Websites and rebuilds
I design and build websites for businesses and organizations of any size in central PA myself: one senior developer in Lock Haven, not a template shop working from out of market. I work with organizations around Clinton County, Williamsport, and State College, and remotely anywhere, on Next.js, React, and Postgres. The local work is public and you can open it: dlhrotary.org, volunteerclintoncounty.org, and this site.
How I approach the work
Search for web design in Clinton County or Williamsport and a lot of what comes back is a template page with a town name dropped into it, from a shop that has never been here. My counter is that you can open my local work in a new tab. dlhrotary.org is the Rotary Club of Downtown Lock Haven site, built pro bono. volunteerclintoncounty.org is a civic platform I co-founded and developed. This page is the third.
Most sites do not need a rebuild. If yours loads quickly, reads well on a phone, and staff can edit it without calling anyone, spend the money on photography and writing instead; I will say so and lose the project. A rebuild earns its cost in narrower cases: an abandoned theme-and-plugin stack that is now a security liability, or a business that has outgrown a brochure and needs logins, records, or scheduling behind the pages.
WordPress to Next.js migration is what I get asked about most, and the mechanics are dull on purpose: export the content, keep the URLs that already work, redirect the ones that cannot survive, and rebuild the editing surface so nobody files a ticket to change a phone number. On the Rotary site officers edit pages, events, and news in a dashboard built for them, with a formatted editor instead of Markdown, because club officers rotate and the interface has to survive people who never volunteered to be webmasters.
The same person scopes the job and builds it, so nothing gets relayed through an account manager. Price follows what the site has to do, not how many pages it has: a members area, payments, or records that must stay correct move the number more than another page ever will. See how pricing works.
What you get
- A site on Next.js and React deployed to Vercel, with a content model and an editing interface set up for whoever actually updates it
- A URL-for-URL redirect map on any migration, so every old link still resolves
- Forms that go somewhere: routed mail, spam protection, and a stored record of the submission
- JSON-LD structured data, a generated sitemap and robots, and per-page Open Graph images, the same setup running on dlhrotary.org
- Postgres behind the pages when the site holds records rather than paragraphs: members, events, RSVPs, or gated documents
- Analytics and Search Console connected under accounts you own
- Automated browser tests on the paths that matter, plus accessibility checks before launch
- Documentation written for whoever will make the edits, not for the next developer
- Code, domain, hosting, and database in your name — you can hire anyone else next time
Project fit
Fit. The right fit if you run a business, nonprofit, or civic group of any size in central PA, want the person writing the code to be the person you talk to, and want a straight answer on whether a rebuild is worth doing at all.
Engagement. One scope, agreed in writing before any code. On a rebuild the migration goes first, because that is where a website project usually goes wrong.
How a project runs
- Map the work. We sort the real workflow from the wish list, identify users, and write down what success needs to look like.
- Scope the first release. You get a clear proposal, timeline, and build plan with the risky parts pulled forward instead of hidden at the end.
- Build in the open. I share progress, ask focused questions, and keep the work testable so feedback arrives while it can still shape the product.
- Launch and hand off. Deployment, documentation, and training are part of the work, so the finished system is something your team can actually run.
Shipped work behind this
- Rotary Club of Downtown Lock Haven — The pro bono website and officer dashboard I built for the club. Officers keep meetings and minutes, dues, club email, and a shared drive there; members sign in for the directory, files, and RSVPs.
- Volunteer Clinton County — A civic platform I co-founded and developed, where local organizations post volunteer opportunities, events, and donation drives and residents sign up and log hours — on a hardened, security-first data model.
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Common questions
Does my website need a rebuild?
Most websites do not. If yours loads quickly, reads well on a phone, and your staff can edit it without calling anyone, spend the money on photography and writing instead. A rebuild earns its cost in narrower cases: an abandoned theme-and-plugin stack that has become a security liability, or a business that has outgrown a brochure and needs logins, records, or scheduling behind the pages. I will tell you which case you are in, even when the answer loses me the project.
Will moving from WordPress to Next.js break our links?
Not if the migration is planned around them. I export the content, keep every URL that already works, and redirect the ones that cannot survive, using a URL-for-URL redirect map so every old link still resolves. I rebuild the editing surface too, so nobody files a ticket to change a phone number. On a rebuild the migration goes first, because that is where a website project usually goes wrong.
Can our staff update the site themselves after launch?
Yes. Every site gets a content model and an editing interface set up for whoever actually makes the updates, plus documentation written for that person rather than for the next developer. On the Rotary Club of Downtown Lock Haven site, officers manage pages, news, events, shared files, and the member list from their own dashboard, without touching code.
What makes a website cost more?
What the site has to do, not how many pages it has. A site with pages, a contact form, and content your staff can edit sits at the simple end. The number climbs with logins, member-only areas, payments, records that must stay correct, or a connection to software you already run. Either way, you get a fixed figure in writing after one mapping conversation, and the scope is agreed before any code.
Can I see websites you have built in central Pennsylvania?
Yes, and you can open them in a new tab. dlhrotary.org is the Rotary Club of Downtown Lock Haven site, built pro bono, with a member portal and an officer dashboard behind the public pages. volunteerclintoncounty.org is the countywide civic platform I co-founded and developed. tdarby.com, the site you are reading, is the third: one Next.js app serving several sites, plus the back office I run my contracting business on.
Start a project
Bring me the practical version.
Tell me what you're trying to build or improve and what's already in place — I'll reply with a clear next step.