Starting With the Pages I Needed

As I put the RitesDev website together, I try to keep the first version small.

The basic plan is a home page, an about page, a contact page, and the start of a blog. That gives the site a shape without making me solve every future problem before anything is online.

A small site still needs a purpose

Even a handful of pages have to answer a few simple questions. What is RitesDev? What can someone come here to do? Where should they go next?

Those questions affect the page structure as much as the code does. If the site has a contact page but doesn’t explain what someone might contact me about, the page is technically there but it isn’t very helpful.

I don’t have all of the wording figured out yet. Starting with a small set of pages gives me a place to work that out.

Leave room for the next version

I try to build enough structure that I can add to it later, without turning the first pass into a giant project. A website can grow as I learn what it needs to do.

For now, I’m happy to have the basic routes in place. Getting a simple version working gives me something real to review, and that is more useful than keeping the whole idea in my head.