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What we are learning while building web, mobile and AI products and growing them with performance marketing. Written for the people who have to make the decisions, not only the people who write the code.
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Everything we have written.
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Web security and privacy in 2026: what changed and what to do now
Passwords gave way to passkeys, privacy law arrived in force, accessibility got deadlines and AI added new risks. What changed through 2026 and the checklist to act on now.
Performance marketing that proves itself: attribution basics for non-marketers
Attribution decides which marketing gets credit for a sale. No model is perfect; the aim is a fair, consistent method that shows where budget actually works.
What an AI copilot actually costs to run in production — and how to keep it reliable
Model fees are the smaller share of a copilot's running cost. Tokens, latency, monitoring and guardrails are the larger one, and they decide whether it stays…
Practical AI tools for small teams: a plain guide to picking them
Most small teams do not need an AI strategy. They need to pick two or three jobs, set review rules, keep client data out of the…
Web app, mobile app or website? How to choose your first build
Most first builds should be a website or a web app. Here is the five-question framework we use with founders and organisations, and the cases where…
How to get your business cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews (GEO explained)
AI answer engines cite sources they can crawl, quote and verify. Here is what actually earns a citation from ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google, and the order…
Accessibility quick wins a small team can ship this month
Most accessibility problems on a business site come from a short list of repeat offenders. Here is the order to fix them in, from headings and…
The practical small-business data stack for 2026: a build order
Spreadsheets carried you this far. Here is the practical 2026 data stack for small and mid-sized organisations: GA4, a CRM, server-side tracking, a simple warehouse, and…
Backups that actually restore: a practical plan for small teams
Most backup plans fail at the restore, not the copy. Here is a practical way for a business without dedicated IT to decide what to protect,…
From Dreamweaver to AI app builders: three decades of no-code history
Every generation of builder solved a real problem and hit the same ceiling. A short history from Dreamweaver to Base44, Lovable and Bolt, and a practical…
API integration troubleshooting: a practical guide to fixing broken calls
Integrations break quietly and clients notice first. Here is how to triage a failing API call end to end: status codes, token expiry, rate limits, webhook…
Digital marketing 2015 to 2026: what survived and what comes next
From cheap organic reach to answer engines: what a decade of digital marketing taught us, which strategies survived, and what your business should keep, stop and…
AI agents at work in 2026: what actually works and what comes next
Agents have moved from novelty to useful colleague, but only inside clear boundaries. What tool-using AI agents genuinely do well in 2026, where they still fail,…
The analytics events worth tracking for a service business
A practical guide to the handful of events a service business should track, how to name them so they still make sense next year, how to…
The web platform, 2020 to 2026: what we adopt, trial and skip
Six years rebuilt the web platform: server-first frameworks, faster tooling, passkeys and new performance metrics. Here is what OlDevs now adopts by default, what we trial…
An e-commerce conversion checklist you can work through today
A field-tested e-commerce conversion checklist you can act on today. What to fix on product pages, imagery, shipping and returns clarity, cart and checkout, payments, trust…
Google Business Profile optimisation: a practical field guide
Most Google Business Profiles are set up once and left alone. This guide covers the fields that decide whether you show up: categories, services, hours, photos,…
SEO basics for business owners: a plain-language playbook
Most SEO advice is either jargon or hand-waving. Here is the version a business owner can act on today: how search works now, how to choose…
The site speed fixes that actually move Core Web Vitals in 2026
Most speed work stalls because it starts with a tool score instead of a bottleneck. Here is the short list of fixes that reliably move LCP,…
Writing service-page copy that sells: a practical editing guide
Most service pages describe the seller instead of answering the buyer. Here is how to restructure yours: lead with the answer, replace adjectives with specifics, handle…
Designing forms people actually finish: a practical checklist
Most forms lose people to friction the team never sees: fields nobody reads, vague errors, the wrong mobile keyboard. Here is how to audit one, cut…
How to migrate hosting safely without taking your site down
Hosting migrations rarely fail on the website itself. They fail on a forgotten cron job, an IP allowlist, a TTL nobody lowered. Here is the sequence…
What website maintenance actually includes, and why it matters
Maintenance is not a vague retainer. It is a written schedule: patching, verified backups, monitoring, content and form checks, security and accessibility review, and a monthly…
How to evaluate a web development agency before you sign
Most agency selections are decided by the proposal that reads best, not the team that builds best. Here is how to test real capability, and the…
How to write a web project brief that gets an accurate quote
Studios price uncertainty, not features. This guide from OlDevs in Vancouver shows what a project brief must answer to earn an accurate quote, and gives you…
The pre-launch website checklist a non-technical owner can run
Most launch problems are not code problems. They are missing pages, untested forms, broken redirects and analytics nobody wired up. Here is a grouped, sequenced checklist…
A twelve-month digital roadmap for small organisations, quarter by quarter
Digital plans usually fail on sequence, not ambition. Here is a quarter by quarter roadmap for a small organisation: foundation, visibility, conversion, then automation and AI,…
Build versus buy versus configure: a decision guide for software
Most build versus buy debates compare a development quote against one year of subscription. This guide reframes the choice around differentiation, five year cost of ownership,…
What actually drives the cost of custom software development
Custom software estimates move for reasons you can control. Here is how scope breadth and depth, integration maturity, compliance duties, design ambition, data migration and the…
How to write a software RFP that attracts good proposals
Prescriptive RFPs reward overconfidence and punish honesty. Here is how to write a software RFP around outcomes, an honest budget range and weighted criteria, plus the…
GA4 consent mode, server-side tagging and honest measurement
Consent banners changed what GA4 can see. Here is how consent mode, server-side tagging and modelled data actually work, what you can still measure, and how…
CRO beyond button colours: how to run experiments that matter
Button-colour tests are not CRO. A practical guide to research-led conversion optimisation: session replays and interviews, hypothesis discipline, test math for smaller sites, and the form…
B2B content that earns pipeline: a practical playbook for 2026
Publishing volume earns nothing on its own. A practical guide to B2B content that reaches pipeline: answer-first pages, proof and specificity, sales enablement, distribution, and honest…
Why email still outperforms in 2026: the lifecycle flows that matter
Rented reach is priced by auction and never yours to keep, but your email list is. Here is how the core lifecycle flows, deliverability records, list…
Google Ads vs Meta ads: where should your first paid budget go?
