How it started
Liesbeth and I already knew each other - she had helped me on my way toward a new career, I had helped her think through hers. When she decided to go freelance as a career coach and needed a website, the deal was made quickly.
Because she had helped me out earlier, I built her website with pleasure - a way of giving something back.
Approach
First question I asked her: look around the web, give me an idea of what appeals to you. Colors, fonts, navigation, structure - just what feels right. Based on that input I built a proof of concept. It landed immediately - colors, layout, the feel. Everything clicked from the start.
Then waited for the photographer. Got the final photos and texts, implemented them, polished here and there, and we were done.
What was built
Fully hand-written HTML, CSS and JavaScript - no website builders, no themes, no shortcuts. A static site that loads fast and is easy to maintain.
| Component | What it does |
|---|---|
| Blog | So Liesbeth can write relevant articles herself - good for discoverability. |
| Decap CMS | Admin portal for the blog, expanded to manage the full site content. |
| Calendly | Integration for appointments - book directly without back-and-forth emails. |
| Google Tag Manager | Conversion tracking for Google Ads campaigns, with an open source cookie consent banner. |
| Security headers | A+ score on CSP and security headers. Privacy policy and robots.txt included. |
| Publishing | GitHub → Netlify. Mailboxes created and configured. |
More than a website
Liesbeth started from zero digitally. No password management, no good password hygiene. That was addressed too: Proton Pass installed and taught, credentials handed over properly.
Everything lives on her own accounts - DNS, Netlify, GitHub, mailboxes. She owns every line of code and every login. If I still make changes to her site, it’s because she wants that - not because there’s no other way.
That’s the norm for me, not the exception.