Becky Halls

Directions Website

I help Nottinghamshire businesses get found online: Google profiles, content, reviews & AI search.

We provide a full stack service, from concept Validation, Wireframing, UI/UX Design, through to Development, Launch and Growth strategies. All perfectly monitored and delivered with our dedicated Project Management team.

09/10/2026

Six seconds. That's how long your website takes to load.

Nobody waits that long. Not on a phone, not on patchy signal, and definitely not when there are four other names sat on the screen they could tap instead.

It usually isn't the design either. It's a slideshow nobody asked for, photos straight off a camera at eight megabytes each, and a pile of plugins quietly doing very little.

So check the obvious things. Resize your images before you upload them. Delete the slider and the video header. Clear out tracking scripts and plugins you stopped using. And have a proper look at your hosting, because cheap and slow is a false saving.

Three seconds is the number to aim at. Test it on your own phone, on mobile data, standing outside somewhere in Nottingham. That's the real experience, not your office wifi.

07/10/2026

An AI told someone you close at four. You don't.

It didn't invent that. It read it somewhere. An old listing, a cached page, a directory entry from three years ago that nobody has been back to since.

And it says it with complete confidence, which is the awkward bit. Whoever asked has no reason to doubt it, so they don't ring to check. They just don't come.

Give it better things to read. Your Google and Bing profiles, gone through top to bottom. Your own website, with hours and contact details on every page rather than buried on one. Facebook, because it gets scraped constantly. And any old directory that still has a previous version of you sat on it.

Write the facts plainly while you're at it. Hours, phone, address, and the villages you cover, in ordinary text on the page. Not tucked inside an image nobody can read.

Trading around Whatton? I'll ask the AI tools about you and tell you exactly what came back. beckyhalls.com

05/10/2026

One bad review isn't the problem. Silence underneath it is.

People expect a wobble. Nobody genuinely believes a wall of five stars, and a page full of them makes most of us suspicious. The review they read carefully is the two star one. And what they really read is what you said back.

So the reply isn't for the person who left it. It's for the next fifty people who scroll past it. Answer like you know they're watching, because they are.

Four lines and you're done. Thank them for saying something, and mean it. Say sorry for the bit that genuinely went wrong. Explain briefly, no excuses and no essay. Offer to sort it, and give them a way to reach you.

And leave it a night. Write the angry version if you need to, then delete it and write it again in the morning. The calm one always reads better.

Want a second pair of eyes on your reviews? It's part of the free check I do at beckyhalls.com.

02/10/2026

Your Google profile says you're open. You're not.

Wrong hours cost you twice. Somebody drives over and finds a locked door, which is bad enough. But the quieter one is the person who sees Closed on a Tuesday you're actually open, shrugs, and rings the next name down. You never hear about that one at all.

Bank holidays are the worst offenders. Google asks you to confirm them and most people scroll straight past the prompt. So the profile has a guess, and the guess is usually wrong.

Ten minutes, once a quarter, sorts it. Check your normal weekly hours day by day. Set special hours for bank holidays and any closures. Make sure you're not showing as open on a day you rest. And put your Christmas dates in now rather than in December when you're flat out.

Then say it out loud everywhere else too. If you shut early on a Friday, that belongs on the profile and on your website. People around Newark plan their day around it.

Not sure what yours says? Free visibility check at beckyhalls.com.

30/09/2026

Try this tonight. Open ChatGPT and ask it about your own business.

Most people around Lincoln have never once looked, which is mad when you think how many people are asking these things now.

Three questions worth asking. Who does your trade near your town. Tell me about your business name. What are the opening hours for you.

Then read what comes back properly. Are you missing? Is it wrong? Is it somebody else's name sat where yours should be?

Whatever it said, it read that somewhere. Fix the source and you give yourself a much better shot at being found.

28/09/2026

It's eight o'clock on a Tuesday. Somebody has your kind of job that needs doing.

They type it into their phone, three names come up, and you're one of them. That's the whole moment right there.

Now look at what they see. The other two: five stars, sixty odd reviews, open now and closing at six, photos from last month. Then you: hours not confirmed, three reviews, no photos.

Same skill. Different card.

You can't decide who Google shows. But the card with your name on it is entirely yours to fix.

25/09/2026

Somebody's sat there deciding whether to ring you... They check three things first:

Your Google profile. Your reviews. Your website.

It takes them about ninety seconds. Profile last touched in 2021, no recent photos. Newest review from last winter, and no reply on it. Website that doesn't say where you go or what you charge.

They won't tell you they moved on. They just do.

You can't decide where you turn up in someone's results. But those three things are entirely yours to sort out.

Cropwell Bishop and thereabouts? I'll check all three and tell you what needs doing. beckyhalls.com

21/09/2026

Somebody, this morning: "who's good for a builder near Aslockton?"

They didn't open Google... They asked an AI assistant, and it came back with three names.

It picked the ones it could actually read something about. Plain answers on their websites, what they do, where they go, roughly what it costs. Reviews with real detail in them rather than five stars and a thank you. Their name showing up somewhere other than their own site.

You were never in the running. Not because you're worse at the job.

None of that is clever. All of it is easy to miss.

Working around Aslockton? I'll ask the AI tools about you and tell you exactly what came back. beckyhalls.com

18/09/2026

Nobody wants to be the first review. So make it easy for them.

Zero is the hardest number in this whole business. An empty review section makes a good firm look brand new or half abandoned, even when you've been going fifteen years and everyone in the village knows you.

You're not chasing hundreds. Ten honest reviews with a bit of detail in them changes how the whole profile reads.

Start with the people who already like you. The regulars. The ones who've used you for years and wouldn't hesitate to say something nice.

Then keep it steady. Ask face to face and send the link straight after. One link, direct to the review box, no hunting about. Five people a week rather than fifty in one day. And reply to every single one that lands.

Starting from nothing? I'll show you where you stand and what to do first. beckyhalls.com

16/09/2026

You get 750 characters for your Google business description. Most people use about forty.

It's usually something like "family run business established 2011" and then it just stops. Free space, sitting there half empty.

Use it to be clear. What you do. Who you do it for. Where you go. What people ring you about most. All in words a normal person would actually say out loud.

A simple order that works: one line on exactly what you do, one on who you do it for, one naming the towns you cover, one on the thing people ask you about all the time.

It takes ten minutes and it's one of the few bits of your profile you get to write yourself.

Want me to look at yours? beckyhalls.com

Address

The Old Granary, Church Street
Nottingham
NG139EL

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
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Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 1pm

Website

http://beckyhalls.com/

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