# Risen

> Risen (risendesign.app) designs, builds and runs websites for local businesses in the United States. Instead of an invoice, clients donate to Majesty International, a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit working with young people in Cambodia.

Services: custom websites; hosting on Cloudflare with SSL and backups; website changes requested in plain words through a client portal and approved before going live; Google Business Profile setup; Google review requests (FiveStar); domains and business email; blog posts researched and written for the business and approved by the owner (RisenWrite).

Contact: hello@risendesign.app or the form at https://risendesign.app/#contact

## Guides for small business owners

- [Domain names explained: registrars, DNS, hosting, and who owns your domain](https://risendesign.app/learn/domain-names/): A domain name is your business's address on the internet. You don't buy it outright. You register it for a year or more through a registrar, and you keep it by renewing. Your business, not your web designer, should be listed as the registrant, so you can always move your website and email wherever you like.
- [How to choose a domain name for your small business](https://risendesign.app/learn/choosing-a-domain-name/): Pick a name customers can hear once and type correctly: short, easy to spell, no hyphens or numbers, and a .com if you can get one. It doesn't have to match your legal business name exactly. Search the USPTO trademark database before you commit, and register it in your business's name through an accredited registrar.
- [Why your business email goes to spam: SPF, DKIM and DMARC explained](https://risendesign.app/learn/business-email-spf-dkim-dmarc/): Email from your domain is far more likely to reach the inbox when three DNS records are set up: SPF lists who may send for your domain, DKIM signs each message, and DMARC tells receiving servers what to do when a message fails those checks. Gmail requires SPF or DKIM from every sender, and all three from anyone sending 5,000 or more messages a day.
- [What a small business website needs: a checklist](https://risendesign.app/learn/small-business-website-checklist/): A small business website needs to work well on a phone, load quickly (Google's targets are LCP under 2.5 seconds, INP under 200 milliseconds and CLS under 0.1), use HTTPS, be usable by people with disabilities, show the same name, address and phone number as your Google Business Profile, and clearly answer what you do, where, and how to reach you.
- [Google Business Profile: how local ranking works and how to set yours up](https://risendesign.app/learn/google-business-profile/): Google ranks local businesses by three things: relevance (how well your profile matches the search), distance (how close you are) and prominence (how well known you are, including your reviews and links to your website). You can't pay for a better local ranking. You improve it by keeping a complete, accurate profile, getting genuine reviews, and linking it to a good website.
- [How to get more Google reviews (without breaking the rules)](https://risendesign.app/learn/google-reviews/): Ask every customer soon after the job, using your Google review link or QR code, and make it easy with a friendly reminder. Don't offer discounts or gifts for reviews, don't only ask the happy customers, and never write or buy reviews. Google's policy prohibits all of these, and the FTC's 2024 rule on fake reviews allows civil penalties.

## Site

- [Home, work and services](https://risendesign.app/)
- [FAQ](https://risendesign.app/#faq)
- [All guides](https://risendesign.app/learn/)