Articles

Coaching & Strategy

Writing on digital strategy, business decision-making and the commercial questions that arise when running a business in a digital environment.

Topic All articles Coaching & Strategy Graphic Design SEO & GEO Web Design & Development WordPress

Should I Learn SEO?

Should I learn SEO? It is a question people ask from very different starting points. A small business owner wondering whether to handle their own search visibility. A marketing professional considering whether to add SEO to their skill set—a career changer exploring whether SEO is worth pursuing as a specialism. A developer wanting to understand […]

21 July 2026 · 10 min read

markexcell.co.uk Has Achieved an A+ Website Carbon Rating. Here Is What That Means.

markexcell.co.uk has been independently assessed by the Website Carbon Calculator and awarded an A+ rating, the highest possible grade, with a measured carbon output of 0.02g of CO2 per page visit. The site is also confirmed as running on sustainable energy. I am sharing this not simply as a credibility note but because the result […]

17 July 2026 · 8 min read

Can SEO Be Replaced by AI?

Can SEO be replaced by AI? Where the previous articles in this series asked whether SEO is dead and whether it will eventually be replaced, this article addresses the more precise technical question: can AI actually do what SEO does, and if so, which parts? The distinction matters because the answer is not a simple […]

17 July 2026 · 9 min read

Will AI replace SEO?

Will AI replace SEO? It is a question being asked with increasing urgency across the industry, and the honest answer requires separating two things that are often conflated: whether AI is changing how search works, and whether AI is making the discipline of search optimisation obsolete. The first is clearly true. AI has already significantly […]

15 July 2026 · 9 min read

Are WordPress Websites Good?

Are WordPress websites good? It is a reasonable question, and one that deserves a direct answer rather than a promotional one. WordPress powers around 43% of the entire web, which suggests it is doing something right, but popularity alone is not the same as quality, and the honest answer requires looking at both what WordPress […]

14 July 2026 · 9 min read

Why SEO Is Dead

“Why SEO is dead” is one of the most-searched phrases in the entire SEO industry. It has been searched for, written about, debated, and dismissed every year for the better part of two decades. And every year, without exception, SEO has remained a significant, measurable driver of traffic and business for organisations that take it […]

13 July 2026 · 10 min read

Why WordPress Is One of the Smartest Platform Choices a Business Can Make

When a business chooses the platform its website runs on, it is deciding with consequences that extend well beyond the launch date. The platform affects where the site can be hosted, who can work on it, what it costs to maintain, what it can do as the business grows, and how easy it is to […]

8 July 2026 · 10 min read

Can I Do SEO on My Own?

Can I do SEO on my own? Yes, more of it than most people assume, and with better results than most people expect, provided you approach it in the right order with the right tools and realistic expectations about where the limits are. This article is a practical guide, not an evaluative one. It does […]

3 July 2026 · 13 min read

What Makes a Website Actually Convert? Moving Visitors from Browsing to Buying

There is a version of a website that ticks every box. It loads quickly, scores well in Lighthouse, has clean semantic HTML, a clear colour palette and proper schema markup. And yet visitors arrive, look around and leave without getting in touch, making a purchase or taking any meaningful action. Traffic without conversion is a […]

3 July 2026 · 10 min read

Are SEO Services Worth It?

Are SEO services worth it? It is a fair question, and one that deserves a straight answer rather than the carefully worded non-answer most SEO providers give when asked directly. The honest answer is: it depends. But not in a vague or evasive way. It depends on specific, identifiable things that you can evaluate for […]

2 July 2026 · 7 min read

Is Your Website Doing Enough? A Plain-English Audit Checklist for Small Businesses

Most small business websites do some things well and others not at all. The difficulty is that the gaps are rarely obvious from a simple look at the site. A website can appear perfectly reasonable, load without errors and contain accurate information, while quietly underperforming in ways that are costing the business real enquiries and […]

30 June 2026 · 8 min read

What Does a Good Website Brief Look Like? A Guide for Business Owners

Most website projects that go wrong do not go wrong because of the design. They do not go wrong because of the development. They go wrong because of what happened, or rather what did not happen, before any design or development work began. A weak brief results in a website that looks fine but does […]

29 June 2026 · 9 min read

Why Small and Medium Businesses Actually Have an Advantage in AI Search

There is a common assumption that AI search visibility, like most things digital, is primarily a game for larger businesses with larger budgets. That the businesses best placed to be cited by Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and ChatGPT Search are those with the largest content teams, the most backlinks and the strongest domain authority. That […]

24 June 2026 · 8 min read

How to Optimise Your Website for AI Answer Engines: A Practical Checklist

Understanding what Generative Engine Optimisation is and why it matters is one thing. Knowing exactly what to change on your own website is another. This article moves from theory to practice, with a clear, actionable checklist you can work through regardless of your business’s size or type. None of this requires a complete rebuild of […]

18 June 2026 · 7 min read

SEO vs GEO: What’s the Difference, and Do You Need Both?

If you read our last article on Generative Engine Optimisation, you may be left with a fair question. Where does GEO leave traditional SEO? Is one replacing the other, do they compete for the same budget, or do they need to sit side by side? This article answers that directly. We will look at what […]

17 June 2026 · 6 min read

What is Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) and Why Does It Matter for Your Business?

Search has changed. Not gradually, and not in a way that gives businesses much time to adjust. AI-powered answer engines are now a significant part of how people find information online, and the rules for getting found have shifted in ways that traditional SEO simply does not account for. Generative Engine Optimisation, or GEO, is […]

16 June 2026 · 9 min read