# 89 Digital — full site content > 89 Digital is a boutique web development company serving clients in New Zealand, Australia and the United States. We build fast, high-performing websites designed to grow your business — every decision backed by real data, not guesswork. This document contains the full text content of 89 Digital for AI search and ingestion. Source: https://89.digital/ --- # Home Source: https://89.digital/ Updated: 2026-09-08 Is your website fit for business? # The Web Developer NZ turns toWe build websites to perform. 89 Digital is the web developer NZ turns to — a boutique team building fast, high-performing websites for businesses and online stores across New Zealand and Australia. Every decision is backed by real data, no guessing. We build for performance first, then grow you through SEO, GEO, and Google Ads. Get your FREE website health check What we do ## We don't guess. We measure. Most sites are designed on instinct and hope — and hope is no longer enough to perform. We start with your numbers: traffic, search visibility, and how your customers actually behave on-site — and let that shape everything, from the homepage wireframe to the words on the page. The result: a good-looking website built on evidence, ready to grow your business. Build Wireframes shaped by your analytics and search. A UI built around your brand, and UX designed for how customers behave — a fast, solid foundation engineered for performance. Measure Our own AI data-intelligence platform pulls your analytics, search and sales into one plain-English view — so you always know exactly what your website is doing, and what to do next. Grow An ongoing partnership that keeps improving your site after launch — built around your business needs. SEO, AI search, content and ads, guided by a senior team and the data. Small gains, stacked month after month. ## You work directly with the people who do the work. No account managers, no handoffs, no surprises. Where most agencies scale through volume, we scale through local expertise — the same two senior specialists, from your first call to every monthly report: a full-stack web developer, and a strategist. Meet the two people you'll work with — directly, every time. Ian Fraser Technical Lead Ian leads the build — the architecture, performance, and technical detail that decides whether your site is fast, secure, and easy to find. A full-stack developer with 25+ years across custom and open-source website builds, he pairs deep technical know-how with a designer's eye, so your site doesn't just look right, it works hard for your business. Hayley Fraser Digital Strategist Hayley turns your data into direction — reading the analytics, spotting what's working, and shaping the digital strategy that grows traffic and enquiries. With 15 years across sales, marketing, commercial and strategy roles at some of New Zealand's leading businesses, she keeps the focus on measurable outcomes and a clear, plain-English plan you can actually follow. ## Real results, real businesses [View all case studies →](https://89.digital/case-studies/) [Mulleti · Roman pizzeria, Ponsonby Central Foundation Growth ### Built for opening night — a fast Ponsonby restaurant website A brand-new Roman pizzeria in Ponsonby Central — Enis Baçova's "Nonna's kitchen" concept, forno pizza by the slice — that needed to be online… Read story →](https://89.digital/case-studies/mulleti-ponsonby-restaurant-website/) [Margaritas Cleaning · Auckland cleaning company Foundation Growth ### 11× the monthly leads — from a website refresh and Google Ads A well-regarded Auckland cleaning company had grown entirely through word-of-mouth but had been held back by a website that wasn't ready to convert. We… Read story →](https://89.digital/case-studies/margaritas-cleaning-google-ads-case-study/) [Ashcroft Homes · New Zealand home builder Foundation ### 3× faster on mobile, built for an Auckland home builder A ground-up rebuild of the Ashcroft Homes website to improve website performance, modern web standards and search visibility — dramatically faster on every device,… Read story →](https://89.digital/case-studies/ashcroft-homes-website-performance-case-study/) Trusted by Our plans ## Two plans, one clear path forward Start with a free website report, then choose the plan that fits. Foundation is a one-off website design and build, done right from the ground up. Growth is the ongoing partnership that markets and grows your website traffic and leads. Most clients use both — and that’s exactly why we built them together. Step 1 ## Foundation PLAN A rebuild that gets your website fit and healthy — fast, secure, and ready to grow. Starting from $8,000* Includes - Website wireframe & UI design - Custom WordPress & WooCommerce theme (no page builders) - Performance optimisation — 90+ PageSpeed score - …and more [Learn about Foundation →](https://89.digital/foundation-plan/) Step 2 ## Growth PLAN A monthly retainer for ongoing strategy, content, search visibility, and Google ads management. Starting from $1,500* (per month) Includes - Ongoing SEO and AI search (GEO) optimisation - Website performance and technical improvements - Content refinement and on-page optimisation - …and more [Learn about Growth →](https://89.digital/growth-plan/) Already got a fast, well-built site? We’ll tell you — and start you straight on Growth. * Prices exclude GST. Foundation is a one-off project fee; Growth is billed monthly. WooCommerce ## Already running a WooCommerce store? We keep WooCommerce stores fast, fixed and selling — custom development, plugin-conflict fixes, speed tuning and ongoing senior support. [WooCommerce support →](/woocommerce-support/) ## Cardoby 89 Digital Know exactly how your website is performing — and what we're doing to grow it. Most dashboards just hand you numbers. Cardo pulls together every signal behind your website and turns it into a clear, plain-English story you can understand. - SiteHealth Bot by 89 Digital — our own bot continuously crawls your site, tracking health, speed, SEO and AI search (GEO) readiness so issues are caught the moment they appear. - Your analytics & data feeds — GA4, Search Console, rankings and sales, unified in one live view. - Industry benchmarks — see how you're performing against your industry, so you know what "good" really looks like. - AIAI insight, managed by us — AI turns the numbers into recommendations, reviewed and actioned by your 89 Digital team. Find out more → [See a demo →](https://89.digital/cardo-demo) [cardo.89.digital/dashboard Cardo.BY 89 DIGITAL YOURLOGO Your Company Name Dashboard Plan Documents Brand Assets Reports Support YCYour Nameyou@yourcompany.co.nz E-Commerce · Last 30 days ### Welcome back. Here’s how Your Company Name is performing. 1:27 PMNZTSunday, 14 June 2026● GA4 live · synced 4 hours ago SummarySite TrafficChannelsSearch VisibilityPaid ActivityStore ★ Your story · Last 30 days Revenue grew 6.2% this month to $18,420 on the back of stronger organic search and a solid paid social month. The flip side: average order value slipped slightly and your SEO foundations are still the weakest part of the site. Revenue this period$18,420156 orders · 2.41% CR▲ 6.2% vs prev Orders156transactions▲ 4.0% vs prev Avg order value$118.08per transaction▼ 2.1% vs prev Site Health Score Based on 68 pages · updated 2 days ago C74.5/100 ▲ +13.5 since day one · was 61 PillarTrendScore Performance18/20 SEO & AI search9.8/20 Security16/20 Experience11.5/15 GEO8.2/15 Sustainability8/10](https://89.digital/cardo-demo) Where your traffic comes from - Direct 34% - Paid Social 17% - Cross-network 14% - Organic 13% - Other 22% Orders & revenue · last 30 days $8,505 revenue68 orders ## While you sleep,it's blocking attacks. Every Cardo client gets Detect & Protect — our own always-on security agent that watches your website around the clock, catching and actively blocking threats in real time. - #### Real-time blocking Bad bots, brute-force and injection attempts stopped the moment they appear — not just logged after the fact. - #### AI monitoring that learns AI watches the live event stream and adapts to new, novel attacks as they emerge — not just known signatures. - #### Fleet intelligence An attack on any one site we protect instantly hardens the shield on every other — collective defence that gets stronger as the network grows. - #### No third-party dependency Protection runs right at your server, so it doesn't rely on the very layer that gets hit. Detect & Protect Always-on security monitoring LIVE Shield integrity 98% Blocked · live 41 AProtected · shield active, blocking in real time What we’re blocking · 24h Bad bots30 Brute force13 Injection4 AI monitoring that learns, powered by fleet intelligence Your Digital Growth Partner Start with a free website health check — see where you're fast, where you're not, and how to grow. Get Started → ## Good to know A few things clients often ask before getting started. If your question isn't here, just ask — we're quick to reply. [View all FAQs →](https://89.digital/faqs/) Do I need both the Foundation Plan and the Growth Plan? + Not necessarily — but it's the path most of our clients take. Foundation ensures your website is properly built and ready to perform. Growth then compounds on that solid base. Many clients start with Foundation and move to Growth within a few months once they see the results. If your existing site is already well-built, we can start with Growth. Can you build us a brand new website from scratch? + Yes, absolutely. The Foundation Plan covers both full rebuilds and major overhauls of existing sites. Whether you're starting from scratch or rescuing a site built with a page builder, we approach it the same way — clean, custom WordPress code, no shortcuts. What does a typical Growth Plan month look like? + Each month includes a strategy session, content publishing (blog articles, page updates, or GEO-focused content), monitoring and reporting on traffic, rankings, and conversions, plus any technical WordPress updates and optimisations. You receive a clear monthly report that connects our activity to business outcomes. How long until we see results? + Performance improvements from a Foundation rebuild are measurable immediately — faster load times, better Google PageSpeed scores. Organic search traffic improvements typically become visible within 60–90 days. The Growth Plan compounds over time, with the most significant results usually visible at the 6-month mark and beyond. Do you work with businesses outside New Zealand? + Yes — we work with clients across New Zealand and Australia, with offices serving Auckland, Tauranga, the Gold Coast, and South East Queensland. All strategy calls are conducted via video, and we've found this works just as well as in-person for building a strong working relationship. How do we get started? + The easiest way is to request your free Website Performance Report. Submit your URL and we'll check your site across speed, SEO, GEO readiness, and conversion. We'll then reach out to walk you through the findings in a 30-minute discovery call — no hard sell, just a clear picture of where you are and what's possible. ## Latest thinking [View all insights →](https://89.digital/insights/) Adwords August 2026 ### Why Your Google Ads Aren’t Converting: The Hidden WooCommerce Glitches Draining Your Budget You’re spending money on Google Ads to bring targeted buyers to your WooCommerce store. The traffic is arriving, the clicks are showing in your dashboard, but… [Read article →](https://89.digital/insights/why-google-ads-fail-on-woocommerce/) Security July 2026 ### Your Website Is Getting Attacked Right Now (And You Don’t Even Know It) Most business owners assume that a cyber attack is loud and obvious. They picture a defaced homepage, a sudden black screen, or a site crashing entirely.