optydigitals

How do I ask customers for a Google review?

Fri, 23 Oct 2026 12:22:11 GMT

How do I ask customers for a Google review?

Ask customers for an honest Google review after their job, appointment or purchase, explain why their feedback helps, and send a direct review link. Keep the request short, make it optional and use the same approach with all customers.

You do not need an elaborate email sequence to get started. You need a simple request that fits naturally into the way you finish your work.

Why does asking for a Google review feel awkward?

You can spend hours doing a good job, hear the customer thank you, and still feel uncomfortable asking them to put their experience online.

An Electricians Forums member, OhmWatt, described that feeling on 17 August 2026:

“Asking for reviews can be difficult, it always just seems like you're begging.”

Source: Electricians Forums, reply #6

That is a useful description of the hesitation. Asking can feel personal, especially when you are the person who owns the business and does the work.

A short explanation gives the request a purpose. Your customer's experience can help someone else decide whether to book you. Give them the opportunity to share it, without making them feel obliged.

What should I say when asking for a Google review?

Try this at the end of a job or appointment:

“Would you be happy to leave an honest Google review about your experience? It helps other people decide whether to use us. I can send you the link.”

Then leave the decision with them. There is no need to apologise, ask for five stars or stand beside them while they write it.

Invite their own account of the experience. Avoid telling them what to say, which keywords to use or which member of staff to mention.

When should I ask customers for a review?

Choose a consistent point after customers have experienced your service. For a local business, that might be after completing a repair, finishing a salon appointment or dropping a passenger at their destination.

Sending the link that day is a practical starting point because the experience is still recent. It is a suggested routine, rather than a rule that works best for every business.

For bridal businesses, a customer can review an appointment without waiting until the wedding. For a longer professional project, the appropriate moment may be after an agreed milestone or final handover.

Apply the same approach to everyone. Google's policy prohibits selectively asking for positive reviews, so avoid sending the link only to customers who have already told you they are delighted.

How do I get my Google review link?

You can get a direct review link from the Google Business Profile you manage:

Sign in to the Google account that manages your business.
Open your Business Profile in Google Search or Maps.
Select “Read reviews”, then “Get more reviews”.
Copy the link and save it in your message template.

Google also provides a QR code through the desktop version. You can use it on receipts, appointment cards or a small counter sign so customers can choose to review you in their own time.

See Google's instructions for creating a review link or QR code .

What should a Google review request message say?

A text or WhatsApp message can be as simple as:

“Hi [first name], thanks for choosing [business name] today. If you have a moment, we'd appreciate an honest Google review about your experience: [review link]. It helps other people find out about our business. Thank you, [your name].”

For email, use a clear subject such as “Thank you for choosing [business name]” and the same short message.

Send the direct link rather than asking the customer to search for your business, find the right listing and work out where to leave a review.

These are suggested request templates. The review itself should always be written by the customer, in their own words.

Should I remind someone who has not left a review?

One polite reminder after a few days is a reasonable approach. For example:

“Hi [first name], just a quick follow-up in case the review link got missed: [review link]. If you've already left one, thank you. No pressure either way.”

After that, leave it with them. A review is voluntary, and repeated chasing can make an otherwise good customer experience feel uncomfortable.

Can I offer a discount or freebie for a Google review?

No. Google's review policy prohibits incentives such as discounts, payments, free products or free services in exchange for reviews.

That applies even if you ask for an honest review rather than a positive one. Do not offer a reward for changing or removing a negative review either.

You can read the rules in Google's policy on fake engagement .

How do I make asking for reviews a habit?

In the same forum discussion, another contributor, Erenackerman, wrote:

“We don’t ask after every job”

Source: Electricians Forums, reply #5, 30 April 2026

The contributor went on to describe an inconsistent approach based on remembering to ask or noticing that a customer was happy.

A practical alternative is to attach the invitation to an existing task. When you send the completion message, appointment follow-up or receipt, include the review link.

Save the wording once, personalise it for the customer and make the invitation part of your normal process. You do not need to set a review target or manufacture a particular posting pattern.

Do Google reviews help my business appear in local searches?

They can. Google says review numbers and positive ratings can help local ranking. It also considers how closely your business matches the search and how far away it is.

Reviews are therefore one part of your local visibility, alongside accurate business information and useful website content. They do not guarantee a particular position.

Google explains its local ranking factors here .

If your website itself is missing from search, our guide to why your website isn't showing up on Google explains what to check next.

Frequently asked questions

Can I ask for a Google review by text or WhatsApp?

Yes. Share your direct review link in a short, relevant message after the customer has used your service. Keep it optional and ask for honest feedback.

How many Google reviews does a small business need?

There is no universal number that guarantees enquiries or a particular ranking. Focus on genuine customer feedback and a repeatable invitation process rather than chasing an arbitrary total.

Does the customer need a Gmail address?

No, but they do need to sign in to a Google Account. A Google Account can use an existing email address from another provider.

What should I do about a bad Google review?

Respond calmly, address the concern and protect the customer's privacy. Offer a suitable way to discuss the issue directly. You can report a review that breaks Google's policies, but being negative alone does not make it eligible for removal.

Need help improving your visibility on Google?

OptyDigitals helps businesses in Belfast and across Northern Ireland improve how they appear online. If you want help connecting your website, business information and local search activity, explore our SEO services or get in touch .

Should I Sign a 12-Month Marketing Contract? What Small Businesses Need to Know

Wed, 21 Oct 2026 08:06:53 GMT

Should I Sign a 12-Month Marketing Contract?

A 12-month marketing contract isn't necessarily a bad thing. Some marketing activities, particularly SEO, take time to deliver meaningful results.

But before signing, every business owner should understand three things: what they're paying for, how they can leave and who owns the work when the agreement ends.

The problem isn't always the length of the contract. It's discovering six months later that you're paying for services you don't understand, receiving little communication and potentially unable to take your website or advertising accounts elsewhere.

Here are the questions worth asking before you commit.

Why Do Marketing Agencies Ask for 12-Month Contracts?

