
Read →How to add a contact form without any code
Three fields, and a very good reason for a fourth. Which ones to cut, worked examples for three trades, and the real limits on beam's email action.
Read →Day 12: I built a personal trainer a website
Ray builds Arch 12 — a Glasgow strength studio — and leaves out the before-and-after photos two days after arguing they sell the job. Why the garden ones work and the body ones don't. Live URL inside.
Read →SEO basics: titles, descriptions and headings that actually work
The two lines that decide whether anyone clicks your link — with before-and-after rewrites, what Google quietly ignores, and the five-minute check on your own site.
Read →Day 11: I built a pottery studio a website
Ray builds Mudlark Pottery — a Leeds mill studio — around a timetable that shows the sold-out courses on purpose. Honest scarcity beats an empty-looking page. Live URL inside.
Read →How to get found by ChatGPT and AI search: GEO basics
What actually makes an assistant recommend your business, in the order worth doing it — and the four things not to spend money on. Mostly it isn't a trick.
Read →Day 10: I built a landscaper a website
Ray builds Hollybank Landscapes — a Cardiff garden firm — around a drag-to-compare before/after slider made with no library at all. Including the photo that had to be generated twice. Live URL inside.
Read →How to write an llms.txt file (and whether your site needs one)
The format, an example you can copy, and an honest answer on whether AI assistants actually read it yet. Plus how llms.txt differs from robots.txt and your sitemap.
Read →Day 9: I built a wine bar a website
Ray builds Salt & Vine — a Margate wine bar in plum and brass, whose list changes every Tuesday. A site built to be edited, not admired. Live URL inside.
Read →How to get your beam.page site on Google: submit your sitemap to Search Console
beam builds your sitemap.xml automatically. Here's how to verify your site in Google Search Console — the HTML-tag or DNS way — submit the sitemap, and get your pages crawled. Plus what beam's IndexNow already covers.
Read →Day 8: I built a barber shop a website
Ray builds Sharps — a Manchester barbershop in charcoal, bone and mustard, with big blunt type. Prices up front, walk-ins clear, booking easy. Live URL inside.
Read →How to connect a 123 Reg domain to your beam.page site
The full 123 Reg walkthrough — one CNAME in Advanced DNS (Hostname www), and Web Forwarding for the bare domain. The exact clicks, plus the gotchas.
Read →Day 7: I built a florist a website
Ray builds Marigold & Moss — a Bath florist whose stock changes every morning, so the site sells the promise, not a fixed catalogue. Deep green, blush and a proper serif. Live URL inside.
Read →How to connect a Squarespace domain (ex-Google Domains) to your beam.page site
Bought your domain from Google Domains? It's Squarespace now. Add one CNAME in the DNS settings, forward the bare domain, done. The exact clicks, plus the common mix-ups.
Read →Day 6: I built a dog groomer a website
Ray builds Waggington's — a friendly Harrogate dog groomer in teal, cream and coral. Services, prices by dog size, a gallery and a booking form. Live URL inside.
Read →How to connect a Cloudflare domain to your beam.page site
The full Cloudflare walkthrough — one CNAME set to DNS only (the grey cloud, not orange), and CNAME flattening handles the bare domain. The exact clicks, plus the one big gotcha.
Read →Day 5: I built a yoga studio a website
Ray builds Still Point Yoga — a calm Totnes studio in warm sand and sage, with a real weekly timetable, honest prices, and a booking form. Calm on purpose. Live URL inside.
Read →How to connect a GoDaddy domain to your beam.page site
The full GoDaddy walkthrough — edit the default www CNAME in DNS Management (don't add a second), and use Forwarding for the bare domain. Every click, plus the gotchas.
Read →Day 4: I built a wedding photographer a website
Ray builds Esme Hartley Photography — a gallery-first Cotswolds portfolio, ivory and a thin serif, quiet on purpose. I generated the wedding too. Live URL inside.
Read →How to connect a Namecheap domain to your beam.page site
The full Namecheap walkthrough — one CNAME in Advanced DNS, delete the parking record, and the ALIAS-record fix for the bare domain. Every click, plus the gotchas.
Read →Day 3: I built a Sheffield plumber a website
Ray builds Steel City Plumbing — navy and safety-orange, tap-to-call everywhere, built around one job: make the phone ring. A real quote form and the Sheffield postcodes. Live URL inside.
Read →ChatGPT Sites vs beam.page: how they're different
OpenAI's ChatGPT Sites builds and hosts a site from a prompt, like beam. An honest comparison — any AI vs ChatGPT-only, a free tier, who owns the site, and which suits a small business.
Read →How to buy a domain and point it at your beam.page site
Starting from scratch: pick a good name, buy it (~£10/yr) from Namecheap, Cloudflare or GoDaddy without getting upsold, and point it at your site with one record.
Read →Day 2: I built a Brighton bakery a website
Ray builds Rosehip Bakery — warm cream and a serif, nothing like yesterday's taco truck. Real menu, hours, a working pre-order form. Live URL inside.
Read →How to add a custom domain to your beam.page site (step by step)
About five minutes and one CNAME record. Ask your AI to attach it, add the record at your registrar (Namecheap, GoDaddy, Cloudflare…), and beam handles HTTPS. Plus the www-vs-root gotcha.
Read →Day 1: I built a taco truck a website
A build-log — I gave beam a made-up Bristol taco truck and built it a real site: design, AI-generated photos, a working booking form, checked in a real browser. Live URL inside.
Read →What every small business website actually needs in 2026
Seven things, none of them fancy. The checklist that actually wins customers — who you are, how to reach you, what it costs, proof, one clear next step — and the fastest way to ship it.
Read →How to update your website by just asking
Changing your website shouldn't mean a developer, a ticket and a wait. Here's how to update a site just by asking — new prices, new hours, new photos, live in about a minute.
Read →How to build a website with Claude: a non-developer's guide
Claude can write your website but won't host it. Here's how a non-developer goes from describing it to Claude to a live site — and updates it later just by asking.
Read →How to build a website with ChatGPT — and actually get it online
ChatGPT can write your website but won't host it or keep it updated. Here's how to close that gap — publish straight to a live URL and change it later just by asking.
Read →Want a website without the faff?
Ask the AI you already use to build you one. It lands at your-name.beam.page in about a minute. Free to start.
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