RingIris exists to answer that call. It started from the call tracking side of the world, where the main question is "which ad made the phone ring?" That's a good question, but it skips a more urgent one: did anyone pick up? So I organized RingIris around an AI voice agent first, with call tracking supporting it.

What the AI voice agent actually does

The agent answers inbound calls, either around the clock or as overflow when the team is busy or the office is closed. It works from a knowledge base the business writes and controls: hours, service area, what you do and don't do, how pricing questions should be handled, what to say about emergencies. From there it can:

• Answer common questions in plain language
• Qualify a lead by asking the questions the business cares about
• Check availability and book an appointment when a calendar is connected
• Transfer the caller to a person or a queue when that's the right move
• Take a detailed message and send a follow-up text
• Log the call with a recording, a transcript and a short AI summary

That last point matters more than it sounds. A missed call used to be a phone number in a log. A handled call becomes a few readable lines: who called, what they wanted, what happened next.

The handoff is the product

The easiest way to make a bad voice agent is to make it try to do everything. The approach I prefer is to decide up front where the agent stops. Billing disputes, upset customers, anything clinical, legal or safety-related: those go to a human, or to a message with a clear promise of a callback. The agent is for business inquiries and lead intake. It is not an emergency service, and it doesn't replace a licensed professional's judgment.

One legal line worth knowing: the FCC ruled in February 2024 that AI-generated voices count as "artificial" under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. That applies to outbound robocalls. Answering calls customers place to you is different, but it's why RingIris is built for inbound calls first.

When the handoff rules are written down clearly, owners tend to trust the agent with more, because they know what it won't do.

Where call tracking fits

Once calls are being answered, tracking becomes much more useful. RingIris uses tracking numbers and number swapping to tie each call to the ad, search or listing that produced it, and can send conversions back to ad platforms and CRMs. Instead of "we got 40 calls," you can see which campaigns produced calls that turned into booked jobs, and which ones produced wrong numbers and tire-kickers.

That's the order I think about it in: answer first, then measure. Measuring calls nobody answered mostly tells you how much you lost.

What setup looks like

Most of the setup work isn't technical. It's writing down how the business actually wants calls handled: the questions to ask, the answers that are allowed, the cases that should always go to a person. That document becomes the agent's knowledge base, and it's worth keeping current. When something changes, like holiday hours or a new service, you update it in one place.

RingIris also includes texting, chat, form tracking and contact center tools, and agencies can offer it under their own brand. But if you only remember one thing, make it this: the phone is a front door, and somebody should always answer it.

Related reading

• How to write the knowledge base for an AI voice agent
• Speed-to-lead automation
• The cost of a missed call (RingIris)

Frequently asked questions

The good news is that most of the work overlaps. Here's what I'd focus on.

1. Make your basic facts boringly consistent

Your business name, address (or service area), phone number, hours and categories should match everywhere: your website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Yelp, industry directories and social profiles. Traditional local SEO has always cared about this. AI engines care even more, because they assemble answers from several sources at once. When the sources disagree, the answer can end up wrong, or the engine may simply skip you.

A useful exercise: search your business name and write down every place it appears, with the details each one shows. Fix the mismatches before doing anything else.

2. Treat your Google Business Profile as a primary website

Pick the most accurate primary category, add real services, keep hours current (holidays included), add recent photos and answer common questions. It's often the first thing a customer sees, and it's a source AI tools draw from too.

3. Write pages that answer real questions directly

A service page that opens with three paragraphs about your passion for excellence doesn't help anyone. Start with the answer: what you do, where, for whom, and what happens next. Then add specifics a person could check: the areas you serve, the types of jobs you take, how scheduling works, what to have ready when you call.

This "answer first" style is easier for people to skim and easier for AI systems to quote accurately.

4. Earn reviews steadily, and reply to them

Reviews influence local rankings, influence the people reading your profile, and show up in AI answers about which business to choose. Ask every customer, make it easy and reply to every review, especially the critical ones. Skip the shortcuts: no fake reviews, no incentives, no only-asking-happy-customers. Those break platform rules and can cost you your profile.

The numbers back this up. The BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 found 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses, 74% only pay attention to reviews from the last three months, and 89% expect businesses to respond. The same survey found the share of consumers using ChatGPT or other AI tools for local recommendations rose from 6% to 45%.

