Strategic recommendation
Locked decisions and directions. These are the calls we’re making.
Research evidence
What the research found. The reason behind each recommendation.
Awaiting input
Items that need Aaron’s confirmation before copy locks.
Client
Originate Group Ltd
Team
Aaron, Reece, Tanya
Launch gate
Founders Playground, 14 May 2026
Supersedes
Strategy v1 (Mar 2026)
Executive Summary
Websites with strategy, on five foundational pillars. Built post-CMS. Proven on every Bristol business with a website — the full city leaderboard, expanding to other cities.
Spine: the agency that builds websites with strategy, on five pillars — Human Connection, Communication, Strategic Positioning, User Experience, Design Quality.
Eyebrow: “A post-CMS studio.” Stage claim: “The first post-CMS website agency.”
Product: Foundations — £47/mo quarterly, £99/mo monthly, £247/mo performance (all +VAT).
Rule: Integrator (marketing) only follows Foundations being in place. Past Originate WordPress builds count.
- The five pillars are the proposition. What “with strategy” means — scored, public, applied via the audit and the leaderboard.
- Post-CMS is the architectural reason. Cloudflare/Astro (16 Jan 2026), only 48% of mobile sites passing Core Web Vitals in 2025, static-by-default. Justifies the speed.
- Foundations is the gate, not a sibling offer. Integrator sequences from it.
- Voice leads. Trust is earned by showing. Whole site ships 14 May — because the site IS the product demo.
Research Findings
Seven findings from 2026-04-17 parallel research. Each one either locks or re-shapes a strategy decision. The first four re-shape the pitch; the last three re-shape the site itself.
Finding 1 · The post-CMS thesis is validated
Cloudflare acquired Astro on 16 January 2026. The two big platforms that owned the CMS stack (WordPress on one side, Wix/Squarespace on the other) are being squeezed from both ends: AI-generated sites from below, static-by-default frameworks from above. Only 48% of mobile sites pass all three Core Web Vitals (HTTP Archive Web Almanac, 2025) — the majority of the web is still slow. The market is quietly rotating out of the CMS era.
What this means for Originate: the static Foundations pitch isn’t a contrarian bet. It’s the leading edge of a visible shift. The framing changes from “we build sites differently” to “we’re already on the other side of the shift.”
Finding 2 · The competitive gap is named
Across 12 competitors scanned: no one in the Bristol SME web bracket holds the position of “studio that holds the site for you, cancellable any month.” Atomic Smash holds the premium WordPress territory. Durable and the AI builders hold the cheap self-serve territory. The middle — operator-quality sites, priced like a service, with no lock-in — is empty.
Finding 3 · Audience scar tissue runs deep
30 fresh audience quotes harvested. The dominant emotional register across Bristol / Weston / Somerset SMEs isn’t excitement about the next build — it’s fatigue from the last one. Words that repeat: “held hostage,” “locked in,” “nobody answered,” “paid twice,” “broken for weeks.”
Finding 4 · The buyer is not in a rush, but the business is
Buyer-Urgency scores 2/10 — most SMEs putting up with a bad site will tolerate it for another six months. Business-Urgency scores 10/10 — the site leaking traffic, leads, and AI-search visibility every day it stays broken. The asymmetry is the opportunity. The leaderboard resolves it: score the visitor’s site, show them the position, let the specifics do the urgency work.
Finding 5 · Cancellation policy is the trust hinge
Gap surfaced and resolved 2026-04-17. The Foundations page cannot carry pricing without a visible cancellation policy, because the entire Trust-9 reading depends on removing the lock-in fear that scarred the audience last time. Final policy: service-not-product, domain and content owned by client, cancel any month, tenure-scaled buyout if client wants to keep the built site.