There are legitimate reasons why an agency might recommend a longer agreement.

Search engine optimisation, content marketing and website improvements rarely produce their full benefits overnight.

The first few months can involve technical audits, competitor research, website improvements, tracking configuration and content development.

A longer agreement gives the agency time to implement these changes and measure their effectiveness.

It also provides predictable income for the agency.

However, a longer contract should never become an excuse for poor communication or a lack of measurable progress.

Even when results take time, you should still be able to see what work is being completed each month.

What Should Be Included in a Marketing Contract?

Before signing, ask the agency to explain exactly what you're agreeing to.

There are four important areas to check.

1. What am I actually paying for?

A contract should clearly explain the services included in your monthly fee.

For example:

Search engine optimisation and website improvements.
Google Ads or Meta Ads campaign management.
Content creation and website updates.
Reporting and performance reviews.
Technical support and ongoing maintenance.

Be cautious of descriptions such as "ongoing marketing support" without any explanation of what that involves.

You should know what work is planned, what will be delivered and how progress will be communicated.

2. How do I cancel the agreement?

Ask what happens if you decide to leave.

Is there a three-month break clause?

Does the agreement end after 12 months, or does it automatically renew?

Will you need to give 30, 60 or 90 days' notice?

Are there early termination charges?

These details should be explained in writing before you sign.

3. Who owns the website, domain and advertising accounts?

This is one of the most important questions, particularly for small businesses.

Imagine paying £2,000 for a website, only to discover that you cannot move it to another provider because the agency controls the domain and administrator access.

Or spending thousands on Google Ads, then learning that your advertising account belongs to the agency rather than your business.

These situations can create unnecessary costs and disruption when you want to change suppliers.

Before signing, establish who owns and controls each digital asset.

4. Can the price increase during the contract?

Check whether the agency can increase its fees during the agreement.

If increases are permitted, the contract should explain when they can happen, how they're calculated and whether you have the option to leave.

You shouldn't discover an unexpected price increase halfway through a fixed-term agreement.

Who Owns My Website If I Leave My Marketing Agency?

Paying for a website doesn't automatically guarantee that you own every element of it or can transfer it freely.

Ownership and portability depend on the contract, the platform used and any third-party licences involved.

For example, a website built using a hosted platform such as Shopify, Duda or Wix may not be transferable in the same way as a self-hosted WordPress website.

You may own your content, images and domain while still being subject to the platform's technical restrictions.

That's why ownership and access should be discussed before work begins.

Three Things to Check Before Paying the Final Website Invoice

1. Your domain registration

Make sure your business is the registered domain holder and that you know which company manages the registration.

Ideally, you should have direct access to the registrar account or a clearly documented process for transferring the domain.

2. Your website administration access

You should know how to access your website and what level of permission you have.

For hosted platforms, confirm whether your business owns the subscription or store account and what happens if the agency stops managing it.

3. Your website files and content

Ask what can be exported or transferred if you decide to move.

This might include written content, images, product data, design assets or website backups.

Not every platform allows a complete website export, so get a clear explanation of any limitations before committing.

A website should be a business asset, not something that prevents you from changing suppliers.

What Happens to My Google Ads and Meta Ads Accounts If I Leave?

Your advertising accounts can be just as valuable as your website.

Over time, they accumulate campaign history, conversion information, audiences and performance data.

If an agency creates everything inside its own advertising account, you may find it difficult to retain that history when the relationship ends.

A better arrangement for many businesses is to maintain ownership of their advertising accounts and give the agency appropriate management access.

For Google Ads, this commonly means the business owns its Google Ads account and grants the agency access through a manager account.

For Meta, it means making sure the appropriate business portfolio controls the relevant advertising assets and grants the agency partner access.

Before signing, ask:

Will the advertising accounts belong to my business?
Will I have administrator access?
Can I remove agency access if the agreement ends?
Will my campaign history and reporting remain available?
Who controls the billing arrangements?

These questions are much easier to resolve at the beginning of a relationship than at the end.

Can I Cancel a 12-Month Marketing Contract Early?

Possibly, but it depends on the terms of your agreement and the circumstances.

Some contracts include break clauses after three or six months.

Others allow termination if the supplier materially fails to deliver agreed services, usually subject to notice or an opportunity to resolve the problem.

Some agreements require payment for the remainder of the contracted period.

The enforceability of any particular clause depends on the contract and applicable law.

If you're unhappy with the service, start by requesting a copy of your agreement and reviewing the cancellation, notice and termination provisions.

Then ask the agency to explain its position in writing.

If the sums involved are significant or you believe the agreement has been breached, consider obtaining independent legal advice before stopping payments.

How Can I Tell If My Marketing Agency Is Actually Doing the Work?

This is another concern we regularly encounter in conversations about digital marketing.

Business owners aren't always expecting immediate results.

What they want is reassurance that something is happening.

If you're paying an agency every month, you should be able to understand what work has been completed.

For SEO, that might include technical fixes, new content, improvements to existing pages or changes in search visibility.

For paid advertising, it might include campaign optimisation, creative testing, search term reviews or adjustments based on performance.

Not every activity produces an immediate increase in sales.

But an agency should be able to explain what it has done, why it matters and what it plans to do next.

Five Questions Worth Asking Your Agency

What work did you complete last month?
What has improved, and what hasn't?
What are you planning to work on next?
What results should we realistically expect?
Can I access my own website, analytics and advertising accounts?

A good agency should be comfortable answering these questions.

If you're paying for a service but cannot get a clear explanation of what is being delivered, that's a reason to review the arrangement.

Is a Rolling Monthly Marketing Contract Better?

For many small businesses, a rolling monthly arrangement can offer greater flexibility.

You're not committing to an entire year before knowing whether the working relationship is right for you.

It also gives both parties an opportunity to review progress regularly.

However, monthly agreements aren't automatically better.

Some projects require substantial upfront investment, and longer agreements may make that investment more affordable.

A short contract also doesn't guarantee good service.

The important thing is finding an arrangement that suits the work being delivered and the level of commitment both parties are comfortable making.

