From weeks to days: three websites in nine days, with AI

In September 2026 I built three new websites for three different clients: a transfers agency in the Algarve, a maternity photography studio and a fundraising campaign. Each would have taken weeks, if not months, the way I worked two years ago. This time they took 2, 3 and 4 days.

The numbers, plainly

• MoreTravel: 2 days, 18 pages in Portuguese and English. It moved from a React app that Google saw as an empty page to a pre-rendered site.
• 9 Meses Fotografia: 3 days, 46 pages. It left the platform it was locked into (its own server, database and CMS) for a fast, bilingual static site.
• De mãos dadas pelo Martim: 4 days, 64 pages. The first proposal estimated weeks of WordPress work. It became a custom site with games, a map of collection points and a panel so the parents can update everything themselves.

I measured all three in Lighthouse the day I wrote this: desktop performance between 98 and 100, and 100 for SEO on all three.

What AI does

AI writes code very fast: components, pages, migrations, capture scripts, tests. It is also great at reading what already exists (a whole repository, a 400-row spreadsheet, an old website) and explaining it back to me.

What is still a person’s job

• Deciding what to build. The list of problems on Martim’s old site (the IBAN hidden in FAQ question 6, the collection points buried in one paragraph) comes from looking at it as a visitor.
• Visual judgement. AI proposes; I decide, with 15+ years of product design behind it.
• The truth. Wrong phone numbers, unlicensed photos, prices out of line with the brochure: the person who catches them is the one who knows the client.

Why this matters for a business

A website that used to cost weeks now costs days. That does not mean lower quality: it means more time for the decisions that matter and less time writing repetitive code.

If you have a site that is stuck, locked into a platform or simply due for a rebuild, get in touch.