Part 1 · The concepts
The four parts of every website
Every website — from a tiny one-pager to Amazon — is built from the same four pieces. Once you can name them, nothing about "managing your site" is mysterious.
🏷️ The Registrar — your address
A domain name (like themarshtherapy.com) is rented, not owned outright. You pay a small yearly fee to a registrar — a company licensed to lease domain names. It's like registering a street address. Registrars: Cloudflare, Namecheap, Porkbun, GoDaddy. Cost: ~$10–15/year.
🗺️ DNS — the phone book
DNS (Domain Name System) is the internet's phone book. When someone types your domain, DNS looks up where your site actually lives and sends them there. "Pointing a domain at your site" means editing DNS records — a set of instructions, not a place.
🏠 The Host — the land your site sits on
Your website is just a set of files. The host is the always-on computer that stores those files and hands them to visitors. Carrd hosts for you; so does Squarespace; so does Cloudflare (which is what you use).
🚚 Deployment — moving your files in
Deploying is publishing — copying your latest files onto the host so the world sees the new version. On your setup, this happens automatically whenever a change is saved to GitHub.
The one-sentence version: a registrar rents you an address, DNS points that address at your host, and deploying puts your files on the host. That's the whole machine.
How your site works right now
- Your files live on GitHub — stores every version, so nothing is ever lost and any mistake can be undone.
- Cloudflare Pages hosts it — free, fast, global, with the padlock (HTTPS) automatic. Current address:
kate-site-aor.pages.dev.
- It's a "static" site — just pages, no database or logins. That's why it's fast, free, and nearly unbreakable.
- Booking is Calendly — a separate free tool embedded in your Contact page. (Fine for general scheduling — but read the HIPAA section below before using it for real client booking.)
- Edits deploy automatically — change something in GitHub, and Cloudflare rebuilds the live site within a minute.
This way vs Carrd / Wix / Squarespace
Honest trade-offs — there's no universal "best," only what fits how you like to work.
| Approach | Cost | You edit by… | Best when… |
Your setup
(GitHub + Cloudflare) | Free | Asking Claude, or editing files | You want free, fast, fully-owned, version-controlled, AI-editable. |
| Carrd | Free–$19/yr | Drag & drop | You want one simple page, nothing more. |
| Wix / Squarespace | ~$16–23/mo | Visual drag & drop | You want to edit everything yourself, visually, no technical help. |
The real trade: your setup gives you ownership, zero cost, and version history — but editing leans on Claude (or a bit of file editing) rather than a visual drag-and-drop canvas. Wix/Squarespace flip that: pay monthly, but you point-and-click everything yourself. Since you have Claude and a helper, your setup gets you the best of both — professional result, no bills.
Booking, calendars & HIPAA compliance
If you'll book real clients, this section matters more than any other. Read it before you turn on live scheduling.
Why booking is a HIPAA question at all
As a therapist you're almost certainly a HIPAA "covered entity." And protected health information (PHI) isn't just clinical notes — a person's name combined with the fact that they booked a therapy appointment is PHI, because it reveals they're seeking mental-health care. So whatever tool takes bookings is handling PHI.
The single rule that governs everything: any company that touches your clients' PHI must sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with you. No BAA = not compliant, no matter how secure the tool looks.
Calendly — convenient, but not HIPAA-compliant
As of 2026, Calendly does not sign BAAs, and its terms actually prohibit putting PHI into it. That means it cannot be made HIPAA-compliant for real client booking — even on paid plans. It's genuinely useful for a low-stakes "let's find a time to chat" flow, but the moment a prospective client types a health detail into a notes field, you have PHI in a tool with zero contractual protection. Don't rely on Calendly for compliant client scheduling.
Google Calendar — compliant only the paid way
Google will sign a BAA — but only for paid Google Workspace accounts, with the BAA signed and the services configured correctly. Google Calendar is covered under that BAA. A free @gmail.com calendar is NOT covered and must never hold client PHI. So "use my Google Calendar" is fine only if it's a paid Workspace account with a signed BAA.
Good news: your website & host stay out of it
Because your site is static and booking is handled by a separate tool, PHI never flows through Cloudflare or GitHub — so the host itself doesn't need a BAA. The entire compliance burden sits with the booking tool you choose, which keeps your setup simple.
The HIPAA-compliant path for a therapy practice
The cleanest option is a tool built for clinicians that signs a BAA and bundles booking with intake and notes:
- SimplePractice, Jane, IntakeQ, TherapyNotes — practice platforms designed for HIPAA; they sign BAAs and include compliant online scheduling.
- A dedicated HIPAA-compliant scheduler that will sign a BAA — the compliant alternative to Calendly.
- Paid Google Workspace + signed BAA for the calendar side, if you want to stay in Google's ecosystem.
