Blog
Guides and notes, weekly.
Plain-language answers to the questions owners actually ask, plus working notes from real builds. A new article lands every week.
This is the Droom blog: guides on owning and running a small business website, and notes from the workshop about how the sites here get built. Everything is written from work we have actually done, and each article says what it is based on.
All articles
Guides · 12 Oct 2026
Website maintenance cost: what you pay each month, and what it should coverWhat website maintenance costs per month in Canada, what a plan should include before you sign, and our own $99 Care plan with every limit written out.
Guides · 9 Oct 2026
Free website audit: what to check, and what a good one gives youA free website audit for owners: the website audit checklist to run on your own phone, the SEO checks hidden in the code, and what a good audit gives you.
Guides · 8 Oct 2026
Website redesign services: what should be included, and what it costsWhat website redesign services should include, what a small business website redesign costs at Droom, and how to keep your Google rankings through it.
Guides · 6 Oct 2026
Website accessibility guidelines: what they ask of a business websiteWebsite accessibility guidelines in plain words: what WCAG asks, what the AODA and the Accessible Canada Act cover, and how often businesses miss the basics.
Guides · 2 Oct 2026
What is alt text, and why do so many business websites leave it out?What alt text is and what it is used for, with examples, best practices, whether it helps SEO, and how often business websites leave it out.
Articles · 2 Oct 2026
Contractor website design in 2026: 81% of the trade sites we checked show a dated signContractor website design, from 111 trade sites we checked: 81% show a dated sign. Six problems that cost plumbers, HVAC firms and renovators calls.
Articles · 2 Oct 2026
Dental and clinic website design: what patients run into on a phoneDental website design, measured: 72% of the 65 clinic sites and 61% of the 33 med spa sites we checked show dated signs. What patients run into on a phone.
Articles · 2 Oct 2026
Restoration company websites and the urgent trades beside them: what 51 sites showData from 51 urgent-service websites: restoration, locksmith, pest control and towing. 67% show dated signs, and one in ten does not fit a phone.
Articles · 2 Oct 2026
How to run a website speed test, and what the result meansRun a free website speed test with Google PageSpeed Insights and read the result in plain English, plus how heavy 467 business homepages turned out to be.
Articles · 2 Oct 2026
We checked 467 business websites. 72% show signs of dated technology.Small business website statistics from 467 sites of businesses paying for Google ads: 72% show dated technology. What we found most, by trade.
Guides · 2 Oct 2026
When to redesign a website, and how to tell yours is outdatedHow often should a website be redesigned? When the signs of outdated website design start costing you customers. A checklist for owners, in plain English.
Guides · 2 Oct 2026
Why is my website not mobile friendly?Website not mobile friendly, or looks bad on mobile? 18% of the business websites we checked have a fixed pixel-width layout. The two causes, and what to ask.
Guides · 29 Sep 2026
Should you build your own website, or pay someone?What a drag-and-drop website builder really costs you in money, evenings and snags, when doing it yourself is right, and what paying someone should buy.
Guides · 28 Sep 2026
Do text-message loyalty programs work?How a text-message loyalty program works, a month at a café, when it fails, what Canadian law asks of the texts, and what $249 a month buys.
Guides · 23 Sep 2026
What an AI receptionist does, and what it costs in CanadaWhat an AI receptionist does on a real call, what it cannot do, and how Canadian pricing works: by the minute, monthly plans, setup fees. And what $449 covers.
Articles · 5 Sep 2026
Does your website block AI crawlers?Open yoursite.ca/robots.txt and read it. What GPTBot, ClaudeBot and Google-Extended are, what "Disallow: /" does, and what to do if you are blocked.
Articles · 5 Sep 2026
The 14 screen widths every Droom build is tested atThe exact list of screen widths our responsive gate opens every page at, what it fails a build for, and how to check your own site in a minute.
Guides · 5 Sep 2026
How to move a website without losing your rankingsA rebuild does not have to cost you traffic. The order of work in plain language: domain, URL map, redirects, sitemap, then a few weeks of watching.
Costs · 5 Sep 2026
How much does a website cost in Vancouver?What moves a Vancouver web design quote up or down, how hourly and fixed pricing differ, and one designer’s real prices as the worked example.
Notes · 14 Aug 2026
Designing for the 2am call: build notes from a restoration siteBuild notes from a restoration concept site: the headline, the measured photograph, the colours, five tap-to-call links and what we left out.
Notes · 14 Aug 2026
The order of things: build notes from a family law siteHow the Alderwood concept build puts the process first: six steps in order, fees agreed in writing, no prices on the page, and no legal clichés.
Guides · 14 Aug 2026
Your web designer disappeared. Here is how to get your site back.A step-by-step rescue checklist: find your domain, hosting and files without the missing designer, and how to make sure this never happens again.
Guides · 14 Aug 2026
Who actually owns your domain name?Your domain is the one part of a website that cannot be rebuilt. A plain-language WHOIS check, the .ca and CIRA rules, and the vendor red flags.
Guides · 14 Aug 2026
Who owns your website’s files, and would you get them if you asked?Source files versus the live site, what a real handover contains, how to ask your designer for a copy without drama, and the contract lines to check.
Prefer answers about your own site?
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Last updated 2026-08-31