Find the answer before you spend.

It should help a defined customer understand the offer, trust the business and complete a useful next action. Everything else should support those three jobs.

Use enough pages to answer materially different customer questions without splitting one useful subject into thin fragments. Five strong pages can outperform fifty weak ones.

Choose the simplest build that supports the required content, integrations, ownership and future changes. Custom work is justified by a real constraint, not by appearance alone.

Map the question that brings each visitor in, the evidence they need and the action they should take next. Then connect those steps with clear links and calls to action.

Navigation should expose the few destinations most customers need: services, relevant proof, useful guidance, business information and contact. Internal project language rarely belongs there.

Yes. Content hierarchy, tap targets, forms, media and performance should work on narrow screens before extra desktop space is used for decoration.

A visitor should quickly understand who the business helps, what it provides, where it operates and what to do next. The opening does not need to contain every service.

A useful service page covers the customer problem, scope, process, evidence, boundaries, common questions and next step in language the customer recognises.

It should establish identity, experience, values and accountability with verifiable detail. It should not invent a large-team impression or repeat generic brand claims.

Provide a working form, direct contact details, response expectations, service area and a privacy-aware explanation of what information is useful to send.

The core message, page purpose and evidence should be known first. Design can then make the meaning easier to absorb instead of forcing copy into arbitrary boxes.

Compare editing needs, integrations, security, support, portability, recurring cost and the people available to maintain it. Familiarity alone is not a complete selection method.

The business should control its domain and have documented access to hosting, analytics and key services. Suppliers can be delegated access without becoming the only account holder.

Record objectives, audiences, pages, content responsibilities, functions, integrations, accessibility, migration, testing, ownership, support and explicit exclusions.

Timing depends on decisions, content, integrations, review speed and migration risk. A credible schedule names dependencies and review gates rather than promising a date in isolation.

Check content, forms, contact details, analytics, consent, accessibility, mobile layouts, redirects, metadata, security, backups and ownership access before changing the live domain.

Maintain software, dependencies, backups, forms, security, content accuracy, domain renewals and measurement. A maintenance plan should name what is checked and how often.

The domain is the address, hosting serves the files or application, and the website is the content and software people use. They can be supplied by different companies.

Usually yes, because web hosting and email can use separate DNS records. The records and current providers should be documented before any migration starts.

Measure qualified enquiries, sales, task completion and visibility for relevant demand. Traffic and engagement metrics are supporting evidence, not the business outcome by themselves.

Cost changes with content, integrations, migration, testing, risk and support. Compare a written scope and ownership terms rather than a headline page-count price.

Two quotes may include very different work: research, writing, photography, accessibility, SEO migration, custom functions, training and support. Ask each supplier to state assumptions and exclusions.

Neither is automatically better. Compare total cost, minimum term, ownership, included changes, support, cancellation and what happens to the site when payments stop.

Common costs include domain renewal, hosting, software licences, payment fees, maintenance, backups and content work. They should be visible before signing.

Ask about premium plugins, stock assets, copywriting, migration, email, analytics, ecommerce fees, revisions, accessibility remediation, security incidents and exit assistance.

Ownership depends on the contract, platform and third-party licences. Confirm rights to code, design, content, media, data, accounts and a usable export before work starts.

The business needs independent access, backups, renewal records and a handover pack. A replacement supplier should be able to identify the stack and restore essential services.

Not always, but understand export limits, supplier dependence, pricing control and what can be recovered. Convenience today should be weighed against switching cost later.

Repair when the structure and platform are sound and the problems are contained. Redesign when navigation, content model, ownership, performance or customer paths need coordinated change.

Inventory useful URLs, queries, links and content before changing anything. Preserve intent, map redirects, update internal links and monitor indexing after launch.

A 301 redirect sends users and search engines from an old permanent URL to its best replacement. Redirect each useful page to a relevant destination, not automatically to the homepage.

Yes when they remain accurate, owned and useful. Audit each asset for quality, rights, relevance and duplication instead of carrying everything forward unchanged.

