Part 03 Everything Else
The Ecosystem Beyond Code
Monitoring & Metrics
With website metrics in place, developers won’t be kept in the dark about user behavior, performance issues, or areas needing optimization, enabling data-driven improvements.
Meanwhile, it’s crucial to apply strict security measures and ethical guidelines to handle user data responsibly.
Documentation
Proper documentation goes a long way in improving collaboration, reducing onboarding time, and and ensuring maintainability for future updates and troubleshooting:
- User guides
- API documentation
- Developer notes
- Version changelog
- Public roadmap
Highly recommend: I recently found a convenient way to create a documentation site—using Notion’s free plan to write the documentation and publish it as a public site. It is awesome.
If documentation is a serious part of your app, other options include:
- vitepress (highly recommend)
- github pages
- using a customer support solution that includes user documentation feature
Community Building
- Status page for transparency
- User onboarding flows
- AI customer support integration
- “Buy me a coffee” for indie developers
- Release notes and update communications
SEO & Marketing
- Meta tags and Open Graph
- Sitemap generation
- RSS feeds
- Social media integration
SEO is crucial for website discoverability and cannot be overstated. Ensure that meta tags for the website name, description, and image are properly set, so the website can be easily shared on social media, enhancing visibility and engagement.
Development Workflow
Version Control
- Git workflow
- Branch strategies
- Release management
CI/CD
- Automated testing
- Deployment strategies
- Environment management
I wouldn’t consider local deployment anymore. Cloud deployment is the absolute answer. There are a lot of options out there. But you usually get what you pay for.
Recently render.com becomes my go-to place. It offers free-tier while you are not sure about your idea or when you are still actively iterating your product.
And is there anyone out there still not using CI/CD to automatically deploy their site from a code repository? No one? Yeah, that’s what I thought—welcome to the 21st century! 🚀
6. Future-Proofing
Scalability
- Microservices vs. monolith
- Caching strategies
- Load balancing
Maintenance
- Dependency updates
- Security patches
- Performance optimization
Conclusion
Building a modern website is more than just coding - it’s about creating an ecosystem that serves both users and developers. Take time to plan these aspects before diving into code, and your project will be better positioned for success.
Remember:
- Choose technology based on project needs, not trends
- Plan for the ecosystem, not just the application
- Consider the maintenance burden of your choices
- Build with scalability in mind (or not - we can always worry later after all it is human nature to worry 😉)
- Document everything - your future self will be forever grateful, NO CAP!
Happy coding! 🚀