5. Help machines read your site

• Add LocalBusiness (or a more specific type) structured data with your name, phone, address or service area, and hours.
• Make sure your robots.txt doesn't block the crawlers you want, including the ones AI companies use, if you want to be included.
• Keep pages fast and readable on a phone.
• Consider adding an llms.txt file that summarizes who you are and links to your key pages. It's a small, low-cost signal.

6. Be present where your industry is discussed

AI engines often cite third-party sources: local news, industry associations, comparison articles, community forums. You can't buy your way into those honestly, but you can participate: join the associations you're eligible for, sponsor local things you actually care about, answer questions in your field.

7. Measure both worlds

Keep watching Search Console and your Google Business Profile insights. Then add a simple AI check: once a month, ask the major assistants the questions your customers ask and record whether you're mentioned and whether the details are right. In GA4, look for referral traffic from AI tools. It's often small, but it's worth tracking from the start.

Expect fewer clicks for some searches. A Pew Research Center study of Google users found that when Google showed an AI summary, people clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits, compared with 15% without one.

Local SEO: the short version

None of this is exotic. Consistent facts, a well-kept profile, honest reviews, clear pages and a bit of structured data. The businesses that already did local SEO well are in a good position for AI answers. The ones that cut corners will find those corners are now more visible.

Related reading

• GEOrank and generative engine optimization
• RepWise: reputation management
• Smart SEO Scanner

Frequently asked questions

GEOrank is my generative engine optimization (GEO) service. Its job is to help businesses get named and cited accurately in those AI answers.

Why accuracy comes before visibility

The first thing I look at is not "does the AI mention you?" It's "when it mentions you, is it right?" AI engines pull together what they find: your site, your listings, directories, reviews, news and forum threads. If your hours, service area or specialties are inconsistent across those sources, the answer can be confidently wrong. Fixing wrong facts is usually the fastest win, and it protects you from the worst outcome, which is being recommended for something you don't do.

The shift shows up in the data. Pew Research Center found that 34% of US adults had used ChatGPT by early 2025, about double the 2023 share. And a Pew Research Center study of Google users found people clicked a regular search result on 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, compared with 15% when it didn't.

How generative engine optimization work goes

1. Audit. I take the questions real customers ask and run them repeatedly through the major AI engines, because answers vary from run to run. I log who gets named, which sources get cited and what is said about the business.
2. Technical and listing fixes. Make sure AI crawlers can reach the site, structured data is in place, business details match everywhere, and pages are built so the key facts are easy to extract. An llms.txt file is a small addition here.
3. Answer-first content. Service pages and FAQs that answer the question in the first sentence or two, with specifics someone could check.
4. Earned mentions. Being present, honestly, on the sources AI engines tend to cite for a topic. No bought placements, no fake reviews.
5. Tracking. Appearance rate, citation rate, fact accuracy and AI referral traffic in GA4, re-measured monthly.

What I won't promise

Nobody controls what an AI model says. Anyone guaranteeing a placement in ChatGPT is guessing or selling something. What you can do is make the accurate version of your business the easiest one to find and repeat, and then measure whether it's working. That's the whole idea behind GEOrank.

If you run a local service business, a professional practice or a B2B company whose customers research before they buy, this is worth paying attention to now, while most of your competitors haven't noticed the shift yet.

Related reading

• Local SEO in the age of AI answers
• RepWise: reputation management
• What is generative engine optimization? (GEOrank)

Frequently asked questions

RepWise is my reputation management service for local and service businesses. The pitch is simple: get more genuine reviews, reply to every review well, keep an eye on what's said about you, and keep your Google Business Profile accurate.

The parts of reputation management that matter

• Review generation. Ask every customer, by text, email or QR code, through a request that's easy to act on. Asking everyone is the point. Most happy customers don't leave a review because nobody asked at the right moment.
• Review response. Replies in the owner's voice to positive and negative reviews on Google, Yelp, Facebook and industry sites. A good reply to a bad review is often read by more future customers than the review itself.
• Monitoring. New reviews and brand mentions across review sites, social and news, with alerts and a monthly summary.
• Negative search results. Handled honestly: flag content that actually violates platform policy, use legal removal routes where they apply, and publish accurate pages. Legitimate negative reviews stay up.
• Google Business Profile. Hours, categories, services, photos and posts kept current.

The BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 found that 47% of consumers won't use a business with fewer than 20 reviews, and 89% expect businesses to respond to reviews.

The shortcuts I skip on purpose

There's a lot of bad advice in this industry. RepWise doesn't write or buy fake reviews. It doesn't use review gating, which means only sending the review link to customers you think are happy. It doesn't offer incentives for reviews. Those tactics break Google's policies and the FTC's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, and they put a business's profile at real risk.

Platforms do catch fakes. Google says it blocked or removed more than 240 million policy-violating reviews in 2024.

I'd rather have a steady trickle of honest reviews and thoughtful replies than a sudden spike that looks suspicious to both customers and platforms.

Why it ties into search

Reviews aren't just social proof. They feed local search and, increasingly, AI answers about which businesses to choose. The same honest signals that persuade a person reading your profile also help search engines and AI assistants understand who you are and what people think of you. That's why RepWise sits next to GEOrank in what I work on.

Related reading

• Local SEO in the age of AI answers
• The honest use of social proof
• How to get more Google reviews (RepWise)

Frequently asked questions

The document that fixes this is the knowledge base: a plain-language description of how your business wants calls handled. Here's how I'd write one.

Building the knowledge base for an AI voice agent: start with the calls you actually get

Before writing anything, list the ten most common reasons people call. For most businesses it's some mix of: booking or rescheduling, hours and location, "do you do X?", "how much does Y cost?", status of an existing job, and a handful of urgent situations.

Write the knowledge base around those. A knowledge base organized around real calls will outperform a polished company bio every time.

For each call type, write four things

1. What the caller usually wants. One sentence.
2. What the agent can say. The approved answer, in the words you'd want used.
3. What the agent should ask. The details you need to move forward: name, callback number, address or service area, the problem in their words, preferred times.
4. What happens next. Book it, transfer it, take a message and promise a callback within a stated time, or send a text with a link.

Be explicit about what the agent must not do

This is the most important section, and the one most often skipped. Write down plainly:

• Topics that always go to a person (complaints, billing disputes, anything legal or medical, anything safety-related).
• Things the agent should never promise (exact prices, arrival times you can't guarantee, outcomes).
• What to say in an emergency. Usually that's directing the caller to call 911 or the appropriate emergency line. A voice agent is not an emergency service.
• How to handle someone who asks whether they're talking to a person. Answer honestly.

Handle pricing questions deliberately

Callers ask about price constantly. Decide your policy and write it down. Some businesses give ranges, some explain what affects the price and offer an estimate visit, some only quote in writing. Any of those can work. What doesn't work is leaving it undefined, because then the agent improvises.

Write the way you talk

The agent will speak your knowledge base out loud, more or less. Short sentences. Common words. No internal jargon unless your customers use it too. Read it aloud yourself. If it sounds stiff, it'll sound stiff on the phone.

Keep it current

Hours change, services change, staff change. Put the knowledge base somewhere you can edit it quickly and make updating it part of your routine: new service, new holiday hours, new policy, update the document the same day.

Review real calls

Once the agent is live, read the transcripts and summaries for the first couple of weeks. You'll find questions you didn't anticipate and answers that need rewording. Every fix goes back into the knowledge base. This review loop is what turns a decent agent into a good one, and it's the same loop a good manager would use to train a new receptionist.

Writing all this down is useful even if you never deploy a voice agent. Most businesses discover their own call handling was never written down at all.

Related reading

• Why RingIris is built around an AI voice agent
• Speed-to-lead automation
• AI receptionist vs answering service (RingIris)

Frequently asked questions

Try Automation Today is where I build that kind of thing.

What small business automation covers here

• AI chat and phone assistants that answer common questions from approved information, capture details and hand off to a person.
• Lead follow-up: instant acknowledgment and routing of new inquiries, follow-up sequences that stop as soon as someone replies, and CRM logging.
• Scheduling: self-serve booking, reminders, rescheduling and calendar sync tied to the CRM.
• Documents and data entry: pulling data out of invoices, forms and PDFs into the right system, with a human review step for anything the system isn't sure about.
• CRM and email workflows, reporting, and custom integrations using tools like Zapier, Make and n8n.

How I pick what to automate first

I ask three questions about any task:

You're not late. An Economic Innovation Group analysis of Census Bureau data found that 17.3% of US firms reported using AI in any business function as of November 2025, and about 10% in actual production use as of September 2025.