Often. Content, navigation, forms, speed, accessibility and search structure can sometimes be improved incrementally when the underlying platform is stable.

Building access needs in from the start is usually cheaper than retrofitting them. Cost rises when inaccessible components, documents and media must be remade later.

Yes, with a stated method and realistic target. Image handling, fonts, scripts, hosting and third-party tools all affect the result.

Ecommerce adds products, payments, tax, shipping, inventory, customer accounts, transaction email, policies, security and operational testing.

Custom work makes sense when a repeated, valuable process cannot be supported safely or efficiently by simpler tools and the ownership cost is understood.

Prioritise a clear offer, credible evidence, mobile usability, a working enquiry path, ownership and measurement. Decorative complexity can follow later.

Send the business objective, customers, current site, required functions, known problems, examples, deadline constraints and who will approve decisions.

Create one comparison table for scope, content, functions, ownership, accessibility, SEO migration, support, timeline, exclusions and total cost over the same period.

Google usually discovers pages through crawlable links and submitted sitemaps. Discovery does not guarantee indexing or a competitive ranking.

Crawling fetches a page, indexing decides whether to store it, and ranking selects where it may appear for a query. Diagnose the correct stage before changing content.

Check technical access, indexing status, canonical selection, relevance, competition, site quality and time. Search Console provides better evidence than repeatedly searching your own business name.

Keep business details consistent, maintain a complete Google Business Profile, publish locally relevant service evidence and earn genuine mentions from relevant organisations.

Create one when customers, services, evidence or operating conditions differ meaningfully in that location. A changed place name alone does not create a useful page.

Large sets of near-identical pages can waste crawl attention and look unhelpful. Consolidate weak variants and make retained pages genuinely specific.

Use accurate categories, hours, services, photos and contact details, then link to the most relevant website page. The profile and site should confirm the same business facts.

It shows queries, impressions, clicks, indexing, sitemaps and some technical signals from Google. It does not reveal the whole ranking algorithm or guarantee an explanation for every change.

Start with customer tasks and commercial relevance, then assess the language people use, result types, competition and the page best able to satisfy that intent.

Search intent is the job behind a query: learn, compare, locate, buy or solve. A page should fulfil the job rather than repeat the phrase many times.

Titles help search engines and people understand a page. Descriptions can influence the search snippet and click decision, although Google may rewrite them.

Internal links reveal relationships, distribute attention and help people continue a task. Link with descriptive text to the next genuinely useful page.

Structured data can help eligible features understand page entities, but it is not a general ranking boost. Markup must match visible, accurate content.

Publish work, tools, research or local contributions worth referencing, then build real industry and community relationships. Buying indiscriminate links creates risk, not authority.

No. Publish when the business has recurring customer questions, timely observations or useful expertise. Stable guides may be more valuable than a forced posting schedule.

Keep, improve, merge or retire them based on usefulness, accuracy, links and search demand. Do not change dates or delete pages solely to look fresh.

AI can support research and structure, but mass publishing generic output creates accuracy and quality risks. Add first-hand evidence, human review, sources and a clear purpose.

They connect a real problem, method and result to an identifiable context. This supplies evidence that generic service copy cannot provide.

Name the author or reviewer when relevant, show dates and sources, distinguish evidence from opinion, disclose limits and correct material errors visibly.

Connect non-brand visibility and landing-page behaviour to qualified enquiries, revenue or another business outcome. Rankings and traffic alone can conceal poor commercial fit.

Use accessible HTML, clear entities, descriptive headings, crawlable links, consistent facts and source-backed original material. A special AI-only version is usually unnecessary.

It is the work of making accurate, useful content understandable and citable in search and answer experiences. It builds on SEO rather than replacing it.

Publish distinctive, retrievable evidence on a technically accessible site and build real authority around the brand. No supplier can guarantee selection in an AI answer.

No. Strong pages can answer related questions together. Creating many slight variations primarily for search manipulation risks scaled-content abuse.

