What governs a website in 2026
This section is the same for every site we build. The sections after it are specific to your trade and your state.
Speed, and what it is actually worth
What the rule is. Google measures three things — how fast the biggest thing on screen appears (LCP), how quickly the page reacts when you tap (INP), and how much the layout jumps while loading (CLS). The published targets are LCP ≤2.5s, INP ≤200ms, CLS ≤0.1, measured on real visitors at the 75th percentile.
What it is worth, honestly. Less than the industry claims. Google's own words: "There is no single signal", and "Google Search always seeks to show the most relevant content, even if the page experience is sub-par." Speed is a tie-breaker between pages that are already relevant — not a way to outrank better-matched content.
We also want to be straight with you about a statistic you will hear: "a one second delay costs 7% of conversions." We went and read the source. It is a 2008 survey of corporate IT departments about internal software, not customer websites. We do not use it and neither should anyone selling to you.
What we did on your site. We hold a stricter budget than Google's: LCP ≤2.0s, INP ≤100ms, CLS ≤0.05, with images capped at 200 KB and no JavaScript unless a feature genuinely needs it. It is checked automatically on every change, and a build that misses it does not go live.
Sources: Google, Understanding page experience (updated 2025-12-10) · web.dev, Core Web Vitals · verified by us 2026-09-04 · 🟡 reviewed quarterly
Phones
What the rule is. Google indexes the mobile version of your site — that is the one that gets ranked, not the desktop one. Google retired its own Mobile-Friendly Test in December 2023, and said in the same breath that this "doesn't mean that mobile usability isn't important… It remains critical for users."
What we did. Your site is built mobile-first and checked at 375px wide — a small iPhone — with no sideways scrolling, and every button and link a thumb aims at is at least 44px tall.
Source: Google, page experience (updated 2025-12-10) · retirement announcement (2023-04-19) · verified by us 2026-09-04 · 🟡 quarterly
Accessibility
What the rule is. WCAG 2.2 Level AA is the standard US courts and regulators reference. It covers colour contrast, keyboard use, text alternatives for images, and — new in 2.2 — a minimum size for anything you tap (24×24px), and making sure a sticky header never hides the thing you just tabbed to.
Why this is worth more than it sounds. The 2025 Web Almanac measured 17 million sites: only 30% pass colour contrast and 67% remove the focus outline that keyboard users navigate by. Doing the basics puts you in a small minority.
A warning about "accessibility widgets." The overlay products advertised as one-line fixes do not work. The FTC took action against one vendor's claims, and in one 2026 sample 28% of businesses being sued over accessibility were already running one. They also add tracking to your site. We do not use them.
What we did. Contrast, focus, headings, labels and tap targets are checked on every build. There is no overlay, because there is nothing for one to fix.
Sources: W3C, WCAG 2.2 (2023-10-05, W3C Recommendation) · Web Almanac 2025, Accessibility · verified by us 2026-09-04 · 🟡 quarterly
Cookies, tracking and consent banners
What the rule is. Consent banners exist because sites load other companies' code — analytics, fonts, maps, chat widgets, embedded videos, review badges. Each one is a third party receiving your visitors' data, and that is what triggers disclosure obligations under state privacy laws and, if you have any European visitors, GDPR.
What we did. Your site sets no cookies and loads nothing from anyone else's server. Fonts are on your own domain. There is no analytics script, no map embed, no chat widget, no social pixel. This is checked automatically — a build that introduces a third-party request fails.
What that buys you: no consent banner, nothing for a regulator to second- guess, no vendor to audit, and a faster site as a side effect.
What it costs you: anything that works by embedding someone else's code will not simply drop in. If you want visitor statistics, we can count them on your own domain without cookies. If you want an embedded booking calendar, talk to us first — there is usually a way, but it needs designing rather than pasting.
Verified by us 2026-09-04 · 🟡 quarterly
AI search — what actually matters
What the rule is, in Google's own words. This is worth quoting exactly, because a great deal of nonsense is sold around it:
"There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary… You don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, or markup to appear in these features. There's also no special schema.org structured data that you need to add."
And on llms.txt, the file some agencies charge to add:
"Doing so will neither harm nor help your site's visibility or rankings in Google Search, as Google Search ignores them."
What Google says does matter: that your pages are crawlable, indexed, and that the important content is in text form — not locked inside images, JavaScript or PDFs.
What we did. Your site is server-rendered plain HTML. Every heading, price, service description and phone number is real text in the page source, readable without running any code. That is the thing Google actually asks for, and it is a property of how the site is built rather than an add-on.
One thing to check on your own account. Since 31 August 2026 Google Search Console has a Search generative AI control that can exclude a site from AI Overviews and AI Mode. It is set to "include" by default — but if your site was previously managed by someone else, it is worth confirming nobody switched it off. It is invisible from the site itself. Ask us and we will check it with you.
Sources: Google, AI features and your website (updated 2025-12-10) · Google, AI optimization guide (updated 2026-07-10) · verified by us 2026-09-04 · 🔴 reviewed monthly
Structured data — what it does and does not do
What the rule is. Structured data is machine-readable markup describing your business. It makes you eligible for certain enhanced search listings. It does not improve your ranking — Google states that a structured data penalty "doesn't affect how the page ranks in Google web search." And eligibility is not a guarantee: "Google does not guarantee that your structured data will show up in search results, even if your page is marked up correctly."
Two things that stopped working, which you may still be sold. FAQ rich results were deprecated on 8 May 2026 and the documentation has been removed. HowTo results went in September 2023. Keep FAQ content on the page — it answers real questions — but nobody should charge you for the markup on the promise of a rich result.
One rule we will not break for you. Star ratings in search results are only for sites that review other businesses. Marking up your own reviews on your own site is against Google's policy and risks a manual penalty. If an agency offers you star ratings on your own listing, that is the offer to decline.
What we did. Your site carries the structured data types that genuinely exist and apply to your trade, for the business knowledge panel and for machines generally — and none of the deprecated or prohibited ones.
Sources: Google, structured data policies (updated 2026-07-10) · local business markup (updated 2025-12-10) · verified by us 2026-09-04 · 🟡 quarterly
Security
What we did. HTTPS on every page with the certificate renewed automatically; security headers set so the browser refuses to load anything from a third party; no login, no database and no plugins on the public site, which removes the three things most small-business sites actually get hacked through.
Verified by us 2026-09-04 · 🟡 quarterly
What nobody can promise you — including us
These are Google's own published statements. We include them because they are the clearest defence you have against a bad supplier.
- On rankings: "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google. Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a 'special relationship' with Google, or advertise a 'priority submit' to Google."
- On paying: "Google never accepts money to include or rank sites in our search results." And for local: "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google."
- On audit tools: "No third-party tool has access to our internal ranking or AI systems." An "SEO score" out of 100 is that vendor's opinion, not Google's.
- On E-E-A-T, which is sold heavily as a ranking factor: "Thinking E-E-A-T is a ranking factor — No, it's not."
- On unsolicited approaches: "Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that email you out of the blue." That includes anyone who found you this way — apply it to us as readily as to anyone else.
Sources: Do you need an SEO? (updated 2026-06-05) · SEO Starter Guide (updated 2025-12-10) · How Search works (updated 2025-12-18) · Google Business Profile help · verified by us 2026-09-04 · 🟡 quarterly