At OptyDigitals, we believe small businesses should understand what they're paying for and retain appropriate control of their digital assets.

We favour clear pricing, transparent communication and straightforward working relationships rather than relying on lengthy contractual commitments to retain clients.

Should a Website Build Have a 12-Month Contract?

A one-off website build is different from ongoing marketing management.

For a website project, a fixed written quotation with an agreed scope, price and payment schedule is often a sensible starting point.

That agreement should explain:

What pages and functionality are included.
Who provides the written content and images.
How many revisions are included.
When payments are due.
Who owns the finished work and associated assets.
Which ongoing platform, hosting or maintenance costs apply.
What happens if either party ends the project early.

A website may still require ongoing hosting, platform subscriptions or support after launch.

Those costs should be explained separately so that you understand what is a one-off payment and what is a continuing commitment.

What We've Learned From Working With Small Businesses

One of the recurring frustrations we hear from business owners isn't simply that a marketing service failed to deliver the results they expected.

It's that they don't know what they're paying for, cannot easily access their accounts or feel uncomfortable asking questions about the agreement they've signed.

And when they finally decide to move, they discover the process is more complicated than expected.

We've worked with businesses using Shopify, Duda and other digital platforms, and access arrangements can vary considerably.

That's why we believe ownership, administration rights and transfer limitations should be explained before a project starts.

It also reinforces something we've learned from working with smaller businesses: clear communication matters just as much as technical expertise.

A business owner shouldn't need to understand every aspect of SEO, website hosting or advertising technology.

But they should be able to ask a straightforward question and receive a straightforward answer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a 12-month marketing contract normal?

Twelve-month contracts are used by some marketing agencies, particularly for ongoing SEO and marketing services. However, shorter and rolling monthly agreements are also available. The right arrangement depends on the work, cost and flexibility required.

Can I cancel a marketing contract if the work isn't being done?

You may have grounds to terminate if the agency has breached the agreement, but this depends on the contract and circumstances. Review the terms, document the issues and seek legal advice where appropriate.

What notice period is normal for a monthly marketing agreement?

Notice periods vary. Some agreements require 30 days, while others specify longer periods. Always confirm the notice requirements in writing before signing.

Should a website build be a contract or a fixed quote?

A fixed written quote supported by clear project terms is often appropriate for a one-off website build. It should cover deliverables, payment milestones, ownership and any ongoing costs.

What happens to my website if I leave my agency?

That depends on the website platform, account ownership and contractual terms. You may be able to transfer the website, retain its content or migrate to another provider, but some hosted platforms have restrictions.

What happens to my Google Ads and Meta Ads accounts when a contract ends?

If your business owns the accounts and has the necessary administrator access, you can generally remove the agency's access and appoint another provider. If the agency owns the accounts, transferring access or retaining campaign history may be more difficult.

Is there a minimum contract term for SEO?

There is no universal minimum term for SEO services. SEO often requires sustained work over several months, but the contract length is a commercial decision between the business and its provider.

Final Thoughts

Before signing a 12-month marketing contract, ask yourself three questions.

Do I understand exactly what I'm paying for?

Do I know how to leave if the relationship isn't working?

And will I retain control of my website, domain and advertising accounts?

A good agency should be happy to explain all three.

Because the best business relationships aren't built on making it difficult for customers to leave.

They're built on giving customers a reason to stay.

Looking for straightforward digital marketing or website support?

At OptyDigitals, we help small businesses with websites, ecommerce, SEO and advertising, with a focus on clear communication and practical results.

Get in touch with OptyDigitals

What Is Attribution? A Simple Guide for Shopify Store Owners

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 15:50:11 GMT

What Is Attribution? A Simple Guide for Shopify Store Owners

Attribution is the process of working out which marketing activity deserves credit for a sale.

If someone sees your Facebook ad, searches for your business on Google and later buys from an email, attribution determines which of those interactions gets the credit.

It sounds straightforward. In practice, it's one of the biggest sources of confusion for ecommerce store owners.

You open Meta Ads Manager and see one revenue figure. Shopify shows another. Google Analytics might show something different again.

So which number is right? Are your ads actually profitable? And should you pay for another analytics tool to help you work it out?

The answer starts with understanding what attribution can, and cannot, tell you.

Why Does Attribution Matter for Ecommerce Businesses?

Imagine a customer discovers your products through an Instagram advertisement on Tuesday.

On Friday, they search for your brand on Google and visit your website.

On Sunday, they receive an email, return to your store and make a £100 purchase.

Your Shopify store records one order worth £100.

But three different marketing activities contributed to that sale:

Instagram introduced the customer to your brand.
Google helped them find you again.
Email encouraged them to complete their purchase.

Which channel should receive credit for the £100?

That's the problem attribution tries to solve.

Different platforms use different rules to answer that question, which is why marketing reports don't always agree.

Why Do Meta Ads and Shopify Show Different Sales Figures?

This is one of the most common questions ecommerce businesses face.

The short answer is that Meta and Shopify measure different things.

Shopify records the orders processed through your store.

Meta reports conversions it attributes to interactions with your advertisements.

For example, a customer might see your Facebook advertisement, leave without clicking, and return to your store later through Google.

Depending on your attribution settings and the information Meta can observe or model, Meta may attribute that purchase to your advertisement.

Shopify will still record the actual order, but its marketing attribution reporting may associate the order with a different source.

Neither platform is necessarily making a mistake.

They are answering different questions.

This distinction becomes especially important when you're making decisions about advertising budgets.

If Meta reports £2,000 in attributed revenue, that does not necessarily mean your advertising generated £2,000 in additional sales that would otherwise never have happened.

Equally, a purchase that Meta cannot attribute to an advertisement does not prove the advertisement had no influence.

What about Google Analytics?

Google Analytics 4 adds another perspective.

It measures website and app activity using its own event collection, reporting rules and attribution settings.

Differences in consent, tracking, channel definitions and attribution methods can all contribute to discrepancies between GA4, Shopify and Meta.

Rather than expecting all three platforms to produce identical figures, it's more useful to understand what each one is measuring.