Link directly to authoritative material, identify what each source supports and record the review date. Do not use citations as decoration for unsupported claims.

Production method alone does not determine ranking. Accuracy, originality, value, trust and purpose matter; automated scale without added value can violate spam policies.

Disclose it when a reasonable reader would care how the material or interaction was produced, especially where AI affects decisions, personal information or synthetic media.

Constrain sources, test realistic questions, show uncertainty, log failures and require human approval for consequential outputs. A confident tone is not proof of accuracy.

A chatbot describes an interface. A useful knowledge assistant has controlled sources, retrieval, permissions, answer boundaries, monitoring and an escalation path.

Only when the use case needs it and external information can be checked. A closed, approved knowledge book is often safer for stable customer and staff guidance.

Only after the organisation understands provider terms, retention, access, location and approved use. Avoid personal or confidential data when those controls are uncertain.

Require review where errors could affect money, rights, safety, reputation, employment or customer commitments. Lower-risk drafting may use sampling and clear accountability.

Yes when personal information is collected, used or disclosed. The Privacy Commissioner recommends understanding the tool and completing a Privacy Impact Assessment before use.

Test affected groups and realistic edge cases, examine data and outcomes, involve relevant communities and create a way to question or correct decisions.

Prompt injection is untrusted content attempting to change an AI system's instructions or expose data. Treat retrieved content as data, restrict tools and test adversarial inputs.

Assess purpose fit, data terms, security, model limits, output ownership, support, auditability, portability, cost and what happens when the service changes.

RAG retrieves relevant material from an approved collection before producing an answer. It can improve grounding but still requires source quality, permissions and testing.

Assign owners, review dates and approval states to sources; remove superseded content; test priority questions; and record changes that alter expected answers.

Use deterministic automation when the rules and outputs are stable. Use AI for interpretation or language tasks where uncertainty is acceptable and controlled.

Define the business purpose, accountable owner, affected people, data, risk, review process and success measure before selecting a tool.

Compare catalogue size, payments, shipping, integrations, staff capability, customisation, support and total recurring cost. Start with operations, not theme appearance.

There is no minimum. Viability depends on demand, margin, fulfilment and whether online ordering removes friction for a useful product range.

Show the seller identity, total cost, delivery expectations, payment security, returns and contact options before commitment. Remove surprise fees and unclear steps.

Choose methods customers recognise and the business can reconcile safely. Compare transaction cost, settlement, refunds, fraud tools and accounting integration.

State delivery areas, timeframes, costs, exclusions, tracking and what happens when an order is delayed or damaged before the customer pays.

Explain the practical return process without suggesting mandatory consumer rights can be contracted away. Have New Zealand terms reviewed for the actual business model.

Use accurate names, benefits, specifications, price, availability, delivery, returns, useful imagery, variants, evidence and a clear purchase action.

Photos reduce uncertainty when they show scale, detail, use and variation honestly. Consistency and accuracy matter more than excessive visual effects.

Choose one reliable source of truth and define how sales, returns, adjustments and offline transactions update it. Test overselling and failure scenarios.

Integration can reduce double entry when products, tax, payments and refunds map cleanly. Poor mappings create reconciliation work instead of removing it.

Use customer language, meaningful attributes, useful defaults and forgiving search. Filters should reduce the choice set without hiding valid products.

They can recover genuine intent when consent, frequency and messaging are handled properly. Measure recovered margin rather than email volume.

Accurate identity, contact details, policies, secure payment, authentic reviews, delivery information and consistent presentation help customers assess risk.

Publish genuine reviews with permission, avoid editing the meaning and explain material incentives. Do not create, buy or selectively misrepresent feedback.

Yes, but recurring price, frequency, cancellation, failed payments and service changes must be clear. Subscription operations need ongoing customer support.

Product options, error messages, keyboard use, focus, contrast, zoom, forms and payment steps frequently block customers. Test the complete journey.

