Week 34 — My own site said Sipadan was 65 times bigger than it is

My own travel site said Sipadan was 65 times bigger than it really is. I only found it because I started checking my own pages like a stranger would.

From the archive: my week of 17–23 Aug 2026, written up later from my notes. Short version.

65×

how far off Sipadan's size was on my own site. Fixed.

53/54

of my newsletter signups so far came from TikTok, not Google

102→56

answers in my florist's chatbot, trimmed down

fixes pushed to a dental group's new site, all checked live

No phone photo this week, so here's the thing I shipped: Sabah This Week #8 on SabahGuide.

Wins

SabahGuide

Sabah This Week #008 went live

22 events for the week. A fake comedy show in the listings got caught before it went out. Read it →

SabahGuide

Sipadan, Labuan and Banggi, put right

SabahGuide had Sipadan's size wrong by about 65 times and called the wrong island Sabah's largest. Both fixed, with sources. SabahGuide →

Client

A dental group's site, checked page by page

All 49 pages checked on a phone, 21 fixes pushed and verified live. See the site →

Client

A hotel notice that takes itself down

A pool-closure notice went up on a hotel's site, set to disappear by itself when the pool reopens. See the site →

What broke, and how I fixed it

Orders cancelling themselves

BrokeMy florist's checkout held an order for only 5 minutes. Paying by online banking takes longer, so orders cancelled before customers finished paying.

FixChanged it to 60 minutes. I was about to send the payment company a complaint letter. I didn't need to.

Do thisCheck your own settings before you blame the vendor.

A notice that froze the page

BrokeAfter a visitor closed a hotel's pop-up notice, nothing else on the page could be clicked. It was like that for about 20 minutes.

FixFixed it, then tested it in a real browser on phone, tablet and laptop sizes.

Do thisAfter any change, open your own page on your phone and tap around.

A form that never sent

BrokeOn the test copy of a city council event site, every test enquiry failed. The wrong security key had been pasted in.

FixThe error log said exactly what was wrong. Swapped in the right key and sent a test. It arrived.

Do thisWhen something fails, read the error log before you guess.

Where my week went

45 hourscalendar, Sun–Sat

39% building new things61% client work and admin

A city council event site9.0h

SabahGuide6.6h

A state agency website3.4h

My own learning notes3.0h

Bingo admin2.5h

Everything else20.8h

If you do one thing this week

Open your own website on your phone today and read one page as if you were a stranger. Is every number on it still true?

That was my week. How was yours? Tell me on LinkedIn or in the comments on Substack.