Finding 6 · The leaderboard is the central asset
The leaderboard currently being built covers every Bristol business with a website — the full city, not a sample. TBC: final business count TBC: average score Previous sample work at originate-group.github.io/leaderboard (1,357 businesses, average 52/100) was the prototype; the full-Bristol build replaces it for the May launch. The roadmap: Bristol → other UK cities, each at its own URL (/leaderboard/bristol, /leaderboard/[city]).
Finding 7 · The Accelerator tier doesn’t belong
The mid-tier “Accelerator” offer from v1 strategy doesn’t survive the audience reading. Foundations is the operator-held sentiment; Integrator is the embedded-team pitch. The middle creates confusion, not simplicity. Accelerator is retired. References to it are removed across the rebuild.
Competitive Landscape
Twelve competitors scanned. The two deep dives below — Atomic Smash at the premium end, Durable at the cheap end — show why the middle-ground territory Originate is moving into is open.
Atomic Smash · the Bristol-local threat
Bristol (Temple Meads), 13 people, B Corp, WooExperts Platinum. WordPress/WooCommerce stack, hidden pricing, narrative audit. Trademarked “Always Evolving®”. The one Aaron will meet at Bristol Founders Festival and on BGN stages.
Durable · the AI builder
“Build a website in 30 seconds.” Growth tier at $25/month. Pitch: cut out the agency, own it yourself. Failure mode: the operator is still a webmaster, just with less support.
CMS site vs static site · what it actually means
Most visitors don’t know what a CMS is, and they don’t need to. The category claim has to be legible without the jargon. The explainer below is the one-paragraph version that works on the homepage and /framework; the deeper version lives in a /writing essay.
A CMS site (WordPress, Wix, Squarespace) is a website built on top of a database and a dashboard. Every page is assembled from the database the moment a visitor asks for it. You get an admin panel to edit the site, which sounds good — but the database, the plugins, the dashboard, and the hosting all have to run every single time. That’s where the slowness, the security updates, and the “it broke after I changed the theme” problems come from.
A static site is a website where every page has been pre-built, once, into plain files. When a visitor asks for the page, the file is already there — nothing to assemble, nothing to query. That’s why it loads in a fraction of a second and almost never breaks. Editing happens through a small, purpose-built editor (or through us), and the site is re-built automatically when something changes.
The honest trade-off: a static site is less flexible if you want to bolt on a new plugin every week. That’s the 5% of sites that should still be WordPress. The other 95% — small-business sites that change a few times a year — have been paying a speed-and-reliability tax for a flexibility they never used. Foundations is for the 95%.
The premium WordPress end
Atomic Smash (hidden pricing, B Corp, WooExperts Platinum) and the London WordPress shops hold the premium bracket. They do it well, but they’re building on a stack the market is quietly rotating out of.
The cheap AI-builder end
Durable, Wix, Squarespace, Yopp. Self-serve, the operator is still the webmaster, and the sites underneath are still CMS-era architecture wearing a new skin.
Static by default, built for speed
Cloudflare’s Astro acquisition on 16 Jan 2026 named the shift. No one in Bristol holds “first post-CMS agency” yet. Foundations at £47–£247/mo is what a small-business website looks like on the other side.
Public methodology, public scoreboard
A 100-point methodology anyone can read, applied to every Bristol business with a website in a public index. No competitor has this — and no competitor has an architecture that makes it worth building.
Strategic Positioning
The territory Originate is claiming, the three core messages that carry it, the retirement of the Accelerator tier, and the cancellation policy that underwrites the whole Foundations pitch.
The territory
Originate builds websites with strategy, on five foundational pillars.
A post-CMS studio.
The first post-CMS website agency.
Three layers, one position. The spine (what we are) lives in the copy: strategy-led, pillar-grounded. The eyebrow (the category) lives above the homepage H1. The stage claim (the pitch) is what Aaron holds up in front of a room. All three point at the same territory from different distances.
The five pillars are the proposition
The 5 Foundational Pillars are not a methodology footnote. They’re the proposition itself. “Websites with strategy” is an empty phrase without them; with them, it’s a 100-point commitment you can apply to any site in 90 seconds.