1. How often does it happen? Something done fifty times a week is a better candidate than something done twice a month, even if the rare task is more annoying.
2. How clear are the rules? If two people on the team would handle it the same way, it can probably be automated. If it depends on judgment, it probably needs a person in the loop.
3. What happens when it goes wrong? A late follow-up email is a small mistake. A wrong refund is not. The higher the stakes, the more I lean toward automation that prepares the work and a person who approves it.

The rules I hold to

Everything is built in the client's own accounts, so nothing disappears if we stop working together. Everything is documented at handover. Consequential decisions stay with a person. And I don't promise specific savings, because the honest answer depends on volumes and processes I can only see after looking closely.

If you're not sure where to start, list the tasks your team repeats every day and circle the ones that make people sigh. That list is usually the roadmap.

Related reading

• Speed-to-lead automation
• makethings.click: automation consulting
• What to automate first (Try Automation Today)

Frequently asked questions

The reason is simple. Someone who just filled out your form or left a voicemail is thinking about their problem right now. A few hours later they may have called someone else, solved it themselves or moved on. Responding quickly doesn't require a big system. It requires a reliable one.

The basic speed-to-lead automation workflow

Here's the version I'd start with. It can be built in Zapier, Make, n8n or the automation features of most CRMs.

The research behind this is old but consistent. Harvard Business Review research found that firms that tried to contact a lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it as firms that waited even one more hour.

1. Capture. Every inquiry source (website form, missed call, chat, ad lead form) lands in one place, ideally your CRM, with the source recorded.
2. Acknowledge immediately. The person gets a short text and/or email within a minute: thanks, here's what happens next, here's how to reach us now if it's urgent. Use a real name and a real reply path.
3. Notify the team. Whoever handles new leads gets an alert with the details, in the place they actually look (text, Slack, Teams, the CRM app).
4. Create a task. A follow-up task with a due time, assigned to a person, so it can't quietly slip.
5. Follow up, then stop. If there's no reply, a small number of spaced follow-ups. As soon as the person replies or books, the sequence stops.
6. Log the outcome. Booked, not a fit, no response. That's what lets you see which sources actually produce customers.

Mistakes I'd avoid

• Robotic acknowledgments. "Your request #48213 has been received" reads like nobody's there. Write it the way you'd text a customer.
• Endless sequences. Seven automated follow-ups to someone who already hired a competitor doesn't help your reputation. Keep it short and make sure replies stop it.
• Separate silos. If form leads go to email, call leads go to voicemail and ad leads sit in the ad platform, someone will miss something. One inbox for leads.
• No owner. Automation should hand work to a person, not replace one. Every lead needs a name next to it.
• Ignoring consent. Text messages in particular come with rules. Make sure people have agreed to be contacted by text and that opting out is easy.

Where AI fits

AI can help at a few points: summarizing a long inquiry for the team, sorting leads by service type, drafting a first reply for a person to approve, or answering the phone when nobody can. These are useful additions. But the core of speed-to-lead is plumbing, not intelligence. Get the plumbing right first, then add AI where it saves real time.

Measure it

Track two numbers: how long it takes from inquiry to first human contact, and what share of inquiries become booked work. Check them monthly. If the first number drops and the second rises, the automation is doing its job.

Related reading

• Try Automation Today: small business automation
• RingIris and the AI voice agent
• Lead follow-up automation (Try Automation Today)

Frequently asked questions

The kinds of work

• Process automation in Zapier, Make, n8n, Power Automate or RPA, so repetitive work stops eating hours.
• AI implementation: assistants, agents, document processing and internal knowledge tools grounded in a company's own data.
• Websites: fast, accessible, search-friendly builds and rebuilds, plus migrations and performance rescues.
• Integrations: connecting SaaS tools through APIs and webhooks so data is entered once, correctly.
• CRM optimization in HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho or Pipedrive: clean data, clear pipelines and automation people actually use.
• Growth: SEO, paid advertising, analytics and email automation.

The thread that ties it together

That list looks broad, but most problems I'm asked about have the same shape. Information lives in too many places, people retype it, and nobody can quite see what's working. A website form feeds a CRM that doesn't match the ad account that doesn't match the spreadsheet the owner trusts. Fixing one piece in isolation rarely helps much. Fixing the flow does.

