Hello World - Rebuilding for Performance
The site is finally live. It stayed in the backlog longer than expected, but I shipped it because it felt like the right time.
I have migrated my personal blog to Astro. This post documents the decision-making process. If you are debating the stack for your next project, hopefully, these notes provide clarity.
I hate apps or tools becoming bloated. If a website is slow or over-engineered, it fails its core purpose.
Boring Design?
You might notice the design is stark. This is intentional.
I used to chase the latest design trends: complex animations, heavy blur effects, and loud layouts. But trends change quickly. What looked stunning three years ago often feels dated today.
I wanted something that lasts. By stripping away the visual noise, the focus shifts entirely to the content. A simple, text-first design doesn’t just load faster; it respects the reader’s time and ages gracefully.
Why Astro?
I spent over three years working deeply with Angular. I value its rigour for complex, enterprise-grade applications. However, for a personal site focused on content delivery, I needed a different set of primitives. I wanted fewer abstractions and lower latency.
1. Performance by Default
Astro ships zero JavaScript to the browser by default, delivering pure HTML. In an ecosystem where hydration costs are rising, this approach keeps the site resilient. Speed is not a vanity metric here; it is the foundation of user retention.
2. Content as Code (Markdown)
I didn’t want the overhead of a CMS. I wanted simplicity and full ownership.
By writing in Markdown, my content lives right alongside my code in Git. It is portable, version-controlled, and easy to migrate. There is no database to maintain, no API to query, and no vendor lock-in. It is just text files, which is exactly how I like it.
3. Built for AI Agents and SEO
As a technical marketer, I operate on a simple truth: if a search engine or an LLM cannot parse your site, you do not exist.
Astro’s semantic structure makes indexing effortless. But beyond standard Search Engine Optimisation, this architecture prepares the site for AI agents. By keeping the content as raw text and HTML, I am removing friction for the bots that will increasingly consume and summarise our content.
The Goal
I believe the best systems are the ones that reduce chaos.
This blog serves as a forcing function for me to think clearly and organise technical insights. Moving forward, I will be sharing notes on engineering, marketing, and the profitable gap where they intersect.