Any of these embeds into your Contact page exactly like the current Calendly placeholder — the site doesn't change, only which tool the "Book" button opens.
Not legal advice. HIPAA specifics and vendor terms change — confirm the current BAA terms directly with any tool before trusting it with client data, and consider a one-time check with a HIPAA compliance professional. The demo's Calendly widget is a placeholder for look-and-feel; swap it for a BAA-backed tool before taking real clients.
Part 2 · Do it yourself
Register a domain name
Doing this at Cloudflare (where your site is already hosted) keeps everything in one place — simplest by far.
- Go to
dash.cloudflare.com and sign in (same account your site is on).
- Left menu → Domain Registration → Register Domains.
- Search the name you want (e.g.
themarshtherapy.com). If it's taken, try .com alternatives or .co / .therapy.
- Add it to your cart and check out. Cloudflare charges at-cost — usually ~$10/year, no markup.
- Done. The domain now lives in your Cloudflare account, ready to point at your site (next section).
Ownership matters: whoever holds the account the domain is registered under owns it. When the site is fully yours, make sure the domain sits in your Cloudflare account — it's the master key to everything.
Point the domain at your site (Cloudflare)
Because both your domain and your hosting are at Cloudflare, this is almost automatic.
- In Cloudflare, open Workers & Pages → your
kate-site project.
- Click the "Custom domains" tab → "Set up a domain."
- Type your domain (e.g.
themarshtherapy.com) and confirm.
- Cloudflare adds the DNS records for you automatically (since the domain is in the same account) and issues the free SSL padlock.
- Wait a few minutes. Your site is now live at your real domain, secure, no extra cost.
(If you ever register a domain elsewhere, the extra step is changing that registrar's "nameservers" to Cloudflare's — Cloudflare walks you through it. But registering at Cloudflare skips this entirely.)
Create a GitHub account
GitHub is where your website's files live. You'll want your own account so the site can eventually be fully yours.
- Go to
github.com and click Sign up.
- Enter your email, a password, and a username (e.g.
kate-marsh).
- Verify your email via the link GitHub sends you.
- That's it — the free plan is all you need. Later, the
kate-site repository can be transferred to your account, or you can be added as a collaborator so you can edit right away.
Set up Claude & edit your site from the cloud
This is the magic part: you describe changes in plain English, and Claude makes them and publishes them — from any browser, no software to install.
- Create a Claude account at
claude.ai. To use Claude Code (the coding assistant), you'll want a Pro or Max plan.
- Open Claude Code in the cloud and choose connect a GitHub repository. Authorize GitHub, then pick
kate-site.
- Start a session and just talk to it: "Change my phone number to X," "Add a new paragraph to my About page," "Swap the hero photo." It edits the files for you.
- It saves ("pushes") the change to GitHub, which triggers Cloudflare to redeploy. Your live site updates within about a minute.
- Made a mistake? Every version is saved — ask Claude to undo it, and it's gone. Nothing is ever permanently broken.
You never touch a server, a terminal, or code you don't understand. You ask; it does; the site updates. That's the whole workflow.
Your day-to-day editing routine
- Open your Claude Code cloud session (bookmark it).
- Describe the change in plain language.
- Glance at what it did — it'll show you, and can share a preview link before it goes live.
- Approve, and it publishes. Refresh your site a minute later to see it.
Every component, in one list
The full stack of "having a website," so nothing surprises you:
- Domain registration — renting your name (registrar, ~yearly).
- DNS — the records that point your name at your host.
- Hosting — the always-on computer serving your files (Cloudflare Pages).
- Deployment — publishing the latest version (automatic on your setup).
- Version control — the saved history of every change (GitHub).
- SSL / HTTPS — the padlock; encrypts the connection (free, automatic).
- Booking / scheduling — Calendly, embedded (separate free tool).
- An editor — how you make changes (Claude today; possibly a friendly in-site editor later — see below).
Getting help & sending feedback
When something looks off, or you have an idea for the site, the cleanest path is to log it where the work happens — right on the project. A "Send feedback" button can be added to the site that files your note directly to the project's task list, so nothing gets lost in email. (Coming soon — being set up.)
In the meantime, note the page and what you'd change, and pass it along.
Quick glossary
- Domain — your site's name/address.
- Registrar — the company you rent the domain from.
- DNS — the phone book pointing your domain to your host.
- Host / hosting — the always-on computer that serves your site.
- Deploy / publish — putting your latest files live.
- Repository ("repo") — the folder of your site's files on GitHub, with full history.
- Commit / push — saving a change to the repo (which triggers a deploy).
- Static site — pages with no database; fast, cheap, low-maintenance (yours).
- HTTPS / SSL — the padlock; free and automatic here.
← Back to the site