Lyn Gardner Author Website
Case StudyA custom author website and blog built from scratch for an award-winning lesbian romance novelist. Migrated from Wix to a static site on Cloudflare Pages. No templates, no monthly fees, no WordPress. Just a fast, SEO-ready site she owns completely, with a blog she can update herself.
Visit LynGardnerAuthor.com
Results at a Glance
Google PageSpeed Insights
The SEO score of 92 reflects Cloudflare AI bot directives in the robots.txt file that Google PageSpeed does not yet recognize. Those directives are intentional and give the site owner control over how AI systems crawl and use her content. It's also worth noting that PageSpeed Insights measures a narrow slice of what makes a site perform well in search. AI-driven search, large language model indexing, and structured data for machine readability are all changing what it means to be discoverable online. The technical foundation built into this site accounts for that.
The Problem with Platform Websites
Most small business owners and independent creators end up on Wix, Squarespace, or GoDaddy because it seems like the easiest path. You pick a template, fill in your content, and you're live. What they don't tell you is what comes next.
You pay every month, forever. You get a template that looks like everyone else's site. Your SEO foundation is thin. And when you eventually outgrow the platform or want something that actually fits your brand, you find out the hard way that leaving is not as easy as signing up was.
Lyn Gardner had been on Wix for years. She's an independent author with seven published novels, multiple award wins, and a readership she's built on her own terms. Her existing site worked, but it didn't feel like her. She wanted something custom, something fast, and a blog she could manage herself without needing to call anyone. She also wanted out of the monthly fee cycle.
That's where this project started.
The Build
The site was built from scratch and self-hosted on Cloudflare Pages before any domain work happened. That's intentional. Building first and handling the domain at the end means the client's existing site stays live throughout the entire process. No downtime, no dead links, no readers landing on a blank page.
A Site That Sounds Like Her
Lyn has a distinct voice. Warm, candid, a little self-aware, and honest in a way that doesn't feel performed. That voice comes through in her books and it needed to come through on her website too. The homepage leads with her author photo and a short bio written in her own words. The book carousel showcases all seven novels with award badges surfaced on hover. The design is dark, literary, and clean without being cold. Nothing on the page looks like it came from a template because none of it did.
Seven Novels, One Showcase
The book carousel presents all seven novels with cover art, award badges, and details. Each book is individually highlighted on hover, giving readers a clear, browsable way to explore Lyn's catalog without leaving the homepage.
Zero Downtime Migration
The entire site was built, tested, and approved on Cloudflare Pages before touching the domain. Lyn's existing Wix site stayed live for her readers throughout the entire development process. When the switch happened, it was instant.
A Blog She Can Actually Use
One of Lyn's primary goals was being able to post content independently. She had a Writing 101 series planned and wanted to publish without relying on a developer every time she had something to say.
The solution was a custom-built blog with a TinyMCE editor built directly into the site. She has her own login. She can write a post, upload images, and publish, all without touching a single line of code. No WordPress, no monthly CMS subscription, no learning curve. It works the way a non-technical user expects it to work.
Rich Text Editor
TinyMCE provides a familiar word-processor interface for writing and formatting blog posts.
Image Uploads
Upload and embed images directly in posts without needing FTP or file management tools.
Private Login
Lyn has her own secure login to access the blog editor. No shared accounts, no developer needed.
No Monthly Fees
No WordPress hosting, no CMS subscription, no per-seat charges. The blog is part of the site.
She's already using it. Her first Writing 101 post is live at lyngardnerauthor.com/blog/writing-101.
Built for Search and Social from Day One
The site was built with SEO and discoverability baked in, not added on as an afterthought.
Structured Data
JSON-LD schemas for Person, WebSite, Book, ItemList, BlogPosting, and FAQPage give search engines and AI systems rich, machine-readable context.
Meta Tags
Unique title tags, meta descriptions, and canonical URLs on every page.
Open Graph
Every page and blog post renders a clean preview image when shared on social media.
XML Sitemap
Full sitemap and robots.txt with Cloudflare AI bot configuration for crawler control.
AI Discoverability
llms.txt for AI indexing, semantic HTML throughout, and structured data optimized for machine readability.
Internal Linking
Strategic internal links across all pages build topical authority and help search engines understand site structure.
Semantic HTML
Proper heading hierarchy, landmark elements, and clean markup make the site easy for both crawlers and screen readers to parse.
Clean URLs
Human-readable URL paths with no query parameters or platform-generated slugs.
The Domain Migration
Once the site was built, tested, and ready, the final step was moving her domain from Wix to Cloudflare.
This is where things got complicated. Cloudflare requires you to change your domain's nameservers to theirs. Wix locks those nameservers down. It's not a bug, it's a business decision. Keeping your domain pointed at Wix keeps you on Wix.
Getting them to release control took two days of back-and-forth with their support team. At one point the plan was to transfer the domain to Namecheap first just to get things moving, or point the A and CNAME records at the new site as a temporary workaround. Both would have worked technically. But a clean nameserver transfer to Cloudflare was the right solution, and it meant her domain cost drops to $11 a year instead of $25. Small number, right principle.
We got there. It just took persistence and knowing what to push for.
If you're on Wix and thinking about making a move, the domain side of that process deserves its own conversation.
She Owns Everything
Technology Stack
| Component | Technology |
|---|---|
| Hosting | Cloudflare Pages |
| Deployment | GitHub + Cloudflare API (scoped key) |
| Frontend | Hand-written HTML, CSS, JavaScript |
| Blog Editor | TinyMCE |
| DNS / CDN | Cloudflare |
| Structured Data | JSON-LD (7 schema types) |
| Social Sharing | Open Graph meta tags |
Ongoing cost for Lyn: $11/year for her domain. Hosting is free.
What Lyn Said
Lyn GardnerAuthor · Florida“I consider Kevin a Godsend. He was able to completely rebuild my website in just a few weeks, giving it a fresh new look and feel, while taking every single one of my needs into account. Rather than like so many others who offer you out-of-the-box clones, Kevin listens and delivers. I highly recommend Kevin Kahn Web Development, but only if you're looking for honesty, professionalism, and endless energy when it comes to delivering the best website he can.”
LynGardnerAuthor.com
The Bigger Picture
Lyn's project is a good example of what independent creators actually need from a website. Not a template. Not a monthly subscription to a platform that owns your content and locks your domain. A site that feels like them, loads fast, shows up in search, and gives them the tools to keep it updated without needing help every time.
If you're an author, a small business owner, or an independent professional who's tired of paying for a site that doesn't represent you well, that's exactly the kind of project worth talking about.