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Episode
303
Interview
Web News

Is There A Best Way To Make A Website?

Recorded:
April 2, 2024
Released:
April 16, 2024
Episode Number:
303

What is the best way to make a website? Websites can be made with no-code builders, custom code, marketing software, and unique combinations of available tech. Even if we narrow down our choice to custom code, we're still left wondering what our tech stack should be. In this episode, Matt and Mike discussed if there is in fact a best way to make a website. Websites are complex and they're made for humans, whom are also complex. Beyond technical requirements we have to consider the site's audience, who will be editing content, deadlines, and social limitations. Just like many things in life, there may be an objectively best way to make a website...somewhere in the gray area, after you've analyzed your needs, wants, and realities.

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Show Notes

Inspiration

  • Browsing around on Reddit and seeing people ask questions regarding their tech stacks, which blogging platforms they should use, and which plugins are best…for example:
    • What’s the best stack?
    • What’s the best way to enhance my site’s performance?
    • What’s the best no-code tool?
    • What’s the best WordPress plugin?
    • What’s the best WordPress theme?
    • What’s the best IDE?
  • In affiliate-marketing SEO terms, we use the term “best” when writing content that is centered around the user looking to buy something “What’s the best gaming headset”
  • So here’s the question: Is there a best way to make a website?

Is there a best way to make a website?

  • Answer is subjective, so in simplest terms, the answer is no
  • Why is the answer subjective? Why is it no?

Websites are complex

  • Some websites are technically complex, requiring large tech stacks that have scaling in-mind
  • Hosting and other fees can create a complex financial situation for businesses (ie large hosting bill for a small business) - for example: 
    • Self-hosted videos
    • High-usage of tools that are pay-per-use (ie hosting hundreds of videos and you pay per)
  • Multiple departments are involved including:
    • Branding
    • Marketing
    • Administration
    • Copywriting
    • Etc.
  • Who is making the site?
    • Internal team
    • External team
    • Hybrid

Tech has pros and cons

  • Like most everything else in life, tech has pros and cons
  • Some tech is easy to set up but hard to scale
  • Personal requirements may impact what tech you can use (ie a migration with downtime may be unacceptable)
  • For example:
    • Using vanilla tech is often performant, but slow to develop with (and difficult to scale the dev team)
    • Using Svelte/Kit is less-popular, so you may not have as many job prospects, but the development experience is regarded by many as better than React
    • React is the popular kid on the block that has a lot of technical support, community support, and documentation (ie blog posts, guides, videos) behind it…but is just using the popular tool a sort of vendor-lock? 

Business Decisions are not Technical Decisions

  • When you have a business to run, not all your decisions can be technical
  • But if your business runs on or works with tech then you can’t just be making exclusively business decisions or technical decisions
    • Technical decisions are married to business decisions, in that the right tech can help or hurt your productivity (time is money)
  • Choosing Webflow for your site may seem like a bad move from a developer’s perspective…but what about a business perspective?
    • Webflow has limitations in comparison to custom code
    • Custom code takes longer to get the basics spun up
    • Webflow saves time
    • How complex is the project you’re working on?
    • How much scaling is required, with a buffer, and how much can Webflow accommodate?

So what do we do?

  • The answer lies somewhere in between, in that gray area
  • Each project needs to be analyzed and prioritized in a way that makes as many of your decisions as possible “informed decisions” 
  • For example:
    • When choosing a WordPress plugin ask yourself?
      • Is this a key/foundational plugin?
      • Is it easily replaceable/are there alternatives?
      • Does the plugin get updates frequently enough?
    • Hybrid
      • No code + custom solutions
      • Example: Webflow for marketing pages and SvelteKit for web app


Links

  • Michael LaRocca