John K Mitchell's Misc Blog

John Mitchell
Business Premises Security: How to Protect Your Small Business


TL;DR: Good business premises security is not just about stopping burglars. It can protect your stock, equipment, property, staff and your ability to keep trading. CCTV, alarms, access controls, security patrols and other measures can all help, but the right solution depends on your business, premises and location. You do not necessarily need an expensive security system. Start by understanding what you need to protect and where your biggest risks are.


Why Business Security Matters


Business premises security might not be the most exciting thing on your list of jobs, especially when you are busy trying to win customers, manage staff and keep the accounts under control. However, it is one of those things that can suddenly become very important when something goes wrong.

A break-in can cause far more damage than the value of whatever a criminal manages to steal.

More at https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/2026/09/business-premises-security-protect-your-small-business/ https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/2026/09/business-premises-security-protect-your-small-business/

John Mitchell
Back-Button Hijacking: Why Small Business Websites Need to Stop Doing It


TL;DR: Back-button hijacking is the irritating trick that stops a visitor from using their browser’s Back button normally. Instead of returning to the page they came from, they may see an advert, a different page or be sent around a loop. It has annoyed web users for years, but Google has now made its position much clearer. In April 2026, Google announced that back-button hijacking would become an explicit violation of its spam policies, with enforcement beginning on 15 June 2026. Websites using the practice can face manual spam actions or automated ranking demotions. For a small business, that means a tactic intended to gain an extra page view could end up costing valuable Google traffic.


What Is Back-Button Hijacking?


There is a very simple rule when you browse the web: if you click your browser's Back button, you expect to go back. It sounds obvious because it is.

More at https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3182 https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3182

John Mitchell
When Your Mojo Disappears: How to Get It Back in Your Small Business


Running a small business can be exciting, rewarding and full of freedom. It can also be exhausting.

I was talking to a friend over the weekend who is an author, the one that has writen The Sleeping Phoenix series and he was saying about getting stuck on the most recent book.  This led me to say about writing blog posts and got me thinking.

Some days, you wake up ready to crack on. You have ideas, energy and a clear sense of where you are going. Other days, opening your laptop feels like a huge effort. The jobs you normally enjoy seem dull, and even small decisions feel harder than they should.

If that sounds familiar, your business mojo may have disappeared.

The good news is that this happens to plenty of small business owners. Losing your motivation does not automatically mean you have chosen the wrong career, your business is failing or you need to throw everything away and start again.

More at https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3178 https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3178

John Mitchell
Why You Check Emails While Getting the Kids Breakfast – and How to Manage Time Better


Do you ever find yourself buttering toast with one hand while scrolling through your inbox with the other? You’re not alone. Most small business owners start their day this way (I know I used to) – half in family mode, half in work mode. But why do we do it? And more importantly, how can we stop this cycle that leaves us frazzled before 9am? Let’s dig into the chaos, find out what’s really going on, and look at simple, real-world ways to get your mornings (and your mind) back.


The Breakfast Email Habit – How Did We Get Here?


Think back twenty years. The only way you’d check your emails before breakfast would be if you physically went to your computer, fired up your dial-up modem, and waited for that screeching noise to stop. Now, your phone is right there next to the kettle, flashing away with notifications before you’ve even had your first sip of tea.

It’s easy to see how this habit formed.

More at https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/2025/10/why-you-check-emails-while-getting-the-kids-breakfast-and-how-to-manage-time-bette/ https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/2025/10/why-you-check-emails-while-getting-the-kids-breakfast-and-how-to-manage-time-bette/

John Mitchell
URL Structures for a Small Business Website: What Should Your URLs Look Like?


TL;DR: A good URL should be short, clear and easy to understand. For most small business websites, something like domain.co.uk/service is usually better than a long, complicated URL. But there are times when adding another level, such as domain.co.uk/services/service, can make sense. The important thing is to create a structure that works for both people and search engines. Think about your website as a set of related topics, not simply a collection of pages.