Critical. Large media, scripts and difficult controls can slow or interrupt the purchase path on the device many customers use.

Measure product views, meaningful searches, cart actions, checkout progression, purchases, refunds and errors while collecting no more personal data than necessary.

Marketplaces provide existing demand but limit control and charge fees. An owned store provides control but must earn attention and trust.

Use maintained software, strong access controls, secure payment providers, HTTPS, backups, monitoring and an incident plan. Minimise stored payment and personal data.

A CRM keeps customer identity, interactions, opportunities, responsibilities and next actions in one governed system so work does not depend on private inboxes or memory.

Consider a CRM when multiple people update records, follow-ups are missed, permissions matter, history is fragmented or reporting requires repeated manual cleanup.

Define required fields, remove duplicates, standardise values, map ownership, test a sample and keep a recoverable copy before importing the full set.

Keep only fields with a defined purpose, owner and maintenance rule. More fields create more incomplete data unless they support a decision or action.

Stages should reflect observable customer commitments and required work, not vague feelings. Each stage needs entry, exit and ownership rules.

A CRM can make a process visible, but it cannot replace a clear offer, defined responsibilities or disciplined follow-up. Simplify the process before automating it.

Validate the form, capture consent and source data appropriately, create or match the record, assign ownership and confirm the enquiry reached a monitored queue.

Use matching rules, controlled imports, consistent identifiers and a documented merge process. Do not rely only on exact name spelling.

Every active opportunity should have a named owner, meaningful next action and due date. Escalate only when delay matters.

Connect only the messages needed for shared history and service continuity. Define private content, retention, access and what happens when staff leave.

Yes, when approved customer, scope and pricing data can populate a controlled template. Keep human approval before commercial commitments are sent.

A portal is useful when customers repeatedly need secure access to status, documents, requests or approvals. A simpler notification flow may be better for occasional use.

Give people the minimum access needed for their role, separate administrative power and review access when duties change. Sensitive exports need extra control.

Set retention around purpose, legal needs and customer expectations. Remove information that is no longer needed rather than keeping every record indefinitely.

Show the few measures that drive action: unassigned enquiries, overdue follow-ups, stage movement, conversion, value and data-quality exceptions.

Configured platforms suit common processes and faster starts. Custom systems are justified when distinctive workflows, integrations or ownership needs outweigh long-term maintenance cost.

Yes if it reliably protects follow-up and customer history, but the system must remain lighter than the problem. A structured spreadsheet may still be enough.

Automate stable routing, reminders, document creation and status updates first. Keep exceptions and significant commitments visible for review.

Use validation continuously and review duplicates, stale opportunities, bounced contacts and incomplete required fields on a regular schedule.

Measure adoption, completeness, response time, follow-up reliability, conversion and time saved. Login counts alone do not show customer value.

Start with a frequent, stable, low-consequence task whose inputs and success can be checked. Avoid choosing a process only because it is annoying.

Document the trigger, inputs, rules, owner, exceptions, output and recovery path. If staff cannot agree on those, automation will encode confusion.

Usually not. Remove unnecessary steps and resolve conflicting rules first, then automate the useful path.

No-code tools suit common integrations and rapid iteration. Custom software is appropriate when control, performance, distinctive logic or scale justifies maintenance.

Keep approval before irreversible, high-value, safety-related or customer-binding actions. Show the reviewer the evidence needed to decide.

Stop safely, preserve the input, record the error, notify the right owner and support a controlled retry or manual completion.

Retry only failures likely to recover, with limits and spacing. Prevent duplicate payments, messages, records or equipment commands.

Send when a person can take a useful action or needs material awareness. Excess notifications train people to ignore the system.

Yes, using approved data and controlled templates. Validate required fields, version the template and review documents that create obligations.

Validate input, acknowledge receipt, route to an owned queue, protect personal data and log delivery. Never treat a success message alone as proof the email arrived.

Drafting can save time, but commercial terms, sensitive matters and unusual situations should be reviewed before sending.