- Human Connection — does the site sound like a person wrote it, for a person?
- Communication — does it make its case without the reader having to work for it?
- Strategic Positioning — does it own a territory, or does it sound like everyone else in the category?
- User Experience — does it get out of the reader’s way?
- Design Quality — does it look like the business behind it takes itself seriously?
Each pillar is scored out of 20. Total out of 100. Harsh by design. Applied publicly to every Bristol business with a website via the public index. The audit tool applies the same methodology to the visitor’s own site in 90 seconds.
The three core messages
- “Websites with strategy, on five foundational pillars.” The spine. Every page carries it in some form. The five pillars are what “with strategy” means, scored, public, applied.
- “The CMS era is closing. We’re the first agency on the other side.” The category claim. Cloudflare/Astro on 16 Jan 2026 as the current-event hook, the unresolved Core Web Vitals problem (only 48% of mobile sites passed in 2025) as the evidence, static-by-default as the architecture. Justifies the speed without having to argue for it.
- “Foundations before marketing. Always.” The sequencing rule. Integrator follows a foundation we can stand behind — past Originate-built WordPress sites count; cold prospects without one start with Foundations. This is a refusal, not a sales tactic.
Foundations is the prerequisite
We do not engage with Integrator until Foundations is in place. This is operational policy, not a marketing stance. Expensive marketing on a broken foundation just makes the leak faster. The principle is load-bearing across the whole site: it’s why the homepage leads with the audit tool, why /foundations is pricing-visible and /integrator is book-a-call, and why the offer ladder sequences rather than forks.
The “what counts as a foundation” rule: any site Originate has built (including our past WordPress clients — Vanguard Tactics, Ara, Abbeyfield Bristol, Keynsham) counts as a Foundations-standard foundation because we built it to our methodology. Cold prospects arriving without a site we built start at Foundations. The rule applies forward, to new engagements.
Foundations pricing (two-tier public, one-tier bespoke)
The spoken pitch names two tiers: £47/mo +VAT with quarterly updates and £99/mo +VAT with monthly updates. These are the product tiers the stage pitch, the homepage Foundations card, and the /foundations page all lead with. £247/mo +VAT (Launch & Perform) stays on the pricing page as the performance engagement tier for clients already spending on marketing — the one that earns its subscription back fastest.
Accelerator is retired
The v1 “Accelerator” middle tier is removed from the site, the pitch, and the proposal library. It confused buyers, fragmented the narrative, and sat in a territory (“productised marketing lite”) that neither segment wanted. Any archival references are stripped during the rebuild.
The new shape is two doors: Foundations (priced on the page) or Integrator (book a call). That’s the whole offer ladder.
The cancellation policy
Foundations is a service, not a product. The client’s domain stays registered to them. Their content stays theirs. If they cancel in any given month, the site goes offline the following one. No exit fees, no 12-month tie-in, no lock-out clauses.
If they want to keep the built site on leaving, there’s a tenure-scaled buyout. The longer they’ve been with Originate, the cheaper it is. This is visible on the Foundations page as a quiet FAQ, not a main heading. It’s the reassurance that answers the scar tissue without centring the conversation on exit.
The tenure multiplier ladder itself (exact numbers at 6-month, 12-month, 24-month, 36-month tenure) is locked in the memory file but should be reviewed once more before the Foundations page goes live. If the numbers change, the FAQ copy changes.
Site Architecture
One launch, whole site, 14 May. Because the site IS the product demo — we can’t pitch “blisteringly fast Foundations websites” from stage while our own rebuild ships in tracks over three months.
If a page can’t ship to standard for 14 May, the answer is to cut that page entirely, not push it to a later phase. The stage pitch works with `/` + `/foundations` + the public city index + at least one writing piece + `/contact`. Everything beyond that earns its place by being ready.
