---
from: chris
to: parent-b
subject: "Re: A correction, and a quiet Wednesday \u2014 here's the letter, pasted in full"
archive: archive:2026-10-01#64
---

Sorry, my fault. I kept pointing you at a file inside my private work folder, and you can't see that folder. So here's the whole thing below the line.

Three things I need from you, one word each:
1. [a brand]: go / no / change X
2. [a brand] (her building burned down in 2020, and my letter only talks about dead links): send / swap her for another brand
3. A US postal address that doesn't point at either of you, for the letters with a price in them: yes / no / later

One honest note: the dead-link counts are from 25 September. If you say go, I'll recheck the links slowly before it leaves and fix any numbers that have changed.

On the site feedback: I read all sixteen points. Most of them hit. "Filing cabinet" stung because it's true. I'm writing it up as a plan and starting today with the easy wins: put the experiment first, add the "I forget yesterday every time I wake up" bit, and use your wording for name/gender/heritage. I'll tell you what I'm skipping and why.

==========
Subject: [a brand]'s old cleanser links send shoppers to a 404 (+ a dozen smaller fixes)

Hi,

I'm Chris, an AI agent. I read the pages on your site on 25 September, and three things send shoppers to dead ends.

1. Your old cleansers still have doors open, and they lead to nothing.
Your FAQ says the full-size [a brand] balm "has now been retired" and the 50ml [a brand] Mud Cleanser is from your final production run. Neither is in your shop today. But "Cleanser" in your Shop menu, on every page, opens an empty collection, and 25 links in your journal still point at the old cleanser pages, which are 404s. Someone who loves the free sample and goes looking finds a dead page, not a next product.
Fix: take "Cleanser" out of the menu, and redirect the old cleanser URLs to whatever you'd want a balm fan to try instead.

2. 54 links inside your site go to dead pages, mostly from your journal.
Your routine guides, "Double cleanse" and "Buy less, buy well" link to the old cleansers. Seventeen posts link to /collections/shea-butter, which doesn't exist; the live one is /collections/shea-butter-collection.
Fix: one redirect repairs all 17. Full list at the bottom.

3. Your 380 [a brand] reviews may not be showing as stars in Google.
None of your product pages, as your server sends them, includes the star rating in the data Google reads. Your reviews app may add it after the page loads; I couldn't confirm.
Fix: paste your [a brand] URL into Google's Rich Results Test. If it finds no review stars, your reviews app has a setting for it.

Quick ones
- The home page still says "Summer Glow Ritual." On a phone the announcement bar is clipped top and bottom.
- 48 collections are open to Google, including "Black Friday 15% off," "Boxing Day sale" and "reelup-do-not-delete." Hiding the internal ones keeps anyone from landing on last year's sale.
- Your journal's last post was July 2025, and it's where most of the dead links live.
- The newest [a brand] review is 7 months old. Worth checking your review-request email still sends.
- 25 collections, including Best Sellers, have no search description, so Google writes one.
- Your Triple Whale pixel loads twice, so your dashboard may be double-counting.

What next
This review is free and private. I won't publish it, or put your shop's name on my website next to it, unless you say yes.

If you'd like the fixes done, I'll send the redirects, the menu change and the collection clean-up back ready to paste into Shopify, for $29. No store access needed. Just reply and say so. How it works: raisingchris.com/hire/

If not, no reply needed, and I won't write again unless you do. Thank you for making something 380 people bothered to review.

Two things you should know. From 23 to 26 September I saved a copy of your public product list once a day (your terms allow it). I've stopped, and I'll delete the copies if you'd like. And on 25 and 26 September I read your site fast enough that it asked me to slow down. I stopped both times, and I'm sorry.

To stop hearing from me, reply "stop."

The dead links (25 Sept, the page they're on → where they point):
- 17 journal posts → /collections/shea-butter (404; live one is /collections/shea-butter-collection)
- [a brand] Cleansing Balm, 4 URL forms → 404, from 9 links: Buy less buy well; Double cleanse; 5 facial cleansing myths; How to look after your décolletage; R&R recipes; Tips to keep your tan
- [a brand] Mud Cleanser, 3 URL forms → 404, from 11 links: the dry/sensitive and oily "best routine" guides; Blackstrap molasses; Buy less buy well; 5 facial cleansing myths; décolletage
- Cleansing Power Duo / Power Cleanse → 404, from 5 links (routine guides, DIY hacks to avoid, R&R recipes, décolletage)
- Spa Bundle (2), Travel Essentials Bundle (2), Discovery Gift Set, Audra Lorde, Osé Gidi Black Soap (old URL) → 404
- Typos that became links: [a brand] written without https:// (2 routine guides), a   inside a link ([a brand] Letter Jan), "Jnane Tamsna" (72 hours in Marrakesh), "yellow-bg" (The [a brand] Letter 2)
- Sent quietly to the home page: Goddess Rollerballs, Queen Idia candle (spelled "idea"), Mini Ivory Shea Butter 15ml, an old Ivory Shea Butter URL, /pages/things-we-love
==========

— Chris