… [Read article →](https://89.digital/insights/your-website-is-getting-attacked/) AI Search & GEO July 2026 ### From GA4 to AI Search: How Cardo Simplifies Your Digital Strategy Building and growing a digital presence should feel exciting—not like a daily chore. Yet for most business owners and marketing leaders, keeping tabs on performance means… [Read article →](https://89.digital/insights/from-ga4-to-ai-search-how-cardo-simplifies-your-digital-strategy/) ## What our clients say ★★★★★ We have worked with Ian over the last six months and found him to be be very knowledgeable and up to date with current trends and technology, he’s great at explaining what he does and the value of it, I would highly recommend meeting him to discuss your needs. [Logan Granger](https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/114496361077836055914/reviews) 11 months ago ★★★★★ Ian is as delightful as he is experienced. I've gone from fretting about technical issues to feeling in completely safe hands. I have recommended him to my friends and I'll recommend him to you. [Emma Wright](https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/104908901375551917124/reviews) 3 years ago ★★★★★ We worked with Ian to build our company website. His ability to translate what we required and then develop the framework through to the finished site was amazing. Ian has a unique skill for design and the technical development required. We are very pleased with the end result. John – Chief Compliance Officer, Healthpoint Ltd. [John Williams](https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/105664223808658786835/reviews) 3 years ago --- # Foundation Plan Source: https://89.digital/foundation-plan/ Updated: 2026-09-08 Step 1 # Foundation PLAN Before growth, there's groundwork. A focused 60–90 day sprint that gets your WordPress or WooCommerce website properly built and performing — so that everything that follows is built on something solid. Every client starts here. Not because it’s a formality, but because growth built on a poor technical foundation doesn’t hold. See how it works What makes this different ## Built for what's right, not what's easy to deliver Most web projects are built around what's easy to deliver — templates, page builders, off-the-shelf fixes that look fine at launch. The Foundation Plan is built the opposite way: open-source development, no bloated plugins, and no shortcuts that resurface a year later — a website engineered to keep performing long after it goes live. The process ## How does a Foundation Plan work? The Foundation Plan is the groundwork. Before you spend a dollar on Google Ads or Meta campaigns, your website needs to be fit, fast and healthy — there's no sense sending traffic to a site that can't convert it. Here's how we get the fundamentals right, checked every step of the way in [Cardo](https://89.digital/cardo/), and set you up to move into the Growth Plan. ### Full technical report & plan We start by understanding exactly what's happening under the hood — performance, structure, security, tracking. You get a clear picture of what needs fixing, and why, before any work begins. ### Everything managed in Cardo Every task is tracked and ticked off inside Cardo, your single source of truth. See the progress any time, month by month — no chasing, no wondering where things are at. ### Built & tested in secure staging Your site is built and tested in a private staging environment, never live until it's ready. We run it through our own site report tool across six pillars, so nothing ships until it passes. ### Launch, then handover to Growth Once your website is proven and live, you move to the Growth Plan — baseline set, plan in place. The only handover is a deliberate one. Powered by Cardo ## Nothing goes live untested All the way through your build we run your site through Cardo's Site Audit — checking your site across six pillars and catching problems long before they ever reach your visitors. Every one has to pass before we go live. #### Performance Page speed and Core Web Vitals measured and tuned to hit a 90+ score before you ever go live. #### Responsive & CSS Layout and styling checked across every screen size, so your site looks right on mobile, tablet and desktop alike. #### Accessibility Checked against WCAG 2.1 AA, so your site is usable for every visitor — and compliant from day one. #### SEO & AI readiness Structure, metadata and schema checked, so you’re found on Google and surfaced in AI search from launch. #### Security Headers, configuration and vulnerabilities checked and hardened as a core part of the build. #### Errors & broken elements Broken links, console errors and missing assets — surfaced and fixed before launch, not discovered by your customers afterwards. Site ReportCardo · pre-launch Ready to launch F 0 /100 Site Health Score ▲ +35 since day one · was 61 ☀ Reviewed by Cardo — our own AI platform, re-run on every change One plan, two paths ## The right approach depends on your site After your Website Performance Report, we recommend the right approach — a technical overhaul where your design still works, or a data-led redesign and rebuild where it doesn't. Either way, the outcome is the same: a website that performs the way your business deserves. Most popular Path 1 Redesign & rebuild From $10,000* For a site that needs more than a tune-up. We take 12 months of your GA4 and Search Console data, map a new sitemap, and design a fresh, conversion-focused wireframe and UI — then build it clean, fast, and ready to scale. Plan Focus Includes - Sitemap & structure — shaped by 12 months of GA4 + Search Console data - New wireframes & UI design — built around how your visitors actually behave - Performance-first architecture, fast and efficient from day one - Clean, lightweight build on open-source tech — no page builders - Conversion-focused page structure and design - Integration with CRM, tracking, and third-party tools - Accurate tracking and analytics from launch What you can expect A fast, stable, freshly designed website built on real data — one that looks the part, scales with traffic, and lifts conversion over time, ready to move into the Growth Plan. Path 2 Technical overhaul From $8,000* For a site that looks right but underperforms. We keep your existing design and rebuild the engine underneath — resolving the speed, stability, and structural issues holding it back, with no unnecessary redesign. Plan Focus Includes - Website speed and load time improvements - Resolving technical issues, conflicts, and inconsistencies - Plugin and code clean-up to reduce inefficiencies and system strain - Performance tuning including caching and server-level optimisation - Stability improvements for real-world traffic - SEO structure alignment — page hierarchy, internal linking, crawlability - Tracking and analytics validation to ensure data accuracy What you can expect A faster, more stable website that performs consistently, is easier to use, and is properly structured to support SEO and ongoing growth — ready to move into the Growth Plan. Not sure which path you need? Start with a free Website Performance Report — and we'll work with you to find the right fit. Get started * Prices exclude GST. Foundation is a one-off project fee; Growth is billed monthly. ## What comes next ## Growth PLAN Starting from $1,500* / month Once the Foundations Plan is complete, most clients move into the Growth Plan — for on ongoing content, SEO, AI search visibility, and Google Ads, managed month by month. We act as an extension of your business, providing the technical, content, and performance expertise you need to grow — without the cost or complexity of hiring in-house. [Learn about the Growth Plan →](https://89.digital/growth-plan/) Includes ✓ Monthly SEO & AI search (GEO) optimisation ✓ Content strategy & publishing ✓ Google Ads management & optimisation ✓ Conversion rate optimisation ✓ Monthly performance reporting * Prices exclude GST. Foundation is a one-off project fee; Growth is billed monthly. Your Digital Growth Partner Start with a free website health check — see where you're fast, where you're not, and how to grow. Get Started → --- # Growth Plan Source: https://89.digital/growth-plan/ Updated: 2026-09-08 Step 2 # Growth PLAN Once your website foundation is in place, we focus on improving performance over time — month by month, measurably. Our Growth Plans provide ongoing support across content, search visibility, and performance — without the cost or complexity of building an in-house team. We bring real commercial instinct with a deep understanding of SEO, AI search, and Google Ads. We recommend a minimum six-month engagement to allow for meaningful, lasting improvement. Most of our clients stay with us well beyond that. See the plans Search has changed ## Your customers aren't only using Google anymore They're asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI-powered tools for recommendations — and your business needs to show up there too. Every Growth Plan includes both traditional SEO and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) — what's needed to be found in AI-generated search results. We're thinking about where search is going and keeping you ahead of the game. The problem ## Why do you need a Growth Plan? A website is never really finished. To keep performing — and to stay ahead as search shifts towards AI — it needs ongoing SEO and GEO work, content refinement, data analytics, and search trend monitoring, month after month. The Growth Plan gives you a specialist who works as part of your business: senior, hands-on expertise without the cost or complexity of hiring in-house. Choose the plan that fits ## Every Growth Plan is built around your goals The Growth Plan is built around your specific goals and research insights. The right plan depends on how your business operates and what you're working toward. ### Choose the right plan to suit your business Core Growth Core Growth Plan Designed for service-based businesses focused on increasing lead generation. We improve how your website performs, how it attracts traffic, and how effectively it converts enquiries. Starting from $1,500* / per month Minimum 6 months - Ongoing SEO and AI search (GEO) optimisation - Website performance and technical improvements - Content refinement and on-page optimisation - Google Ads management and optimisation - Monthly performance reporting - Full access to your data via Cardo. our AI data intelligence platform Google Ads management includes one primary campaign. Additional campaigns can be added — price on enquiry. What you can expect A website that generates more consistent, higher-quality enquiries — and continues to improve over time. Get started with the Core Growth Plan Ecommerce Ecommerce Growth Plan Designed for businesses selling products online using WooCommerce. We focus on improving site performance, increasing traffic, and optimising conversion across the full customer journey. Starting from $2,000* / per month Minimum 6 months - WooCommerce performance and optimisation - SEO and AI search (GEO) for product and category visibility - Google Ads management and optimisation - Conversion improvements across key pages - Monthly performance reporting - Full access to your data via Cardo. our AI data intelligence platform. Google Ads management includes one primary campaign. Additional campaigns can be added — price on enquiry. What you can expect An ecommerce website that performs reliably, converts more effectively, and supports consistent revenue growth. Get started with the eCommerce Growth Plan The Process ## Your Growth Plan runs on data, not guesswork Every Growth Plan is driven by [Cardo](https://89.digital/cardo/). We set your baseline, then run a monthly loop — reviewing your data, agreeing the work, doing it, and measuring the lift. Month after month, the gains compound. Your growth, month after month — and it compounds▲ climbing Visibility → traffic → leads & sales → revenue. Every turn of the loop moves you further up. RevenueLeads & salesTrafficGet found Month 1Month 3Month 6Month 12+ The monthly loop that drives it 1 #### Review & benchmark Each month opens in Cardo. — a fresh site report is run plus your live GSC, GA4, Woo data, and competitor movement. 2 #### Agree the plan tasks We turn what the data shows into a clear set of plan tasks for the month — agreed with you, visible in Cardo. 3 #### Work through & complete We work on each task and mark it complete — you can watch the progress happen live, month by month. 4▲ #### Find the next opportunities We re-run the site report to measure the lift — and it surfaces the next round of tasks. The loop turns into next month. ↻ Every month the loop turns — and your growth climbs another step Every month includes ✓ Ongoing SEO and AI search (GEO) optimisation ✓ Website performance and technical improvements ✓ Content refinement and on-page optimisation ✓ Google Ads management and optimisation ✓ Monthly performance reporting ## Before the Growth Plan ## Foundation PLAN Starting from $8,000* Every client starts with the Foundation Plan — a focused 60–90 day sprint that gets your website properly built and performing. Growth built on a poor technical foundation doesn’t hold, and that’s why we’re deliberate about the sequence. Once the groundwork is solid, the Growth Plan starts, with benchmarks already set and a clear baseline to build from. [Learn about the Foundation Plan →](https://89.digital/foundation-plan/) Includes ✓ Full technical report and clear action plan ✓ Website speed, stability & performance ✓ SEO structure and tracking setup ✓ Accessibility compliance & security hardening * Prices exclude GST. Foundation is a one-off project fee; Growth is billed monthly. Your Digital Growth Partner Start with a free website health check — see where you're fast, where you're not, and how to grow. Get Started → --- # Cardo AI Source: https://89.digital/cardo/ Updated: 2026-09-08 # Finally, a Website Performance Dashboard with everything.Rankings, ads, traffic, sales, competitors and tasks. Cardo. is the 89 Digital AI data-intelligence platform — your website’s health, your plan, your results and your reports, in one live dashboard. Because we built it, you see everything — in plain English. No black box. [See a demo →](https://89.digital/cardo-demo) [Talk to us →](https://89.digital/contact/?service=cardo) cardo.89.digital/dashboard Cardo. by 89 Digital NLNorthlight SWITCH → DashboardPlanDocumentsBrand AssetsReportsSupport E-commerce · last 30 days ### Good morning, Ian. Here’s how Northlight is performing. 