# The Better Website > A scroll-driven, hand-coded portfolio and web design studio run by Adam Hoidahl — not built on > a CMS, a page builder or a plugin stack. The Better Website (thebetterwebsite.com) is a static, hand-coded site built by a one-person studio in Raleigh, North Carolina (the Triangle). The site is its own demo: pages scroll normally while their motion is driven by scroll position, and moving between its real pages is animated with the View Transitions API so the whole site reads as one continuous experience. It is written to be quoted: every answer is a self-contained sentence, entities and FAQs are marked up as structured data, and every word is present in the HTML without JavaScript, so a search crawler, an answer engine and a generative model all read the same page a person does. A slide-deck experience, where each section is one screen and one gesture advances one section, is a selectable mode that is still coming — it is not how the site behaves by default. Its portfolio sells premium hand-coded themes built the same way. The blog covers scrolljacking, the View Transitions API, accessibility, and building websites that aren't built on a CMS. ## Site - [Home](https://thebetterwebsite.com/): Custom websites hand-coded by Adam Hoidahl in Raleigh, NC — fast, secure and yours, with premium themes for sale. The scroll-driven site itself is the demo. - [Web Development](https://thebetterwebsite.com/web-development/): How the studio builds: the tooling never ships, so the server holds only the finished page — fast because nothing extra loads, secure because nothing is running to attack, and the page publishes its own near-perfect PageSpeed scores. - [Scrolljacking](https://thebetterwebsite.com/scrolljacking/): Scrolljacking is when a site overrides your scroll to drive its own animation. What it actually is, the four risks worth taking seriously, six rules for using it responsibly, and where it genuinely earns its place. - [Hand-Coded: How We Build](https://thebetterwebsite.com/hand-coded/): Every build starts as an empty file and nothing goes in that the project hasn't earned — from a five-file brochure site up to a full application. What hand-coding buys you, and the honest limits. - [Websites for Architecture Firms](https://thebetterwebsite.com/architecture-firm-websites/): Hand-coded websites for architecture practices — every project on its own URL, photography that stays sharp without slowing the page, and scroll-driven pacing you control instead of a template grid. - [Minimalist Website Design](https://thebetterwebsite.com/minimalist-website-design/): Minimalist website design is the practice of removing everything from a page that isn't doing a job, so content, typography and space carry the experience. What it actually is, why minimalist sites are fast, how to build depth out of one flat grey, and where it's the wrong call. The page is the Paper theme shown fitted — its own type, its own single accent colour, and two scroll-locked runways. - [Haunted Attraction Websites](https://thebetterwebsite.com/haunted-attraction-websites/): Hand-coded websites for haunted attractions, haunted houses, haunted trails and scream parks — where the site is the first room of the experience. Why a fully scroll-driven advertisement is the right call for an experience business and the wrong one almost everywhere else, what a haunt site has to answer (dates, intensity and age guidance, access and content warnings, parking, groups, casting), and the six-week season that makes speed on a phone decisive. The page is the live demo of the Theirs theme. - [Landscape Architect Websites](https://thebetterwebsite.com/landscape-architect-websites/): Hand-coded websites for landscape architecture practices — photography served at the size it was shot, project pages built to be revisited as planting matures, and copy that separates a design practice from lawn care and maintenance companies in search. Includes what such a site has to do, how to show work that isn't finished yet, and a scroll-locked diagram in which a planting plan is drawn over real ground and the specimen shrubs grow out to meet their dashed maturity circles. The page is the live demo of the Long View theme. - [Portfolio](https://thebetterwebsite.com/portfolio/): Premium hand-coded themes for sale by Adam Hoidahl — real, working scroll-driven builds you can see live and license for your own site. - [Contact](https://thebetterwebsite.com/contact/): Want a website that moves like this one? Schedule a call or send Adam Hoidahl a message — hand-coded, scroll-driven builds for any kind of project. - [About](https://thebetterwebsite.com/about/): Adam Hoidahl designs and hand-codes The Better Website — not built on a CMS or a page builder. Who's behind it, how the studio builds, and where the motion came from. - [FAQ](https://thebetterwebsite.com/faq/): Answers about hand-coded websites, scrolljacking, accessible motion, pricing, and theme ownership — straight from the one-person studio that builds The Better Website. ## Blog - [Blog index](https://thebetterwebsite.com/blog/): Notes on scrolljacking, the View Transitions API, web accessibility, and hand-coding websites that aren't built on a CMS. - [What Is Scrolljacking?](https://thebetterwebsite.com/blog/what-is-scrolljacking/): Scrolljacking is when a site takes over your scroll instead of letting the browser handle it. What it is, why it earned a bad name, and why the View Transitions API is bringing it back. - [Does Scrolljacking Hurt SEO?](https://thebetterwebsite.com/blog/scrolljacking-seo/): One URL, invisible content, heavy scripts — the classic scrolljacked site earns its bad rankings. But Google has no scrolljacking penalty. What actually hurts SEO, and the architecture that fixes it. - [Is Scrolljacking Bad for Accessibility?](https://thebetterwebsite.com/blog/accessible-scrolljacking/): Yes — the way it is usually built. How scrolljacking hurts accessibility (keyboard, reduced motion, focus order, the back button), which WCAG criteria an ADA review would reach for, and the four answers that fix them. - [The View Transitions API in Practice](https://thebetterwebsite.com/blog/view-transitions-api/): Cross-document view transitions let the browser animate between real pages — no SPA framework, no client router. What