An unfortunate number of websites are created for no better reason than someone being told that they “need a website”. But unless you can identify why you need a website and exactly what it can deliver to you, then it’s unlikely to deliver anything. Whether it’s a business seeking new customers or a better way to organise their information, an artist looking to gain a larger audience, or an enthusiast looking for a place to share their passion with the like-minded, it’s vital to have a clear plan for your website.
Having used and worked with the world wide web almost since its inception, I can provide advice and direction on a new web strategy or help overhaul or refine an old one. Headaches can be avoided, and time and money saved.
SEO
Although I don’t specialise in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), and while it’s possible to spend an awful lot of money on consultants who do; over the past decade and a half building websites I have learnt plenty about the subject. And it’s become quite obvious to me that an absolutely essential ingredient to search engine ranking — indeed the most important one by far — is clear, well-structured XHTML.
By producing code that is uncluttered, logical and coherent, the search engine robots and web-crawlers are able to quickly and easily index a site so that it will feature highly in their results.
Obviously there are numerous tricks to gaining a high ranking on the popular search engines, but they are all basically worthless unless your site content is easily indexable and that only happens when it is being displayed by well-written code.
Accessibility
In the past I have worked on sites specifically designed for people with visual impairments and have learnt to ensure a decent level of accessibility in all of the sites I produce. Where there is a specific need to go beyond this base level, I can ensure that sites meet the most rigorous accessibility standards.