Project Context
After more than 20 years building and rescuing websites, mostly for other people, often in difficult circumstances, I wanted a place that actually showed what I can do, not just where I'd worked. Eleventy8 is that place. It's built in Next.js and React, which I wanted to demonstrate I could work with confidently, and it's been iterated continuously using the same audit process and tools I offer to clients. It has two audiences: small business owners who need an honest assessment of their website, and technical decision-makers who might want someone senior, experienced, and direct on their team.
Tags
Next.jsReactTypeScriptTailwind CSSBuilt by Eleventy8
The Challenge
Building for yourself is uniquely difficult, there's no brief, no client to push back on bad ideas, and no excuse for cutting corners:
- The blank page problem: Every other project in this portfolio started with a client brief, a Figma file, or at minimum a previous site to reference. This one started with nothing, which is either liberating or paralysing, depending on the day.
- Demonstrating Next.js and React credibly: Most of my professional work sits inside larger team stacks. Building something in Next.js end-to-end, owning every decision, was a deliberate choice to prove competency, not just claim it.
- Two audiences, one site: The site needed to work as a freelance lead-generation tool for small business and estate agency clients, and simultaneously as a senior portfolio for potential employers or collaborators. Those two audiences have different needs, different language, and different things they're looking for.
- SEO with intention: Ranking for anything requires specificity. Rather than a generic 'hire me' page, the site needed dedicated, well-structured landing pages targeting the search terms that the right clients actually use.
- Avoiding the portfolio trap: The temptation with any developer portfolio is to make it look impressive rather than be useful. I wanted case studies that tell the truth about the work, the complexity, the decisions, the context, not just the polished outcome.
The Solution
Treated it like a client project, with a brief, a strategy, and a process:
- Next.js and React, owned end-to-end: Built the full stack myself whilst extending my knowledge of the frameworks, routing, components, data structure, performance, deployment. Used AI tooling to accelerate the structural foundations intelligently, then applied experience and judgement to everything that actually matters.
- Self-audited with my own tools: Used my own Eleventy8 Website Auditor alongside AI-assisted reviews to assess the site the same way I would a client's, Core Web Vitals, content structure, metadata, accessibility. Then fixed what I found.
- Dedicated service landing pages: Built targeted pages for specific audiences and search terms, website performance audits for small businesses, estate agent-specific audits for the property sector, structured and written to rank and convert, not just exist.
- Case studies as evidence, not marketing: Wrote detailed case studies for every significant project, not highlight reels, but honest accounts of the work, the complexity, and the decisions. The kind of thing that actually tells someone whether they'd want to work with me.
- Iterative improvement: Rather than a big launch and nothing since, the site is updated continuously, new projects, refined copy, improved performance, because a portfolio that doesn't reflect current thinking isn't a portfolio, it's an archive.
The Outcome
The site does what it was built to do:
- Demonstrates Next.js and React competency: The fact that this portfolio exists and works well is its own evidence, built, deployed, and maintained by me, in the stack I wanted to prove.
- Functional lead-generation platform: Dedicated landing pages targeting small business and estate agency clients, with clear service descriptions, pricing, and a contact process that doesn't waste anyone's time.
- Honest representation of 20+ years of experience: The case studies here are the most candid account of my work that exists anywhere, what was hard, what I did about it, and what the outcome actually was.
- A site I'm not embarrassed to send to anyone: Whether that's a potential client, a recruiter, or a CTO, the site makes the argument for me, clearly and without overselling.
- Proof of the thing I sell: Offering website audits and performance consulting from a site that is itself well-built, fast, and SEO-considered isn't just good practice, it's the whole point.
- My Personality: I'm hoping that my personality shines through on this website. I can't stand bureaucracy and jargon making people sound more important than they are. I try to keep things simple and direct. I love building things, not just talking about them. I also enjoy problem solving, it's what keeps me up at night.
Visual Highlights
