Week 43 — I rebuilt a client's website from pitch to live in 4 days

This week I rebuilt a client's website from pitch to live in 4 days. It scores 97 on a phone.

Every Sunday I post my week here: what got built, what broke, and what you can take from it. Pictures first. Two minutes. Scroll.

days from pitch to a live client website

97–98

speed score on a phone for that site

bill calculators live on SabahGuide

pages of the new client site sent to Google

No phone photo this week. This is the electricity calculator on SabahGuide, live since Tuesday.

Wins

Launch

A client's new website went live

Rebuilt from pitch to live on its own domain in 4 days, scoring 97–98 for speed on a phone.

SabahGuide

Two bill calculators for Sabah homes

One for water, one for electricity, each in English and Bahasa Malaysia. Type in your bill and see what each price band costs you.

Launch

GoReview has a new website

A tool that asks happy customers for a Google review. New site live on Wednesday night, sign-up form tested end to end, then re-angled again on Saturday.

Google Ads

A new landing page made enquiries about a third of the price

A wellness client: 9 enquiries in the first 6 days on the new page. Each one cost about a third of what it did before.

Built this week — and what it does

Two things left the workshop this week. One is a website made for a client's customers. One is a tool for yours.

1 · A client’s website, rebuilt from pitch to live in 4 days

Google Lighthouse on the live site, 24 Oct.

A client wanted a website that brings in referrals, not just a brochure. I rebuilt it from scratch and had it live in 4 days.

Before

An older website that was due for a rebuild.

Now

Written around the customer's worry first, with a page for each of 7 services, a FAQ in the owner's own words, and Google already told about all 13 pages.

Measuring

Calls and WhatsApps from the site, and new pages showing on Google. First check in two weeks.

For you: if your site is old and nobody has read it with fresh eyes for years, it might not say what you think. WhatsApp me the link → I'll look for free.

2 · Two bill calculators, so a family can see where their money goes

Most families only see one number a month. The calculators turn it into units, then into the appliances using them.

Before

Water and electricity rates were scattered across official pages, and nobody explained the bands.

Now

Two free tools, each in English and Bahasa Malaysia, with a picture you can share to WhatsApp. Rates and tax rules are sourced on the page.

Measuring

Visits and shares, counted from Tuesday 20 Oct. No number yet.

For you: try them: water and electricity. Then tell me if your bill matched.

What broke, and how I fixed it

My first design said nothing

BrokeThe first version looked fine, but opened with a photo of the building and never said who the site is for. I rejected it myself.

FixI wrote the story first: who is worried, what they fear, what the business does about it. Then the design went around the words, not the other way.

Do thisRead your home page's first line out loud. Does a stranger know it's for them?

I got locked out of my own clients' hosting

BrokeMy AI helper and I made too many requests to client hosting too fast, and the host's firewall blocked my internet connection. Our fault.

FixRestarted my router to get a new address, then slowed the work down and wrote the lesson down.

Do thisDoing the same thing dozens of times? Go slower than feels necessary. A firewall can't tell you from an attacker.

Still working on

A dental clinic's preview site. Built a six-page preview on Saturday.

Tools I used this week

ClaudeBuilds, checks and this post

CloudroomRuns my AI helpers, now on a second computer at home

CloudflareHosts the rebuilt site

Nano Banana (Gemini)The pictures on the rebuilt site

LetterlyVoice note after the client meeting, turned into text

LarkPings me when someone signs up on the new GoReview site

PublerSchedules SabahGuide's posts

WhatsApp BusinessWhere the client replies came in

My own Claude skills this week

Instructions I wrote once, so Claude does the job my way every time.

critic-passa second Claude checks my work before it ships lead auditlooks at a business's website and enquiries and tells me what to fix skill mapa clickable picture of how one of my skills works

Show the full weekEverything else from the week, in six lines.

For clients: a client's new site live, a preview built for a dental clinic, and PHP updated on several client websites.
For new business: a proposal sent on Monday for an online shop for a surprise-delivery business, and a quote drafted for a car rental firm.
For Bingo: a board that shows what my AI helpers are working on, and a second computer at home that now runs their jobs.
For SabahGuide: the water and electricity calculators, a Malay version of each, and a WhatsApp helper now answering questions on the SabahGuide number.
For my florists: Happy Florist's last 30 days: RM16,685 from 76 orders. Most of the growth came from people finding it directly and on Google, not from ads.
For the long game: GoReview, my own review tool, got a new site on Wednesday and a sharper pitch on Saturday.

Other tools this week: Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Bing Webmaster Tools, Lighthouse, Swipe One, Billplz, Zoho Books, Gmail.

If you do one thing this week

Read your home page's first line out loud.

Does a stranger know it's for them? If not, rewrite that line today.

That’s my week. How was yours? Tell me on LinkedIn or in the comments on Substack. Next one lands next Sunday.