Web Development & Maintenance
Built to last. Maintained to matter.
Anyone can launch a website today. What's harder - and rarer - is building one that still works reliably over years, that another developer can understand, and that doesn't become a liability the moment the person who built it moves on.
The age of the disposable website
AI tools and no-code platforms have made it easier than ever to spin up something that looks like a website. That's genuinely useful - but it has also flooded the market with sites and apps built without proper architecture, documentation, or any thought given to what happens when something goes wrong at 11pm on a Sunday.
Vibe-coded websites are fragile. They accumulate technical debt quietly, they're difficult to hand over, and they tend to become expensive problems precisely when you can least afford them. The organisations that feel this most acutely are the ones that treated their web presence as a one-off project rather than an ongoing asset.
A website isn't a deliverable. It's a system that needs to be understood, maintained, and cared for over time. The build is the beginning, not the end.
The vibe-coded approach
- Fast to launch, expensive to maintain
- No documentation, no handover notes
- Nobody knows how it actually works
- Security patches deferred indefinitely
- Every change feels like a gamble
- Built for the demo, not for the long run
The considered approach
- Architecture decisions made intentionally
- Documentation that a second developer can use
- Clear understanding of every moving part
- Security kept current, not caught up
- Deployments that don't require crossed fingers
- Built to still make sense in five years' time
Whether you need something built from scratch, an existing site brought up to standard, or an ongoing maintenance arrangement - I work across the full range.
What I can help you with
- New website development - Custom builds in WordPress, PHP, or modern stacks - designed to be maintainable, well-documented, and not dependent on any single person's memory of how it was put together.
- Ongoing maintenance & support - Regular health checks, security updates, CMS patches, performance monitoring, and someone to call when things go sideways. Proactive, not reactive.
- WordPress maintenance & care - Core, plugin, and theme updates; staging environments; backup management; caching and performance tuning; and help navigating the increasingly complex plugin ecosystem.
- Web application development - Custom applications and tools - from internal dashboards to member portals and integrations with third-party platforms. Built with longevity and maintainability in mind.
- Migration & modernisation - If you have an ageing site that's become a liability - built on an unsupported framework, locked to a single provider, or simply undocumented - I can help you move forward without starting over.
- Audit & health check - Not sure what state your site is actually in? A structured review covering security, performance, technical debt, documentation, and hosting - with a clear, prioritised action plan.
There's a version of web development that looks fine on a demo and falls apart under real-world conditions. A plugin conflict nobody anticipated. A security patch that breaks a form. A deployment that takes down the site at the worst possible moment. These aren't hypotheticals - they're the situations that experienced developers have already lived through and learned to prevent.
Why experience still matters
With over 30 years working across software engineering, content, and strategy, I bring a perspective that's genuinely hard to replicate quickly.
I've inherited broken systems, rescued failing projects, and built things that are still running more than a decade later. I know which shortcuts are acceptable and which ones become tomorrow's emergency.
I also work at the intersection of technology and communication - which means I understand what a website is actually trying to do, not just how it's built.
How I work
I'm a solo practitioner based in Melbourne, which means you deal with the person doing the work - not an account manager who hands it off. That's a different experience from working with a larger agency, and for most of my clients, it's a better one.
I'm straightforward to work with, genuinely invested in outcomes, and available remotely. I'll tell you honestly when something is outside my scope, and I won't recommend solutions that are more complex than the problem warrants.
Engagements typically start with a conversation about what you have, what's working, and what isn't. From there we agree on scope and approach before anything else happens.