Transforming a Classic B&B Website with Astro and Modern Internationalization Techniques
Introduction
In today’s digital landscape, maintaining an engaging, multilingual online presence is crucial for hospitality businesses such as Bed & Breakfast establishments. Recently, I undertook a comprehensive redesign and technological upgrade of my B&B website, migrating from WordPress to a modern static site generator—Astro. This project not only revitalized the site’s look and feel but also incorporated advanced features to enhance user experience and streamline content management.
Project Overview
My goal was to create a bilingual (English and French) website that provides visitors with seamless navigation, integrated booking options, and engaging visual content. The transition from WordPress involved porting over more than 100 pages—including blog posts—while ensuring the new site retained full functionality and content accuracy. This shift to Astro allowed for a more performant, flexible, and maintainable web presence.
Key Features and Integrations
- Internationalization (i18n)
Implementing multilingual support was a primary focus. I utilized Astro’s capabilities to manage navigation, SEO, and hreflang tags effectively, ensuring that search engines and users could easily find and understand the content in their preferred language.
- Booking Widget Integration
For seamless reservations, I integrated the FreeToBook booking widget directly into the website. This provides visitors with a straightforward booking experience without leaving the site.
- Email Marketing
Mailchimp integration enables visitors to subscribe to newsletters and updates effortlessly, helping us maintain ongoing engagement.
- Content Presentation
A dedicated blog section allows us to share updates, events, and insights. Additionally, a visually appealing parallax gallery offers an immersive experience, showcasing the property’s features and surroundings.
- Modern Web Enhancements
Leveraging Astro’s capabilities, I incorporated features like View Transitions and responsive images to optimize performance and user interaction across devices.
Technical Challenges and Solutions
Porting content from WordPress was facilitated using the WordPress?” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>WordPress export to Markdown package. While this streamlined the process, it required significant post-export cleanup due to inconsistent Markdown syntax, broken links, and outdated content. For certain components requiring custom behaviors, I opted to use MDX, blending Markdown with React-like components for greater flexibility.
One of the more complex aspects was managing internationalization, particularly ensuring that navigation, SEO elements, and hreflang tags accurately reflected the site structure in both languages. Addressing these challenges was essential to provide a
