The full toolkit, in plain language.

Build & code

• Eleventy (11ty) v3

  What it is: the static site generator I use to build your site. It takes your content and my templates and produces flat HTML files that load in a fraction of a second.

  Why it matters: Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress build pages on every visitor request, which is slow and fragile. Eleventy builds them once at deploy and the visitor gets a finished page immediately. That speed difference is the single biggest reason my sites tend to score 95–100 on Google PageSpeed instead of the typical 50–70.

• Vanilla HTML, CSS, & JavaScript

  What it is: the core languages of the web, written from scratch for your site. No drag-and-drop page builder, no theme marketplace, no plugin sprawl.

  Why it matters: AI page builders and template shops emit code that looks fine on the demo and hides 200 KB of unused styles, 12 third-party scripts, and a layout that breaks on iPad. I write the HTML and CSS so every line is doing a job. Your site weighs about 200 KB total; the industry average is over 2 MB.

• GitHub (private repository)

  What it is: where your site's source code lives. Every change is timestamped, signed, and reversible.

  Why it matters: if something breaks in the middle of the night, I can roll back to any prior version in a matter of seconds. If you ever decide to leave the engagement, you get a clean static export of your site that runs on any host with no dependencies attached, and nothing is locked behind a proprietary CMS.

• Bunny Fonts

  What it is: a privacy-respecting font CDN. Same fonts you would get from Google Fonts, served from Europe, no cookies, no tracking, no consent banner required.

  Why it matters: Google Fonts (the default everywhere) loads tracking pixels on every page view and triggers EU privacy disclosures. Bunny Fonts gives you the same typography with none of the legal exposure.

Hosting, speed, & security

• Cloudflare Pages

  What it is: where your site is hosted. Your files are served from 300+ servers around the world, automatically; visitors get the closest one.

  Why it matters: traditional hosting (GoDaddy, Bluehost, etc.) puts your site on one server in one city. A visitor 2,000 miles away waits longer to load each page. Cloudflare's edge network makes your site feel local everywhere.

• Cloudflare DNS

  What it is: the routing layer that takes your domain (yourbusiness.com) and points it at your hosting.

  Why it matters: I control DNS at the edge so changes propagate within seconds, not hours. Also blocks DDoS attacks before they ever reach your origin.

• SSL / HTTPS (automatic)

  What it is: the padlock in the browser bar. The connection between your visitor and your site is encrypted.

  Why it matters: without it, browsers flag the site as "Not Secure" and Google deranks you. Cloudflare provisions and renews this automatically; you never see a "certificate expired" warning.

• UptimeRobot

  What it is: an external service that checks whether your site is reachable every minute, from three different regions.

  Why it matters: if your site goes down, I get an SMS alert before you do. There has never been a sustained outage on my hosting, but if one happens, I know immediately.

Forms & lead capture

• Web3Forms

  What it is: the form backend. When a visitor submits a contact form, Web3Forms catches it, runs spam filtering, and emails you the message.

  Why it matters: WordPress contact-form plugins are the #1 source of WordPress security breaches. Web3Forms has no plugin to compromise; the form posts directly to their API. You get the email; I have nothing to maintain. Hidden honeypot field stops bots without making humans solve a CAPTCHA.

• Custom intake forms (per trade)

  What it is: I tune the form fields to your trade. A roofer's form asks about roof type and age; an HVAC form asks about system age and the issue; an inspector's form asks about square footage and timeline.

  Why it matters: a generic "name + email + message" form turns into a follow-up phone call to gather information. A trade-specific form gives you what you need to quote on the spot. See eight industry samples.

SEO & local discovery

• Schema.org structured data

  What it is: machine-readable metadata embedded in every page that tells Google "this is a local business in this city, offering these services, with these hours and this phone number."

  Why it matters: Google's local-search ranking depends on this matching exactly across your website, your Google Business Profile, and any third-party citation. Most templates skip schema entirely; I write it for every page.

• Google Search Console + Bing Webmaster Tools

  What it is: the official dashboards Google and Bing give you to see what searches you appear for, what they index, and what errors they hit.