shipping the View Transitions API on a live site taught me. - [Building a Scroll-Driven Website: A Case Study](https://thebetterwebsite.com/blog/building-a-scroll-driven-website/): From a CodePen animation to a multi-page site that scrolls like one continuous experience — the full case study of building this scroll-driven website. - [What I've Learned Building a Scrolljacking Website](https://thebetterwebsite.com/blog/what-i-learned-building-a-scrolljacking-website/): The follow-up to the case study, three weeks on. Scrolljacking is an amplifier rather than a feature: it multiplies whatever the site already is, so a slow or disjointed site gets worse. Why it earned its reputation, the rules that answer each complaint, and what came back out — the slide deck was broken on purpose to get flow in place and is now marked coming soon, several overlapping animations were cut because even a hand-coded site has a frame budget, and automatic page advance in flow is still undecided. Also: the brand has to suit it, and the site is built for the audience rather than the client or the developer. - [How Fast Can a New Website Rank? Ours Took a Week.](https://thebetterwebsite.com/blog/how-fast-can-a-new-website-rank/): A brand-new, unfinished website hit page one for its target keyword in seven days. The real Search Console numbers, and the strategy behind them: pick a fight you can win. - [Hand-Coded Websites: The Case for Starting From a Blank File](https://thebetterwebsite.com/blog/hand-coded-websites/): Not built on a CMS, a page builder or a plugin stack — every page on this site is a file written by hand. What hand-coded websites actually are, and why they're faster and safer than the software-stack version. - [Why Website Accessibility Matters](https://thebetterwebsite.com/blog/why-website-accessibility-matters/): The introduction — why accessibility matters beyond the legal angle, what ADA compliance actually asks for, and what Adam learned building a site for people with visual impairments alongside a man who is legally blind (what slowed him down was developers leaving things unnamed). Names the two offenders anyone can check without a developer: text below the 4.5:1 contrast threshold, and form fields whose placeholder is doing the label's job. - [Website Accessibility Basics: The Nav and Your Images](https://thebetterwebsite.com/blog/website-accessibility-basics/): The two things that break first on almost every site — a navigation you can't operate without a mouse, and images whose alt text is missing, wrong, or describing the wrong thing. A developer's starting point: what a keyboard-operable menu owes the user, why a linked image's alt text names the destination rather than the picture, the difference between an empty alt and a missing one, and the WCAG criterion each failure sits at (nearly all Level A). Also how this relates to ADA compliance, and how to test a site with no budget and no vendor. - [AI. Am I Worried?](https://thebetterwebsite.com/blog/the-ai-revolution/): Will AI take over developer jobs? There's no simple answer here. Should you be worried? I'm not. Here's why. - [The AI Revolution, Revisited](https://thebetterwebsite.com/blog/the-ai-revolution-revisited/): In 2024 I asked whether AI would take my web development job. Two years later: it didn't — it made me a powerhouse. On AI-built websites and using the tool right. ## Themes - [Daylight Study](https://thebetterwebsite.com/architecture-firm-websites/): Drawing sheets pinned to a wall where scroll position is the time of day — the wall shifts colour and every shadow swings with the sun. Built for architecture and design practices; the live demo is the architecture firm page itself. - [Theirs](https://thebetterwebsite.com/haunted-attraction-websites/): A horror theme. A rain-lashed door opens onto something waiting in the dark, the screen whites out into a bright blue sky, and the sky turns out to be a grave you are being lowered into. Built for haunted attractions and experience businesses; the live demo is the haunted attraction page itself. - [Long View](https://thebetterwebsite.com/landscape-architect-websites/): A drafting theme. One warm vellum, one ink, hairline rules and drawn lettering, with no colour anywhere on the page except inside the photographs. Its centrepiece is a scroll-locked diagram where scroll position is twenty years of elapsed time. Built for landscape architects and design practices whose work matures after it is installed; the live demo is the landscape architect page itself. - [Dive Bar](https://thebetterwebsite.com/portfolio/themes/dive-bar/): A rainy, neon-lit theme for bars and restaurants, hand-coded by Adam Hoidahl. See it live and license it for your own site. - [Paper](https://thebetterwebsite.com/portfolio/themes/paper/): A neumorphic, soft-UI theme built from shadow and gradient alone, with no borders and no color doing the work, hand-coded by Adam Hoidahl for studios, agencies and portfolios. This page is the theme unfitted; the same theme fitted into a full site is the minimalist website design page. - [Vitrea](https://thebetterwebsite.com/portfolio/themes/vitrea/): A liquid-glass theme with an animated light/dark toggle, hand-coded by Adam Hoidahl. See it live and license it for your own site. - [Silver Plate](https://thebetterwebsite.com/portfolio/themes/silver-plate/): Realistic 3D silver type under a light source that follows your cursor. Built for and purchased by Silver Plate Buyers. - [Record Shelf](https://thebetterwebsite.com/portfolio/themes/record-shelf/): A crate-digging theme for record shops, portfolios, and product catalogs: visitors browse your collection like vinyl. - [Electric Industry](https://thebetterwebsite.com/portfolio/themes/electric-industry/): A bold, high-voltage colorway with a skewed, rotating-sheen CTA button and an ambient moving-line background. Built for and purchased by Aurum Recovery. - [Holotype](https://thebetterwebsite.com/portfolio/themes/holotype/): A 3D hologram theme where cards lean back and wireframe icons blink to life like cold projectors starting up. ## Optional - [Privacy](https://thebetterwebsite.com/privacy/): What The Better Website collects, which is very little: Google Analytics for visit counts, and the contact form. No advertising, no profiling, no data sold.