Your website's URLs (or page addresses) might seem like a tiny detail. After all, visitors are usually more interested in what is on the page than what appears in their browser's address bar. However, the structure of your URLs can affect how easy your website is to understand, maintain and navigate.

A clear URL can tell somebody what they are about to find before they even click it.

More at https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3175 https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3175

John Mitchell
What To Do If Your WordPress Website Is Hacked


TL;DR: I've recently taken on a client with a new website whose old WordPress site was hacked and had around 200,000 pages injected into it. Many of those pages appeared to link to eBay products. The new website is now in place, but the old hacked site still needs dealing with. This is very much an ongoing project that may take several months to sort out properly.

If your WordPress website has been hacked, don't panic and don't start deleting everything you can find. First, work out what has happened, protect the website and your other accounts, create backups, investigate how the hacker got in and then clean the website properly. You also need to deal with the damage left behind in Google and other search engines.

A hacked website isn't just an IT problem. For a small business, it can become a business, reputation and SEO problem too.

More at https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3170 https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3170

John Mitchell
What Does “Discovered – Currently Not Indexed” Mean in Google Search Console?


TL;DR: If Google Search Console says “Discovered – currently not indexed”, Google knows your page exists but has not crawled it yet. It is not necessarily an error, and it does not automatically mean your content is poor. Google may simply have decided that other pages on your website are a higher priority right now. For a small business, the best response is usually to check your website structure, make sure important pages are easy to find, use sensible internal links, keep your sitemap clean and make sure Google can access your site reliably. Don’t panic and don’t keep clicking “Request Indexing” every five minutes. It is a request, not a magic button.

If you run a small business website, seeing pages sitting in Google Search Console with the words “Discovered – currently not indexed” can be surprisingly worrying.

More at https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/2026/08/google-search-console-discovered-currently-not-indexed/ https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/2026/08/google-search-console-discovered-currently-not-indexed/

John Mitchell
How to Turn Your Small Business Around Before Problems Become Bigger


Running a small business has never been easy. Rising costs, changing customer habits, higher wages, increasing National Insurance contributions, inflation and economic uncertainty have all put pressure on businesses across the UK. Every year, thousands of businesses close because they simply run out of cash or fail to adapt quickly enough, in 2025 approximately 288,000 businesses closed across the UK and the total registered company insolvencies reached 23,938.   The good news is that many businesses can recover if problems are spotted early and action is taken before they become overwhelming.

This is one of those topics that many business owners would rather avoid, but it is also one of the most important. It is easy to believe that next month will be better or that one large order will solve everything.

More at https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3165 https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3165

John Mitchell
How Topic Clusters Improve Small Business SEO


Short introduction: Topic clusters help small businesses organise website content in a way that makes it easier for both visitors and search engines to understand. Instead of creating random blog posts, you build groups of related content around one main subject. The result is better SEO, a better user experience and more opportunities to attract customers.


TL;DR


If your website has lots of pages but they're not connected in a meaningful way, you're probably missing out on valuable search traffic. A topic cluster is a group of related pages centred around one important subject that your business wants to be known for. One main page covers the broad topic, while several supporting pages explore individual questions in greater detail. These pages are linked together naturally, helping visitors discover more useful information while also helping search engines understand what your website is about.

More at https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3157 https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3157

Should I Aim My Website Nationally or Locally
Why Trying to Rank Your Small Business Website Nationwide Isn't Always the Smartest Move


Short intro: Many small businesses believe they should target the whole UK with their website. In reality, focusing on local customers often brings better rankings, lower competition and more enquiries without wasting time or money.

