Notes from the board
How websites are built, hosted and shipped, explained for the people who pay for them. Every factual claim carries a citation and a reference list. The jargon is defined in the glossary.
Content that survives: why your facts live in one file
Why the prices, stages and questions on a website should live in one data file rather than being typed into page layouts, what that changes when you need an edit, and what a Git-backed content workflow means for you. Uses this site as the worked example. Fully referenced.
Read the postSecurity by not having a server: static sites and the patching treadmill
Why a static site on an edge network has no database, no admin login and no plugins to patch, what still needs watching, and how that compares with a plugin-based CMS site. Fully referenced.
Read the postForms without a server: how an enquiry reaches your inbox
Follow an enquiry from the browser to your email, see where spam is stopped, and learn the three places a message can go missing. This site's own form is the worked example. Fully referenced.
Read the postLaunch day: moving your domain without losing your email
What actually changes when a new website goes live on your domain, what must not change, why we test on a temporary address first, and why nobody should touch the registrar in a hurry. Fully referenced.
Read the postWhat "hosting" actually includes
The word hosting covers everything from a folder on a shared server to a global network with certificates, deploys, rollbacks and monitoring. A checklist to hold against any quote. Fully referenced.
Read the postRollback: what happens when a change is wrong
Every deployment of your site is kept, so returning to the previous version is one action. What a rollback is, how it differs from reverting the change, what to send us when a page looks wrong, and why a site edited on its live server has nothing to return to. Fully referenced.
Read the postIslands: how we use React without paying for it everywhere
Why most of a marketing site should be plain HTML, where interactivity earns its JavaScript, and the mistake we found on this site while writing this post. Measured, and fully referenced.
Read the postMeasured, not claimed: speed and accessibility checks on every release
How to run Google's own tests on any website in two minutes, read the four scores and the three Core Web Vitals, tell lab data from field data, and know what an accessibility floor means. Fully referenced.
Read the postWhat React is, and why we build with it
A plain-language explanation of React development for business owners: what the library does, what it costs a page, and how Dispatch Web uses it without slowing your site down. Fully referenced.
Read the postPreview links: review the change before it is live
Every change to your site gets its own private web address before it reaches the live site. What a preview link is, how to open one on a phone and a laptop, what to check, and how to send feedback that turns into a fix in one round. Fully referenced.
Read the postAnatomy of a modern site: domain, DNS, edge, build, content
The six layers between typing an address and seeing a page, who controls each one, what breaks when it fails, and who to call. Written for business owners. Fully referenced.
Read the postFrom a commit to your customers: the deployment pipeline
What happens in the minutes between us changing a file and the world seeing it: commit, build, checks, deploy to the edge, cache. Why a broken build cannot take your live site down, and why every version is kept. Fully referenced.
Read the postStatic, server-rendered or app: which kind of website are you buying?
Every website quote describes one of three kinds of site, whether it says so or not. How to tell which one from the wording, and what each costs to host, secure and maintain. Fully referenced.
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