# The SMH

A blog about finding things on the internet.

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## Latest Blog Posts

- [Best portable PA speaker system for wedding celebrants in 2026](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/pa-system/)
  - Jo asks: Hey Josh, it’s one of your favourite subjects – P.A. systems. I am saving up for my first one, not even sure where to start but think my budget might stretch to $2k. Is that too little? Can you provide some opti
- [Write website copy like a journalist](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/write-like-a-journo/)
  - How would you write for a computer if you knew how it read?
- [The SEO Action List: What Google Actually Tells You to Do](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/diy-seo-action-list/)
  - A comprehensive DIY guide to making sure your webite appears where it should in search results on search engines and AI chatbots.
- [What a Google wants, what a Google needs](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/what-a-google-wants/)
  - There's a lot of here-say about Google and search engine optimisation. This is what's actually published by Google about SEO.
- [On expired domain names](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/expired-domains/)
  - Expired domains get registered for SEO value—it's standard practice. Learn why it happens, the Australian rules, and how to protect your domain from expiry.
- [I stuffed up, and I owe you all an apology](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/i-stuffed-up-and-i-owe-you-all-an-apology/)
  - I need to apologise. Last year I registered expired domain names belonging to a local celebrant's businesses. When confronted by that celebrant this week, I made it worse—I asked for payment to transfer one back, an
- [Where Couples Actually Find Celebrants in 2026](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/where-2026/)
  - There are over 10,000 registered marriage celebrants in Australia. In 2024, there were 120,844 marriages. Even accounting for the 20% performed by religious ministers, that’s roughly 96,000 civil ceremonies split between
- [How is Josh using AI to help as he has a newborn?](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/how-is-josh-using-ai-to-help-as-he-has-a-newborn/)
  - One of your colleagues wrote to me recently about the quandary that presents itself when you happen to be a parent and a marriage celebrant. I spoke to her issue— and shared my embarrassing story— on the Celebrant In
- [Juggling celebrancy and kids](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/celebrancy-and-kids/)
  - One of my biggest regrets of a thought - I only thought this, I didn’t even say it - was when I meeting with a colleague celebrant over coffee about a decade ago and I offered some business advice. She replied with somet
- [My take on the Sora app - Week One](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/sora-take-one/)
  - The app that you either love or hate, from ChatGPT. My thoughts after using it a week.
- [Do backlinks positively affect AI search?](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/do-backlinks-affect-ai-search/)
  - Of course the answer is yes, but how the affect AI search is so much more interesting.
- [Only build a house on land you own](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/only-build-a-house-on-land-you-own/)
  - You wouldn't spend hundreds of thousands of dollars building a house on land that wasn't even yours, and you definitely wouldn't move your family in and expect to have a long safe residency there. The land isn't yours
- [Wake surfing the Betoota Advocate's wedding waves](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/betoota-wedding-seo/)
  - The Betoota Advocate satires Australian life, but can Australians just trying to live their life benefit too?
- [Reciprocity Bias: The Psychology Behind a Coffee and a Booking](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/reciprocity-bias-the-psychology-behind-a-coffee-and-a-booking/)
  - When I sit down with a couple for the first time, I always buy their coffee. Not just because I’m a nice guy (which, let’s be honest, everyone already knows I am), but because it works. It’s a tactic straight out of t
- [Instagram is about to impact your SEO](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/instagram-is-about-to-impact-your-seo/)
  - Instagram has always felt like a bit of a closed shop when it comes to being found, aka search, aka search engine optimisation. Great for visibility inside the actual Instagram app, sure, but outside? Crickets. That’s
- [Does membership include insurance?](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/does-membership-include-insurance/)
  - One of the questions we get asked regularly at the Celebrant Institute is: “Does your membership include professional indemnity and public liability insurance?” It’s a fair question—especially when other celebran
- [Submissions requested on new Happily Ever (before and) After brochure text](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/heba-submissions/)
  - The Attorney-General’s Department is redrafting the ‘Happily Ever (before and) After’ brochure – the one we’re legally required to give to every couple under section 42(5A) of the Marriage Act 1961 – and they want your i
- [20 Years of Celebrancy Population Stats](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/20-years-of-celebrancy-population-stats/)
  - The story of marriage celebrancy in Australia over the past two decades is not just a tale of registration numbers — it’s a window into what happens when a regulated profession opens the doors too wide, too quickly, and
- [How I Built My Own Link-In-Bio Site](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/link-in-bio/)
  - Build your own fast, customisable, and tracking-free link in bio website using Astro — no coding experience needed. Step-by-step setup, GitHub sync, and free deployment via Netlify, Vercel, or Cloudflare Pages.
- [My weekly habits](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/weekly-habits/)
  - These 15 items are on my to-do list every week. It might take 30--60 minutes but I think they're important.
- [The Website Layout That Actually Gets You Bookings](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/landing-page-layout/)
  - Discover the exact website structure that converts browsers into bookings. Step-by-step guide to arranging your celebrant pages.
- [Should You Pay to Be in a Wedding Directory?](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/should-you-pay-to-be-in-a-wedding-directory/)
  - Let’s be honest for a second: the wedding industry has been under this illusion for years that brides and grooms — couples — are scrolling through wedding directories like they’re flicking through the David Jones catalog
- [Josh's 22 Rules On How To Be A Celebrant](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/22-rules/)
  - Being a celebrant is a strange and wonderful job. You stand in front of a group of strangers, legally authorise a marriage between two of their favourite people, and speak words that might stick in someone’s memory for t
- [Add a Celebrant Institute Badge to Your Website](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/badge/)
  - Show you’re a professional celebrant with the new Celebrant Institute website badge. Boost SEO, build trust, and stand out with this simple but powerful addition to your site.
- [Fix pricing, not prices: A celebrant price guide](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/fix-pricing-not-prices-a-celebrant-price-guide/)