TL;DR: Bigger isn't always better when it comes to website marketing. If you sell products that can be delivered anywhere, a nationwide audience may make sense. However, many service businesses and local shops gain far more by concentrating on the people who actually live or work nearby. Competing against every business in the country is usually much harder than becoming the obvious choice in your own town or region. Local customers are often actively searching for nearby providers, whether they need an accountant, plumber, electrician, cleaner, café, pizza takeaway or florist. https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3143

How to Get a Better Work-Life Balance When You Run a Small Business
How to Get a Better Work-Life Balance When You Run a Small Business


Running a small business can easily take over your life. One quick email becomes an evening of work. A quiet Sunday turns into catching up on paperwork. Before long, you are always working, thinking about work or feeling guilty because you are not working.

A better work-life balance does not mean caring less about your business. It means finding a way to run it without allowing work to consume every available hour. That can be better for you, your family, your employees and, perhaps surprisingly, the business itself.


TL;DR: Work-Life Balance Is Good for You and Your Business


Small business owners often accept long hours as part of the job. In the early days, that may be unavoidable. You might be doing the sales, accounts, marketing, customer service and admin yourself. https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3134

Google Search Console Gets New Generative AI Controls and Reporting: What Small Businesses Need to Know
Google Search Console Gets New Generative AI Controls and Reporting: What Small Businesses Need to Know


Google has started rolling out new Generative AI controls and performance reporting in Google Search Console. For the first time, website owners can get a clearer view of whether their pages are appearing in Google's AI-powered search features and can choose whether their content is eligible to appear in them.

TL;DR: Google Search Console now has a new Search generative AI control and a separate Generative AI performance report. The control lets eligible site owners include or exclude their website from certain Google generative AI features. The report shows impressions from AI features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode. However, the rollout is currently limited to a subset of website owners, so you may not see either feature yet. At the time of writing, it appears to be showing on at least some UK sites. https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3137

How to Get to a 10-Year Anniversary in Your Business
How to Get to a 10-Year Anniversary in Your Business


Reaching 10 years in business is a big achievement. It takes more than a good idea. You need to adapt, manage money, keep customers happy and somehow keep going when running a business feels harder than it should.

Recently, I attended an event held by Games n Gear, a computer gaming shop in Llandudno that opened 10 years ago. You can also find the business on Facebook at Games N Gear | Llandudno. Seeing a local independent business celebrate a full decade got me thinking about what it actually takes to survive for that long.


TL;DR: How Do You Keep a Business Going for 10 Years?


There is no magic formula for reaching your tenth anniversary in business. If there were, every new business would follow it and nobody would ever close. The reality is far less tidy. Some businesses start with a brilliant idea and disappear within months. Others begin with a fairly ordinary product or service and are still trading decades later. https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/2026/07/how-to-get-to-a-10-year-anniversary-in-your-business/

The Importance of Testing Your Small Business Website
The Importance of Testing Your Website (and Why Most Small Businesses Skip It)


TL;DR – Quick Version for Busy People


Short version: If you don’t test your website properly, you’re probably losing customers without even realising it. Broken links, confusing wording, spelling mistakes, and pages that don’t work properly all quietly push people away.

Website testing isn’t just for tech teams or big companies. It’s something every small business should do regularly. It means checking your links, reading your content properly, making sure everything works, and confirming your website actually says what you meant it to say. Not what you accidentally typed at 11pm on a Tuesday.

In this post, we’ll go through the different types of website testing in a simple, practical way. We’ll look at checking internal and external links, proofreading for spelling and grammar, and something even more important: making sure your content actually makes sense to someone else. https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3125

LLMS.txt Files: Should Small Business Websites Be Using Them Yet?
TL;DR: An llms.txt file is a relatively new proposal designed to help large language models (LLMs) such as AI chatbots and AI search tools understand the most important content on a website. It acts a bit like a guidebook, pointing AI systems towards key pages and information. While there is growing interest in the idea, there is currently limited evidence showing major direct benefits for most small business websites. Some organisations and AI-focused websites have started using llms.txt files, and I am testing them myself, but so far I have not seen any hard results that can clearly be attributed to having one. As with many new web standards, it is worth understanding and monitoring, but it should not replace proven SEO, content, accessibility, or website improvement work.

