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NOTES ON WEB & AI

Practical writing on web design, development, and AI workflow automation for New Zealand businesses — no fluff, no filler.

Web DesignMarketing

Your Website Gets Traffic But No Enquiries: Finding the Leak

Work out how many enquiries your traffic should produce, then check where they go missing: wrong visitors, untracked calls, form design, and slow replies.

9 min read
SEOMarketing

How to Get Your NZ Business Cited by ChatGPT and Google's AI Answers

A study of 7,129 NZ business sites found local AI answers cite business websites 80-100% of the time. The levers that move it, and the tactics Google says it ignores.

9 min read
Mobile AppsPricing

How Much Does App Development Cost in New Zealand?

NZ app cost data is thin, so here's a triangulated number: one NZ agency's published tiers, Clutch's global averages, and the day-rate math worked out from scratch.

6 min read
AI AutomationPricing

How Much Does AI Automation Cost for a Small Business in New Zealand?

Real LLM pricing, real NZ adoption data, and the one stat that predicts whether your project survives: what AI workflow automation actually costs to build and run.

7 min read
AI AutomationWeb Design

Lovable, Bolt and v0 for Your NZ Business Website: What the Security Research Found

A security firm scanned 5,600 AI-built apps and found 175 exposed personal records. What that means for an NZ small business building on Lovable, Bolt.new or v0, and the Privacy Act obligations that come with it.

8 min read
E-commerceAI Automation

AI Shopping Agents and Your NZ Online Store: What Changed in 2026

OpenAI let ChatGPT complete purchases for 1M+ Shopify merchants, then quietly pulled it weeks later. What's still real for a small NZ store, and the one setting that decides whether AI agents can sell your products at all.

7 min read
Web DesignPlatforms

Outgrowing a DIY Website Builder: Where Wix and Squarespace Stop for Growing NZ Businesses

Wix and Squarespace beat WordPress on Core Web Vitals, so speed is the wrong reason to leave. The real ceilings: template locks, live-site editing, iframes, exit terms.

8 min read
Web DesignPricing

Website Maintenance Costs in New Zealand: The Bills That Start After Launch

PHP end-of-life dates, shrinking certificates and plugin licences set your maintenance bill after launch. The dates, NZ care plan prices, and what plans exclude.

10 min read
SEOMarketing

Local SEO for New Zealand Trades: What Actually Gets You Calls

Proximity caps what a trades business can rank for in the map pack. The levers that move calls, and the review tactic that breaches the Fair Trading Act.

9 min read
Web DesignPricing

The Real Cost of a Cheap Website in New Zealand: Hidden Fees and Lock-In

Where the money hides in a cheap NZ website quote: domain ownership, platform exit costs, monthly-plan arithmetic, and the clauses worth reading twice.

8 min read
AI AutomationWeb Design

AI Chatbots on Small Business Websites: What They Cost and When They Pay

Vendor pricing, NZ trust data and the Air New Zealand and Klarna results, turned into a volume test for whether a chatbot belongs on your small business site.

10 min read
Web DesignPerformance

Why Your Website Is Slow, and What Fixes It

Field data from millions of sites shows where the seconds go, why a bigger hosting plan rarely moves them, and what a NZ business should fix in what order.

8 min read
Web DesignPricing

Website Redesign vs Rebuild: What Each Costs in New Zealand

What a redesign and a rebuild each cost in NZ, the four layers that set the price, and a staging-site check on which one your website can even have.

8 min read
E-commercePricing

Shopify vs a Custom Store in New Zealand: What Moves the Cost

Stripe passed on 5 basis points of New Zealand's interchange cuts. A sourced look at what sets an NZ online store's running cost, plus break-even figures.

9 min read
Web DesignHiring

How to Brief a Web Design Agency: A Checklist for NZ Businesses

A brief that makes competing NZ quotes comparable and gives you something to test before final payment, including the compliance lines most templates miss.

8 min read
Mobile AppsWeb Design

Should a Small NZ Business Build a Mobile App, or Is a Website Enough?

Apple's own guidelines reject brochure apps and point you back to Safari. A sourced look at the account gates, the 2026 deadlines, and when an app pays.

9 min read
Web DesignPlatforms

Squarespace vs Webflow vs a Custom Build: Choosing a Platform in New Zealand

Both platforms repriced in 2026. A NZ comparison of Squarespace, Webflow and a custom build on true NZD cost, GST, exit terms, and who edits the site.

8 min read
AI AutomationOperations

AI Workflow Automation for NZ Small Business: What Gets Automated, What Doesn't

NZ SMEs mostly use AI to write social posts. A sourced look at which small business tasks run unattended, which stay manual, and what both cost.

8 min read
SEOMarketing

SEO for New Zealand Small Businesses: What Moves Rankings in 2026

Sourced guidance on which New Zealand searches AI now answers, which still send clicks, and where a small business should spend limited SEO time.

8 min read
Web DesignProject Planning

How Long Does a Website Take to Build in New Zealand?

Realistic NZ website build timelines by project size, the calendar traps that push launch dates out, and how to work your own date out backwards.

8 min read
Web DesignPricing

How Much Does a Website Cost in New Zealand?

A researched breakdown of what NZ businesses pay for a website in 2026, from DIY builders to freelancers to studios, with real market-rate data and sources.

5 min read
Web DesignHiring

What to Ask Before Hiring a Web Design Agency in New Zealand

The questions that expose whether an NZ web agency knows what it's doing, plus the ownership and contract details that cost you money after you sign.

8 min read
Web DesignMarketing

Is a Website Still Worth It in 2026?

Short answer: it depends on what you sell. A researched look at where a website pays for itself, from trades and salons to restaurants riding a TikTok moment.

5 min read
Web DesignSEO

Google Business Profile vs a Website: Do You Need Both?

What Google's own eligibility rules, a 47-expert ranking survey, and the death of GBP's free website feature mean for your business.

6 min read