Captain Cycles

Background

Captain Cycles was a project for a client who needed a simple, easy-to-manage website to advertise bike repair services. They didn’t want anything complicated, just something clean, clear and reliable that they could update themselves without worrying about breaking something and compromising the site. With that in mind, I kept the design lightweight and straightforward so the upkeep would stay stress-free.

Onboarding and early ideas

The brief was basically:

• ‘We need a website for our bike business’
• ‘Use whatever method you deem correct’
• ‘We need to be able to add content’

I put together a few mockups exploring layout, colours and general vibe. Once I sent them over, they picked the one that matched what they had in mind.

They weren’t finished; time constraints meant I had to begin the build.

Design and build

I built the site in WordPress, using the client’s copy as the foundation. To keep everything on-brand and avoid the bloat of pre-made themes, I created a custom theme based on their colours and style, primarily from their logo. The goal was to make something they could easily tweak without digging through complicated settings.

What I concentrated on:

• Keeping the layout clean and easy to navigate
• Making sure the client could update text and images themselves
• Avoiding unnecessary plugins
• Ensuring the site worked smoothly on mobile

Since this was a portfolio project and done at no cost, I gave them a final review round with free adjustments so they could fine-tune anything before launch.

Note: as the client has control of the website, I only take credit for the site in the state at launch.

Hosting and deployment

For hosting, I recommended Bluehost; it’s reliable, affordable and easy to use, regardless of your level of technical experience.

The setup process was straightforward:

• Uploaded the site files through Bluehost’s file manager
• Unzipped the package on the server
• Updated URLs and configuration settings
• Finished the WordPress setup and activated the custom theme

To help with SEO, analytics and reviews, I installed:

• Site Kit for Google Analytics and Search Console
• Yoast SEO for basic optimisation
• TrustIndex to display customer reviews in a clean widget

These are the essentials: analytics, basic SEO, and the reviews widget.

Outcome and takeaways

Outcome

The site now runs itself. Text and photos are editable from the WordPress admin, and there are no plugins the client can’t explain.

Two things I’d change. I sent ten questions by email when a call would have told me twice as much. And I trained the client in one sitting instead of alongside the first real edits — people learn the thing they are doing, not a thing they watched someone do. That change carried into Captain T Productions.