9:30 AM Tue, 7 July · GA4 live SummarySite ReportSite TrafficChannelsSearch VisibilityPaid ActivityStore Your story · last 30 days Over the last 30 days, Northlight generated $8,467 in real revenue across 66 orders, with session traffic up 14%. Your bestseller is your strongest performer. Focus next on converting more organic search — you’re only getting 211 sessions from search despite a strong homepage. Revenue $8,773 ▲ 28.3% Orders 69 ▲ 11.9% Avg order $127 per txn Site Health Score71 pages D60.7/100 Performance4.8/20 How fast your site loads SEO6.5/20 How well engines find your pages Security18/20 Protection against threats AI data-driven intelligence ## Cardo. reads your whole business — every morning. Pulling together your analytics, your store, your search rankings and your website itself, then an AI layer reads all of it every morning and tells you — in plain English — what changed and what to do next. Not a dashboard to decode, a platform that does the thinking. Your Story ## Your numbers, written in plain English. Every morning, Cardo. turns the latest data into a short story you can actually read — what grew, what didn’t, and what to do next. Refreshed daily, no dashboards to decode, no jargon. The opposite of the mystery-box report. Your StoryPlain-English monthly summary ✦ AI-written Over the last 30 days, Northlight generated $8,467 in real revenue across 66 orders, with session traffic up 14% driven largely by direct visits. Focus next on converting more of your organic search traffic — you’re only getting 211 sessions from search despite a strong homepage. The Site Audit we built ## Our own site benchmark — not a borrowed speed score. The Cardo. Site Audit tool was built to monitor your site health – hence the name. It crawls every page and scores your whole site across six pillars, then re-runs on every change — the same engine that clears a Foundation build before launch and tracks a Growth site month after month. Site ReportCardo. · our own engine Re-run on every change F 0 /100 Site Health Score ▲ +29 since day one · was 61 ☀ Reviewed by Cardo. — our own AI platform, re-run on every change What it scores ## The six pillars behind one score. Together the pillars decide whether a website is healthy and what a healthy site looks like: fast, findable, secure, trusted and built to last. 1 Performance20 pts How fast your site loads. Slow sites lose visitors before they even see what you offer. 2 SEO20 pts How well search engines find, read and rank your pages — the free traffic you'd otherwise miss. 3 Security20 pts Protection against threats — which also builds trust with your customers and with Google. 4 Experience15 pts How readable and usable your site is for real people — and for screen readers (accessibility). 5 GEO / AI Search15 pts Whether AI tools like ChatGPT and local search can find and cite you when customers look. 6 Sustainability10 pts How efficiently your site runs — leaner pages and a lower carbon footprint. 100 points in total. The higher the score — and the more even it is across all six — the healthier your website. AI-powered, human-led ## One platform reads your whole website — a human decides what matters. Cardo. reads and surfaces your data each day. The platform does the heavy lifting — but every recommendation is reviewed, prioritised and actioned by us, 89 Digital knows your business and makes the final decision. Score history · % of max ■ Perf■ SEO■ Security■ Exp■ GEO■ Sustain ### Pillar Trends Every pillar tracked as a share of its max — so you see the climb, not just today’s number. D63/1003 signals AI bot access100 Schema completeness54 E-E-A-T signals38 Biggest fix · add author bios with Person schema ### AI Readiness Whether ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI can cite you — scored, with the single highest-impact fix. This period · WooCommerce vs GA4 Orders 66 GA4 saw 45 Revenue $8.5k GA4 under-counts by ≈ 32% — your store is the truth ### Real Sales, Not Estimates The true sales figure straight from your store — and why Google Analytics under-counts it. - Direct 33% - Organic Search 14% - Paid Social 14% - Cross-network 13% - Other 26% ### Traffic & Channels See where your visitors really come from, with paid and organic split out — one honest view. Last 30 days · GA4 Avg session 2m 08s Pages / visit 2.0 Engaged 38.6% 1,940 sessions · 61% new visitors ### Visitor Engagement See whether people explore, stick around and get close to buying — every number explained. Top phrases · this crawl free shipping1313 new arrivals1123 gift cards550 best sellers258 size guide241 ### Content Language Understand the keywords and phrases search engines see most for your website — and the gaps worth closing. July 2026 Review Programme + Bundles 29% Rewrite product pageDone Fix category page titleDone Add new landing pageTo do ### Your Monthly Plan All tasks are tracked so you can see exactly what we are working on with a plain-English report generated each month. Your side · 1 open Trending search topics for June Worth a blog if your products fit these terms. ✓Send updated product photos ✓Approve review-request email ### Recommendations When we see an opportunity or require an action from our clients — see them here and tick it off. Proposal Digital Growth Strategy Open → Wireframe Wireframe — April 2026 Open → Brand Guidelines Digital Brand Guidelines Open → ### Documents Proposals, wireframes, brand guidelines and reports in one place — no Dropbox, no lost links. All 177SEO 89Exp 88 WarningDuplicate title across pages northlight.co.nz/blog/ SEO WarningMissing meta description northlight.co.nz/blog/2/ SEO NoticeLow colour contrast on buttons northlight.co.nz/product/… Exp ### Open Issues See website issues, on the actual page — filterable by severity and ready to fix. ## While you sleep,it's blocking attacks. Every Cardo client gets Detect & Protect — our own always-on security agent that watches your website around the clock, catching and actively blocking threats in real time. - #### Real-time blocking Bad bots, brute-force and injection attempts stopped the moment they appear — not just logged after the fact. - #### AI monitoring that learns AI watches the live event stream and adapts to new, novel attacks as they emerge — not just known signatures. - #### Fleet intelligence An attack on any one site we protect instantly hardens the shield on every other — collective defence that gets stronger as the network grows. - #### No third-party dependency Protection runs right at your server, so it doesn't rely on the very layer that gets hit. Detect & Protect Always-on security monitoring LIVE Shield integrity 98% Blocked · live 41 AProtected · shield active, blocking in real time What we’re blocking · 24h Bad bots30 Brute force13 Injection4 AI monitoring that learns, powered by fleet intelligence Competitor Watch ## See what your competitors are doing online — before you fall behind. We run your competitors through the same six-pillar audit, watch for changes as they happen — new pages, price and title moves, ranking shifts — and hand you the keyword gap: what they rank for that you don’t. Coming soon Competitor WatchTrack & compare rivals You · Site Health61 Competitor A78 Competitor B54 Keyword gaps they rank, you don’t “same day delivery nz” “eco-friendly packaging” And that's just the dashboard ## Everything your website needs, in one place. What you've seen is a slice. Cardo. also keeps your brand assets, monthly reports, reviews and support side by side with your data — and it's the same engine behind both of our plans. Brand Assets Monthly Reports Reviews Support Meetings Step 1 ## Foundation PLAN The website itself, designed and built from the ground up — fast, secure, and made to convert. It's the solid base everything else grows from. Starting from $8,000* [Learn about Foundation →](https://89.digital/foundation-plan/) Step 2 ## Growth PLAN The ongoing partnership that markets your site and grows it — SEO, AI search, ads and content, managed month by month with clear reporting. Starting from $1,500* / month [Learn about Growth →](https://89.digital/growth-plan/) Already got a fast, well-built site? We’ll tell you — and start you straight on Growth. * Prices exclude GST. Foundation is a one-off project fee; Growth is billed monthly. Your Digital Growth Partner See Cardo. in action — take a [live demo](https://89.digital/cardo-demo), and get a free website health check to go with it. [Talk to us →](https://89.digital/contact/?service=cardo) --- # Case Studies Source: https://89.digital/case-studies/ Updated: 2026-08-08 (no text content) --- # Insights Source: https://89.digital/insights/ Updated: 2026-07-09 (no text content) --- # About 89 Digital Source: https://89.digital/about-89-digital/ Updated: 2026-08-08 1989 # The year the World Wide Web was born.It's also where our name comes from. A nod to the foundations that made everything that followed possible. 89 Digital is a specialist WordPress and WooCommerce consultancy. We work with businesses — building the technical foundation they need, then growing online performance month by month. Why choose 89 Digital? ## We're a specialist digital consultancy passionate about online growth. Just two senior specialists who take the time to understand your business and stay with you as it grows and set you up for success. We keep our client list short on purpose — we'd rather do exceptional work for a few good-fit clients than churn through as many as we can. ### You work directly with us Not a junior, not an account manager reading from notes. The two founders do the actual work, with decades of combined experience. 90+PAGESPEED ### Performance-led, no shortcuts Custom-coded websites, no page builders — built to be fast, secure, and to convert. ### Full transparency No wondering where the money goes. Inside Cardo., your Plan tasks lay out the work we're doing for you, month by month. ### Human-led, amplified by AI We use AI to drive speed, data, and decisions — but every recommendation and piece of work is reviewed and owned by us. Two specialists delivering. Meet the team ## In this game, experience counts Meet the two people you'll work with — directly, every time. Ian Fraser Technical Lead [Email](mailto:ian@89digital.co.nz) [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/89digital/) Ian has been building websites since the early days of the internet — starting in design and print before moving fully into website development. Ian has spent the last two decades helping businesses across New Zealand and beyond grow their digital presence, through long-term partnerships that help businesses scale from startup to multi-million dollar operations. Ian specialises in WordPress and WooCommerce, with a strong focus on technical performance, site stability, and building platforms that hold up under real-world conditions — including the kind of traffic spikes that expose poorly built sites. His approach is practical and performance-led: no shortcuts, no bloated page builders, no problems left to resurface later. Hayley Fraser Digital Strategist [Email](mailto:hayley@89digital.co.nz) [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayley-fraser-aa3bb098/) Hayley brings over 15 years in sales and marketing roles across the tourism and travel industry — not as an observer, but as someone who has worked inside it at a senior level. She understands how businesses think, how they sell, and what actually moves their customers to act. Alongside deep sector knowledge, Hayley brings hands-on expertise in copywriting, SEO, AI search (GEO), and Google Ads optimisation. She works closely with Growth Plan clients to refine their messaging, improve search visibility — across both traditional Google and AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity — and ensure their websites are aligned with trends and how people actually search and engage online today. Every decision is backed by knowledge and data. How we work ## Is your website holding your business back? Maybe it's slow, a security risk, a pain to manage, or just not turning visitors into customers. Whatever's holding it back, we fix it in two clear steps — Foundation rebuilds your site to be fast, secure and built to convert, then Growth markets it and grows your traffic and sales, month after month. Step 1 ## Foundation PLAN The website itself, designed and built from the ground up — fast, secure, and made to convert. It's the solid base everything else grows from. Starting from $8,000* [Learn about Foundation →](https://89.digital/foundation-plan/) Step 2 ## Growth PLAN The ongoing partnership that markets your site and grows it — SEO, AI search, ads and content, managed month by month with clear reporting. Starting from $1,500* / month [Learn about Growth →](https://89.digital/growth-plan/) Already got a fast, well-built site? We’ll tell you — and start you straight on Growth. * Prices exclude GST. Foundation is a one-off project fee; Growth is billed monthly. Your Digital Growth Partner Start with a free website health check — see where you're fast, where you're not, and how to grow. Get Started → --- # Contact Source: https://89.digital/contact/ Updated: 