Guides
Guides for businesses in Wales, written from the census, the standards and Search Console
13 guides, each answering one question a business in Wales asks before it spends money on a website. No prices in the guides; those are on the pricing page.
Deciding
Read these before you commission anything, from us or anyone.
Do you need a Welsh language website? The law, the customers and the searches, county by county
Who must have a Welsh website under the standards, who should because of their customers, what Welsh-language search is worth, and what translation costs.
7 min read
.wales, .cymru or .co.uk: which domain a Welsh business should use, and what Google does with it
What .wales and .cymru say about a business, why Google treats them like any other ending, and the rule for choosing one and redirecting the rest.
6 min read
The Welsh Language Standards and your website: what the standards say, who is bound, and how to comply
The website rules under the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011: what no less favourably means online, who is bound, complaints, and the penalty.
7 min read
Grants and support for websites in Wales: what Business Wales really offers, what else exists, and what is not real
An honest map of support for a Welsh business website: Business Wales, Helo Blod's free translation, council grant rounds, and the offers to avoid.
6 min read
How much a website costs in Wales: the cost logic, without the sales pitch
What a website's price is made of in Wales: pages, words, Welsh translation by the word, photos, and the second-year costs a quote leaves out.
6 min read
Building and fixing
What the site has to contain, why one fails, and what to send us.
What a Welsh business website needs: the six pages, the four Welsh details and the three things Google reads
The pages a business in Wales actually needs, what makes a site Welsh rather than a template with a dragon on it, and what Google reads before ranking it.
6 min read
Why your website gets no enquiries: the eight causes, in the order to check them
The eight reasons a business website in Wales brings nothing, from nobody arriving to a dead form and a profile that disagrees, with the test for each.
6 min read
The photo and copy checklist: the twenty questions and the shot list that get a Welsh business website written and built in four weeks
What we ask before a build: twenty questions in your own words, a phone shot list with the reason for each shot, and the Welsh spellings to check.
6 min read
How the Welsh version of your website actually gets written, and what happens when it is done badly
Who is qualified to translate a website into Welsh, what machine translation gets wrong, how mutation and register break a page, and how to keep both languages in step.
7 min read
More guides
Welsh language SEO: how Google handles Welsh searches, what a bilingual page ranks for, and the hreflang pair that tells it which is which
Google ranks Welsh pages for Welsh searches when the page is really Welsh. The hreflang pair, what a bilingual page ranks for, and our own Welsh queries.
7 min read
Charity and public body websites in Wales: the accessibility regulations, the Welsh Language Standards, the Charity Commission line, and the questions a tender asks
What a Welsh charity or public body's website must carry: WCAG 2.2 AA, the Welsh Language Standards, the registered charity line, and the tender questions.
8 min read
Website redesign in Wales: keeping the rankings when the URLs change, the redirect map, the Welsh twins, and the three weeks after launch
A redesign loses rankings when old addresses die without a redirect. The map of old to new, the Welsh twins, and the three weeks after launch.
8 min read
Who builds Welsh language websites in Wales? The five questions that show whether an agency can actually do Welsh, and the answers to expect
Many agencies say bilingual; few can show a Welsh site they built. Five questions tell them apart: the site, the translator, the URLs, the CMS, the cost.
7 min read
For a shorter answer, the questions pages answer one question each in two sentences and then explain.
Find out what your website is doing for you, in plain English
Send the address, or say you have none, and tell us where in Wales you are. Daniel Stoychev reads it and replies within one working day with what a customer sees, what Google sees, whether Welsh belongs on the site, and a fixed price.