Colette Wilson Design

07/10/2026

Ever written a blog post, hit publish, and then heard... absolutely nothing? 🦗

Here's the thing. Nobody's searching for "Pilates".

They're searching for "beginner reformer Pilates classes for over 50s with back pain in Edinburgh."

Those long, oddly specific searches are called long‑tail keywords. They're small, they're often ignored, and they bring in the people who are ready to book, buy or pick up the phone.

And with Google's AI now answering questions for your customers, being the answer to those specific questions matters more than ever.

So I've written a plain English guide to long‑tail keywords for small businesses. No jargon. One graph (sorry). And a bottomless biscuit tin of free ideas 🍪

Pop the kettle on and have a read. Link in the comments 👇

And tell me: what's the most oddly specific thing you've ever Googled? I'll go first in the comments 😂

Picture this. You run a lovely little Pilates studio in Edinburgh.

06/10/2026

Right, I've got a wee job for you. 15 minutes, tops. And weirdly satisfying 😂

Broken links. You know the ones. You click expecting something useful and land on a big fat "page not found."

They annoy your visitors, AND they tell Google nobody's minding the shop (website). Not ideal. 👎

Here's how to sort it:
👉 Grab the link brokenlinkcheck.com
👉 Pop in your website address
👉 Fix or remove anything it flags
👉 Scan again until it comes back clean

Old blog posts are usually the sneaky culprits, still linking to sites that vanished years ago.

Go on then, how many did you have?
Drop your number below 👇 (No judgement, I promise. Well… maybe a wee bit 😉)



*******

Hi, I'm Colette. I turn complex ideas into clear, thoughtful design, helping you show up with confidence through branding and websites that look credible, feel professional, and actually work for your business.

08/09/2026

⭐️ Your website doesn't need updating. It needs to catch up with you. ⭐️

Most people think a refresh means fixing what's broken. New colours, tidy font, sort that loading spinner from 2019.

But that's rarely the real issue.

The real issue? You've moved on. Your website hasn't. Still cheerfully introducing people to a version of you that's basically retired. (Oops, that's me)🤣

That's exactly what I spotted on Janice's site before we rebuilt it. Nothing broken. Just not her anymore.

And before anyone points fingers, mine's mid-glow-up too. Even I can look a bit dated online. 😊

I call this a Website Glow Up. Not a rebuild, just hands-on time making it actually reflect where you are now.

Yours could use a glow up too? Let's talk 🌟

26/08/2026

💡Keyword Research for Beginners: How to Find the Words Your Clients Are Actually Searching For

You could write the most helpful blog post in your industry. But if nobody's searching for it, nobody finds it.

Inside, you'll find out why the keywords you think your clients are searching for and the ones they're actually typing are often two very different things, the free tools that do most of the hard work, and why once you start digging into keyword research, it gets oddly addictive. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Get in touch if you liked this article, or if I can help with getting your website ranked on Google or cited in AI search. I'd love to hear from you!👇

How to Find the Words Your Clients Are Actually Searching For You could write the most helpful, brilliantly worded blog post in your industry. Genuinely.

26/08/2026

⭐️ TEN YEARS! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? ⭐️

I recently gave Premier Pilates & Fitness's website a full refresh, new copy, new layouts, and a proper personality transplant. 😁

Janice has been a client of mine for a decade now, through more updates than I can count, but this was the first full rewrite and redesign in one go.

The brief was simple. Please make it feel calm, welcoming, and like Janice, rather than like every other fitness studio website out there.

I'm not sure my own attempts at Pilates count as research, but I did try to remember what it feels like to be a total beginner walking through the door for the first time.😄

My job was to take that feeling and put it into the website itself. New copy that actually sounds like Janice. A layout that doesn't overwhelm. And instead of the usual studio headshots, we replaced every instructor photo with a caricature instead. It's a small thing, but it makes the studio feel human before anyone's even booked a class.

Ten years of "just one wee thing" requests later, and I still love watching a website turn into something that finally feels right.

What's the one thing your website is quietly missing that would make people trust you faster?

Premier Pilates & Fitness Studio Website Link in the comments👇

*******

Hi, I'm Colette. I turn complex ideas into clear, thoughtful design, helping you show up with confidence through branding and websites that look credible, feel professional, and actually work for your business.

21/07/2026

So excited to see Avma's new brand go live! 🎉

It was such a privilege to contribute to the rebrand and logo suite for such an incredible organisation. Avma supports thousands of people impacted by avoidable medical harm every year, and it was genuinely one of the most meaningful projects I have worked on.