Connect real availability, duration, travel, dependencies and cancellation rules. Provide a clear human override for exceptions.

Generate invoices from approved work and customer records, then reconcile status with accounting. Guard against duplicates and unapproved variations.

Automate collection, reminders, standard documents and task creation while keeping identity checks, exceptions and important expectations human-readable.

Only with domain-specific engineering, validation, safe states, monitoring and accountable human authority. General workflow automation is not safety certification.

Define local safe behaviour, timeouts, data buffering, status visibility and manual control before relying on a remote connection.

People need a known way to pause, correct or complete work when the system or real-world conditions differ from the model.

Include time, error reduction, delay, customer impact, licence cost, monitoring and maintenance. Savings are credible only when measured against a baseline.

Limit credentials and permissions, protect secrets, validate input, log actions, patch dependencies and revoke access when people or suppliers change.

Name the business owner and technical support path, document dependencies and schedule reviews whenever connected systems or rules change.

A dashboard puts the current information for a named decision in one place. It should change what someone does, not merely display available data.

For each measure, name the decision, owner, frequency, threshold and action. Remove metrics that have no consequence.

It is a number that looks impressive but does not guide a meaningful decision, such as total page views without relevance or enquiry quality.

Yes, if fields, formats and ownership are consistent. Automating unreliable spreadsheets only makes unreliable reporting faster.

Only when the decision loses value with delay. Daily or weekly updates are often clearer, cheaper and more reliable.

Validate at entry, record sources and timestamps, flag missing values, reconcile totals and make corrections traceable.

Yes when decisions occur away from a desk, but mobile views should prioritise exceptions and actions rather than shrink every desktop chart.

Capture and validate locally, show unsent status, queue securely, sync when connected and resolve conflicts visibly.

Store the original file with date, location or job context, description, author and upload status. Do not rely on an image buried in a private chat.

Only when location serves a clear purpose and affected people understand the collection. Accuracy, consent, security and retention need consideration.

Record device identity, units, timestamp, quality and communication status before turning readings into alerts or decisions.

Show level, trend, pump state, thresholds, communication health, last update and manual-control status rather than a decorative tank alone.

Monitor commanded state, observed state, power, communications and faults with explicit safe behaviour. A remote screen is not physical acceptance.

Base thresholds on the consequence and response time, then include persistence or hysteresis to prevent noisy repeated alarms.

Logs help reconstruct who changed what, when and from where. They support troubleshooting, accountability and controlled recovery.

Design role-based views around responsibilities. Restrict personal, financial and operationally sensitive data to people who need it.

Define a source of truth, identifiers, update direction, timing, failure behaviour and ownership for every connection.

Match frequency to decision cadence. Reporting more often than anyone can act adds noise and maintenance.

Set retention by purpose, legal obligations, risk and storage cost. Separate permanent evidence from short-lived telemetry.

Yes. A prototype tests decisions, layout and missing data cheaply before the business commits to complex connections.

It can include positioning, voice, colour, typography, imagery, layout, naming and rules for applying them consistently across customer touchpoints.

Change it when recognition, legibility, ownership or strategic fit is genuinely weak. A logo refresh cannot solve an unclear offer by itself.

Include approved files, colours, type, spacing, logo rules, imagery, writing examples and real applications that staff and suppliers can follow.

Original work builds specific evidence; stock can support secondary ideas. Never use imagery that implies staff, premises or results the business does not have.

Use it when scale, location, progress or access is important to the customer story. Check aviation, privacy, site and client permissions first.

Confirm site authority, identifiable-person consent where required, client confidentiality, safety rules and usage rights before publishing.

No. Video is worthwhile when movement, personality, process or place explains something better than text and still images.

Useful video can improve understanding, engagement and discovery when the page also provides descriptive text, metadata and a strong reason to watch. Video alone does not repair weak search relevance.

Captions support Deaf and hard-of-hearing users, people in noisy or quiet places and search understanding. They should be accurate and synchronised.