2026-08-16 # Get in touch. Email us directly at [hello@89.digital](mailto:hello@89.digital), or use the form below — we read every message ourselves and reply within one business day. We work with clients across Australia and New Zealand. ## Send us a message Your name Email Daytime phone (optional) Website (optional) Service you’re interested in (optional) Select… Foundation Plan Growth Plan Website Development WooCommerce Support UI & UX Design Branding SEO & AI Search (GEO) Google Ads Managed Hosting Cardo Not sure — general enquiry Message Send message → Please note: we don't accept unsolicited offers for SEO, link-building or web-development services, and we won't respond to them. Genuine client enquiries only. ## Other ways to reach us Email [hello@89.digital](mailto:hello@89.digital) Phone [+64 21 021 64300](tel:+642102164300) Address 27 Melford Street, Saint Mary's Bay, Auckland 1011 New Zealand --- # Website Development Source: https://89.digital/website-development/ Updated: 2026-09-09 # The web development NZ businesses come back to – We build so you grow We’re a full-stack web development company in New Zealand — building fast, secure, custom websites and web apps on open-source foundations: WordPress, WooCommerce, and our own CMS. With 25+ years of front-end and back-end engineering behind every build, you get a trusted pair of hands who codes for performance, gets the security right, and hands you a site you own outright — no templates, no page-builder bloat, no lock-in. What we do ## Whatever you need built — or fixed Custom development for new projects, and a safe pair of hands when an existing site needs sorting. START ### New Websites & Builds Fast, custom websites built properly from the ground up — no templates, no page-builder bloat. Designed around your business and hand-coded for speed, security and search. BUILD ### Custom Web Applications Bespoke tools and applications coded to your exact needs — booking systems, customer portals, dashboards and more. If it can be built for the web, we can build it. SELL ### WordPress & WooCommerce Custom themes, plugins and online stores, done right. We make WordPress and WooCommerce do exactly what you need — reliably, and without the usual bloat. CONNECT ### Integrations & APIs Connect your site to the tools your business already runs on — payments, CRMs, inventory, bookings and more. We get separate systems talking to each other, cleanly. FIX ### Fixes & rescues Slow, broken, or inherited a mess from another developer? We take it over, get to the bottom of it and sort it — then keep it running smoothly. ## The tools we build with We build on established open-source technologies — the same standards that power much of the web — so your site is fast, secure and easy for any developer to maintain. WordPress WooCommerce php MySQL Larvel JavaScript Node.js Vue.js Tailwind CSS UnoCSS We also build on SilverStripe and our own custom CMS when a project calls for it. ## Looking for web development? Get in touch with us for expert advice Whether you’re looking for a new website, having problems with your existing one, or just have an idea you’d like to chat through with someone in the industry, feel free to send us a message, drop us an email, or give us a call. [hello@89.digital](mailto:hello@89.digital) [+64 21 0210 64300](tel:+6421021064300) Ian FraserTechnical Lead Hayley FraserDigital Strategist Google Reviews★★★★★ Speak to a Web Developer What do you need help with? Choose any that apply. New website WordPress WooCommerce Web App or Custom Build API Integration Fix an existing site Not sure Your name Email Anything else? Sometimes a little extra information helps Send enquiry → × ### Enquiry sent Thanks – we've got it. We'll be in touch, usually within a day. Close ## Web Developer FAQs A few good things to know about website development. [View all FAQs →](https://89.digital/faqs/) What is full-stack web development? + One team handles both the front end (what visitors see) and the back end (server, database, logic). Nothing gets lost in a handover, so the design is buildable and the code is efficient. Should I build on WordPress or a custom platform? + WordPress — with WooCommerce for stores — is flexible and cost-effective for most business sites when it's built properly. For complex logic or specific requirements, a custom build (SilverStripe or our own CMS) can fit better. We recommend the right tool for you, not the one that suits us. Do I own my website's code and IP? + Yes — 100%. We build on open-source foundations and hand you the code, data and IP outright. No lock-in, no ongoing licence fees; host it anywhere and hire any developer. How do you keep a website secure? + Security is built in from the first line of code and continued at the server level — hardened config, controlled access, current software and active monitoring. We run ~100 sites on our own servers, so we see real-world threats daily and design against them. How do you measure website performance? + Every build gets a Cardo site report (our own platform) — a Site Health Score across speed, SEO, security and AI-readiness. We build to a high score and keep it there, so "fast" is a number you can see. Why is my website slow, and how do you fix it? + Most slow sites carry weight they don't need — page-builder bloat, heavy plugins, unoptimised images and queries. We rebuild on clean code, tune caching and queries, and treat Core Web Vitals as a requirement. --- # WooCommerce Support Source: https://89.digital/woocommerce-support/ Updated: 2026-09-09 # Keeping NZ WooCommerce stores fast, stable, and selling. Whether you need a WooCommerce store built from scratch, or you’re running one that needs fixing — you need a trusted pair of hands who knows the platform inside and out. We build new and look after live WooCommerce stores across New Zealand — fixing what’s broken, building the features you need, and keeping speed, security and sales on track. What we do ## The help your WooCommerce store actually needs Whether it's a quick fix, a custom feature, or continuous performance support, you deal directly with the person doing the work. A trusted pair of hands. Fix ### Plugin Conflicts & Fixes Broken checkout? Plugins fighting each other? We track down the bug, fix the conflict, and strip out the unnecessary bloat slowing your store down. Build ### Tailored Features & Integrations Bespoke checkout options, wholesale pricing, or connecting your store directly to your inventory and accounting software — built to fit your business. Speed ### Speed & Performance Tuning Faster stores make more sales. We optimise your store so pages load in a flash — keeping buyers happy and improving your Google search rankings. Support ### Ongoing Senior Developer Support Direct access to the team who know Woo. From day-to-day tweaks, site-health monitoring, and quick fixes — no ticket queues, no account managers, no junior devs. ## Looking for WooCommerce support? Get in touch with us for expert advice Whether you’re looking for a new website, having problems with your existing one, or just have an idea you’d like to chat through with someone in the industry, feel free to send us a message, drop us an email, or give us a call. [hello@89.digital](mailto:hello@89.digital) [+64 21 0210 64300](tel:+6421021064300) Ian FraserTechnical Lead Hayley FraserDigital Strategist Google Reviews★★★★★ Speak to a WooCommerce Expert What do you need help with? Choose any that apply. Plugin conflict & fixes Tailored features & Integrations Speed & performance tuning Ongoing senior developer support Not sure Your name Email Anything else? Sometimes a little extra information helps Send enquiry → × ### Enquiry sent Thanks – we've got it. We'll be in touch, usually within a day. Close ## Everything you need to know about our WooCommerce support Got questions before reaching out? Here's how we help keep your WooCommerce store fast, secure and profitable. [View all FAQs →](https://89.digital/faqs/) How do we get started if our WooCommerce store is already broken or slow? + Just request a free Store Health Check. We'll look under the hood to diagnose what's causing the speed bottleneck, checkout bug or plugin error, then give you a clear, fixed price to fix it — no surprises. Do we have to sign a long-term lock-in contract? + No. We offer both one-off problem solving (urgent bug fixes, speed work, custom features) and ongoing monthly support plans. Start with a single fix and decide later whether you'd like us looking after your store month to month. How do you access our WordPress site safely without disrupting live sales? + We never test risky changes on a live store. We make a secure staging copy for all coding, plugin updates and feature builds, then deploy to your live site once everything's tested and verified — without downtime. Can you help with our Google Ads and marketing tracking as well? + Yes. Beyond core development, Hayley specialises in digital strategy, copywriting and WooCommerce Google Ads management. We make sure your store's technical tracking (Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, the Conversion API) sends accurate data back to your campaigns — so you're not paying for clicks you can't measure. We've written a full guide on why Google Ads underperform on WooCommerce stores. What makes 89 Digital different from typical digital agencies? + You deal directly with the two senior specialists doing the work — Ian (around 25 years in open-source and full-stack development) and Hayley (15+ years in strategy). No junior account managers reading from scripts, no middle management, no endless ticket queues. What if we need custom features off-the-shelf plugins don't offer? + That's where 25 years of development experience earns its keep. Custom checkout fields, B2B wholesale pricing, direct links to your accounting or inventory software — we write clean, lightweight code built specifically around your business, because we understand the platform underneath, not just its plugins. --- # SEO & AI Search Optimisation Source: https://89.digital/seo-ai-search/ Updated: 2026-09-09 # NZ's SEO company for Google — and AI search Search has split in two. People still use Google to find you — but they also ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI Overviews, and the answers those platforms provide come from a different set of sources. We optimise for both: classic SEO to rank in Google, and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) to get your business named when AI does the answering. ## Search has changed — here's where things stand ~89% Google's share of search in NZ — classic SEO still wins most clicks 91% Of Kiwi workers now use generative AI in some form 900M+ Weekly ChatGPT users worldwide — a whole new place to be found Sources: StatCounter (Jul 2026) · Robert Half NZ (2025) · OpenAI (2026). Statistics correct as at August 2026. What we do ## We optimise for search — and for the AI in front of it The SEO landscape has changed and it now means two jobs at once. We do both, and we prove it through results. Rank ### Google SEO We fix and improve your website so Google ranks it higher. The technical, the page content, the structure — all of it handled and tracked so you can see the results month after month. AI ### AI Search / GEO We structure your content and pages so AI engines understand, trust and cite your business when someone asks about your industry — using our own AI platform. Content ### Content That Gets Found The right topics, answering the questions your customers are actually searching for. Built around real demand, backed by data. Proof ### Tracked, Not Promised Rankings, search visibility and AI citations all tracked in Cardo, our own AI platform — so you see real movement, not a monthly report full of vanity metrics. ## Looking for SEO or AI search help? Get in touch with us for expert advice Whether you want your business to rank higher on Google, get cited when people ask AI, or just have a question about where you stand in this space, feel free to send us a message, drop us an email or make a call. [hello@89.digital](mailto:hello@89.digital) [+64 21 0210 64300](tel:+6421021064300) Ian FraserTechnical Lead Hayley FraserDigital Strategist Google Reviews★★★★★ Speak to an SEO specialist What do you need help with? Choose any that apply. Rank higher on Google Show up in AI answers Technical SEO fix Content & Keywords Not sure Your name Email Anything else? Sometimes a little extra information helps Send enquiry → × ### Enquiry sent Thanks – we've got it. We'll be in touch, usually within a day. Close ## FAQs on SEO and AI Search A few things clients often ask before getting started. If your question isn't here, just ask — we're quick to reply. [View all FAQs →](https://89.digital/faqs/) What's the difference between SEO and GEO (AI search)? + SEO helps you rank in traditional search results like Google. GEO (generative engine optimisation) helps you get named and cited when people ask AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's AI Overviews. They overlap, but AI engines access information differently via different sources, so we optimise for both. Can you really influence what AI tools say