When I hand over a website, I also explain how it works. Most people don’t need to know, but it helps to have a picture in your head when something needs changing, or when someone asks who your website is with. This post is that explanation, with drawings.
Two ways to show a page
Most small-business sites run on WordPress, Wix or something similar. They put each page together at the moment someone asks for it, from a database and a set of plugins (add-ons that give WordPress extra features). A static site does that work once, ahead of time, and then hands out finished pages.
A typical WordPress site. Every visit makes the server do work. Plugins and the server need regular updates, and an update that goes wrong can take the site down.
A static site. Nothing runs when someone visits, so pages load fast and there is very little that can break or be attacked. There are no plugins to keep updated.
That difference is behind most of what I’ve written here: why a static site loads faster, why it has so little to hack, and why it costs less over five years. If you already have a WordPress site, here is when switching pays off, and how the move works.
The four pieces
Your site is made of four separate services. Each one does a single job, and any of them can be swapped out without losing the others.
- Your domain is the address people type, like
yourbusiness.es. It’s registered in your name from the first day. - The code is the master copy of every page, photo and line of text, kept on GitHub with a full history of changes. I build it with Astro, a widely used tool, so any web developer can pick it up.
- The host is Cloudflare. It turns the master copy into finished pages and keeps copies on its servers around the world.
- The editor is Keystatic, a simple page in your browser where you change your hours, prices, photos and posts. You log in with your email.
Here is how they fit together, and what happens when you change something.
Changing your hours, start to finish. You save in the editor, GitHub keeps the change next to every earlier version, and Cloudflare rebuilds the pages. Anyone who opens your site after that sees the new hours.
Because GitHub keeps every version, nothing you change is ever lost. If a change goes wrong, an earlier version can be brought back.
What you change, and what you ask for
The editor only shows what makes sense to change on your site. If you have a menu, you see the menu. I wrote more about editing here, including when WordPress is still the better choice.
You can change these yourself:
- Opening hours and holiday closures
- Prices, menus and lists of services
- Photos and text on existing pages
- Blog posts and news
These are worth asking me for:
- A new kind of page or section
- Changes to the design or layout
- A new language
- Forms, bookings or other features
And if you’d rather not touch the editor at all, send me a message with the change and I’ll do it.
How the site becomes yours
A website should belong to the business it’s for. When it lives in the designer’s accounts, you need them for every change, and if they disappear, the site can go with them. So everything I make ends up in accounts you control, under your own email.
While I work
I build the site in my own accounts. You follow along on a private preview link that only you and I can open. If you already have a website, it keeps running as it is until the new one is ready.
The one exception is the domain. It’s registered in your name from the first day, even if I help you do it, so your address is never in someone else’s hands.
On handoff day
Once the final invoice is paid, we pick a day and move everything over:
- You open two free accounts, one on GitHub and one on Cloudflare, with your own email. I can walk you through it.
- I transfer the code to your GitHub. You get an email asking you to accept it. It has to be accepted within a day, which is why we do this together.
- I connect the code to your Cloudflare account, which starts building and serving the site.
- I point your domain at it and check that the site loads securely at your address. If the new site replaces an old one, the old page addresses send visitors to the new ones, so Google and your customers still find you.
- I invite you to the editor, along with anyone on your team who will make changes.
- I delete my preview copy and send you a written guide: where everything lives, how to log in, and how to get back into an account if you lose a password.
In short:
| While I work | At handoff | After | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain | Yours | Yours | Yours |
| Code | Mine, private | Moves to you | Yours |
| Hosting | Mine, preview only | Your own account | Yours |
| Editor | I set it up | You get logins | Yours |
| My access | Full | I hand over every login | Only if you add me |
After
From then on I have no access unless you want me to have it. If you choose upkeep, you add me as a member of your accounts, and you can remove me whenever you like. If we stop working together, you keep everything, and any developer who knows Astro can carry on where I left off. Nothing depends on me to keep running.
What it takes to keep running
The domain costs €10 to €20 a year for a .es. Hosting a site like this on Cloudflare is usually free. There are no plugins or server to update, so the site can run for years without anyone touching it, as long as the domain renews. Upkeep is optional, as a monthly plan or per change.
If you’d like to know how this would work for your business, get in touch.