Deliver the lowest size that preserves the needed quality, with suitable dimensions, compression, poster imagery and loading behaviour. Do not make core content depend on autoplay.

Show the real subject with clear contrast and no misleading promise. The thumbnail should still make sense at a small size.

Yes, if formats, rights, shot list and messaging are planned before production. Capture enough variation for vertical, square and landscape uses.

They matter where proposals, site meetings, events, packaging or physical handover are part of the customer experience. Print and digital facts must stay consistent.

Explain services, relevant experience, delivery method, locations, qualifications, evidence and contact details in a document the intended buyer can scan quickly.

They should share the same identity and current contact facts while respecting the constraints of printing, scanning and formal correspondence.

Make scope, assumptions, exclusions, price, timing and acceptance easy to find. Visual polish should support commercial clarity.

Yes when it has recurring expertise, projects or community stories worth collecting. Establish an editorial purpose, schedule and distribution plan first.

Check provider terms, intellectual-property risk, accuracy and whether disclosure is appropriate. Never use synthetic imagery as false evidence of work or people.

Describe the information or purpose the image contributes in context. Decorative images should usually have empty alternative text.

Connect the work to recognition, comprehension, qualified response or sales support. Likes and views are useful only when they advance the intended outcome.

Yes when the business collects, holds, uses or discloses personal information. Forms, analytics, accounts and support tools should be reviewed against the Information Privacy Principles.

If the site collects personal information, including through forms, accounts or cookies, publish a clear privacy statement explaining what is collected, why, how long it is kept, who it is shared with and how people can access or correct it.

Not necessarily. New Zealand guidance focuses on explaining personal-information collection, including cookies. Whether a consent control is needed depends on what the tracking does, the people affected and any other law that applies to them.

Collect only what is necessary for the stated purpose, explain the use, secure delivery and give people a practical way to contact the business without unnecessary disclosure.

It can be, but the business must understand disclosure, safeguards, contracts and the Privacy Act rules for sending personal information outside New Zealand.

Contain and assess the incident, preserve evidence, reduce harm and determine whether affected people and the Privacy Commissioner must be notified.

Not automatically. Consent must be express, inferred or deemed under the Act, the message must be relevant where deemed consent is relied on, and contrary statements must be respected.

It must accurately identify the sender, provide valid contact information and include a clear functional unsubscribe facility, alongside the required consent basis.

Claims must not mislead and factual claims need reasonable grounds when made. Keep evidence for performance, comparison, origin, sustainability and success claims.

Only edit for length or clarity when the customer agrees and the meaning remains true and current. Never invent an endorsement, materially change it or imply that a person supports the business without permission.

Only when the overall impression is accurate and supportable. Explain the relevant ownership or production fact rather than relying on an ambiguous national image.

The standards are mandated for specified public-sector organisations, not every private business. WCAG 2.2 AA remains a strong benchmark for accessible private websites.

From 17 March 2025 the updated government standards include Web Accessibility Standard 1.2, which requires in-scope pages to meet WCAG 2.2 AA subject to stated exceptions.

MBIE's 2025 business guidance is voluntary, but existing law still applies. It provides a practical framework for purpose, governance, data, outputs, risk and accountability.

The Privacy Commissioner recommends a PIA before using AI with personal information and regular review as the tool, data and use change.

IPONZ explains copyright ownership generally but does not settle every AI scenario. Human contribution, employment or commissioning terms, source material and provider contracts may all matter, so obtain specific advice before relying on exclusive rights in valuable output.

Show the business identity and contact details, price and extra costs, payment security, delivery, returns and complaints processes, and which country's law applies when selling outside New Zealand.

Mandatory consumer rights generally cannot be removed by website wording. Terms should reflect the actual business and be legally reviewed when risk is material.

Own Your Online recommends internal and external security policies. A public version can explain how customer data and vulnerability reports are handled without exposing sensitive controls.

Yes as a basic security practice. HTTPS protects traffic in transit, but the site still needs maintained software, secure accounts, backups and monitoring.