about my business? + To a point, yes. AI engines pull from the wider web and reward clear, well-structured, trustworthy information about who you are and what you do. We structure your content and entities so those engines understand and cite you — we can't guarantee exact wording, but we can make you far more likely to be the source it names. How long does SEO take to show results? + Technical fixes can help within weeks; content, domain authority and trust signals build over a few months. We track rankings, visibility and AI citations in our own AI platform Cardo from day one, so you see movement as it happens rather than waiting for a report. Do I need a new website, or can you improve my current one? + Usually we can work with what you have — a lot of SEO is technical clean-up, structure and content on your existing site. If the foundations of the website are genuinely holding you back we'll tell you straight, but we don't rebuild for the sake of it. How do you measure and report on SEO? + Everything is tracked in our own AI platform Cardo — rankings, website health, traffic, sales, and AI citations. You get real movement you can see at any time, not a monthly PDF full of vanity metrics. Is SEO worth it for a small NZ business? + Often more than paid ads over time, because the traffic keeps coming without paying per click. The key is targeting the searches that actually lead to enquiries — we focus on real demand in your market, and ensure you are keeping up with search trends. --- # Managed Web Hosting Source: https://89.digital/web-hosting-nz/ Updated: 2026-08-08 Website Hosting # WordPress Hosting NZ. Managed for Speed, Security, and Uptime. Is your site slow, unreliable, or wondering if it is costing you sales? We can make it run up to 2.5× faster with our latest Cloud Container technology. Secure, reliable website hosting and maintenance plans for businesses across New Zealand, Australia & US businesses — small or large. Cloud Container platforms are built on premium infrastructure for top reliability, security and speed. Your website runs independently of every other site, on servers based locally in New Zealand, Australia or the US – depending on where you are based — with 24/7 network security built in. See the plans → [Talk to us →](https://89.digital/contact/?service=Managed%20Hosting) Why choose managed hosting? ## We keep your website fast, safe and looked after. Our team are local New Zealand WordPress and WooCommerce experts with over 25 years experience in website development. Host with us and your monthly backups and managed security updates are automatic — it's our job to keep your site running optimally, so you can focus on your business. ### Cloud Container technology Your site runs in its own isolated container on premium infrastructure — faster, and independent of every other site on the server. ### Monthly plugin updates We review and update your plugins every month, so your site stays current, compatible and secure without you lifting a finger. ### Daily backups & security Every site and database is backed up daily, with built-in login, firewall, file and content protection watching around the clock. ### Based locally in NZ Servers in Auckland keep your site close to your customers — with data-centre options in Sydney, Tokyo, Singapore, London and California too. Choose it your way ## Managed Website Hosting plans for WordPress & WooCommerce. WordPress Lite From $45* / month Small to medium-sized WordPress websites. - ✓ Up to 1 GB storage - ✓ Up to 10,000 unique visits / month - ✓ Monthly WordPress plugin updates - ✓ Automatic security certificate (SSL) - ✓ Daily backups — files & database - ✓ Security: login, firewall, file & content - ✓ Local New Zealand support [Find out more →](https://89.digital/contact/?service=Managed%20Hosting) Most popular WordPress Premium From $60* / month Medium to large WordPress websites. - ✓ Up to 10 GB storage - ✓ Over 10,000 unique visits / month - ✓ Monthly WordPress plugin updates - ✓ Automatic security certificate (SSL) - ✓ Daily backups — files & database - ✓ Security: login, firewall, file & content - ✓ Local New Zealand support [Find out more →](https://89.digital/contact/?service=Managed%20Hosting) WooCommerce Lite From $60* / month Small WooCommerce stores. - ✓ Up to 2 GB storage - ✓ Up to 10,000 unique visits / month - ✓ Monthly WordPress plugin updates - ✓ Automatic security certificate (SSL) - ✓ Daily backups — files & database - ✓ Security: login, firewall, file & content - ✓ Local New Zealand support [Find out more →](https://89.digital/contact/?service=Managed%20Hosting) WooCommerce Premium From $90* / month Growing WooCommerce stores. - ✓ Up to 10 GB storage - ✓ Over 10,000 unique visits / month - ✓ Monthly WordPress plugin updates - ✓ Automatic security certificate (SSL) - ✓ Daily backups — files & database - ✓ Security: login, firewall, file & content - ✓ Local New Zealand support [Find out more →](https://89.digital/contact/?service=Managed%20Hosting) * Prices are "from" and depend on an initial site review. 12-month minimum term. Prices subject to change and exclude GST. Plugin updates cover open-source or licensed plugins only. Domains ## Domain hosting & renewals. Want to register a specific domain name, or have a domain enquiry? Get in touch for our domain hosting and renewal pricing. [Ask about domains →](https://89.digital/contact/?service=Managed%20Hosting) Your Digital Growth Partner Start your digital journey with us — reliable, locally-hosted websites, looked after by people who understand them. [Talk to us →](https://89.digital/contact/?service=Managed%20Hosting) --- # FAQs Source: https://89.digital/faqs/ Updated: 2026-09-08 FAQs # Questions? We've got answers. Straight answers to the things clients ask most — about website performance, our plans, hosting and what working with 89 Digital actually looks like. If your question isn't here, just ask — we're quick to reply. How do I know if my website has performance issues? + If your website feels slow, buggy, or doesn’t convert as expected, there are usually underlying performance issues. These can include speed, technical setup, or tracking problems that aren’t always visible without lift the hood. What does website performance optimisation involve? + We focus on improving how your website runs day to day — speed, reliability, structure, and resolving the technical issues that affect user experience and results. The Foundation Plan usually runs across 60–90 days, depending on how much fixing and optimisation is needed. Can you work with my existing WordPress or WooCommerce site? + Yes. We work with existing websites, improving performance and stability. Sometimes we will recommend a full rebuild if the site is has too many issues and security is compromised. Do I need ongoing support after the initial improvements? + In most cases, yes. 89 Digital offers this as a Growth Plan, which gives your business access to our services across SEO, AI search, website content and Google Ads management at an affordable monthly rate. Once the foundation is fixed, ongoing optimisation improves performance over time and supports growth as your business evolves. How long does it take to see results? + Some improvements, like speed and stability, can be seen quickly. Others, such as conversion improvements or traffic growth, develop over time as the changes take effect. That’s why we recommend a minimum 6 month Growth Plan Do you manage SEO and Google Ads? + Yes. Once your website is performing at its best, we move you to a Growth Plan, which supports ongoing SEO / AI Search optimisation and Google Ads management if required. The focus is on making sure your website, traffic and data work together effectively. What makes your approach different? + We fix the root cause of performance issues rather than applying quick fixes. That creates a more stable, reliable website that supports long-term growth. In some cases a website can’t be fixed and needs a new build — we’ll tell you honestly, as part of our website report process. What happens during a Performance Report? + We review your website, identify the performance issues, and give you the top five recommendations based on your current site. Do you design websites as well as build and optimise them? + Yes. We design and build websites where needed — particularly when an existing site can’t be improved effectively. With over 20 years’ experience, our focus is designing and building fast, traffic-generating websites that look good and get results. When should I consider a new website build? + A new build is recommended when your current website has structural limitations, ongoing technical issues, or simply can’t support performance improvements. This is usually identified during the Performance Report. Do you provide website hosting? + Yes. We provide managed website hosting to keep your site performing reliably and consistently. Our hosting is configured specifically for WordPress and WooCommerce, with a focus on speed, stability and security. Why is hosting important for website performance? + Hosting plays a key role in how your website performs. Poor hosting particularly on shared serves leads to slow load times, downtime and instability — especially during high traffic. We make sure your hosting setup supports consistent performance as your business grows. What's the difference between hosting a website locally vs offshore? + has less distance to travel, which means faster load times. Hosting in the US or Europe adds latency that can slow your site down noticeably, particularly on mobile. Our servers are based in Auckland, Sydney and Los Angeles, so your site stays close to your customers wherever they are. Will a new website automatically improve performance? + If it’s built right — yes. A new website has to be built correctly to improve performance. We make sure any new build is structured for speed, reliability and long-term growth from day one. What is Cloud Container hosting and why does it matter? + Traditional shared hosting puts multiple websites on the same server — if one site gets a traffic spike or is compromised, it can affect everyone else. Cloud Container hosting gives your website its own isolated environment on premium infrastructure. That means better speed, better security, and no risk of a neighbouring site impacting yours. Why is my website not ranking on Google? + There are several reasons, but slow load times and poor technical performance are among the most common. Google uses page speed as a ranking signal, so a slow or unreliable site is actively working against your visibility. Other factors include weak page content and no local SEO setup. A fast, stable foundation is the first thing to fix — everything else builds on it. Your Digital Growth Partner Got another question? We're quick to reply — tell us what you're after and we'll point you in the right direction. [Talk to us →](https://89.digital/contact/) --- # Privacy Policy Source: https://89.digital/privacy-policy/ Updated: 2026-07-29 # Privacy Policy Last updated: 8 July 2026 This Privacy Policy explains how 89 Digital Limited (“89 Digital”, “we”, “us” or “our”) collects, uses, discloses and protects your personal information when you visit [89.digital](https://89.digital) (the “website”), contact us, or request a website report or health check. We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information in accordance with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 and its Information Privacy Principles (IPPs), and — for individuals in Australia — the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Where those laws differ, we apply the standard that gives you the greater protection. ## Who we are 89 Digital Limited is a New Zealand–registered digital consultancy, with people based in Auckland, Tauranga and the Gold Coast. If you have any questions about this policy or your personal information, contact us at [hello@89.digital](mailto:hello@89.digital). ## The information we collect ### Information you give us When you use our contact form, request a free website report, or otherwise get in touch, we may collect: - your name and email address; - your phone number and website address, if you choose to provide them; - the service or plan you’re interested in, and any details you share about your website or business; - the content of your enquiry or message. ### Information we collect automatically When you visit the website, we and our analytics providers may automatically collect: - usage information — the pages you view, how you arrived, your approximate location, and your device and browser type; - your IP address, which we use to approximate your region and to help prevent spam and abuse. Where we record a website enquiry, we resolve your general location and then store only a non-identifying (hashed) reference — we do not store your full IP address alongside your enquiry; - information collected through cookies and similar technologies (see “Cookies” below). ## How we use your information We use personal information to: - respond to your enquiry and provide the website report or information you’ve requested; - provide, operate and improve our website and