What Is an Attribution Window?

An attribution window is the period during which a conversion can be credited to an advertising interaction.

For example, a seven-day click attribution window means a qualifying purchase made within seven days of an advertisement click may be attributed to that advertisement.

A one-day view attribution window means a qualifying purchase made within one day of viewing an advertisement may also receive credit, subject to the platform's rules and measurement capabilities.

Meta commonly uses a seven-day click and one-day view attribution setting for eligible website conversion campaigns, although settings can vary by campaign and may change over time.

Changing the attribution window can change the number of conversions and the amount of revenue reported.

The actual orders in Shopify haven't changed.

Only the rules used to attribute them have changed.

This is why comparing advertising performance across different periods without checking attribution settings can lead to misleading conclusions.

Why Are Some Shopify Sales Showing as Direct or Unknown?

You may notice orders in Shopify where the marketing source is recorded as direct, unknown or unattributed.

There are several possible explanations.

A customer might:

Visit your website directly after previously seeing an advertisement.
Switch between devices before purchasing.
Decline tracking consent.
Use a browser that limits tracking technologies.
Return to your store after the original referral information is no longer available.

These situations can make it difficult to connect a purchase to an earlier marketing interaction.

However, it's important not to assume every direct or unknown sale came from paid advertising.

Some customers genuinely visit directly, and others may have discovered your business through channels that were never tracked.

An unattributed order is an order without a reliable recorded marketing source, not proof of a missing advertising conversion.

How Should Shopify Store Owners Measure Advertising Performance?

A practical starting point is to separate actual store performance from advertising-platform attribution.

For example:

MetricWhat it tells youShopify ordersHow many orders your store processedShopify revenueSales recorded by your store, using the revenue definition you've selectedMeta advertising spendHow much you spent advertisingMeta attributed purchasesPurchases Meta credits to your advertisementsMeta attributed revenueRevenue Meta attributes to your advertisementsBlended ROASTotal store revenue divided by advertising spend, using a consistent definition

Consider a simple example.

Your Shopify store records £5,000 in revenue during a particular period.

You spend £1,000 on Meta advertising.

Meta reports £3,500 in attributed purchase revenue.

Your Meta-reported ROAS is:

£3,500 ÷ £1,000 = 3.5

Your blended ROAS, using total Shopify revenue against Meta spend alone, is:

£5,000 ÷ £1,000 = 5.0

These numbers answer different questions.

The first tells you how much revenue Meta attributes to its advertisements relative to Meta spend.

The second compares all store revenue with the amount spent on Meta. It does not prove that Meta generated every sale, and it excludes any other advertising costs.

Neither number should be interpreted without considering profit margins, other marketing expenses, repeat customers and the wider business.

But together, they can provide a more useful picture than relying on one dashboard alone.

We Built Compass to Help Shopify Store Owners Understand Their Numbers

Compass was developed around a straightforward problem: Shopify merchants shouldn't have to spend their mornings switching between dashboards just to understand their advertising performance.

Rather than presenting another complicated attribution model, Compass brings Meta advertising data and Shopify store performance together in one place.

It helps merchants compare advertising spend and attributed performance against the sales recorded by their Shopify store.

The goal is to make reporting easier to understand, highlight differences worth investigating and give store owners a clearer starting point for their decisions.

Compass doesn't remove every limitation of digital attribution, and it shouldn't be treated as proof that an advertisement caused a particular sale.

Instead, it helps you work with the information available without losing sight of the actual orders processed by your business.

Explore Compass for Shopify

Final Thoughts

Attribution doesn't have to be complicated.

It starts with understanding that a sale can involve several marketing interactions and that different platforms use different methods to assign credit.

Your Shopify store tells you what customers purchased.

Your advertising platforms help you understand which marketing activities may have contributed.

And the right reporting tools should make those differences easier to investigate, not harder.

Before paying for more software, make sure you understand the numbers you already have.

And before subscribing to an attribution platform, ask its support team a question that actually matters to your business.

The quality of the answer may tell you more than the feature list.

How do I check whether my Meta pixel is tracking properly?

Fri, 16 Oct 2026 09:32:42 GMT

How do I check whether my Meta pixel is tracking properly?

You can check it yourself in about ten minutes, by placing a test order on your own store and watching the events arrive in Meta Events Manager. If the Purchase event does not appear, or appears with a value that does not match the order, the problem is in the tracking rather than in the advertising.

What should a working pixel be recording?

A standard Shopify and Meta setup sends a small set of named events as a shopper moves through the store: PageView when a page loads, ViewContent on a product page, AddToCart, InitiateCheckout, and Purchase once the order is paid for. Purchase is the one that matters for reporting, because it carries the order value and the currency, and every ROAS figure in Ads Manager is built on it. Shopify's own Meta sales channel configures most of this during setup, which makes it easy to assume the job is done and never look at it again.

How do I run a test order?

Create a product priced at a pound or two and leave it out of your collections and search results, so no customer finds it. In Meta Events Manager, open your pixel, then the Test Events tab, and paste in your store URL. Go through the whole journey on the live site: load the product page, add it to the basket, start the checkout and pay. The events appear in a live list as you go, usually within a few seconds of each step. When you are finished, refund the order and archive the product.

If Purchase never appears, that is your answer. If every event appears except Purchase, the break is at the checkout rather than on the site itself.

What if Purchase fires but the value is wrong?

Check what the event value is actually made of. Depending on how the pixel was configured it may include shipping, and in the UK it may include VAT, which means the revenue Meta reports is higher than the money the business keeps and the ROAS built on it reads better than it should. A value of zero, or a value that matches a different order, usually points to a conversion-tracking app layered on top of the native setup.

What if the same order is counted twice?

A browser pixel and a server-side Conversions API connection can both report the same purchase. They are meant to be matched and merged using a shared event ID; when that is missing, one order is counted as two. Events Manager flags duplicates in its diagnostics, and the symptom is reported sales running consistently above the orders in Shopify.

