Knowledge base
Explanations without a sales pitch.
Questions that keep coming back, answered one at a time. The explanations are deliberately neutral: they hold up even if someone else builds it for you. Plaincodelab picks the technology that fits each project — these pages explain why that choice can land differently every time.
Building and choosing
Which form fits which goal, and what the choices mean for what stays possible later.
Bespoke or an existing system: where the line runs
An existing system is quicker to set up and cheaper to buy. Bespoke gives exactly what you want and nothing you do not use. The line between the two rarely runs along company size, but along how unusual the process is that the site or app has to support.
Bespoke or an existing systemApp, web app or PWA: what the difference actually is
Three words used interchangeably that mean three very different things. The difference lies in where it runs, what the device allows it to do, and what your customer has to do before they can use it.
App, web app or PWAHow to judge a technology choice without being a developer yourself
There is no best technology, only technology that fits what has to happen. A client need not know the names — but should know the four questions that test a proposal.
Choosing technologyWhat a good brief contains
A brief need not be a thick document. It does have to answer the questions that would otherwise be asked halfway through the project — when they cost more.
A good brief
Findable and fast
How search engines and language models read a site, and where speed comes from.
What actually determines findability in Google
Findability is the sum of three things: whether a search engine can read your site, whether there is anything useful on it, and whether others think so too. Everything sold as a secret falls under one of those three.
How findability worksBeing found in AI answers
More and more people ask a question instead of entering a search, and get a summarised answer back. That changes less about your site than it seems — but what it changes is worth the effort.
Being found in AI answersCore Web Vitals explained without jargon
Google measures three things about real visitors' experience: how quickly the first view appears, whether anything shifts while loading, and how fast the page responds to a tap. What those three mean, and where they go wrong in practice.
Core Web VitalsStructured data: what it is and what it is for
Structured data is extra information in the code explaining what a page describes: a business, a service, a product, a question with an answer. People do not see it; search engines and language models do.
Structured data
Rules and accessibility
What is legally expected of a site or app, in plain language.
GDPR and cookies: what is allowed without consent
Not every cookie needs a banner, and not every banner is valid. The distinction is simpler than it seems: it comes down to what you store and why.
GDPR and cookiesAccessibility: what WCAG asks and who it applies to
Accessibility is about whether everyone can use your site: with a screen reader, with only a keyboard, with poor eyesight or on a small screen in bright sunlight. For a growing group of organisations it is also a legal requirement.
AccessibilityPayments online: providers, iDEAL and the stores' rules
Payments look like a technical topic, but most surprises sit in the rules around them: which method your customer expects, what a provider costs, and what Apple and Google demand as soon as it happens inside an app.
Payments onlineMultilingual sites: structure, hreflang and translating
Adding a second language is more than converting the copy. Get the structure right and the versions reinforce each other; do it sloppily and they compete for the same visitor.
Multilingual sites
Management and maintenance
What happens after launch: updating, measuring, moving and staying secure.
From old site to new without losing your rankings
The biggest damage from a new site rarely happens during the build. It happens on launch day, when addresses change without redirects.
Moving without losing rankingsSecurity: the basics every site needs
Most hacked sites are not the target of an attack. They are outdated installations that were found automatically. Security is therefore mostly hygiene, not a mysterious specialism.
SecurityDomain, hosting and email: how it fits together
Three things often lumped together that are in fact separate. Knowing the difference means not panicking when something moves — and never being stuck with a supplier.
Domain, hosting and emailMeasuring without tracking people
You do not need to build profiles to know whether your site works. The numbers that genuinely matter are available without a consent bar — and they are more honest.
Measuring without tracking
Knowledge base
A question that is not here?
Just ask. Plaincodelab answers even when the answer is that you do not need something.