The New Standard in Big-Tech Detox
Certified Big-Tech Free
Big tech has a tight grip on the web. From analytics tracking, to social buttons, to verification codes and search engines, it can be difficult to be truly “big-tech free”.
What if it was easier to get a fresh start and build the web the way it was meant to be: Free.
That’s what the Big-Tech Detox and Re-Platforming Certification is meant to achieve.
Let us help you achieve the internet renaissance and leave the Orwellian dark ages in the past.
2 page PDF checklist will download.
How it Works
Think of the Big-tech detox as a purge or a surgery.
It all begins with an audit, an initial examination of your website and your overall web presence to see the extent of the spread of big-tech within your business. Then we establish a plan to remove the problem, or rebuild to exclude the problem.
- Resource Hogging Tracking Codes
- Desperate Looking Social Buttons
- Wasteful Verification Meta Snippets
- Platforms That Don't Share Values
- Other Big-Tech Dependencies
DIY: Self Diagnosing Big-Techosis
Use this guide to determine how much of a big-tech problem you have:
✅ Where is Your Domain Registered
Where is your domain registered? Big tech advertisers like GoDaddy, Google, Wix and others make it seem like you have to be in their ‘walled garden’, but you don’t.
Create an account on EPIK.COM and transfer your domains away from big-tech to a privacy focused domain registrar. Be careful of your domain settings and email during this process.
Epik Domains also comes with domain privacy by default so people are not able to spam you by checking out who owns the domain.
Suggestions:
- Epik Domains
- American Web Creations
✅ Who is Hosting Your Website?
There are several big-tech hosting companies that rely on Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Godaddy, Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, and a handful of others. If any of these names sound familiar, it is time to seek an alternative website hosting company.
Hosting can have complications, which is why we recommend a fully managed option where we take care of the dirty work and keep you safe.
Suggestions:
- American Web Creations
✅ How Was Your Website Created?
There are big tech platforms such as Wix, Shopify, Squarespace, and many ‘easy page builder’ ways to make a website that often trap small business owners into an expensive DO IT YOURSELF enigma. These platforms drain your wallet each month while making you do the work yourself.
Consider WordPress on a ‘big-tech-free’ hosting company. WordPress is very isolated from big-tech-interference while being a very easy-to-use product.
Suggestions:
- https://wordpress.org/
- American Web Creations
✅ Big Tech Analytics
Google Analytics is on at least half of the websites in the world. Do you know if it is operating on your website?
There are alternatives that give you privacy focused analytics and don’t feed the beast information about your traffic. This can also include Google Tag Manager, an easy access way to add many snippets of code.
Suggestions:
✅ Verification Codes
Facebook, Pinterest, and Google all have verification codes that can be installed on a website. Usually this is a manual process, but sometimes it can be ‘almost automated’ and easy. These verification codes may do more than what’s written on the box.
Check your settings or source code to remove them. Sometimes these verification codes can be installed at the domain level and may require DNS modifications to remove (not difficult, but may be intimidating at first).
✅ SSL Certificate & Encryption
This is almost universal at this point, but just in case: Your website should be encrypted to limit the possibility of nefarious actors and big-tech snooping on the traffic of your website.
SSL is the green LOCK icon that appears next to your website name in the address bar. It indicates that traffic is safe and encrypted. MOST hosting companies are now giving this away by default, but if you’ve been on the web for many years, you may not be being taken care of.
✅ Social Media Buttons
These are typically included in a theme or as a widget. Sometimes it is a manually added piece of code. Can you find where the social media button settings are, and remove them? Check your footer settings, as that is often where you’ll find the buttons.
Don’t forget to inspect product pages and blog posts if applicable, as this is a prime spot to place social sharing buttons.
There are ‘website sharing settings’ that feed info to big-tech about how to display your site when shared on social media. Twitter is the most common of these ‘social graph’ or ‘open graph’ codes that you may see. It may be difficult to remove, but it is something to limit where possible.
✅ Google Fonts. No Need!
Many website builders use Google Fonts. This silly method of diversifying fonts is making calls to Google’s server, and may then lead to them being able to judge traffic and content on your site. Load local fonts. After all, fonts are the least of your concerns when building a business online.
✅ Google Business Profile
To be 100% big tech free means making sacrifices, and that means closing down your Google Business Profile. Many businesses depend on it for traffic, but if you’ve ignored it thus far, or are ready to cut the cord, you must mark your business as closed, or at least make efforts to inform visitors to this listing that you are avoiding big-tech interactions.
💡 Pro Tip: Use Brave Search
Use Brave Search or other Google Alternatives – Be the change you seek by starting to use Brave Search or other growing alternative search engines. Brave search is really good, and continues to get better.
💡 Pro Tip: Create & Update a Gab Profile
Create a Gab Listing for your business – If you already started a Gab profile as an individual, start a new one for your business. Remember to include a link to your website in the bio section, and join the larger business groups to meet excellent people. Interact, find your people.
Can a Website Truly be Big-Tech Free?
You can absolutely be ‘big-tech free’. The web, at its core, is still very much like it was in the beginning. We’ve unfortunately fallen into some tragic patterns over the last 20 years, and our dependence on a handful of companies has led to a lot of problems… The situation is fixable, we ARE in control, but we must start now and make sacrifices in the short term to make it work.
Know Your Platforms
With so many clear and present dangers, it is important to know who is with you, and who is against you. This growing list will help guide your recovery.
Problematic Company
- Godaddy
- Shopify
- ‘Flag of the Month’ Misc. Digital Company
Solution Company
- Gab
- Brave Search
- American Web Creations
- WordPress
- Woocommerce
- More to Come
