HEX Insights
Care, security, search and leads, written for Houston business owners by the people who build and run websites every day.
Care and maintenance
Your website runs on software that ages on its own. Here is what changes every month behind a site that looks fine, and what regular care actually covers.
From the editor
“Anyone can build a website now. Keeping it fast, secure and bringing in work every month is the hard part. That’s what we write about here.”
Ask about a care planMost website backups fail for boring reasons like missing files or no test restore. Here is how to check yours and what to ask your host before you need it.
Skipping WordPress updates leaves security holes open and blind updates can break forms or checkout. Here is a safe routine for core, plugins, themes and PHP.
Cheap hosting buys space on a crowded server. Here is what managed hosting should include, who handles updates and backups, and when the cheap plan is fine.
Most owners learn their website is down from a customer. Here is what uptime monitoring catches, what it misses and a checklist of what to watch on your site.
When a domain expires your website and email go dark. Learn how grace and redemption periods work, why renewal notices get missed and a checklist to prevent it.
A real monthly website care report shows updates, tested backups, downtime, form tests and what comes next. Here is what to expect and the red flags to watch for.
Old hours, dropped services and forgotten holiday banners quietly send customers elsewhere. Use this monthly review to keep your website and Google listing in sync.
Broken forms, expired certificates, bad redirects, lost tracking, email in spam and slow pages. How each one fails quietly and how to catch it early.
Why small business websites load slowly on phones, what Core Web Vitals mean in plain words, and the fixes that make the biggest difference to speed.
A plain checklist of what real website maintenance covers, from updates and tested backups to form checks, so you know what your monthly fee buys.
Former staff, old agencies and forgotten admin accounts may still have access to your site. Use this checklist to clean up logins, offboard people and turn on MFA.
If your invoices and website form emails keep landing in spam, three domain records are often why. Here is what SPF, DKIM and DMARC do and how to check your own domain.
Twelve questions to ask any Houston web designer before you sign, with what a good answer sounds like on ownership, forms, rankings and cost.
A plain checklist for a useful website audit covering forms, phone speed, tracking and search basics, plus what a free review usually leaves out.
You should own your domain, hosting, email, analytics and website. Here is what each piece is, what your contract should say and a login checklist.
WordPress or a lean custom website? The right choice depends on who edits the site, who maintains it and what it really costs to own over years.
A simple self test for your website contact form. Submit it, check the inbox and spam, try your phone, confirm the CRM, then repeat it every week.
How to use dynamic call tracking numbers on your website while keeping one consistent main number for your Google Business Profile and local citations.
The five business questions Google Analytics 4 should answer for a service business, and a plain checklist for tracking you can actually trust and use.
How to keep a lead's source attached from the first click to the signed job, so you can see which marketing actually produces sales and not just leads.
A client wanted every form email to include the visitor’s IP address and device. Here is how I did it with hidden fields in Avada Forms.
A practical plan for keeping your search traffic through a website redesign, from redirect maps and tracking to launch day checks and what to watch after.
How to set up a Google Business Profile when customers never visit your address, from hiding it and choosing service areas to categories, photos and reviews.
Nobody controls what AI answers say, but you can raise your odds of being mentioned. Here is what helps a Houston business get cited by ChatGPT and Gemini.
How Houston area businesses can tell useful suburb pages from thin copies Google calls doorway pages, and what to put on the city pages worth keeping.
What structured data really does for a small business website, which schema promises are myths, and how to check your own markup in ten minutes.
An honest, step by step look at getting more of the right visitors to a small business website, from search basics to content that earns attention.
