Influense Design

07/09/2026

Website mistakes new & small businesses can avoid
Starting a new business comes with a surprisingly long shopping list. Branding, bank accounts, insurance, marketing, social media, stationery – and somewhere amongst all that, a website.

For an established small business, the problem can be slightly different. You may already have a website, but it was built several years ago, the business has moved on, and what once did the job is now beginning to hold you back.

In either case, getting the website wrong can prove expensive. Not necessarily because you've made some catastrophic technical mistake, but because seemingly innocuous decisions made at the beginning can leave you paying to correct them later.

Whether you're planning a new business website or replacing an existing small business website, here are some of the mistakes worth avoiding.

1. Choosing a website purely on price

When you're

Planning a new business website or replacing an old one? Avoid the common mistakes around cost, ownership, access, SEO, maintenance and choosing a website that can grow with your business.

05/09/2026

Why a managed website can save your business time & money
Running a business takes time. Between looking after customers, managing enquiries, keeping on top of paperwork and finding new work, maintaining a website is unlikely to be high on your list of priorities.

But websites still need looking after.

Software needs updating. Backups need to be taken. Security needs monitoring. Hosting needs managing. Content changes may be required, and occasionally something technical simply stops working as expected.

For many small businesses and SMEs, managing the technical side of a website simply isn’t the best use of valuable time.

A fully managed website combines professional website design, hosting, maintenance and ongoing support into one straightforward service. Instead of being responsible for updates, backups, security and technical problems, you have someone looking after your website for you.

This

Discover how a fully managed website can save small businesses & SMEs time, reduce unexpected costs and take care of hosting, maintenance, security, backups & ongoing support.

03/09/2026

Can someone else take over an existing WordPress website?
Changing the person who looks after your WordPress website shouldn't require a Cold War prisoner exchange.

In most cases, another WordPress developer can take over an existing website without it needing to be rebuilt from scratch. You aren't normally tied to the person or company who originally designed it, and changing developer doesn't necessarily mean changing your domain name, email provider or even your hosting.

WordPress is designed to be portable. Provided the necessary access is available, an existing website can usually be handed over, maintained, moved to different hosting or developed further by somebody else.

The important part is establishing exactly what you have access to – and who currently controls what.

You don't have to stay with the developer who built your website

Businesses change website providers for all sorts of

Thinking about changing your WordPress developer or website provider? Find out what you'll need, what happens to your hosting, domain and email, and why changing provider doesn't usually mean starting again.

02/09/2026

WordPress website care & maintenance plans

WordPress website care & maintenance plans

Looking for someone to look after your WordPress website? My WordPress Website Care & Maintenance Plans combine fast UK managed hosting, automatic updates, daily backups and ongoing protection to keep your website secure, up to date and performing at its best. Plans start from just £40 per month.

Why your WordPress website needs ongoing care

Regular updates keep your website secure

A WordPress website isn't something you build once and forget about. WordPress itself, along with the plugins and themes that power your website, are regularly updated throughout the year to improve performance, introduce new features and address security vulnerabilities.

Without ongoing WordPress website maintenance, these updates can be missed, increasing the risk of security issues, compatibility problems or even website

Keep your WordPress website secure, fast and up to date with fully managed Website Care Plans. Every plan includes UK hosting, daily backups, automatic updates, security protection and expert support from just £40 per month.

01/09/2026

How to keep marketing materials on-brand
Creating a brand identity is one thing. Keeping it consistent once it escapes into the real world is quite another.

Your logo may have been carefully designed. Your colours might have been chosen for a reason. Your website could look polished and professional. Then somebody needs a flyer by Friday afternoon, another person creates a presentation in PowerPoint, somebody else makes a social media graphic in Canva and, before long, your brand has developed four new fonts, three slightly different shades of blue and a logo with a drop shadow nobody remembers approving.

This is how brands become diluted. Consistency slips, recognition weakens and what once felt distinctive starts to become forgettable.

Keeping marketing materials on-brand doesn't mean making everything look identical. It means making sure everything you produce feels as though it comes from the same business.

Your brand is more than a logo. Discover how consistent colours, typography, imagery and design can strengthen recognition and stop your identity becoming diluted.

30/08/2026

28/08/2026

How website speed affects SEO & conversions
Nobody visits a website hoping to admire how quickly it loads.

They visit because they want something: an answer, a price, a product, a phone number, directions or perhaps reassurance that the business they're considering actually knows what it's doing.

Website speed only becomes noticeable when it gets in the way.

A page that appears quickly feels effortless. One that leaves somebody staring at a blank screen, waiting for images to appear or watching the layout jump around feels frustrating. And every extra moment you make a potential customer wait gives them another opportunity to leave.

That's why website speed matters. Not because everybody needs a perfect score from an online testing tool, but because a faster website is generally a better website to use.

And that's good for visitors, conversions and, to an extent, SEO too.

What do we actually

A slow website can cost you visitors, enquiries and search visibility. Here’s why website speed matters — and why chasing a perfect score doesn’t.

27/08/2026

Logo & Graphic Design Lewes

Logos • Identites • Branding

Logo & Graphic Design Lewes

Professional logo design, & graphic design for Lewes businesses

Professional logo and graphic design in Lewes, helping local businesses create strong brand identities, clear marketing materials, and consistent visual communication across both print and digital.

Based in nearby Eastbourne, I work with businesses in Lewes and across East Sussex, designing logos, brand identities and high-quality marketing graphics that help companies look credible, confident and professional — whether they’re just starting out or refreshing an existing brand.

From new business branding and logo design, through to ongoing graphic design support and marketing materials, everything is designed strategically, creatively and with long-term consistency in mind.

Logo & graphic design for Lewes’ independent &

Professional logo & graphic design in Lewes, helping local businesses build strong branding across print and digital.

27/08/2026

The different types of logo design – and which is right for your business
Not all logos work in the same way.

Some rely entirely on typography. Others use a symbol that eventually becomes recognisable without the company name. Some combine the two, while others wrap everything together into a badge or emblem.

Broadly speaking, most logos can be grouped into five main types: wordmarks, lettermarks, brandmarks, combination marks and emblems.

There are variations, hybrids and plenty of logos that cheerfully refuse to stay in one box, but these five categories are a useful starting point when deciding what sort of identity might work for your business.

The important question isn't simply which type looks best?

It's which type will work best for the business, the audience and all the places the logo needs to appear?

1. Wordmark logos

Examples: Google, FedEx, Canon, Tesco, Sonos and John Lewis

A wordmark

Wordmark, lettermark, brandmark, combination or emblem? Discover the different types of logo design, how they work and which might be the best fit for your business.

25/08/2026

SEO Myths: What Actually Helps a website rank?
SEO has more myths than most areas of web design.

Partly because search engines change. Partly because Google's search systems are now so complex that even Google can't always explain precisely why one page ranks above another. And partly because an entire industry has grown up around pretending it can.

I've designed and built websites for many years, and SEO has always been part of that process. Not because every website needs an elaborate SEO campaign, but because there's little point creating a great website if nobody can find it.

The problem is that SEO advice often gets reduced to simple rules: use more keywords, publish more articles, change your domain name, write 300 words on every page, get more backlinks.

Some of these ideas are wrong. Others contain just enough truth to make them convincing.

So rather than simply debunking a collection of SEO myths,

SEO is full of myths, half-truths and outdated advice. From keywords and content to AI and instant rankings, here's what actually matters.