As artificial intelligence becomes a bigger part of how people find information online, website owners are starting to look at ways of making their websites easier for AI systems to understand. https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3119

Facebook and YouTube Adverts: How Small Business Owners Can Spot the Scams Before They Waste Money
Quick Summary: Facebook and YouTube are packed with adverts promising secret business methods, easy profits, instant success and products that supposedly cost less than a couple of cups of coffee. While some advertisers are genuine, many use manipulative sales tactics that are designed to trigger emotions rather than provide useful information. Small business owners should learn to recognise common warning signs, research advertisers independently, check Google search results, read reviews from multiple sources and avoid making rushed decisions. Even when users report questionable adverts, platforms such as Facebook and YouTube sometimes decide that the advert does not break their rules, which can leave misleading adverts running for longer than many people would expect.

Every day, millions of people watch videos on YouTube and scroll through Facebook. Along the way they are shown a constant stream of adverts. Some are from well-known brands. https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3116

How to Make Your Website Dyslexic Friendly
TL;DR: A dyslexic-friendly website is easier for everyone to use. Simple fonts, clear layouts, good colour contrast, shorter paragraphs, helpful headings, and accessible content can make a huge difference. Improving readability not only helps visitors with dyslexia but can also increase engagement, trust, and conversions for your small business.

When people visit your website, they want information quickly and easily. If your content is difficult to read, confusing to navigate, or visually overwhelming, visitors may leave before they find what they need. For people with dyslexia, these challenges can be even greater.

Creating a dyslexic-friendly website is not about completely redesigning everything or spending thousands on specialist development. In most cases, it involves making sensible improvements that benefit all visitors. A website that is easier to read is often easier to use, easier to understand, and more likely to convert visitors into customers. https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3114

AI Search Visibility: How Small Businesses Can Stay Visible as Search Changes
AI Search Visibility: How Small Businesses Can Get Found When Customers Ask AI for Help


TL;DR: Traditional SEO is still important, but more people are now using AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity to find answers, products and services. Instead of showing a list of websites, these tools often provide direct recommendations. If your business isn't mentioned, you may be invisible to potential customers even if your website ranks well in Google. The good news is that you don't need a huge marketing budget to improve your visibility. By creating helpful content, answering real customer questions, building authority in your niche and making your expertise easy for AI systems to understand, you can increase the chances of your business being recommended when people ask AI for advice.

Search is changing faster than many small business owners realise. For years, getting found online meant focusing on Google rankings, keywords and backlinks. https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3104

Changes to Companies House Filings and Documents Are Coming in April 2028
Significant Changes to Companies House Filings and Documents Are Coming in April 2028 for Small Businesses


Small business owners who currently prepare and file their own accounts need to start thinking ahead. Although April 2028 may seem a long way off, the changes being introduced by Companies House will affect how annual accounts are prepared, submitted and stored. Businesses that currently rely on paper filing or use older filing methods will need to adapt to a new digital-first approach. Planning early can help avoid stress, disruption and unexpected costs later on.

The government is introducing new accounts filing requirements as part of its wider plan to improve the quality and reliability of information held by Companies House. These changes will affect how companies prepare, submit and report their annual accounts. https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/?p=3101

May 2026 Roundup: The Small Business Advice You Might Have Missed This Month
Missed some of our articles during May? Don't worry. We've gathered together the highlights from another busy month of small business advice, SEO insights, marketing tips and practical guidance to help you stay informed without having to read every single post.

It's the end of the month and time for another of our monthly roundup of posts to help our readers that don't have time to read each and every one of the posts.

May was an interesting month. We covered everything from SEO and AI search to business signage, domain names, remote working and choosing the right SEO consultant. As always, our focus remained on practical advice that small business owners can actually use rather than theory that sounds good but never gets put into practice.

Running a small business often means wearing several hats at once. https://www.forestsoftware.co.uk/blog/2026/05/may-2026-roundup-the-small-business-advice-you-might-have-missed-this-month/