Utrecht City Nederland
An information site about the city of Utrecht, with tips for days out and practical information.
Project at a glance
- Type
- Information site about the city of Utrecht
- Technology
- Astro, Markdown, Vercel
- Services
- Web design, development and content
- Content
- Guides by theme, with sources for every article
- Design
- Custom design, inspired by De Stijl
- JavaScript in the browser
- None by default
How it often goes: A heavy system for pages that are mostly read
Why Astro suits this site
The site is built with Astro, a framework made for websites where the content comes first, such as guides, blogs and information sites. That fits here, because visitors mostly come to look something up and read: what they can do, what it costs and when it is open.
Astro prepares every page in advance as plain HTML. The visitor gets a complete page straight away, without the phone first having to run JavaScript. This site sends no JavaScript to the browser by default.
That also helps search engines and AI services. All the text is right there in the HTML, with its own title, summary and structured data for each article.
Each article is a separate text file with fixed fields, such as title, summary and sources. Astro checks those fields on every build, so an article without sources or with a title that is too long does not go online.
There is no database and there are no plugins to keep updated. That saves maintenance, and there is less that can break or be hacked.
Astro is not the right choice for every site. For accounts or a lot of interaction, a framework like Next.js makes more sense, as with De Rotterdamse gedichten. For a site that is mostly read, Astro is the lighter and simpler choice.
Need a site that is mostly read?
Get in touch for a first conversation.
Email us directly: info@geekie.nl
free, no obligation
