Maintaining and growing

The loop for every change #

The launch was a path with many separate steps, and you walk it exactly once. Everything after that is the same short loop. Once you have been through it a few times, a text change takes ten minutes.

The loop stays the same whether you swap one word or add a whole page. Stick to it for small things too. The change that feels too minor to check is usually the one that shifts something.

Checking with a cleared cache #

Browsers remember files so pages load faster on a second visit. In everyday use that is good. Right after a change it is confusing, because you open your address and see the old state. The new version has long been on the server, your browser is just not showing it yet.

That is why every upload ends with a look at a cleared cache. Without it you take a successful change for a failed one and upload it a second and a third time without anything moving.

• Reload with a key held down. On Windows Ctrl and F5, on the Mac Cmd, Shift and R. That makes the browser fetch the page fresh from the server.
• A private window. The most reliable way, because nothing is stored there. You also see the page the way a stranger sees it, consent dialog included.
• The phone separately. It has a cache of its own. Open the page there in private mode as well.

Backups: the cheapest insurance #

Before every larger rebuild you make a copy of your project folder. It takes a minute and it is the cheapest insurance you can get. Larger means a new section, a colour change, a rebuild of the navigation, a round of updates. For one swapped sentence you do not need one.

Name the copy after the date and put it next to the project folder, not inside it. Then you find it again without thinking and never upload it to the server by accident.

If you know a version control system like Git, that is the better way. It keeps every intermediate state separately, shows you for every line when it changed, and lets you undo a single step instead of the whole day. If you do not know it, do not learn it just for your website. A dated folder does the job too.

• The whole project folder comes along. Texts, images, guideline, knowledge folder and skills. You can leave out the node_modules folder and the dist folder, both are recreated at any time.
• One copy sits in a second place. A duplicate right next to the original helps against a slip of the hand, not against a dead hard drive. An external drive or a cloud folder is enough.
• Three states are plenty. The latest one, the one before it and one from the launch. You can delete older ones, otherwise you lose the overview.

Keeping the guideline up to date #

Your project contains a file called CLAUDE.md. It describes your project: what it is, how it is built, where which content lives, which rules apply and what must never be done. Your AI reads it at the start of every session. It is the reason you do not have to explain everything from scratch each time.

That also makes clear what happens when it stands still. If your project changes and the guideline does not, your AI later works against a state that no longer exists. It looks for texts in a file you renamed and suggests a colour you replaced long ago. That looks like a mistake by the AI, but it is a mistake in the description.

These changes always pull the guideline along:

• A new page or one page fewer
• A new service, a new section or a new item in the navigation
• Changed colours, fonts or spacing
• A connected form delivery or a measurement ID you entered
• Content that moved from one file into another
• A rule you newly set for your project, for example the form of address or a word that should not appear

A rhythm that holds #

A website does not collapse suddenly, it ages quietly. A price no longer fits, a photo shows a room that is gone, a linked page has moved. With three fixed appointments you stay ahead without thinking about it daily. Put them in your calendar as a recurring entry, then you do not have to remember them.

Adding new content #

New content is the real reason to look after a website yourself. An article, a reference, a service you have added. The text is the easy part. What gets forgotten are the places around it, because a new page is rarely just one file.

These points belong to it every time:

• The navigation. Menu at the top and footer at the bottom. A page that cannot be reached from any other page will not be found.
• The overview page. Articles and references also appear in a list. If the card is missing there, the article is online and invisible at the same time.
• The sitemap for search engines. Your sitemap.xml lists every page. New page in, deleted page out.
• Internal linking. Link the new page from at least one existing page that fits the topic, and from the new page back to your services. That helps visitors and search engines alike.
• Title and description. Every new page gets both of its own. A copy of the home page is not enough.
• The image. Store it locally in the project, set a description, state width and height. You never embed images from someone else's address.

Picking it up again after months #

Between two sessions your AI keeps nothing. It knows your project only from the files it is reading right now. If you come back after four months and immediately set a task, it works with whatever it happens to see first. That often goes well and sometimes goes sideways.

So the restart takes five minutes longer and saves you half an afternoon. Have it read first, then act.

When someone else joins in #

At some point someone else works on it too. A copywriter, a photographer, a colleague who adds articles. Your template brings along everything that would otherwise have to be explained the hard way.

The styleguide is your briefing

The file styleguide.html sits in your project folder and opens in the browser with a double click, without a build step and without any installation. It shows your colours in light and dark, your typeface in every size and the building blocks your pages are made of. Anyone who has seen it once no longer has to guess how a new section should look.

It also answers the question every service provider asks first. Instead of a description of your brand you send a page that shows it.

What you hand over

• The project folder. With guideline, knowledge folder, skills and styleguide. Anyone who starts there is ready to work within half an hour, even without you.
• An agreement on who changes what and when. Two people working in the same folder in parallel overwrite each other. Agree on who holds the current version, or use a version control system.
• A server access of their own. If someone publishes on your behalf, set up a separate user with your host for that. Credentials never belong in the project folder.

Security and staying current #

Your website consists of finished files. No login area, no database, no extensions running in the background. That removes almost everything websites are usually attacked through. This is the calmest part of your upkeep.

The building blocks used to build it still age. They sit in the node_modules folder and run on your machine, not on the server. A visitor to your website never comes into contact with them. That is why a notice about an outdated dependency is rarely urgent here, and you can decide calmly.

Two things really do hang on the server. The certificate for HTTPS usually renews itself, so check once a year that it did. And if your template brings a contact form with delivery, your host keeps the matching server version current. Both are settings in your customer area, not work on your website.

When a change breaks something #

Sooner or later a change breaks something. A section sits crooked, the menu no longer closes, the build stops. That is normal and it has a fixed procedure.

The most common mistake at this point is to keep repairing straight away. After three attempts nobody knows which state is which, and a small thing turns into an evening.