What I've learned after 20+ years of building and maintaining websites
April 5th, 2026
When you've worked on websites for long enough, you start to see patterns.
Different industries. Different budgets. Different personalities.
But the same underlying issues tend to surface again and again.
After more than 20 years designing, building, fixing and maintaining websites, here are a few things that have consistently proven true.
Most website problems aren't technical
They look technical on the surface.
Slow load times.
Low conversions.
High bounce rates.
Poor search rankings.
But often the real issue is clarity.
Unclear messaging.
Unclear audience.
Unclear priorities.
You can optimise performance and tweak layouts all day long, but if a visitor can't quickly answer "Is this right for me?" the site will struggle.
Technology amplifies clarity. It doesn't replace it.
Small decisions compound over time
A quick plugin install here. A rushed update there. A bit of custom code added "just for now."
None of it seems significant in isolation.
But over five or ten years, those decisions stack up.
That's usually when I get the call. Something feels fragile. Changes feel risky. No one is quite sure how everything fits together anymore.
Websites rarely collapse because of one big mistake. They degrade because of hundreds of small, unexamined ones.
Rebuilds are sometimes necessary. Often they're not.
I've rebuilt sites that were genuinely past the point of repair.
I've also worked on sites that people were convinced needed to be scrapped, when what they really needed was careful untangling.
There's a temptation in this industry to reach for the clean slate. It's more exciting. It feels decisive.
But rebuilding resets everything. SEO momentum, internal familiarity, workflows.
Sometimes the more responsible choice is to improve what's already there.
The best websites are usually the simplest ones
Not the most animated.
Not the most technically clever.
Not the most complex.
The ones that work best tend to be:
- clear about who they're for
- easy to navigate
- fast to load
- straightforward to update
There's a quiet confidence in simplicity.
Over the years I've become less interested in impressing other developers and more interested in making things that just work.
Maintenance is undervalued
Launching a new website feels exciting.
Maintaining one does not.
But maintenance is where stability lives.
Regular updates, security patches, performance tuning, content refinement. None of it is glamorous. All of it matters.
The sites that age well are the ones that are looked after.
Most business owners just want reliability
Very few people wake up wanting a "cutting-edge digital experience."
They want:
- enquiries to come in
- information to be easy to find
- problems to be solved quickly
- someone sensible to call if something goes wrong
Over time I've realised that reassurance and clarity are often more valuable than complexity.
Trust is built slowly
The longer I've done this, the more I've understood that technical skill is only part of the job.
People are trusting you with something that represents their business. Their reputation. Sometimes their income.
That responsibility doesn't disappear after launch.
It's built through honest advice, measured decisions, and being willing to say, "You don't need that."
The longer view changes how you build
Twenty years gives you perspective.
You stop chasing trends.
You start thinking in decades, not redesign cycles.
You build with maintenance in mind.
You ask, "Will this still make sense in five years?" not just "Will this look good this quarter?"
That mindset changes the way you approach everything.
If you're working with a website that feels more complicated than it should, or you're unsure whether it needs rebuilding, repairing, or simply maintaining properly, I'm always happy to have a straightforward conversation.
No hard sell. Just an experienced set of eyes and an honest assessment.
Get in touch if you'd like to talk it through.