  Why it matters: I connect both at launch and submit your XML sitemap directly. New pages get indexed in days instead of weeks. You also get the data; I share access with you.

• XML sitemap + robots.txt

  What it is: two technical files at the root of your site that tell search engines what pages to crawl and what to skip.

  Why it matters: AI page builders generate these inconsistently or not at all. Yours are auto-generated on every build, always current, always submitted.

• Pagefind (on-site search)

  What it is: the search box that runs on your site. Index is built at compile time; search runs entirely in the visitor's browser.

  Why it matters: traditional site search either pings a third-party server (slow, sometimes a paid service) or uses a database query (slow, only works on dynamic sites). Pagefind is instant, cookie-free, and free.

Analytics (cookie-free)

• Cloudflare Web Analytics

  What it is: server-side analytics that runs at the Cloudflare edge. Counts visits, sees where they came from, measures speed.

  Why it matters: Google Analytics requires a cookie banner in most jurisdictions and gets blocked by most modern browsers anyway. Cloudflare's analytics has no banner, no blocking, no privacy concerns; gives you the same numbers.

• Umami (included on every site)

  What it is: a more detailed open-source analytics dashboard, cookie-free, included with every monthly-plan site. Each client gets a private live dashboard link on launch day.

  Why it matters: Cloudflare Web Analytics is great for the high-level numbers (visits, country, devices, Core Web Vitals). Umami gives you the next layer: top pages, referrer breakdown, event tracking ("how many people clicked the phone number on the home page?"). Both run on every site I ship; no extra fee, no Google Analytics tax, no cookie banner.

Maps & service-area pages

• Leaflet + OpenStreetMap

  What it is: the interactive map I can drop on your service-area page. Shows your shop, your covered neighborhoods, a radius, or pinned cities.

  Why it matters: Google Maps embeds require an API key, charge per page view above a quota, and load tracking pixels. Leaflet + OpenStreetMap gives you a real interactive map with none of that. See it live on the Redcap demo.

• Per-city service-area pages

  What it is: individual pages for each metro you serve, with real local content (specifics about that area, neighborhoods, common issues).

  Why it matters: doorway pages (one paragraph that swaps in a city name) get penalized by Google. A real service-area page with substantive content competes for "near me" searches. See the live examples.

Email (your domain, your inbox)

• Email forwarding (free)

  What it is: mail sent to you@yourdomain.com forwards to your existing Gmail/Outlook/whatever.

  Why it matters: if you do not need a full mailbox, this is free at most domain registrars. I configure it for you at launch.

• Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 (optional)

  What it is: a real mailbox at your domain (you@yourdomain.com) plus Drive / Docs / Calendar (Google) or OneDrive / Office (Microsoft).

  Why it matters: if you want a full inbox under your business name, both options run about $7–$8 per user per month. I configure DNS (MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC) for whichever you choose; you own the workspace.

Quality & monitoring

• Google Lighthouse

  What it is: Google's open-source auditor for performance, accessibility, SEO, and best practices. Free; built into Chrome.

  Why it matters: I run Lighthouse before every launch and target 95–100 on every metric. You can run it yourself; nothing to hide.

• WAVE (WebAIM)

  What it is: the de-facto accessibility auditor. Flags contrast issues, missing labels, screen-reader problems.

  Why it matters: I check WAVE before every launch. WCAG 2.2 AA compliance is the legal floor in many jurisdictions; I ship it as the baseline, not an upsell.

• Real-screen-reader testing (VoiceOver, NVDA)

  What it is: I actually navigate your site using the same software that blind and low-vision visitors use.

  Why it matters: automated tools catch about 30% of accessibility issues. A real screen-reader test catches the rest. Most agencies skip this entirely.

Business & admin (the boring but essential)

• Stripe

  What it is: the card processor for monthly subscriptions and one-time payments.

  Why it matters: direct, low-fee, transparent. You get a real receipt every month, not an opaque invoice from a reseller.

• Google Drive (your client folder)

  What it is: a shared folder where your photos, brand assets, contracts, and project notes live.

  Why it matters: if anything happens to me, your folder is right there with everything you would need to hand to another developer. No vendor lock-in.