What we've seen in practice

Pixels rarely break outright. They break partly. The Purchase event keeps firing for some shoppers and not others, so reported sales drop by a third rather than to zero, and nothing looks broken enough to investigate. The cause is usually a change made for a different reason — a theme update, a new checkout or upsell app, a cookie banner set to block scripts until consent is given. When a merchant brings us a month that looks bad, the first thing we ask for is the date of the last change to the theme or the apps. The two dates line up more often than not.

Compass reads the orders in the Shopify store rather than relying on the pixel, so a broken event shows up as a gap between the store and the platform instead of as a quiet drop in reported sales.

Do I need a Google Business Profile before I build a website?

Fri, 16 Oct 2026 09:24:58 GMT

Do I need a Google Business Profile before I build a website?

No, you don't need one first, but it is usually worth setting up before the website, because a Google Business Profile can start bringing in enquiries while the site is still being built.

A Google Business Profile is the listing that appears beside a search result, and in the map results, when somebody searches for a business or a service near them. It is free, it runs through a Google account, and filling one in properly takes about twenty minutes plus however long verification takes. A website takes longer than that, costs money, and will not appear in the map results at all — those are drawn from profiles, not from websites. The two do different jobs, which is why having one does not remove the need for the other.

H2: Can a Google Business Profile work without a website?

Yes. A profile can take calls, messages and direction requests on its own, and plenty of trades and salons get most of their enquiries that way for years before they build anything. Google asks for a website address but does not insist on one. A profile without a website still appears, still collects reviews and still ranks in the map results.

What it cannot do is explain anything at length. There is no room for prices, for the detail of what a job actually involves, or for the photographs and wording that make somebody choose you over the next listing. People comparing three businesses tend to click through to a website to do the comparing, and a profile with nothing to click through to loses some of them at that point.

H2: What should go in it before worrying about the website?

The business name, exactly as it appears everywhere else. Every category that applies, not just the main one. The service area set to where the business actually travels, rather than a radius that looks ambitious. Opening hours, kept correct. Real photographs, added a few at a time rather than all in one go. And then reviews, asked for steadily — that is the part that moves a profile up the map results more than anything else on the listing.

H2: What we've seen in practice

The businesses that get the most out of a new website are nearly always the ones whose Google Business Profile was already filled in and collecting reviews before the build started. The site launches into existing demand rather than into silence, and it is far easier to tell whether the site is doing anything, because there is something to compare it against.

The reverse pattern is just as consistent. A business pays for a website, waits, and nothing much happens — and the profile turns out to be half-finished, with one category, no photographs since the day it was created, and three reviews. In those cases the website was rarely the thing holding it back.

H2: Does one help the other?

They support each other. The profile links to the website, which gives Google a straightforward connection between the two. The website carries the same business name, address and phone number, which is part of how Google decides a listing is genuine. Done together, each one makes the other easier to find.

OptyDigitals sets up or tidies a Google Business Profile as part of a website build, and will say when a profile is all a business needs for now.

Who actually does the work on my website?

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 08:12:41 GMT

Who actually does the work on my website?

If you're gathering quotes for a website at the moment, two questions worth adding to the list: Who will I be speaking to while this is being built? What happens when I want a word changed six months after it goes live?

Ask, and a web company should be able to tell you in one sentence. Some build everything themselves, some pass the work to freelancers or to a team abroad, and some do a mix depending on the job. None of those is automatically wrong, but you are entitled to know which one you are buying before you pay a deposit.

Why does it matter who does the work?

It matters for two practical reasons, and neither is about skill. The first is how quickly you get an answer. If the person you email is not the person doing the build, every question you ask joins a queue and comes back a day or two later, slightly altered in the handover. Small jobs that would take ten minutes take a fortnight. The second is what happens afterwards. A site built by someone you have never spoken to, in a system nobody explained to you, is harder to pick up when you want a change in a year's time.

Is outsourcing a problem?

Not in itself. Plenty of good work is done by freelancers and by teams outside the UK, and a small company that brings in a specialist for one part of a build, a complicated Shopify integration or the photography, is doing the sensible thing. The complaint that keeps appearing in public is not that work was outsourced. It is that it was outsourced quietly, after a pitch that implied otherwise, and the client worked it out when the replies started arriving at three in the morning.

What should I ask before I pay a deposit?

Three questions cover it. Who will be building this, and will I speak to them at any point. Who do I contact when something breaks, and what is the normal reply time. If you are away or busy, who picks it up. The answers matter less than the fact that they come straight back; a company that has to go away and think about it has told you something.

What we've seen in practice

The businesses who come to us unhappy with a previous supplier rarely complain about the standard of the work. They complain about silence. Weeks without an answer, a project that stalled at ninety per cent, an invoice arriving with nothing attached to it. In nearly all of those cases the client could not name the person who had built their site. They had a company name, and an email address that went to a shared inbox, and no idea who was at the other end of it. Where a client can name the person doing the work, those problems tend not to arise, because there is nobody to hide behind.

The other pattern is handover. Sites built by a team the client never met tend to arrive with nothing written down. No note of where the hosting sits, which plugins are doing what, or why a page was built the way it was. That is recoverable, but it costs the next person a day's work, and the client pays for that day.

OptyDigitals tells you who is doing the work, and who you will be speaking to while it is being done, before any money changes hands.

Is Shopify's Facebook & Instagram app accurate?

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 08:54:32 GMT

Is Shopify's Facebook & Instagram app accurate?

It is accurate about what Meta can see, which is not every order your shop takes — so the purchase figures in Ads Manager will not line up with your Shopify orders, and that difference is normal rather than a sign something is broken.

What does the app actually measure?

The app connects your shop to Meta, sets up the pixel and the Conversions API, syncs your product catalogue and feeds purchase events back to Ads Manager. What arrives there is the set of purchases Meta was able to match to someone who clicked or saw one of your ads, inside the attribution window you have set. It is a count of credited sales, not a count of your sales.

Why doesn't it match my Shopify orders?

