Design & layout
A distinctive direction shaped around your brand, tested on real phones, with type and spacing that guide people to the next step.
- Mobile-first grids
- Motion that never blocks
- Readable, on-brand type
Web design · Music & video · Birmingham
Birmingham Web Design
Looking for someone you can trust in a fast-moving world of AI?
AI website builders, optimising for AI search, Google’s AI Overviews: the landscape changes every month. I’m Darren, a Birmingham web developer with 20 years’ experience. I’ll cut through the jargon, listen to your needs and tell you honestly what matters for your business, and never overcharge or oversell.
- Never overcharge
- Never oversell
- No jargon
Claude drafts · Darren verifies Verified
Page load speedOptimised
Core Web VitalsPassed
Search & AI visibilityIndexed
Mobile & formsTested
“Pretty is easy. Fast, findable and readable by AI: that’s the craft.”
Darren Hodson
Birmingham developer · Since 2005
Bridging the gap
Powered by AI. Perfected by experience.
AI is remarkable, from the design you see to the code working underneath. Pair it with 20 years of experience and it’s even stronger: I know what to ask for, what to test and what Google and AI search reward. It’s the best of both, so the details that matter never slip through: fast pages, working forms, accessible design and search details that get you found.
Fast on real phones
Ranks in Google
Readable by AI
Accessible to everyone
Forms fully tested
A real person accountable
Every page, end to end
From the design and layout to everything under the hood.
Nothing is left as a first draft. Claude refines each layer of every page, then I check it against what Google and your customers actually measure.
Copy & messaging
Claude drafts, I sharpen. Clear headlines, plain English and structure that customers and machines both understand.
- Headlines that say it plainly
- Pages that answer questions
- No filler, no jargon
Everything under the hood
The unglamorous layer that decides results: lean code, clean markup and metadata that search engines and AI can actually read.
- Core Web Vitals tuned
- Schema and structured data
- Crawlable, indexable markup
Page speedCore Web VitalsPageSpeed 100/100Agentic Browsing 3/3Search rankAI OverviewsGEOAEOSchema.orgSemantic HTMLIndexability
The stack
Built for speed, security and reliability.
No database to hack, no plugins to keep patching, no slow shared server. Just fast, secure pages delivered from a global network, with every change saved and reversible.
The framework 01
Astro
Builds every page in advance into lightweight HTML, with no unnecessary JavaScript slowing it down.
The foundation 02
HTML
Clean, semantic markup that search engines, AI tools, screen readers and every browser understand.
The design 03
Tailwind CSS
Only the styles your site actually uses are shipped, keeping every page small and quick.
The safe 04
GitHub
Every change is saved and versioned, so nothing is ever lost and any change can be undone.
The delivery 05
Cloudflare
Served from one of the world's largest networks, with SSL and attack protection built in.
Proof, not promises
This website scores 100/100 on Google PageSpeed.
Google PageSpeed Insights · Mobile · Tested September 2026
- Performance
- Accessibility
- Best Practices
- SEO
Agentic Browsing 3/3
Google's newest check: AI assistants can read, understand and use this website on your customers' behalf.
- First paint
- 0.9s
- Fully loaded
- 1.7s
- Blocking time
- 0ms
- Layout shift
- 0
Tested on a mid-range phone with a slow 4G connection, Google's toughest setting. Run the test yourself
What I build
A clear route to launch.
Straightforward starting prices. Every project is performance-first, mobile-first and handled directly by me.
Single page website
A focused, conversion-ready site for local businesses, built mobile-first and ready for Google.
£299from
Full business website
A complete multi-page site with service pages, forms, SEO foundations and room to grow.
£799from
Website redesign
A sharper look, better mobile experience and stronger performance without throwing away what works.
£499from
Recent work
Built, checked, live.
![Darren Hodson [Blair]](/images/portfolio/darren-hodson.jpg)
How it works
1
Discover
We talk directly about your business, your customers and what the site actually needs to achieve.
2
Design
A distinctive direction shaped around your brand, not a recycled template.
3
Build with Claude
Claude writes, refactors and stress-tests the code at speed. I decide what is good enough to ship.
4
Refine & launch
Speed, rank and AI indexability tuned, then handed over with a real person you can call.
What clients say
Real feedback from real Birmingham businesses.
No sales team. Just Darren.
Let’s build something that works as well as it looks.
Tell me what you need. I’ll give you an honest view, a clear route forward and no hard sell. Every page built with Claude, checked by me.