Most businesses are still early. An Economic Innovation Group analysis of Census Bureau data found that 17.3% of US firms reported using AI in any business function as of November 2025. And Gartner predicted in 2024 that at least 30% of generative AI projects would be abandoned after proof of concept by the end of 2025. Starting small and measurable is the point.

So I'm deliberately tool-agnostic. I'll recommend the tool that fits the team and the budget, not the one I happen to like.

How automation consulting engagements work

I don't publish prices. Every engagement is scoped and quoted in writing, so both sides know what's being built. The client owns the accounts and the data. And everything I build comes with documentation, because a workflow nobody understands becomes a liability the day something changes.

If you've got a process that's held together with copy-paste and good intentions, that's exactly the kind of thing makethings.click is for.

Related reading

• Try Automation Today: small business automation
• Speed-to-lead automation
• How to calculate the ROI of process automation

Frequently asked questions

EasyBioLink is the self-serve tool I run for that, and it goes a bit further than a list of buttons.

What's in it

• Bio link pages with custom colors and branding, ready-made themes and templates, lots of components to drop in, SEO settings, and options like password protection or a sensitive-content warning.
• Short links with scheduling and expiration, targeting by country, device or language, A/B rotation and deep links for apps.
• QR codes for anything you'd rather people scan than type.
• vCards so someone can save your contact details in one tap.
• Event links and file transfers for one-off needs.
• Static site hosting: upload HTML, CSS, JS and media files and get a simple site online.
• Analytics on visits and clicks across all of it.

The audience on those platforms is big. A Pew Research Center survey from 2025 found that 50% of US adults use Instagram and 37% use TikTok, up from 21% in 2021. That's a lot of people tapping a single profile link.

Tips for a link in bio page people actually use

A bio page is a tiny website, and the same rules apply. Put the one thing you most want people to do at the top. Keep the list short; a page with twenty buttons is a page where people pick none. Use plain labels ("Book a consultation," not "Let's go!"). Check your analytics after a few weeks and remove what nobody clicks.

If you're a small business, consider adding your phone number and address so the page works for someone who found you on social and just wants to call. The goal isn't to be clever. It's to make the next step obvious.

Related reading

• ExtendLink: short links and dynamic QR codes
• EasySocialCred and the honest use of social proof
• All my projects

Frequently asked questions

What it does

You create a widget in the dashboard and add a small embed to your site. The notification types include recent activity and signups, review and rating prompts, email collectors, cookie notices, share prompts and similar on-page messages. Each one can be styled and timed, and you can see stats on how visitors interact with them.

The line I'd draw on social proof

Social proof works because people trust what other people do. That's exactly why it should be real. A few principles I'd stick to:

Shoppers do pay attention. The BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 found that 97% of consumers read reviews when looking at local businesses. The rules have teeth, too: the FTC rule on fake reviews and testimonials, which took effect in October 2024, bans fake reviews and testimonials, including ones that misrepresent the reviewer's experience.

• Show real events. If a notification says someone signed up, someone should have signed up. Invented activity is misleading, and visitors increasingly recognize it.
• Use real reviews, with permission. Quote actual customers, ideally with enough detail to be believable.
• Don't fake urgency. "Only 2 left" should mean only two are left.
• Be sparing. One well-placed message beats a corner of the screen constantly flashing. Too many popups make a site feel cheap.

Where it helps most

The most useful notifications I've seen are often the least flashy: a newsletter box that appears after someone has read most of an article, a short review near a pricing or booking button, a clear cookie notice. Used that way, the widgets answer a question the visitor already has ("do other people trust this?") instead of interrupting them.

Related reading

• RepWise: reputation management without the shortcuts
• EasyBioLink
• All my projects

Frequently asked questions

What it includes

• Branded short URLs with real-time click tracking and support for custom domains.
• Link-in-bio pages with themes, social links and per-link analytics.
• Dynamic QR codes tied to short links, so you can change where the code points without reprinting it.
• A developer API for creating and managing links from your own tools.

There's a free plan, so trying it doesn't require a credit card.

Why dynamic QR codes matter

A static QR code encodes the destination URL directly. If that page moves, every printed code is broken. A dynamic code points at a short link instead, and the short link redirects wherever you tell it to. You can fix a typo, swap a seasonal offer or point an old flyer at a new page, all without touching the print.