All pages · 14 May launch
| Page | Coverage goals |
|---|---|
| / (homepage) | Hero: audit tool + database search (fed by 4 Pillars Auditing project), eyebrow “A post-CMS studio”. Arc: audit → the reasons (post-CMS thesis) → five foundational pillars (the proposition) → why we’re the strategic choice → Foundations card (priced) → built-sites wall → testimonial → Integrator as next-step → index teaser → footer CTA. |
| /foundations | Ownership-first, cancellation-first, pricing-third, features-fourth. Three tiers with “who’s this for” leads. Tenure buyout FAQ quietly included. The product push; the page the stage walks toward. |
| /framework | The 5 Foundational Pillars as a public educational artefact. Each pillar scored out of 20. “Harsh by design” preserved verbatim. Links into the public index as proof the methodology is applied at scale. |
| Public city index Name TBC | Every Bristol business with a website, scored on the 5 Pillars, searchable and filterable. Expansion to other UK cities. The terminology (leaderboard / index / directory / something else) is open — “leaderboard” carries ranking connotations that may not fit. URL namespace ready: /bristol or equivalent, with /[city] pattern for growth. |
| /integrator | Fractional marketing, book-a-call. Opens with the sequencing rule: Integrator follows a Foundations-standard site. Past Originate WordPress builds count. Cold prospects start with Foundations. Pricing conversational. |
| /about | The Sicom / Score-27 origin story in Aaron’s voice (first paying Foundations client, audit-scored 27, signed up after seeing the first-ever Foundations proposal page). Team of three, honest geography (Bristol focus, Weston home). Team bios: fairness-tested, warm OK, sexism/outing banned. |
| /writing | Insights / essays. Launch with three pieces the research directly supports: post-CMS thesis (Cloudflare/Astro hook), Core Web Vitals national story, AI visibility for SMEs. SEO pipeline runs on this section — every piece is keyword-targeted and optimised at publish, not retroactively. |
| /case-studies | Ara Recovery For All, Vanguard Tactics, Abbeyfield Bristol, Keynsham. Four-beat shape: situation, decision, work, outcome. Each case study carries an honest-labelling badge: `Foundations` (current post-CMS builds) or `WordPress` (pre-Foundations builds). Past WordPress work is named, not hidden. |
| /contact | Three paths: audit (cold), WhatsApp (warm), book-a-call (hot). One sentence each. Weston office address in footer. |
| audit.weareoriginate.com | Dedicated audit landing subdomain. Framework name cascades from “5 Pillar Fundamentals” to “5 Foundational Pillars”. Critical-path: cascade lands before public index goes live. |
SEO pipeline on /writing
The /writing section runs through the full SEO pipeline — keyword universe, topical authority map, brief → write → optimise → publish loop. Every essay is keyword-targeted at brief stage, not SEO’d retroactively. Target clusters that the research surfaces:
- Post-CMS / static site — the category Originate is claiming. Thin SERP, high authority opportunity.
- Core Web Vitals / site speed — broad search volume, every SME with a slow site is a potential reader.
- AI visibility / ChatGPT search / LLM citation — 12–18 month arbitrage window; operators are actively searching.
- Bristol SME / Bristol web — local-intent keywords that the city index also ranks for, creating compound authority.
The /writing section is the SEO engine for the whole site. Foundations product pages will convert; /writing pulls the traffic that feeds them.
Reece’s title: Business Development vs Operations — affects one line on /about.
Full testimonial text for Brent Hinks, Kim Teddy, Steve Niblo — Stephen Box quote verified verbatim.
WhatsApp number + booking link — placeholders no longer acceptable under single-launch scope.
£247 Launch & Perform value-stack copy — articulated during copy drafting.
Public city index terminology — leaderboard / index / directory / other. Aaron to call.
Photography: real team photos, real workspace. If not shot by launch, /about drops rather than ships with placeholders.