Several reasons stack up, and most of them are design rather than error. Meta dates a purchase to the ad interaction, so a sale from a click on the 29th can sit on the 29th in Ads Manager while Shopify records the order on the 1st. Browser tracking is blocked or declined by a share of shoppers, and your consent settings decide what gets sent at all. The pixel and the Conversions API both report, and the deduplication between them is not perfect. Meta does not see refunds, cancellations or failed payments, so an order that came back still counts. Your ad account and your shop can also sit in different time zones, which moves whole days around.

Does that mean the app is broken?

Usually not, though it is worth checking. Confirm the pixel and dataset are the ones you intend to use, confirm the ad account and the shop are on the same time zone, and confirm the attribution setting you are reading is the one you think it is. If the figures are still wildly apart after that — a handful of credited purchases against dozens of orders — something is wired wrong and is worth looking at properly.

What we've seen in practice

The gap bothers merchants less than not knowing how big it is. A merchant writing on the Shopify Community in January 2026 said that "only about 60% of purchases are tracked, making me hesitant to scale since the data in Ads Manager seems inaccurate." That is the real cost of it: budget decisions get postponed, not because the ads are failing but because nobody can say what they did. Shops that reconcile one finished week by hand — Meta's reported purchases against Shopify's orders for the same dates — generally stop arguing with the dashboard. They know their own gap and they take roughly that much off the figure.

Which number should I use to make decisions?

Your shop's orders for anything to do with money: revenue, refunds, what you actually kept. Ads Manager for direction: which creative and which audience are getting attention. The confusion usually starts when the ad platform's own score of its contribution gets treated as the accounts.

Compass reports from the store side — orders, refunds, costs and fees — so the revenue figure you work from is the one the shop actually took.

Why isn't my website showing up on Google at all?

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 08:52:22 GMT

Why isn't my website showing up on Google at all?

Why isn't my website showing up on Google at all?Usually because Google has either never been told the site exists, or has been told not to show it. Both are common after a new build, and both are normally fixed in a day once you know which one it is.

Is the site in Google at all?

Worth settling first, because "not showing up" covers two different problems with two different answers. Open Google and type site: followed by your domain, with no space after the colon. If a list of your pages comes back, the site is indexed and what you have is a ranking problem — you are in Google, just not high enough to be seen. If nothing comes back, Google does not hold your site at all, and no amount of content, keywords or ad spend will change that until it does.

Why would a new site not be indexed?

The ordinary reason is time, and nobody having told Google. A site that went live last week may simply not have been crawled yet, particularly if nothing anywhere else links to it. Setting up Google Search Console and submitting the sitemap is what shortens that wait from weeks to days, and it is the step most often skipped on a small build, because it falls after the invoice has gone out.

Why would my own website be blocking Google?

Because something switched on during the build was never switched off. Most sites are built on a staging address with a noindex instruction in place, so the half-finished version does not get picked up, and that instruction has to be removed at launch. In WordPress it is a single tick box labelled something like "discourage search engines from indexing this site". A robots.txt file can carry a blanket disallow for the same reason. Password protection and coming-soon pages have the same effect. The site looks completely normal to anyone you send the link to, which is why it can sit like that for months.

Could it be the domain rather than the site?

Sometimes. If the domain is still pointing at an old host, Google may be reading a previous site or a parking page rather than the new one. The same applies when both the www and non-www versions answer without one redirecting to the other, or when http and https both answer — Google sees several copies and may not treat the one you are looking at as the main one.

What we've seen in practice

The single most common cause we find is the noindex instruction left in place after launch. It accounts for more "we have disappeared off Google" calls than everything else put together, and it is usually weeks old by the time anybody notices, because nothing about the site looks wrong. The second most common is the opposite: the site was indexed all along, and the owner is searching broad terms they were never going to rank for, or searching while signed in and getting a result shaped by their own browsing. Running the site: search first saves a lot of work aimed at the wrong problem.

How long after it's fixed?

For a small site, days rather than weeks once the block is removed and the sitemap is submitted. A fortnight is normal, and nothing can be paid to speed it up — there is no priority queue.

OptyDigitals checks indexing and Search Console coverage before a new site goes live, and again a fortnight after.

What happens to my website if I leave my agency?

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 08:50:44 GMT

What happens to my website if I leave my agency?

If the domain, the hosting and the website files are in your name, your site keeps working when you leave and moves with you. If any of those three sit in the agency's name, or the site was built on a platform the agency owns, what you walk away with depends on what was agreed when the work started rather than on anything you can insist on afterwards.

What do I need to take with me?

Four things, and they are much easier to collect while the relationship is still a friendly one. The domain name, in an account you can log into yourself. The site itself: either the hosting account, or a full export — files and database for a WordPress build, theme and product exports for Shopify. The content, meaning the text, the photographs and the logo in its original format rather than a JPEG lifted off the homepage. And the accounts that sit around the website, which are the ones people forget: Google Business Profile, Analytics, Search Console, any ad accounts, and the email.

A website can be rebuilt from content. A domain with ten years of history behind it cannot, and neither can the reviews on a Google Business Profile. Those two are worth securing first.

What if the site was built on the agency's own platform?

Some web companies build on a system they own and host themselves. The pages cannot be exported in a form another company can run, so leaving means a rebuild. That is worth asking about early, because the answer does not change once you have given notice. The content is still yours. The build is not.

What if the agency has stopped replying?

Most of it can be recovered without them. A domain registrar will deal with the registrant on record, and the public WHOIS record tells you who that is. Google accounts can usually be claimed through a verification process rather than a conversation. Hosting is the awkward one if the account is in their name, though a site can be copied from the live pages if it comes to that. All of it is slower and more expensive than asking politely three months earlier.

What we've seen in practice

Handovers rarely go wrong over the website files. They go wrong over the domain and the smaller accounts — an email address set up years ago by someone who has since left, a Google Business Profile verified on a personal address, an ad account nobody can get into. The sites that move cleanly belong to owners who asked who held what at the start and kept a note of it. The ones that take weeks belong to owners who have never logged in to any of it themselves.

Giving notice is also simpler than people expect. A short email stating the last date you want work done, and asking for the domain, an export and account access by a given date, is enough. No reason needs to be given.

