A few different routes I've taken for clients, depending on budget, how much the site needs to do, and how often it'll change.
These are plain-language summaries — each one links to the full story, where the technical detail is broken out separately.
Quick turnaround · Elstead, Surrey · Story 1
thegreensmanelstead.com is Freddy Trounce's site for his garden maintenance business. It didn't need a redesign — it needed cheaper hosting. The site was already on Wix's Light plan (£108/year) plus a domain (£17/year), set up by the original developer, likely as much in exchange for gardening work as for cash. Moving it to a self-hosted setup took very little time and will save Freddy over £100 a year, starting next year.
While I was in there, I also swapped the site's handful of hand-picked testimonials for an embedded feed of Freddy's Google Business reviews. It was a quick change, but it means the site now updates itself — new reviews appear automatically as clients leave them on Google, without Freddy (or me) needing to touch the code.
The website was one part of a longer job for Freddy — the flyer, the brand, and whatever else turned up. Read the full story →
Personal site · Story 2
miketrounce.com is built the same way: figure out the one job the site actually needs to do, then build only that. No blog, no CMS, nothing added because a website "should" have it.
It's a fast, simple site to run — and, if it ever needs more than that, the foundation underneath it can grow to meet it. Read the full story →