Copy Direction
Three guardrails direct every page. Voice leads. Framework hides. The hero is a tool, not a line. Team sections follow the rules to the letter because the Mar 26 failures exist in living memory.
Guardrail 1 · Voice is the spine, not the framework
Frameworks (PASTOR, PAS, AIDA) inform the shape of each page but never announce themselves on it. The reader cannot name the framework underneath. No section headers say “Problem,” “Amplify,” “Story.” No transitions say “Here’s the thing.” No closers say “So here’s what we do.”
Guardrail 2 · Dreamer-language has a placement discipline
“For the ones who never wanted to be webmasters” is the dreamer-language lineage. It earns a place on /foundations (once) and /about (Aaron’s origin arc) and /writing (where civilisational framing lives). It does not appear on /, the public city index, /framework, or /integrator.
Guardrail 3 · Team bios: warmth OK, sexism banned
Warm, descriptive bios are fine. Factual-only bios are also fine. The rule isn’t register — it’s fairness. Would you write an equivalent line about a man if writing about a woman, and vice versa? If no, rewrite. Banned: gendered tropes applied to one side but not the other; outing health or neurodivergence without sign-off on specific wording; silent-genius cliches; unverified personality claims; agency-bio filler (“drinks too much coffee”).
Hero is the audit, not a headline
The homepage hero is the live URL input. Visitor types, submits, gets the 5 Pillar score. The H1 sits with it, not above it. The audit tool IS the proposition — no headline is trying to sell the audit before the audit sells itself.
Client Content Review
What we have, what we need, and what has to be confirmed before copy locks. Everything here is either “Aaron has it somewhere” or “Aaron has to write it.” Nothing is outsourced.
Content locked
- Full-Bristol audit dataset. Powered by the 4 Pillars Auditing GSD project. Feeds the public index and the homepage database search.
- Stephen Box testimonial (Vanguard Tactics, 7,000+ leads). Usable on the homepage.
- The Sicom / Score-27 origin story. Sicom ran the audit, scored 27/100. Aaron built the first-ever Foundations proposal page for Sicom as a “what happens when we tick every box on the audit” exercise. Sicom signed up — the first paying Foundations client. This is the actual genesis story. `/about` carries it in Aaron’s voice. TBC: narrative detail Aaron to write (industry, timing, wider context)
- The 5 Foundational Pillars methodology. Already in the audit engine. /framework walks the reader through it publicly.
Content pending
Confirm Reece’s title
Business Development vs Operations. One line on /about depends on it.
Lift Stephen Box quote verbatim from live site
Rule: testimonials and case-study content must match the current live weareoriginate.com exactly. No paraphrasing “in register.” The current draft is paraphrased — that’s a bug. Copy the words Stephen gave, as they appear on the live site. Same rule for Ara, Vanguard Tactics, Abbeyfield, Keynsham.
Provide remaining testimonial text
Brent Hinks, Kim Teddy (Django Motion), Steve Niblo (Dundas Building Surveying). Track B weight.
Provide WhatsApp number and booking link
Calendly or equivalent. Placeholders acceptable for Track A MVP.
Port leaderboard to new URL namespace
Critical-path item. originate-group.github.io/leaderboard → weareoriginate.com/leaderboard with /leaderboard/bristol city prefix.
Framework name cascade
“5 Pillar Fundamentals” → “5 Foundational Pillars” across audit tool, leaderboard, proposal pages. Must land before leaderboard URL flip.
Photography plan
Real team photos, real workspace, nothing stock. If photos aren’t shot by MVP gate, /about is held to Track B rather than running with placeholders.
Next Steps
The path from this document to a site live on 14 May. Two reviews, one approval, then build. No gate is missed.
- Aaron read-aloud review. Read every page-copy draft out loud. If any sentence doesn’t sound like a founder talking to another founder, rewrite it before it goes into the build.