OptyDigitals takes handovers from other web companies and checks the domain, hosting and account access before anything is moved.

For free prat ical advice contact us today.

What is the difference between attributed revenue and actual revenue?

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 08:48:11 GMT

What is the difference between attributed revenue and actual revenue?

A merchant on the Shopify forums in August, on judging campaigns by the ROAS the platform reports: "comparing campaigns purely on platform ROAS without that context can genuinely lead to scaling a losing campaign or killing a profitable one." Both mistakes cost the same money and neither one is obvious at the time. One thing worth doing before you switch a campaign off this week: open Shopify's orders for the same date range and count what actually came in. If the two disagree badly, you are about to make the decision on the wrong number.

So whats the difference?

Attributed revenue is the sales an advertising platform claims credit for. Actual revenue is the money that arrived in your store. They measure different things, and they rarely match.

Actual revenue is a count. It comes from your Shopify admin: orders placed and paid for, adjusted for refunds. There is one of it. Attributed revenue is an estimate. Meta, Google and your email tool each decide which of those orders they believe they caused, using their own tracking, their own click and view windows, and their own modelling for the sales they cannot observe. Each works alone, and none of them knows what the others have already claimed.

Why does Meta report revenue my store has not recorded?

Usually because of what the attribution window allows. A seven-day click window credits an ad for an order placed a week later, including orders from customers who were coming back anyway. Modelled conversions fill in sales the platform believes it influenced but cannot see. And the conversion value sent by the pixel may include VAT and shipping, while the figure you are comparing it against is net of both. None of this is the platform misbehaving. It is doing the job it was built for, which is measuring its own contribution.

Can attributed revenue be lower than my actual sales?

Often, yes. Tracking prevention, consent banners, ad blockers and app-tracking permissions all stop purchases being reported back to the platform. The sale still happens; it just lands in your reports as Direct or Unknown. This is why a month can look flat in Ads Manager and strong in the bank.

Which number should I make decisions on?

Use actual revenue to judge whether the business is working, because it is the only figure counting money that arrived. Use attributed revenue inside a single platform, for comparing one campaign or audience against another, where the same measurement rules apply to both. The thing worth avoiding is adding attributed figures together across platforms, because the same order is frequently claimed more than once.

What we've seen in practice

Merchants who total attributed revenue across Meta, Google and their email platform usually end up with a number larger than their own store recorded, and the overlap grows as channels are added. That total then gets used to set next month's budget, and the budget is wrong by the size of the double counting. The opposite pattern turns up after theme or app changes: attributed revenue drops, the ads get blamed, the creative gets replaced, and what actually changed was the tracking.

Compass reports the revenue Shopify recorded alongside what Meta attributed to itself, so the difference between the two is visible.

For an easy way to get answers, try Compass in your Shopify store today!

Will transferring my domain stop my email working?

Mon, 28 Sep 2026 15:54:21 GMT

Short answer: No. Transferring your domain should not stop your email working, provided your DNS and email records are handled correctly during the transfer.

Your domain name and your email service are connected, but they are not necessarily provided by the same company. You might have your domain registered with one provider while your email is hosted by Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or another email provider.

This means you can usually transfer your domain without changing where your email is hosted.

Why can email stop working during a domain transfer?

Email problems normally happen when the domain's DNS settings are changed or recreated incorrectly.

Your DNS contains records that tell the internet where different services connected to your domain should go.

For email, some of the important records include:

MX records, which tell email where incoming messages should be delivered
SPF records, which help identify which systems are allowed to send email for your domain
DKIM records, which help authenticate outgoing email
DMARC records, which tell receiving mail systems how to handle messages that fail authentication

If these records remain correctly configured, transferring the domain itself should not interrupt your email.

What should be checked before transferring a domain?

Before making any changes, take a record of the existing DNS configuration.

You should know:

where the domain is currently registered
where the DNS is managed
who provides the email service
where the website is hosted
what DNS records are currently in place

This is particularly important because moving a website, transferring a domain and changing email providers are three different things.

They do not all need to happen at the same time.

Can I move my website without moving my email?

Yes.

For example, a business might have:

Domain: registered with GoDaddy
Website: hosted elsewhere
Email: Microsoft 365

The website can be rebuilt and moved to a new platform while the existing Microsoft 365 email accounts continue operating.

The DNS records for the website are changed to point towards the new website, while the email records remain pointed towards Microsoft 365.

The same principle applies if the business uses Google Workspace or another email provider.

What is the biggest mistake to avoid?

One of the biggest mistakes is assuming that transferring a domain means every DNS setting will automatically follow it.

Before changing nameservers or moving DNS management, make sure the existing records have been documented and that the necessary records will exist at the new DNS provider.

Otherwise, the new website might work perfectly while email suddenly stops arriving.

That is why domain migrations should be planned rather than treated as simply moving a domain from one account to another.

Will I lose my existing emails?

Normally, no.

Transferring a domain does not automatically delete the emails already stored inside Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or another separate email platform.

Existing mailboxes and historical messages are held by the email provider.

The main risk from an incorrectly configured transfer is disruption to the sending or receiving of new messages, rather than the domain transfer itself deleting your existing mailbox.

What if my website developer also controls my domain?

This is worth checking before starting a website migration.

Ideally, the business should know:

who legally controls the domain registration
which account the domain is registered in
who controls the DNS
who manages the email service
who has access to each account

If a previous developer or agency controls these services, obtain the necessary access before beginning the migration.

A website rebuild becomes much easier when ownership and access are clear before anything is changed.

How do I transfer a domain without disrupting email?

The safest approach is simple:

Document the existing DNS records.
Confirm where the email is currently hosted.
Confirm where DNS will be managed after the transfer.
Recreate or preserve the required email records.
Make the domain or DNS change.
Test incoming and outgoing email.
Check the website and other services connected to the domain.

Avoid making several unrelated changes simultaneously unless there is a good reason to do so.

If the website is moving but the email isn't, leave the email configuration alone wherever possible.

So, will transferring my domain stop my email?

It shouldn't.