  - In this episode of the Celebrant Talk Show podcast, Sarah Aird and I are diving deep into a topic that every celebrant has wrestled with at some point: pricing. Thanks to a thoughtful series of questions from listen
- [A new website for Jeff's collective](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/togetherness-collective/)
  - The story of building The Togetherness Collective website for my friend Jeff, showcasing how personal connections can lead to successful client relationships.
- [Guide To Being Found by AI Engines](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/optimise-for-answer-engines/)
  - Discover how to optimise your business website for AI search and answer engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity
- [30 AI Experiments You Could Try In Your Celebrancy Today](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/30-ai-experiments-you-could-try-in-your-celebrancy-today/)
  - As an Australian marriage celebrant, we’re juggling multiple responsibilities–from crafting personalised ceremonies to managing client relationships and handling administrative tasks. The recent advances in AI technology
- [When will the tide turn?](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/when-will-the-tide-turn/)
  - I feel like there's a lot of here-say as to the state of the wedding industry today so I thought I'd engage our friend ChatGPT, in particular the new "Deep Research " model on ChatGPT 4.5, to see if there was any data out
- [How Celebrants Should Be Marketing Themselves in 2025](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/how-celebrants-should-be-marketing-themselves-in-2025/)
  - As a full-time celebrant who’s worked across Australia and internationally, I know the tension so many of us live in: we want to keep bookings (with couples that get us) steady, but we’re also flat out with ceremonies, a
- [It's a good website, Brent](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/its-a-good-website/)
  - How do you know if it's a good website? Explore comprehensive website quality metrics from Ahrefs, Moz, PageSpeed Insights, Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
- [Rejection isn't a verdict; it's data](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/rejection-isnt-a-verdict-its-data/)
  - We’ve all been there. A couple enquires about your celebrant services. You exchange emails, maybe have a phone call or even meet for coffee. The connection seems genuine, the conversation flows, and you’re mentally slott
- [The anatomy of a good (back)link](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/anatomy-of-a-good-link/)
  - Discover how to effectively link out from your website with our comprehensive guide to outbound linking strategies.
- [The Wedding Directory is Dead, Long Live the Wedding Directory!](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/knot-again/)
  - A sharp look at why traditional wedding directories are facing their "Yahoo moment " as couples' search habits evolve, plus what makes a truly valuable directory in 2025 – including free listing opportunities for Australi
- [Spam Signals: A Guide to Improving Your Website's Credibility](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/spam-indicators/)
  - When website owners first encounter Moz's Spam Score, it can trigger immediate anxiety. After all, nobody wants their legitimate business website associated with spam! However, this metric isn't meant to label your site as spam but rather to highlight characteristics that correlate with penalised domains.
- [Markdown And The Slow Fade Of The Formatting Fetish](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/markdown-slow/)
  - Year after year, document formats like .docx, .ppt, and pdf lose a little bit of steam. You might not have noticed… But Markdown is growing over and into the old formats, slowly, and nicely, like moss on a stranded star destroyer. Notes on a revolution in slow motion.
- [How to figure out why emails we send end up in spam](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/out-of-spam/)
  - A guide on howto use Mail-Tester to improve your email deliverability.
- [How Linking Out From Your Website Actually Helps](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/link-out/)
  - Discover why linking out from your celebrant website to other quality resources actually improves your SEO, builds industry relationships, and helps potential clients see you as a trusted wedding expert. Learn practical linking strategies that can boost your online presence and attract more bookings.
- [The Coyote vs ACME movie is finally happening](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/coyote-vs-acme/)
  - Deadset forgot this was even on the cards, but I'm absolutely chuffed now because Warner Brothers has finally found a buyer to distribute the legal comedy, Coyote v ACME.
- [Doing what the engines want is an easy way to win](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/doing-what-the-engines-want/)
  - There's an easy way to win online today if you optimise your website for the search- and answer-engines.
- [How to Win in the New Age of Search and Answer Engines](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/how-to-win-in-the-new-age-of-search-and-answer-engines/)
  - The digital landscape is shifting beneath our feet, and as wedding celebrants, we need to adapt or risk becoming invisible. Coming back to Australia from living in Mexico I put a lot of money into old school marketing
- [Example SEO audit](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/example-seo-geo-audit/)
  - I just prepared this audit for someone else and through it might be helpful to you.
- [A first look at Napkin AI: corporate graphics by AI](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/napkin-ai-first-look/)
  - Napkin describes itself as a product that gets visuals from your text
- [Six weeks of a new domain name with a well-built website](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/six-weeks-of-brisbanecitycelebrants/)
  - Six weeks ago I built a website on a new domain name and got these awesome results early on.
- [The purpose of online business directories have changed](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/directories-have-changed/)
  - The times, they are a changing.
- [What is a backlink?](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/backlink-explainer/)
  - A quick explainer on what a backlink is.
- [Failing the basics](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/failing-basics/)
  - Is it just me who searches Wikipedia for a company name because their web site completely fails to tell me what they do?
- [The basics of SEO and GEO today](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/starting-with-seo/)
  - It turns out that SEO - search engine optimisation - and GEO - geerative engine optimisation - isn't some big scary black box, they actually publish how to win on their own websites.
- [Air France let's us choose which fuel](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/air-france-fuel/)
  - This is nice
- [The podcast episode about the email about the regulations recorded on a school night](https://thesmh.com.au/blog/the-podcast-episode-about-the-email-about-the-regulations-recorded-on-a-school-night/)
  - You probably got that email sent to all celebrants about the Marriage Regulations legislation and the "new " requirement in the code of practice regarding "reasonable and timely responses " to requests from marrying couple