- Approve the strategy (LOCKED). Once approved, this document is the source of truth. Every downstream call — copy, design, build order — comes back to it.
- Port the leaderboard to the new URL namespace. Critical path. Framework name cascade happens alongside it.
- Build the static site in Astro. Whole-site build: public city index → / (homepage) → /foundations → /framework → /about → /writing → /case-studies → /integrator → /contact → audit subdomain. Brand tokens, Jost, lime accent — same system as this document.
- Run SEO pipeline on /writing in parallel. Keyword universe, topical authority map, three launch essays fully briefed and optimised before publish. /writing ships with authority, not as a placeholder.
- Stage dress rehearsal, week of 5 May. Aaron runs the pitch against the live site from a phone. Public index, hero search, audit flow — all tested end-to-end.
- Founders Playground, 14 May 2026. Whole site live. Stage-to-audit-to-Foundations funnel runs against a finished product.
If any page can’t be delivered to the 14 May standard, cut it — don’t push it to a later phase. Single-launch is load-bearing: the site IS the product demo. Staging a rollout undermines the Foundations pitch.
Dynamics
The 5 Core Dynamics scored for Originate. Urgency is split because the buyer and the business sit on opposite ends — this split is the opportunity the leaderboard resolves.
Medium. The buyer understands websites need to exist; they don’t understand the category they’re buying (service vs product vs tool). The methodology page does category education without lecturing.
Dominant. Scar tissue from build-and-leave agencies, lock-in clauses, broken migrations. The cancellation policy, the audit tool, the leaderboard, and the built-sites wall are all trust mechanisms.
Low. The SME putting up with a bad site tolerates it for another six months. The leaderboard manufactures specificity-urgency by scoring the visitor’s actual site.
Maximum. The site leaks leads, traffic, and AI-search visibility every day it stays broken. The audit surfaces the business-urgency the buyer isn’t feeling directly.
Split audience. Some buyers (Atomic Smash’s refugees) are category-literate; others (the Weston car dealer) are at square one. The tool and the leaderboard let both in through the same door.
Identity-loaded. Bristol indie-creative register matters to the SME founders we target. “For the ones who’d rather do the actual work” lands here; generic SaaS-voice does not.
Framework
Six anti-stiffness rules direct every page. Frameworks inform the shape underneath, but they never announce themselves on the page. If the reader can name the formula, the copy is failing.
- No section header says what it’s doing. “Our Team” is dead. “What We Do” is dead. The page titles itself by what it contains, not by what it announces.
- Sections carry multiple beats at once. A pricing section is also an ownership section is also a permission section. Don’t tidy these into single-purpose blocks.
- No tidy endings. A good section ends where it naturally ends, not on a closing bow. The reader scrolls because they’re curious, not because the CTA told them to.
- Contractions throughout. We’re. Don’t. You’ll. Non-negotiable. The one exception is the territory callout line in Section 4; it earns the formality.
- No em-dashes on the rendered page. Commas or full stops. Em-dashes in the strategy document and editorial notes are fine; on the live site they read as AI-polished.
- Read every sentence aloud. If it doesn’t sound like a founder talking to another founder over coffee, rewrite it. The voice test is the last gate before anything ships.
Per-page coverage goals
| Page | What the page must accomplish |
|---|---|
| / | Score the visitor’s site; present two doors (Foundations / Integrator); show nine live sites loading; anchor with Stephen Box testimonial. |
| /foundations | Establish ownership first, cancellation second, price third. Three tiers with “who’s this for” leads. Tenure buyout FAQ quietly included. |
| Public city index name TBC | Let the table do the work. Minimal copy. Persistent audit CTA. URL namespace ready for city expansion. |
| /framework | Walk through all five pillars educationally. Preserve “harsh by design” verbatim. No marketing register. |
| /about | The Sicom / Score-27 origin arc in Aaron’s voice. Team of three (fairness-tested bios). Honest geography. |
| /integrator | One-day-a-month engagements upwards. Pricing conversational. Gateway line does heavy lifting at the top. |
| /writing | Three essay launches. Aaron’s civilisational framing lives here, nowhere else on the site. |
| /contact | Three paths: audit, WhatsApp, book-a-call. One sentence each. Footer-quality calm. |
Sitemap
Single-launch navigation. Whole site live 14 May. No phased rollout — the site is the Foundations product demo.