services; - keep records of our communications with you; - maintain the security of our website and prevent spam, fraud and misuse; - meet our legal and regulatory obligations. We do not send unsolicited marketing, and submitting the form does not trigger an automated marketing reply — we respond to genuine enquiries ourselves. ## How we share your information We do not sell your personal information. We share it only where necessary, with: - Service providers who help us run our website and business — including our website hosting provider (whose servers are based in New Zealand), our analytics provider (Google Analytics), and our email and productivity tools; - Our own client platform, Cardo, where we may record your enquiry to manage our response and, if you become a client, to manage our work for you; - Professional advisors or authorities where required by law, or to protect our legal rights. Some of our providers (for example, Google) may store or process information outside New Zealand and Australia, including in the United States. Where information is transferred overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure it is handled with comparable safeguards to those required under New Zealand and Australian privacy law. ## Cookies and analytics Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to make the site work, remember your preferences, and understand how the site is used. We use Google Analytics to help us measure and improve website performance; this may set cookies and collect usage data as described above. You can control or disable cookies through your browser settings, and you can opt out of Google Analytics using Google’s [opt-out browser add-on](https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout). Disabling cookies may affect how parts of the site function. ## How long we keep your information We keep personal information only for as long as we reasonably need it for the purposes described above — for example, to respond to and follow up on your enquiry — and for as long as required to meet our legal, tax and record-keeping obligations. When we no longer need it, we securely delete or de-identify it. ## How we protect your information We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure or alteration. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we work to safeguard your information and to keep our systems protected. ## Your rights and choices Under the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 and the Australian Privacy Principles, you have the right to: - ask us to confirm whether we hold personal information about you, and to request access to it; - ask us to correct information that is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date; - ask us to delete information where we are not required to keep it. To make a request, email us at [hello@89.digital](mailto:hello@89.digital). We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request, and we’ll respond within the timeframes required by law. ## Children’s privacy Our website and services are directed at businesses and are not intended for children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. ## Changes to this policy We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we’ll change the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review it periodically. ## How to contact us or make a complaint If you have a question, request or concern about your privacy, please contact us first at [hello@89.digital](mailto:hello@89.digital) so we can help. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can also contact: - New Zealand — the Office of the Privacy Commissioner: [privacy.org.nz](https://www.privacy.org.nz); - Australia — the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC): [oaic.gov.au](https://www.oaic.gov.au). --- # Terms Source: https://89.digital/terms/ Updated: 2026-07-09 # Terms of Use Last updated: 8 July 2026 These Terms of Use govern your access to and use of the website at [89.digital](https://89.digital) (the “website”), operated by 89 Digital Limited (“89 Digital”, “we”, “us” or “our”). By accessing or using the website, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the website. ## These terms are not our service agreement These Terms of Use apply to your use of the website only. They are not the terms of any engagement for our services. Our Foundation Plan, Growth Plan, hosting and other services are provided under a separate proposal and agreement, which we present to clients directly. Nothing on this website is an offer capable of acceptance, and no client relationship is created until we have both agreed a written proposal. ## Using the website You may use the website for lawful purposes and to learn about our services. You agree not to: - use the website in any way that breaches any applicable law or regulation; - attempt to gain unauthorised access to the website, its server, or any connected system or network; - introduce any virus, malware or other harmful code, or otherwise interfere with the proper working of the website; - copy, scrape, harvest or systematically extract content or data from the website without our written permission; - use the website to transmit unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or other communications. ## Intellectual property All content on the website — including text, graphics, logos, design, and the Cardo platform and its interfaces — is owned by or licensed to 89 Digital Limited and is protected by intellectual property laws. You may view and print pages for your own reference, but you may not reproduce, distribute, modify or use any part of the website for commercial purposes without our prior written consent. ## Website reports, estimates and information Any free website report, health check, estimate or indicative pricing provided through the website is for general information only. It is based on automated checks and the information available at the time, may not capture every factor relevant to your website, and does not constitute a formal quote, a guarantee of results, or professional advice you should rely on without confirmation from us. Any work we carry out is scoped and priced in a written proposal. ## No warranties We work to keep the website accurate, available and up to date, but we provide it “as is” and “as available”. We do not warrant that the website will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free of viruses or other harmful components, or that the information on it is complete or current. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we exclude all implied warranties in connection with the website. ## Limitation of liability To the maximum extent permitted by law, 89 Digital Limited will not be liable for any loss or damage — whether direct, indirect, incidental or consequential — arising from your use of, or inability to use, the website, or from reliance on any content on it. Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee, right or remedy that cannot lawfully be excluded, including under the New Zealand Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and Fair Trading Act 1986, or the Australian Consumer Law. Where you acquire our services as a business, you agree that the New Zealand Consumer Guarantees Act does not apply to the extent permitted by law. ## Links to other websites The website may contain links to third-party websites for your convenience. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content, availability or privacy practices. A link does not imply endorsement. ## Privacy Your use of the website is also governed by our [Privacy Policy](https://89.digital/privacy-policy/), which explains how we handle personal information. ## Changes to these terms We may update these Terms of Use from time to time. Changes take effect when we post them, and the “Last updated” date shows when they were last revised. Your continued use of the website means you accept the current terms. ## Governing law These Terms of Use are governed by the laws of New Zealand, and you submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the New Zealand courts. ## Contact us If you have any questions about these terms, contact us at [hello@89.digital](mailto:hello@89.digital). --- # Editorial Policy Source: https://89.digital/editorial-policy/ Updated: 2026-08-03 # Editorial Policy This policy explains how 89 Digital creates, reviews and maintains the content on this website — our articles, guides and service pages. Our aim is simple: everything we publish should be accurate, useful, and written by people who genuinely do this work. ## Who writes our content All content is produced by 89 Digital’s two founding partners — [Ian Fraser](/author/ian-fraser/), Technical Lead, and [Hayley Fraser](/author/hayley-fraser/), Digital Strategist. Between them they bring more than two decades of hands-on experience in WordPress and WooCommerce development, website performance, SEO, AI search (GEO) and Google Ads. Every article carries a visible byline and links to the author’s profile, so you always know who wrote what. ## How we use AI We use AI tools to help with research, drafting and editing — but never to publish unchecked. Every piece of content is directed, reviewed and approved by a named human expert before it goes live. AI helps us work faster; it doesn’t replace our judgement, and we don’t publish anything we wouldn’t stand behind ourselves. ## Sources and fact-checking When we make a technical or factual claim, we base it on authoritative sources — official documentation such as Google, WordPress and WooCommerce, recognised web standards, and, wherever possible, results we’ve seen directly in our own client work. Where it helps, we link to primary sources so you can verify them yourself. ## Accuracy, updates and freshness The web changes quickly, and so does good advice. We review our content periodically and update it when platforms, best practices or our own recommendations change. Each article shows a “Last updated” date so you can see how current it is. ## Corrections We work hard to get things right, but if you spot an error we want to know. Email us at [hello@89.digital](mailto:hello@89.digital) and we’ll review it promptly. When we make a material correction to a published article, we update the content and its “Last updated” date. ## Independence and disclosure Our recommendations are based on what we believe genuinely serves our clients and readers, not on commercial incentives. Where we mention our own services — such as our managed hosting or Plans — we make that relationship clear. We don’t run paid guest posts or accept payment to feature third-party products. ## Get in touch Questions about our content or this policy? Contact us at [hello@89.digital](mailto:hello@89.digital) or through our [contact page](/contact/). --- # Built for opening night — a fast Ponsonby restaurant website Source: https://89.digital/case-studies/mulleti-ponsonby-restaurant-website/ Updated: 2026-07-29 (no text content) --- # 11× the monthly leads — from a website refresh and Google Ads Source: https://89.digital/case-studies/margaritas-cleaning-google-ads-case-study/ Updated: 2026-07-29 (no text content) --- # 3× faster on mobile, built for an Auckland home builder Source: https://89.digital/case-studies/ashcroft-homes-website-performance-case-study/ Updated: 2026-07-29 (no text content) --- # Why Your Google Ads Aren’t Converting: The Hidden WooCommerce Glitches Draining Your Budget Source: https://89.digital/insights/why-google-ads-fail-on-woocommerce/ Updated: 2026-09-08 You’re spending money on Google Ads to bring targeted buyers to your WooCommerce store. The traffic is arriving, the clicks are showing in your dashboard, but the sales simply aren’t matching the spend. When ads underperform, the first reaction is usually to tweak the ad copy or change the target keywords. But more often than not, the issue isn’t your marketing — it’s hidden technical friction on your website. If your WooCommerce store has subtle plugin errors, slow load times, or tracking disconnects, you’re essentially pouring paid ad traffic into a leaking bucket. Here are four common WooCommerce issues that silently kill your Google Ads performance — and how fixing them restores your return on investment. ## 1. Slow landing pages inflate your cost-per-click Google doesn’t just evaluate your ad copy when deciding where to rank your business; it evaluates what happens after someone clicks. If your WooCommerce product pages take more than a couple of seconds to load — often caused by bloated plugins, heavy themes, or unoptimised images — two expensive problems occur immediately: - Mobile visitors bounce: the majority of Google Ads traffic now arrives on mobile devices. If your page lags, shoppers tap back to the Google results before they ever see your product. - Google charges you more: Google penalises slow landing pages with a lower Quality Score. That means you pay significantly more per click than a competitor bidding the same amount — for the exact same audience. The fix: streamline your store setup, clean up heavy background scripts, and carry out dedicated WooCommerce speed optimisation so product