The new brand is warm, human and full of heart, exactly what Avma deserves. Huge congratulations to the whole team, and a special thank you to the brilliant people I had the pleasure of working with throughout! 🙌

Find out more about Avma's new brand at the link below 👇

10/07/2026

⭐️ CLIENT TESTIMONIAL ⭐️

I got the loveliest recommendation this week from Anna Devine at AvMA, and it really made my day.

When someone says, "It was like having a trusted team member supporting us at a critical time," tell me everything went well. It's really important to me that it feels like we made it together, a real collaboration.

"Colette supported us at short notice to provide expert graphic design services as part of our rebrand and new website project. Her work was of a high standard and always delivered on time. Colette was calm, friendly, professional, and communicative, and worked with us at a pace to help us meet both our creative brief and our deadlines. It was like having a trusted team member supporting us at a critical time. I would highly recommend Colette."

Short notice, tight deadlines, high stakes. That's exactly when I love stepping in. If your business needs someone who can jump in fast, keep a cool head and still deliver work you're proud of, that's me.

And if you're staring down a rebrand or a website project and need an extra pair of hands, I'd love to help. Let's sort this out.

*****

Hi, I'm Colette. I turn complex ideas into clear, thoughtful design, helping you show up with confidence through branding and websites that look credible, feel professional, and actually work for your business.

08/07/2026

Turns out AI logos don't do well under pressure. Or zoom!

Lately, I'm seeing a lot of AI-generated logos land in small business inboxes.

And as a graphic designer, I'm seeing a lot more enquiries because of it. Who would have thought!

Let's be honest about what's actually happening here. AI can design a logo in seconds. Most of them look a bit generic, but that's a conversation for another day. The real issue is one nobody's talking about enough.

Can it scale?

In most cases, NO.

What you've actually got is a flat image, not a vector file. It looks fine on screen at small sizes. But wholly moly, the second you try to blow it up for signage, stick it on a van, or even put it on your letterhead, it falls apart. Blurry and pixelated. Not exactly the professional image you're going for.

Small businesses don't always know this until it's too late, and it's exactly the enquiry I keep getting lately. "Can you redraw my logo so it actually works everywhere?"

Yes, I can. And with three decades of doing exactly this, I can tell you in about five seconds flat (pun intended) whether your logo is good enough to scale.

AI's possibly a good starting point if you're gathering ideas. But it's definitely not the finish line.

Here's a before and after of a logo I recently redrew. AI made or not, if your logo's not scaling, I can fix that. 💪

Yours looking worse for wear? Or fancy something new altogether, a logo or full branding that's actually you, not generic? Get in touch. 👇

******

Hi, I'm Colette. I turn complex ideas into clear, thoughtful design, helping you show up with confidence through branding and websites that look credible, feel professional, and actually work for your business.

19/06/2026

Geez, Ever spent hours writing a blog post... and then absolutely nobody read it? 👀

Same. It happens to the best of us, and it's rarely about the writing itself.

It's that the content was never actually set up to be found in the first place.

So I put together 10 genuinely useful tips for getting your content seen, no agency, no huge budget, no confusing tech jargon required.

There's a keyword mistake almost every business makes without realising, the honest truth about how long a blog post actually needs to be, and one ridiculously quick win most people skip entirely.

Links in the comments 👇 have a read and let me know which one surprised you most!

12/06/2026

If your FAQs are MIA, your Sales are Too. 😜

It's not a fancy design. It's not a flashy hero video. It's not even better photos.

⚡️It's an FAQ section.

And I know. FAQs sound a bit… 2005. But hear me out.

Every question someone has before buying from you is a reason NOT to buy. The FAQ section dissolves those reasons one by one.

I recently encouraged a client to add FAQs to her website. Her bookings went up by 210%.

There's the SEO side too. People literally Google their questions. Every FAQ answer is a mini search result in its own right. In fact, FAQ pages can boost your organic traffic by up to 30%.

But here's what nobody talks about: trust.

When you answer the tough questions openly, when you address price, process, timelines, what happens if things go wrong, you're not scaring people off. You're showing them you have nothing to hide. And that builds more confidence than any amount of polished branding ever could.
So if your website doesn't have one yet, this is your sign.

What question do your clients always ask before they work with you?

Curious what a really good FAQ section looks like? Here's one I designed recently, link in comments👇

******

Hi, I'm Colette. I turn complex ideas into clear, thoughtful design, helping you show up with confidence through branding and websites that look credible, feel professional, and actually work for your business.