What this site runs on
This site runs on three things, and so do the new sites I build for clients: a fast website that belongs to its owner, one list where every enquiry lands, and measurement that says what it counts.
When a company brings me in to run its digital marketing, the first month is rarely about advertising. It is about what the advertising stands on: the website, where the enquiries go, and what is being counted. Usually those three were set up by different people at different times, and nobody owns all three.
Most company websites are not bad. They are old: built for the company as it was five or eight years ago.
This site was the same until recently. The previous enmltd.com went live in 2021 and said things about my company that stopped being true, so I rebuilt it the way I build sites for clients. This is what it runs on.
1. A fast website that belongs to its owner
Fast. Most people look a company up on a phone, often in the minute after someone has given them its name. A page that takes four seconds to settle has lost some of them already. Most slow sites are slow because of what they sit on: a general-purpose publishing system, a theme on top, and a dozen plugins, each loading on every page forever.
New sites I build run on one small platform I run myself. There are no plugins to update and no page builder, and nothing loads that the page does not need. You do not get drag-and-drop. You get pages that are fast on a phone the day they go live and still fast a year later. Every page is checked against the WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standard.
Belongs to its owner. When I build a site for a company, the company owns it. The domain stays in the company's name. Its people sign in and change the words and pictures on the page themselves, articles included. The layout, the menu and the legal pages change through me, because those are the parts that break. I host it for a yearly fee, with no monthly rental and no charge per user, and if the company ever wants it hosted or looked after by someone else, the site goes with it.
2. One list where every enquiry lands
Every enquiry from the site goes on one list, in a private area behind the site. Nothing gets lost in an inbox.
Each enquiry has a reference, the date, what was said, and a place to note what happened next. A copy goes by email to whoever the company chooses, but the list is the record.
Everyone the company names gets their own sign-in with their own email address: the owner, the sales team, the general manager, marketing. They all see the same list.
3. Measurement that says what it counts
Most sites either measure nothing, or carry a cookie banner that was put up for the lawyers while the tags fire regardless. Neither gives the company a true number.
This site counts how it is used, not who uses it: which pages are opened, where visitors came from, whether a form was sent. That count recognises nobody from one day to the next, and single visits are deleted after 48 hours, leaving only daily totals. The law allows that count without asking, as long as anyone can object for free; the way to object is on the privacy and measurement pages.
Anything more detailed waits for a yes. The box asks once, Reject is as easy as Accept, and nothing that needs a yes loads before one.
Enquiries are counted from the list, not from a thank-you page. The numbers sit in the same private area as the enquiries, so anyone with a sign-in can read them.
4. How this one was built
This site was built with the steps I use for clients.
Look. Everything already decided about the company and its site, read and listed before a word was written. For a client, this is a free quick look at their site, listing, analytics and advertising accounts.
Draft. A homepage on a private link, in two looks, so I could choose by seeing rather than reading. You are reading the one I chose. For a client who needs a new site, the draft is the first thing they see, on their phone, before any proposal.
Build. The pages, the enquiry list behind them, and the measurement. Then the checks: speed on a phone, accessibility against the standard, every claim read against the record.
Bring people. For this site, that is the post you may have arrived from and the people who passed it on. For a client, it is search, advertising or both, against a written plan.
5. If this is your company's site
Three questions. Does the site load properly on a phone, on mobile data, in a few seconds? Does each enquiry go on a list, or just into an inbox? Does the site say what it measures about its visitors?
If any answer is no, send me a link to the site.