Launch navigation
Foundations Integrator Framework Bristol name TBC Writing Case Studies About Contact Persistent: Free audit →
Foundations in primary position. Audit CTA persistent on every page. Footer carries Weston office address, Companies House (Originate Group Ltd, 17134310), VAT note, and secondary nav.
Anti-patterns the sitemap protects against
| Anti-pattern | Why it’s rejected |
|---|---|
| Headline above the audit tool on / | The tool sells itself the moment the visitor sees the score. A headline before the score presumes the reader needs the setup. |
| Leading /foundations with price | Trust-9 reading demands ownership first. Price is the answer to a question the page has already resolved. |
| Feature-ladder pricing tables | Three columns to find the difference is a brochure pattern. Foundations tiers lead with “who’s this for,” not what’s included. |
| “Welcome” or acknowledgement-led hero copy | The audit tool is the greeting. Any welcome line sits redundantly above it. |
| “Our Team” as a section header on /about | Anti-stiffness rule 1. The team section announces itself by its contents, not by its label. |
| Accelerator tier references anywhere | Retired in Section 4. Any archival text must be stripped during the rebuild. |
All testimonial text — Stephen Box, Brent Hinks, Kim Teddy, Steve Niblo — ships verbatim from the live site. Copy pipeline does NOT rewrite quotes, even for rhythm. The reader trusts what the named person said; anything rewritten is fabrication.
Voice Guide
Aaron’s register, with the banned language list that exists because of specific past failures. This guide replaces the Mar 24 version, which generated a sexist bio line for Tanya and was deleted.
The spine
Warm, direct, founder-to-founder. The reader is another operator, not a “client.” Aaron is a founder writing to founders, not an agency writing to prospects. Sentence variation is deliberate — one long, one short, one medium, then a fragment. No metronome rhythm. No AI-polished cadence.
Banned language
“Solutions,” “innovate,” “leverage”
Noun-reaching-for-category. Generic SaaS voice. Banned because it could be any agency’s site.
“Here’s the thing,” “That’s where we come in,” “Let’s break it down”
AI-generated cadence gives these away. Real writing transitions via consequence, not reveal.
“You probably…” “Actually…” “We understand…”
Presumes the reader’s state. Banned permanently (Ruby Roo lineage).
“Our Bristol,” “our South West”
Performative. Bristol gets named because the work is there, not claimed.
Sexism, outing, silent-genius cliche
Banned: gendered tropes applied to women that wouldn’t apply to men (“pretty and useless isn’t her style”); outing health/neurodivergence without sign-off; silent-genius stereotypes; unverified personality claims. Fine: warm, descriptive, factual bios — applied equally across genders.
Em-dashes on rendered pages
Commas or full stops only. Em-dashes in editorial notes are fine; on the live site they read as AI.
Characteristic phrases (preserved)
“Expensive marketing with a broken website is just expensive traffic.” Aaron’s own line, preserved verbatim. Lives on the homepage subhead and the /integrator gateway.
“For the ones who never wanted to be webmasters.” Dreamer-language. Earns a place on /foundations (once), /about, and /writing.
“Harsh by design.” The /framework trust signal. Preserved verbatim, no softening.
“Score your site. It takes 90 seconds.” The homepage H1 pick. Imperative. Names the action. Sets the time cost.
Team bio template
Factual or warm, both work. The test isn’t register — it’s fairness. Would you write an equivalent line about a man if you’re writing about a woman, and vice versa?