What I’ve Learnt So Far About Web Development (As Someone Who Started From Scratch)
The For Foot Sake site build has been a challenging, frustrating, but rewarding experience.
January has been busy across a few different projects, but the biggest chunk of my time has gone into something I never expected to enjoy this much: learning how to build and run websites properly. I’m not a developer by background, and I didn’t grow up writing code. I’ve had to learn everything the long way, by doing it, breaking it, fixing it and slowly understanding how all the pieces fit together.
This post isn’t a tutorial or a guide. It’s simply what I’ve learnt so far as a beginner who’s building in real time.
Lesson 1: Security becomes real very quickly
Within a day of launching For Foot Sake, the site was hit with a wave of login attempts from Bangladesh. I genuinely didn’t expect anything like that so early on. It was a crash course in how exposed a new site actually is. Setting up 2FA, configuring Wordfence, and blocking malicious IPs went from “I’ll sort that later” to “this needs fixing now”. It taught me that security isn’t something you grow into, it’s something you handle from day one.
Lesson 2: Site speed is never ‘finished’
Before building a site, I didn’t really understand what “performance” meant beyond pages loading quickly. I had no idea how many things affect speed: caching, image sizes, plugins, hosting settings, even tiny layout changes. Every tweak teaches me something new. I’m learning that performance isn’t a one‑time fix, it’s something you keep an eye on constantly, and every improvement makes the site feel sharper.
Lesson 3: Structure matters more than design
I always thought the visual side of a website was the hard part. Turns out the real challenge is structure. How pages connect. How categories work. How the homepage guides people. How consistent your article formats are. Building For Foot Sake forced me to think like both a reader and an editor, not just someone putting content on a page.
Launching Tommy the Punter was a perfect example. It wasn’t just about writing tips, it was about:
Creating a repeatable format
Designing graphics that feel on‑brand
Keeping slugs, tags and tone consistent
Those small structural decisions make the whole site feel more intentional.
Lesson 4: Analytics make everything feel real
Connecting GA4 and seeing real‑time traffic for the first time was a genuine milestone. Not because the numbers were huge, but because it made the site feel alive. Analytics turn guesswork into decisions. Even as a beginner, having that feedback loop changes how you build.
Lesson 5: Most problems are solvable if you stay patient
Caching issues, broken layouts, plugins that don’t play nicely, graphics that don’t look right, I’ve hit all of them. And the biggest thing I’ve learnt is that almost everything is fixable if you stay patient and keep iterating. Web development rewards persistence more than expertise.
Lesson 6: You don’t need to be an expert to build something real
This is the biggest takeaway so far. You don’t need to know everything before you start. You don’t need to be a developer. You don’t need to have the perfect plan. You just need to be willing to learn, experiment and improve a little each week.
That’s what this month has been for me, not quiet, not polished, but full of progress.