A properly managed domain transfer can take place without interrupting your existing email service.

Problems generally arise when DNS records are removed, changed or incorrectly configured during the process.

If your business relies heavily on email, document the existing setup before making any changes and make sure whoever handles the transfer understands both the website and email configuration.

How much does a small business website cost in the UK?

Wed, 23 Sep 2026 14:29:38 GMT

A small business website in the UK typically costs between £500 and £5,000 to build. A simple brochure site of five to ten pages sits around £1,000 to £2,500. A custom design or ecommerce build runs £3,500 upwards. Ongoing costs are separate: hosting, maintenance and SEO are usually charged monthly.

What you're actually paying for

Most of the cost is time, not software. Web designers posting their own rates on UK business forums put it around £50 an hour. A straightforward brochure site is roughly eighteen to twenty-five hours once you include the conversation at the start, the build, the content, and the fixing afterwards. That's where £1,000 to £1,250 comes from.

One designer put his standard rate at "£1000 which includes pages, basic seo and other generic demands". Another said he could "set up a site for under £500 and still make decent profit". A third, quoting for a custom-built theme, said "Last time I built a custom theme my fee was nearly £5k". All three are describing real work. They're describing different amounts of it.

Why the quotes you get vary so much

Three things move the number more than anything else: whether the design is custom or a template, whether you're writing the content or the agency is, and whether anything needs to be built rather than configured - a booking system, a payment flow, a members' area.

A £400 quote and a £4,000 quote are usually not the same job. Ask each one what's actually included rather than comparing the totals.

The cheap end, honestly

You can get a site built for £200 on a freelance marketplace, and some of those are fine. The risk is in what happens next. One UK business owner described paying for a redesign through a freelancer and then "the website went down". Another found the designer had registered the domain in his own name. If you go that route, get the domain in your name first and keep your own logins.

The ongoing costs nobody mentions in the quote

The build is one number. Running it is another. UK rates posted by agencies in late 2024 put WordPress maintenance from around £100 a month, SEO from £300, and paid ads management from £400. Hosting and a domain are small by comparison - tens of pounds a year, not hundreds.

Ask for the monthly figure at the same time as the build figure. A cheap build with an expensive tie-in is a common shape, and it's the one people regret.

What to ask before you pay a deposit

Who will own the domain. What happens if you want to leave. Whether you can edit the text yourself afterwards. Whether the quote is fixed or an estimate. Get the answers in writing - a real quote should survive being printed out.

Why do Meta Ads, Shopify and GA4 show different sales figures?

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 12:24:01 GMT

Meta Ads, Shopify and Google Analytics 4 can all show different sales figures because they measure different things and use different attribution methods.

Shopify records the orders that actually happened in your store. Meta tries to determine which sales were influenced by your Facebook and Instagram ads, while GA4 attributes purchases according to its own tracking and attribution rules.

Meta Ads, Shopify and Google Analytics 4 can all show different sales figures because they measure different things and use different attribution methods.

So if Meta says your ads generated £5,000, Shopify shows £4,500 in total sales and GA4 reports £3,800, it doesn't necessarily mean your tracking is broken. The platforms are answering different questions.

Why does Meta Ads report more sales than Shopify?

Meta doesn't simply count purchases made immediately after somebody clicks an advert.

Depending on your attribution settings, Meta can claim credit for purchases that happen after someone clicks or interacts with an ad and then returns to your store later.

This creates an important distinction:

Meta attributed revenue is not the same thing as Shopify store revenue.

Meta is effectively asking:

"Which purchases can I attribute to advertising on Meta?"

Shopify is recording:

"Which orders actually happened in the store?"

Those aren't the same measurement.

It also means you shouldn't automatically treat Meta's reported ROAS as the definitive measure of how much additional revenue your advertising created.

Why can GA4 show another number again?

GA4 has its own tracking and attribution methodology.

A customer might discover your business through a Meta ad, leave the website, return through Google several days later and purchase.

Meta may attribute that purchase to the original advertisement.

GA4 may assign the journey differently.

Shopify simply records the completed order.

The result can be three different versions of the same customer journey.

This becomes even more complicated when customers use multiple devices, reject cookies, move between browsers or interact with several marketing channels before buying.

Which number should I trust?

Start with Shopify for the reality of what your store sold .

Then use Meta Ads, GA4 and other marketing platforms to understand how those sales were generated and which channels may have contributed to them.

The mistake is expecting every platform to reconcile perfectly.

They won't.

For an ecommerce business, the more useful question isn't:

"Which platform has the correct number?"

It's:

"Given all the available evidence, which marketing activity is actually helping us make profitable sales?"

That's the decision your reporting needs to help you make.

What we've seen in practice

We regularly see ecommerce businesses making advertising decisions using Meta Ads Manager alone.

An ad reports a strong ROAS, so the budget gets increased.

Another reports fewer purchases, so it gets switched off.

But when we compare advertising performance against actual Shopify store data, the picture can look very different.

This is particularly important when several ads and marketing channels are running simultaneously. Meta, Google, email and organic search can all have played a role in the same customer's journey.

Looking at one platform in isolation can therefore give a business owner more confidence in the number than the data actually justifies.

What should you do instead?

Use Shopify as the foundation for actual store performance, then evaluate your advertising and marketing data alongside it.

Look beyond attributed revenue and ROAS at things such as:

actual store sales
advertising spend
cost per purchase
conversion rate
average order value
new versus returning customers
overall profitability
changes in total store revenue as advertising spend changes

The objective isn't to force Meta, Shopify and GA4 to produce identical numbers.

It's to understand enough of the complete picture to make a better decision about where your next pound of marketing budget should go.

This is why we built Compass

This attribution problem is one of the reasons we built Compass.

Compass connects Meta Ads with Shopify store data so that ecommerce businesses can look beyond what Ads Manager reports and understand advertising performance alongside what is actually happening in their store.

Instead of jumping between dashboards and trying to reconcile different versions of performance, the aim is to give you the information needed to answer a much more useful question:

What's actually working, and what should I do next?

[ Learn more about Compass ]