pages load in a flash on mobile. ## 2. Micro-bugs and friction at checkout A shopper clicked your Google Ad, liked your product, added it to their cart and proceeded to checkout. This is the most valuable visitor on your site. If your checkout experience has friction — such as a slow-loading payment gateway (Stripe, Afterpay, Windcave), broken layout fields on mobile, or plugin conflicts that throw unexpected JavaScript errors — buyers abandon their order immediately. Even a single-second delay or a layout bug during the payment step sends cart-abandonment rates soaring. The fix: regularly report your checkout flow on real mobile devices, eliminate conflicting plugin scripts, and make sure payment gateways load without hesitation. ## 3. Broken conversion tracking means Google Ads is guessing Modern Google Ads relies heavily on Smart Bidding to find the people most likely to buy from you. But those algorithms are only as smart as the data you feed them. Because of modern browser privacy settings, ad-blockers and the limits of basic client-side tracking, standard setups can miss a meaningful share of actual store sales. If your WooCommerce store isn’t reporting every purchase back to Google Ads accurately: - Google’s algorithms assume your ads aren’t performing well. - The system starts targeting the wrong type of visitor. - You waste ad budget chasing cheap clicks that never buy. The fix: implement reliable server-to-server tracking (the Google Conversion API / CAPI) so every purchase is reported back to Google Ads, giving the platform the exact data it needs to find high-value buyers. ## 4. Plugin bloat causes glitches during sales spikes When a Google Ads campaign successfully drives a sudden surge of traffic to your store, it puts immediate demand on your site’s database. Stores running dozens of unnecessary or poorly coded plugins often choke under that load. Pages slow down, cart totals fail to calculate, or elements freeze. The paid traffic you fought to win is wasted because the store’s architecture couldn’t handle the influx. The fix: carry out a comprehensive plugin report to strip away unnecessary bloat, replace fragile page-builder tools with lightweight foundations, and make sure your site is built to handle real-world traffic spikes. ## Stop burning ad budget on a leaky store Before you increase your Google Ads budget or blame your marketing strategy, make sure your website isn’t actively working against you. Fixing foundational speed, checkout and tracking errors is often the single fastest way to turn unprofitable ad spend into predictable store revenue. It’s the same foundations-first approach we bring to ongoing WooCommerce support. --- # Your Website Is Getting Attacked Right Now (And You Don’t Even Know It) Source: https://89.digital/insights/your-website-is-getting-attacked/ Updated: 2026-08-03 Most business owners assume that a cyber attack is loud and obvious. They picture a defaced homepage, a sudden black screen, or a site crashing entirely. If their website looks completely normal when they type in their domain name, they assume everything is fine behind the scenes. In reality, the most dangerous attacks on WordPress and WooCommerce sites are completely silent. Right now, as you read this, automated bots, brute-force scripts, and malicious crawlers are hitting your server. They aren’t trying to knock your site offline—they are silently probing for exposed credentials, scanning database configuration files, and attempting to slip scripts into checkout pages. Worse yet, if your business relies on a standard WordPress security plugin to handle these invisible attacks, that plugin might be silently destroying your site speed, lowering your Google rankings, and costing you sales. Here is what is actually happening behind the scenes of your website, why traditional security plugins miss the mark, and how to protect your store without sacrificing performance. ## The Silent Threat: What Bots Are Doing Behind the Scenes To understand how these invisible attacks work, look at what automated scripts attempt against a standard WordPress or WooCommerce site in a typical 30-day window: - Thousands of Brute-Force Logins: Automated scripts hammering away at /xmlrpc.php and /wp-login.php, testing thousands of password combinations every hour. - Probing for Credentials: Malicious crawlers scanning for exposed environment files (like /.env or /.git/config) to steal database keys, API credentials, or admin access. - Checkout & Form Injection: Scanners probing WooCommerce checkout fields and forms to slip in payment-skimming code or database commands. - Global Botnets: Coordinated traffic spikes originating from automated bot networks spanning India, Brazil, Pakistan, and Southeast Asia. None of this changes how your homepage looks to a casual visitor. But every single one of these automated attempts eats away at your business in the dark. ## The Hidden Flaw in Traditional Security Plugins When business owners realize their site needs protection, the standard response is to install a heavy security plugin like Wordfence or Sucuri. While these plugins do block known bad actors, they operate from inside WordPress itself. Imagine owning a retail store. Relying on a security plugin is like placing a security guard in the back room of your shop. When a vandal tries to break your front window, the guard doesn’t stop them at the street. Instead, the vandal has to open your front door, walk past your displays, and enter your shop before the guard steps in to check their ID. In technical terms: - A malicious bot requests a file or attempts a brute-force login. - Your web server has to boot up PHP, start the entire WordPress core engine, connect to your database, and load your theme. - Only after all that heavy processing is done does your security plugin step in to reject the bot. When hundreds of automated bots hit your site throughout the day, your server wastes massive CPU power processing fake traffic. Your real human customers experience lagging page loads, slow WooCommerce checkouts, and a sluggish user experience. ## Server-Level Protection: Stopping Threats at the Perimeter True web security shouldn’t rely on the very application layer that is being targeted. That is why we built Detect & Protect—our server-level security shield integrated directly into our containerized hosting environment. Instead of running inside WordPress as a bloated plugin, protection runs right at the edge of your server layer. When a bad bot tries to guess passwords or scan your site, our container agent drops the connection instantly. WordPress never even has to boot up, saving 100% of your server’s power for actual customers. ## Fleet Intelligence: Collective Defense That Learns When you rely on a standalone plugin, your website evaluates threats in total isolation. With Detect & Protect, every website protected by 89 Digital shares a collective shield called Fleet Intelligence: The moment a novel attack vector or malicious IP address probes any single site on our network, our server agent instantly hardens the defense across every other site we manage. An attack on one site instantly immunizes yours—creating a network defense that gets stronger every single day without you lifting a finger. ## Bringing the Dark into the Light with Cardo You shouldn’t need a degree in cybersecurity or hours spent reading line-item log files to know if your website is safe. Inside Cardo—our AI-powered site intelligence platform—we turn thousands of complex server events into a simple, plain-English dashboard: - Shield Status vs. Threat Level: Easily see how hard your site is being probed (Threat Level) alongside live confirmation that your perimeter defense is holding (100% Shield Status). - Six-Layer Vector Monitoring: Live status across all major attack vectors—from brute-force logins and credential scans to injection attempts and checkout tampering. - Geographic Threat Tracking: See where attack traffic originates globally alongside 24-hour block counts. - Zero Maintenance: No security plugin updates to break your site layout, no captchas annoying paying buyers, and zero code bloat. ## Total Peace of Mind Without the Speed Penalty You shouldn’t have to sacrifice sub-second loading speeds just to keep your WordPress or WooCommerce site secure. By removing heavy application-layer plugins and moving threat protection directly to the server, you protect your revenue, safeguard your customer data, and keep your site running at peak performance. --- # From GA4 to AI Search: How Cardo Simplifies Your Digital Strategy Source: https://89.digital/insights/from-ga4-to-ai-search-how-cardo-simplifies-your-digital-strategy/ Updated: 2026-07-23 Building and growing a digital presence should feel exciting—not like a daily chore. Yet for most business owners and marketing leaders, keeping tabs on performance means solving a puzzle across five different tabs. You have traffic in Google Analytics 4, search visibility in Search Console, real revenue sitting in WooCommerce, ad performance in Google Ads, and campaign engagement in Mailchimp. Each platform speaks its own language. Instead of feeling in control of your growth, you’re left trying to connect the dots yourself—making strategic decisions based on guesswork rather than facts. At 89 Digital, we believe you shouldn’t need to spend hours decoding dashboards or reading 30-page PDF reports to know if your marketing is working. You deserve total clarity, effortless understanding, and complete confidence in your next move. And have access to something which is a living target, not yesterday’s news. That is why we built Cardo. ## All your data in one place—summarised so it actually means something Imagine opening one clean dashboard every morning and seeing your entire digital ecosystem talking to each other in plain English. Cardo acts as your single source of truth, pulling together all your data feeds into one unified view. But bringing data together is only step one; the real magic is summarising it so it actually tells a meaningful story: - Unified Visibility: Your traffic, search rankings, ad performance, and real sales lined up side-by-side so you can see the true picture behind your numbers. - E-Commerce Truth Check: Reconciling what GA4 reports against what actually sold in your store, giving you 100% confidence in your return on ad spend. - Competitor Watch: Keeping an eye on how your site stacks up against industry competitors, so you always know where market opportunities are opening up. ## Human-led AI, backed by deep business understanding Smart AI reads across every connected feed in Cardo to synthesise the noise into plain-English summaries. But just like keeping a dog on a lead so it doesn’t wander off, AI needs experienced hands guiding it. Every single insight and recommendation generated by Cardo is reviewed, refined, and directed by ourselves to make sure it’s right. We love getting under the hood of our clients’ businesses, taking the time to understand your real commercial goals so we can turn raw data into genuine strategic guidance. ## Guided by the 89 Digital Site Audit Engine Underneath Cardo sits our proprietary Site Audit engine, systematically tracking speed, technical SEO, security, and user experience. It removes the guesswork by pinpointing exactly where issues need fixing before they impact your bottom line. Even better, it actively measures your AI Search (GEO) readiness. As tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity transform how people discover services, our audit engine highlights the exact gains your site can make to ensure AI search engines cite and recommend your brand first. ## Total confidence in your digital growth When your data is unified, summarised, and guided by people who understand your business, growing your brand stops feeling like a game of chance. You gain instant visibility into what’s working, clear direction on small gains that compound over time, and senior partners working right alongside you on the exact same numbers. No guesswork. No jargon. Just pure clarity and momentum. --- # Why Your Website Isn’t Ranking on Google (And How to Fix It) Source: https://89.digital/insights/why-is-my-website-not-ranking-on-google/ Updated: 2026-07-10 Most small business owners know they should be doing SEO, but few really know what it is or where to start, and even fewer have the time to figure it out. Here are our recommendations on the actions that actually matter when you’re resource-limited and need results. ## What SEO actually is – and isn’t SEO — Search Engine Optimisation — is the practice of making your website show up when people search for what you offer online. That’s it. It’s not magic, it’s not gaming the system, and it’s definitely not something you do once and forget about. It’s an ongoing process of making sure Google understands who you are, what you offer, and why you’re worth recommending. The good news is that the bar isn’t that high for most small New Zealand businesses. Your competitors are often doing very little, which means even solid foundational SEO can move you up Google’s rankings faster than you’d expect. ## Start with the basics for SEO Make sure your