You also get data you'd never have otherwise: how many people scanned, when and roughly from where. For a restaurant menu, a trade show booth or a direct mailer, that's the difference between guessing and knowing.

A few habits worth having

Use a custom domain when you can, because a recognizable domain gets more trust than a generic shortener. Name your links so you can find them later. And add UTM parameters to the destination so your analytics tool sees the campaign, not just "direct" traffic.

Related reading

• EasyBioLink: a link in bio page
• Free Micro Apps
• All my projects

Frequently asked questions

What the SEO scanner looks at

The report covers on-page basics (titles, descriptions, headings), content, links, speed and a range of technical checks, with a plain explanation of each item so you know why it matters. You can also compare two sites side by side, which is handy for seeing how a page stacks up against a competitor's. Reports are stored, so you can come back and see whether your changes moved anything.

How to read a report without chasing the score

Scores are useful for motivation and terrible as a goal. A few suggestions:

Some issues are very common. The 2024 Web Almanac found that only 43% of mobile sites had good Core Web Vitals, compared with 54% on desktop, and 16% of pages lazy-loaded their main (LCP) image, which slows it down.

• Fix what affects people first. Slow pages, broken links and missing mobile support hurt visitors directly. Start there.
• Then fix what affects understanding. A clear title, a real description and a sensible heading structure help both search engines and AI tools understand what the page is about.
• Treat the rest as a checklist, not a crisis. A missing favicon isn't why you're not ranking.
• Remember what a scanner can't see. No automated tool can judge whether your content actually answers the question better than anyone else's. That's still the biggest factor, and it's on you.

I use quick scans like this before deeper work, as a way to catch the obvious problems so the time goes into the problems that aren't obvious.

Related reading

• Free Micro Apps: free SEO tools
• Local SEO in the age of AI answers
• Core Web Vitals in plain English

Frequently asked questions

That's the idea behind Free Micro Apps.

What's in the collection

The tools are grouped by job:

• Text and content: word counter, duplicate-text checking, a rewriting helper and hash generators.
• Keyword research: keyword ideas, keyword density and position checks.
• Backlinks and links: who links to a site, links on a page, link counts and broken-link checks.
• Website checks: meta tags, DNS records, page speed and other quick technical lookups.

Most of them are free to use without creating an account.

How I use free SEO tools

Small tools are best for verification. After changing a page title, check the meta tags. After moving a site, check DNS and look for broken links. Before publishing, run a word count and a quick duplicate check. None of this replaces judgment, but it catches the kind of mistake that's embarrassing precisely because it was easy to avoid.

Quick checks catch common problems. The 2024 Web Almanac found that 66% of mobile pages had at least one image without explicit dimensions, a common cause of layout shift, and only 43% of mobile sites passed all three Core Web Vitals.

I like keeping a few of these bookmarked rather than opening a heavy dashboard every time. Free Micro Apps is my attempt at a tidy shelf of them.

Related reading

• Smart SEO Scanner
• DNS Record Check
• Local SEO in the age of AI answers

Frequently asked questions

What DNS Record Check does

• Availability across more than a thousand TLDs in one search, not just .com.
• Premium and aftermarket listings when a name is for sale.
• AI-generated name ideas when the one you wanted is gone.
• WHOIS lookups to see registration details for a domain.
• Bulk and multi-TLD search for checking a shortlist at once.
• Registrar price comparisons covering registration, renewal and transfer costs by TLD.
• DNS and security tools for looking at how a domain is set up.

A few domain lessons worth knowing

Look at renewal prices, not just first-year prices. Some extensions are cheap to register and expensive to keep.

The competition for names is real. The Domain Name Industry Brief counted 401.6 million domain name registrations across all top-level domains in the second quarter of 2026, 179.1 million of them in .com and .net combined. Your first choice is usually taken, which is why the alternatives matter.

Short and sayable beats clever. If you have to spell it out loud every time, it will cost you.

Know your DNS before you change anything. Before moving a domain or pointing it at a new host, write down every existing record, especially MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC. It's easy to break email while fixing a website, and you often won't notice until messages quietly stop arriving.

That last one comes from experience moving my own sites around: the website part of a DNS change is easy, and the mail records are the part that needs care.

Related reading

• Free Micro Apps: small tools for small jobs
• Smart SEO Scanner
• All my projects

Frequently asked questions