Intent capture or demand creation? A plain-spoken guide to choosing between Google Ads and Meta for a first paid budget, covering creative demands, measurement traps and…
Local SEO for multi-location businesses: a franchise playbook
A practical playbook for local SEO at franchise scale: location pages that earn rankings, Google Business Profiles managed as a system, reviews programs, NAP consistency and…
Automating the back office with AI agents: a practical guide
Agents suit back-office work that needs reading and judgement. Rules and queues suit the predictable rest. Here is how to split invoice handling, enquiry triage, report…
A practical GEO checklist to get your website cited by AI assistants
AI assistants cite the sites they can crawl, parse and trust. This step-by-step GEO checklist covers crawler access, llms.txt, answer-shaped pages, FAQ schema, entity consistency and…
How to budget LLM running costs before you write any code
A practical method for estimating LLM running costs before development starts: count tokens in and out, apply caching and routing, model the worst realistic day, and…
On-device AI: what Apple and Android model access means for apps
Small models now run on the phone in your pocket, and both Apple and Google let apps use them. Here is what on-device AI is good…
How to write a one-page internal AI use policy your team will follow
A one-page internal AI policy beats a binder nobody reads. What mid-sized organisations should allow, ban and log, how to classify data for AI tools, review…
Getting started with predictive analytics: a practical guide for operators
Predictive analytics for operators does not start with a clever model. It starts with clean data, an honest baseline and a simple daily forecast. Here is…
Computer vision for everyday business: OCR, inspection and safety
Computer vision is no longer reserved for big tech. From reading invoices to spotting missing hard hats, here is what practical projects look like, what accuracy…
How to build a customer service AI chatbot people actually trust
A practical guide to customer service AI: what the bot may answer, grounding it in help content, escalating to humans, and why deflection alone is the…
Prompting vs RAG vs fine-tuning: how to choose the right AI approach
Most businesses customising AI never need fine-tuning. This guide explains what prompting, RAG and fine-tuning each change, what they cost to maintain, and a simple decision…
RAG explained for business: grounding AI answers in your own documents
Retrieval-augmented generation in plain language: why grounding a model in your own documents beats fine-tuning for most business cases, how the pipeline works, and where it…
Headless WordPress: what you gain, what you lose, and who should switch
Headless WordPress promises front-end freedom and speed but quietly costs you previews, plugins and simplicity. A plain-spoken guide to what you gain, what you lose, and…
Technical debt honestly: when to refactor and when to rewrite
Technical debt is a trade, not a failure. Here is how it accumulates, a plain framework for choosing refactor versus rewrite, how strangler-fig migrations work, and…
DevOps for small teams: what to build first and what to skip
DevOps for teams of one to five, from a Vancouver studio shipping since 2014: the CI/CD, staging, backup and monitoring essentials worth building now, and the…
Choosing a database in 2026: why PostgreSQL is the boring default
For most products the right database is PostgreSQL. A practical guide to when document stores, SQLite, Redis-class caches, vector search and warehouses genuinely earn a place,…
Integrating your website with CRM, ERP and accounting systems
API-first integration keeps leads, orders and invoices flowing between your website and the CRM, ERP and accounting platforms your back office runs on. How to plan…
Progressive web apps in 2026: what installable web apps can really do
Installable web apps have grown up, but iOS still sets the terms. Here is what PWAs can and cannot do in 2026, where they beat native…
WCAG 2.2 explained: what changed and who is legally exposed
WCAG 2.2 added nine success criteria and one removal, and it is the version new work should target. Here is what changed, which laws apply to…
Core Web Vitals in plain language: LCP, INP and CLS for business owners
LCP, INP and CLS describe things every visitor feels: how fast your page appears, how quickly it responds and whether it jumps around. Here is what…
How to redesign your website without losing your SEO rankings
Redesigns lose traffic through missing redirects, thinned content and broken technical signals. Here is the process we use to carry search equity through a rebuild, from…
Native or cross-platform in 2026: how to choose for your app
Native Swift and Kotlin, or React Native, Flutter and Kotlin Multiplatform? A plain-spoken guide to the decision factors, team implications and migration realities behind the choice…
The library
What we write about.
Live article counts by category — practical notes from real engagements.
- Engineering32%
- Growth27%
- AI20%
- Strategy18%
- AI search2%
- Product strategy2%
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