Why we still start with HTML

A first version that requires a build pipeline is a first version you cannot email to the client as a file. We start with pages. If the site later needs a tool, we add the tool beside the pages, not underneath a framework that has to boot to show Tuesday's hours.

HTML also makes the sitemap honest. Every URL in sitemap.xml is a document someone can open. We do not generate five thousand empty shells to look busy to a crawler. Google is not impressed, and neither is a person on a slow phone.

When a CMS earns its keep — a journal you will actually write, a catalogue that changes weekly — we add one. Until then the site is files, backups are files, and hosting is boring, which is the point. See also you might not need a CMS.