BPrehn.com

Grav power mode

This site is already on a solid Grav base. The biggest gains now come from content structure, repeatable page patterns, and production discipline.

What to focus on first

  1. Content model
    • Keep parent pages for major sections (About, Writing, Projects, Contact).
    • Use child pages for entries (posts, case studies, changelog items).
  2. Frontmatter discipline
    • Standardize keys across pages - title, menu, visible, date, taxonomy, description, hero_image.
    • Add metadata per page for better SEO snippets and social sharing.
  3. Collections
    • Power listing pages from taxonomy and date instead of hardcoded links.
    • Use one listing template for many sections (blog, notes, projects).
  4. Reusable components
    • Move repeated blocks into Twig partials.
    • Use modular pages for custom landing page layouts.

High-impact Grav features to use

  • Taxonomies - tags and categories for automatic content grouping.
  • Page media - keep images in each page folder for portable content.
  • Image manipulation - use Grav image actions (resize, crop, quality) in templates.
  • Blueprints - create editor-friendly fields for structured pages.
  • Flex Objects - use for non-page structured data (team members, resources, testimonials).

Practical plugin stack

You already have Admin, Form, Login, and Flex Objects installed. Great start.

Consider adding next:

  • sitemap - search engine indexing support.
  • feed - RSS/Atom for posts.
  • seo - page-level SEO controls and metadata helpers.
  • simplesearch - instant internal search.
  • relatedpages - content discovery via taxonomy.

Performance and deployment habits

  • Keep Twig debug off in production.
  • Enable CSS and JS pipeline in production.
  • Keep cache enabled and clear on deploy when templates/config change.
  • Keep media optimized and prefer modern formats where possible.

Workflow that scales

  • Build pages locally in Markdown first.
  • Keep theme overrides in user/themes and configuration in user/config.
  • Version control user/pages, user/config, and custom theme/plugin code.
  • Avoid committing cache and tmp contents.

Suggested next build sequence

  1. Define site sections and taxonomies.
  2. Create one blueprint for post-like content.
  3. Build one listing template and one detail template.
  4. Add sitemap + feed + SEO plugins.
  5. Turn on production asset pipelines and validate page speed.

If you want, I can do the next step directly in this project: create a blog section with taxonomy, list/detail templates, and the blueprint so new content entry is fast and consistent.