Articles on WebHostGB

How to write a parish council accessibility statement

Tue, 03 Nov 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A parish council accessibility statement is a page on your council website that says how accessible the site is, what isn’t accessible yet and how people can get information in another way. Parish, town and community councils have to publish one. This guide explains what it must cover, how to do a basic check of your site first, and the problems we see most often on council websites. It’s written for clerks and councillors, not web developers.

Colour contrast for websites: how to check your text is readable

Mon, 02 Nov 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Colour contrast is the difference in brightness between your text and the background behind it. Too little, and people struggle to read your prices, opening hours or phone number, especially on a phone outside in daylight. The accepted standard for small business websites is a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text, and you can check any colour pair in a few seconds.

Try the free tool: our colour contrast checker takes two colours as hex codes (like #767676), shows the contrast ratio, and tells you whether the pair passes the WCAG AA and AAA levels for normal and large text. It runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded.

Five practical ways small businesses in mid Wales can use AI

Sun, 01 Nov 2026 00:00:00 +0000

AI gets talked about as if it’s only for big companies. In practice, some of the best uses are in small businesses, where one person is doing five jobs. Here are five practical ways businesses around Newtown, Welshpool and the Powys borders can put it to work this month, and a few things to avoid.

1. Reply to enquiries faster

When you’re out on a job or behind the counter, enquiries pile up. AI can help you draft clear, friendly replies to common questions in seconds, which you then check and send. On your website, an assistant trained on your own services and FAQs can answer routine questions at any hour and pass anything else to you.

How much does a small business website cost in the UK?

Sun, 01 Nov 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Ask five web designers what a small business website costs and you’ll get five different answers. That’s not because anyone is being evasive. It’s because “a website” can mean anything from a template you fill in yourself to a bespoke build with copywriting, photography and ongoing support.

Here’s how the main options compare, and the costs that usually get left out of the quote.

The four common routes

Route	Setup	Per month	Changes after launch	Your time
Local agency	£2,000–£6,000	£10–£40 hosting	£60–£120 per hour	Several meetings
Freelancer	£800–£2,500	£5–£20 hosting	£40–£80 per hour	Briefing and revisions
DIY builder	£0	£15–£40	Free, but you do them	20–60 hours
Cheap template site	£150–£500	£5–£15	Usually unsupported	Varies

Agencies

An agency gives you a team: a designer, a developer and often a project manager. You’ll usually pay £2,000 to £6,000 up front, then hosting on top. The catch for small businesses is what happens after launch. Most agencies bill changes by the hour, so updating your opening times or adding a new service can cost more than the hosting does.

Local SEO on the Welsh border: getting found in Wales and England

Sun, 01 Nov 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Running a business on the Welsh border means your customers come from two countries, dozens of villages and sometimes a few hundred miles away. A joiner in Oswestry might work in Chirk one day and Shrewsbury the next. A café in Knighton serves locals and walkers who planned their trip from Bristol.

Search engines don’t automatically know any of that. Here’s how to make it clear.

Say exactly where you work

The most common local SEO mistake is vagueness. “Serving the local area” tells Google nothing. Instead:

Web hosting for Shropshire and Powys businesses: what actually matters

Sun, 01 Nov 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Most hosting adverts compete on numbers that don’t matter much to a small business: unlimited this, terabytes of that. If you run a shop in Ludlow, a trade in Oswestry or a guest house near Knighton, the things that decide whether hosting is good are much simpler.

1. Speed on the connections your customers actually have

Large parts of Shropshire and Powys still have patchy mobile signal. A customer standing in a farmyard near Llanfair Caereinion, or a walker on Offa’s Dyke above Knighton, may be loading your site on one bar of 4G.

WordPress hosting or a managed website? A guide for Shrewsbury and Ludlow businesses

Sun, 01 Nov 2026 00:00:00 +0000

WordPress powers a huge share of the web, and plenty of independent businesses in Shrewsbury and Ludlow run their own WordPress sites happily. Others find themselves spending Sunday evenings fixing plugins. Which route makes sense depends less on budget than on how you want to spend your time.

When your own WordPress site makes sense

Running WordPress yourself is a good fit if:

you, or someone on your team, enjoys tinkering with the website
you publish often, such as a blog, recipes or event listings, and want full control
you need a specific plugin, like a particular booking or shop system
you’re comfortable keeping WordPress, its theme and plugins updated

In that case, good WordPress hosting is all you need: fast UK servers, free SSL, one-click installs and support when something breaks. It’s the cheapest route, from a few pounds a month.

How to budget for a small business website (with two free calculators)

Sat, 31 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

If you’re planning a new website for your business, two questions come up straight away: how much should I budget, and will it pay for itself? We built two free calculators to help you answer both before you speak to anyone. This guide shows how to use them together, with a worked example for a plumber in Shrewsbury.

If you want the background first, our article on how much a small business website costs in the UK compares agencies, freelancers, DIY builders and template sites. This one is about turning that into a number for your own business.

Local SEO checklist for small businesses in Shropshire and Powys

Fri, 30 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Local SEO is the work that helps you show up when someone nearby searches for what you do: “electrician Oswestry”, “café near me” in Ludlow, “dog groomer Newtown”. This checklist covers the jobs that matter most for small businesses in Shropshire and Powys, in the order we’d do them. Most of it is free and needs nothing more than an hour or two.

Try the free tool: our local SEO checklist generator builds a prioritised list for your business. Tell it how customers reach you, your main service and your area, tick what you’ve already done, and it puts the most important jobs at the top.

How to write a meta description that gets clicks

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A meta description is the two lines of grey text under your page’s headline in Google. It doesn’t decide where you rank, but it does a lot to decide whether someone clicks on you or on the business below. A good one is about 140 to 160 characters long, says plainly what the page offers, and gives the searcher a reason to choose you.

Here’s how to write one, with examples from local businesses, and how to check yours before it goes live.

How long should a meta title be? (And how to check yours)

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A meta title (also called a page title or title tag) is the blue headline Google shows for your page in search results. The short answer to how long it should be: aim for roughly 50 to 60 characters, and keep it under about 600 pixels wide so it isn’t cut off on a desktop screen.

That number is a guide, though, and the wording matters more than the length. This article explains why, shows a few real-world examples, and walks you through checking your own titles.