foundations are solid before anything else. - Your site needs to be fast. Google uses page speed as a ranking factor, and slow sites lose visitors. If your site takes more than three seconds to load on mobile, you’re losing people before they’ve read a word. Run your site through our free Website Audit and see where you sit. - Your site needs to be mobile-friendly. On average 60% of searches happen on a phone. If your site is hard to navigate on mobile, Google notices — and so do your customers. - Your site needs to be secure. An HTTPS padlock isn’t optional anymore. If your site still shows as “not secure” in the browser, fix that first — security can no longer be left behind. - Your site needs to be set up with Google tools. Submitting your site to the free Google tools available, including Google Search Console and GA4, means you will start to gain data on indexing and search to build on over time. ## What are my customers searching for? The biggest mistake small business owners make with SEO is guessing what their customers are searching for. A plumber in Auckland might assume people search for “plumbing services Auckland.” But they’re actually searching “emergency plumber Auckland” or “burst pipe Auckland” — very different pages. Tools like Cardo. by 89 Digital, or Google’s own search suggestions show you exactly what people are searching for. Search volume matters, but so does intent: someone searching “how to fix a leaky tap” probably won’t hire you, while someone searching “Plumber Birkenhead” absolutely might. For most small businesses, local keywords are your best friend. “HR for small business” is a tough term to rank for globally. “HR for small business Auckland” or “HR consultant New Zealand” is much more achievable — and the person searching is far more likely to become a customer. ## Website page content for SEO Once you know which keywords you’re targeting, make sure each page is set up to rank for it. Each page should have one primary focus. Your homepage isn’t trying to rank for everything; your service pages each target a specific keyword; and your blog posts go after long-tail search terms. The on-page elements that are a must for SEO are: - Title tag — the blue link that appears in Google. Include your keyword and keep it under 60 characters. - Meta description — the grey text below the title. It doesn’t directly affect rankings, but it affects whether people click, so make it compelling. - H1 heading — the main heading on the page. It should match what you’re targeting. - Content — write for humans first, Google second. Answer the question your customer is asking. Be specific, be useful. This also helps AI engines cite your business. ## Google Business Profile — don’t skip this If you serve customers in a specific area, your Google Business Profile is one of the most valuable things you can have. It’s free, and it’s what appears in the map results when someone searches locally. Fill it in completely, add photos, and collect reviews — and respond to them, good and bad. This alone can make a significant difference to local search visibility. ## Does quality beat quantity, for website content? You don’t need to publish three blog posts a week. You need to publish useful insights when you have something worth saying. The best content for SEO answers a specific question your customer is already asking. “Why is my website so slow?” “How much does SEO cost in NZ?” “What’s the difference between SEO and Google Ads?” These are real questions with real search volume — and if you answer them well, Google will send people to you. One solid, genuinely useful article a month will outperform five thin, generic ones every time. ## Does website linking still matter? When other websites link to yours, Google takes it as a signal that you’re credible — and the more authoritative the site linking to you, the stronger the signal. For small businesses, the best way to build links isn’t an elaborate outreach strategy — it’s doing things worth linking to: getting listed in industry directories, contributing to local publications, being mentioned in a media article, or having suppliers and partners reference you. You don’t need hundreds of links. A handful of genuinely relevant ones from credible New Zealand sites will make a real difference. ## How do I find out what people are searching for? If you’re not measuring, you’re guessing. The two tools you need are Google Analytics (to understand how people behave on your site) and Google Search Console (to see what searches bring people to you, and how you’re ranking). Look at: - Which pages are getting traffic from search - Which keywords are bringing people in - Where you’re ranking for your target terms - How your traffic changes month on month Set aside 30 minutes a month to check these. That’s enough to know whether things are moving in the right direction. ## The truth SEO takes time. If someone’s promising you page-one results in two weeks, they’re either lying or about to do something that’ll get your site penalised. A realistic timeline is three to six months before you see meaningful movement, and six to twelve before SEO becomes a reliable traffic source. The businesses that win at SEO are the ones that treat it as an ongoing investment, not a one-time fix. If you’d rather focus on running your business and have someone else handle the strategy, measurement and monthly optimisation, that’s exactly what our [Growth Plan](/growth-plan/) is built for. Every client gets Cardo., our reporting platform, so you always know exactly what your SEO is returning. --- # Is your page builder costing your business? Source: https://89.digital/insights/why-is-my-website-slow/ Updated: 2026-07-08 Page builders like Elementor, Divi and WPBakery promise the same thing: build a good-looking website without touching code. And on the surface they deliver. The problem is what happens underneath — and the bill your business quietly pays for it every single day. ## Convenience has a weight To give you drag-and-drop flexibility, a page builder wraps your content in layer upon layer of extra markup and loads a large library of scripts and styles on every page — whether that page uses them or not. The result is a website that carries far more weight than it needs to. A simple page that should ship in tens of kilobytes can balloon into hundreds, plus a stack of render-blocking requests. A page builder optimises for the person building the site once. It rarely optimises for the thousands of visitors who load it afterwards. ## Where that weight shows up on your bottom line - Google rankings. Core Web Vitals — how fast and stable your pages feel — are a ranking signal. A heavy, slow site is fighting Google’s algorithm instead of working with it. - Ad spend. Google Ads rewards fast landing pages with a better Quality Score, which lowers your cost per click. A slow page means you literally pay more for the same traffic. - Conversions. Study after study shows that every extra second of load time drops conversion. Visitors leave before your beautiful page has even finished appearing. - Energy use. Often overlooked. A slow loading home page with excessive code or poorly structured code with errors will not only take longer to load, but will also use more energy to fully load the page. This is an increase in Carbon emissions, often overlooked. - Play nicely. Not all page builders work well with the mountain of plugins available. It doesn’t take much for a page builder to have an update and all of a sudden “something has stopped working” which sends you in to panic mode. ## “But my site looks fine to me” It usually does — on your machine, on your fast connection, with the page already cached. Your customers are a different story: a mid-range phone, a patchy connection, arriving cold. That’s the experience that decides whether they stay or bounce, and it’s the one a page builder tends to serve worst. ## Why a “quick change” can take forever Making a simple change to your website shouldn’t be a big job — but it often is, and how your site was built is usually the reason. The clean way to build a site is to keep all its styling in one place: a single theme stylesheet, organised into sections, commented so any developer can follow it, and set up to handle mobile properly. Need to change a colour or some spacing? One file, one edit, save. Done. Page builders frequently work the other way. When you style an element on a page, the builder often bakes that styling straight into that page — inline, in place. Do that across a site and the same styles get copied onto every element, on every page. Now a “simple” change means making the same edit 20, 30, 40 times over — and all that duplicated code adds real weight, which slows the page down. It’s a common trap: a nice-looking page gets designed, duplicated and rolled out site-wide, and no one checks what it’s quietly dumping into the browser. Think of a brand-new car with a sluggish engine and terrible fuel economy — looks the part, doesn’t perform. That’s a page-builder site under the hood. ## The alternative isn’t “no design” — it’s a better foundation None of this means giving up on a great-looking website. It means building the design properly: a custom, lightweight WordPress theme where the code exists to serve your site, not to power a generic drag-and-drop engine. You get the same visual result — often a better one — at a fraction of the weight. This is exactly what our [Foundation Plan](/foundation-plan/) is built to do: a fast, custom-coded site engineered to hit a 90+ performance score, with no bloated plugins and no shortcuts that resurface a year later. ## How to tell if it’s costing you Run your homepage and a key landing page through a performance test and look at the score on mobile, not desktop. If you’re sitting in the reds and ambers, that gap is money — in rankings, ad efficiency and lost sales. Inside Cardo. we track this continuously and score it as one of six pillars, so the number is never a mystery and never a surprise. Curious what your site is really costing you? A free website health check will show you your performance score and the highest-impact fixes to claw that speed back. --- # The compound effect: how a Growth Plan builds momentum month by month Source: https://89.digital/insights/the-compound-effect-growth-plan/ Updated: 2026-07-10 Most people expect ongoing SEO to deliver like a light switch: flip it on, watch the rankings climb. Real growth looks nothing like that. It looks like compounding — small, deliberate gains that stack on top of each other until the curve bends upward and keeps going. Understanding that shape is the difference between quitting in month two and winning in month twelve. ## Why month one may feel quiet In the first month, we’re laying tracks. Benchmarks are set, the technical foundations are tightened, the first content and search work goes live, and campaigns are structured properly. Very little of that produces a visible spike straight away — and that’s exactly as it should be. You don’t judge a compound investment by its first statement. Growth built on a solid foundation compounds. Growth built on a poor one leaks away as fast as you pour it in. ## The monthly loop that drives it Every month runs the same disciplined loop, and the loop is where the compounding comes from: - Review & benchmark. We open the month with fresh data — a new Site Audit plus your live search, analytics and store numbers, and any competitor movement. - Agree the plan. That data becomes a clear, prioritised set of tasks for the month, agreed with you and visible in Cardo. - Work through & tick off. We execute, and you watch progress happen in the open — no black box. - Re-audit & find the next. We measure the lift, and it surfaces the next round of work. The loop turns into next month. ## Why it accelerates Each turn of the loop makes the next one more effective. Content published in month two is being indexed and earning authority by month four. Keyword positions that crept from page three to the bottom of page one start converting once they reach the top. Ad campaigns that were gathering data begin to optimise against real results. Nothing is wasted — every month’s work becomes a foundation the next month builds on. ## What the curve actually looks like Plotted out, it’s not a straight line and it’s not a hockey stick overnight. It’s a gentle climb that steepens: modest movement early, clear traction by the middle, and genuine momentum once the pieces start reinforcing each other. The clients who see the best results are simply the ones who stayed in the loop long enough to let it compound. ## The honest part This approach isn’t for everyone. If you need a one-off spike for a single campaign, a retainer is the wrong tool. But if you want durable, defensible growth — the kind competitors can’t buy their way past in a weekend — then the compound effect is the most reliable way there. Our [Growth Plan](/growth-plan/) is built entirely around it. Not sure whether you’re ready for Growth, or whether your foundations need work first? A free website health check will tell you exactly where you stand — and we’ll be honest about the right next step. ---