Services
I offer a range of services to businesses. My primary service is building websites. For companies with existing websites, I also provide optimisation services to improve accessibility, web performance and technical SEO.
Ultimately my goal is to improve your business online. A website needs to work for you.
Let's build/optimise your website to help meet your business goals and ensure your users are happy.
Website Builds
I build with web standards at the forefront of my mind. The websites I build are accessible, fast loading, mobile-friendly and attractive. They are easy to update and maintain.
I have experience in building complex custom websites as part of large projects. I can also work with several popular CMS platforms.
Let's find a solution that works best for you and your business. Get in touch for an initial chat.
Web Accessibility
A considerable number of websites are not accessible. The UK has approximately 13.9 million disabled people, according to the charity Scope. A study in 2016 suggested 71% of users with disabilities would leave a website that is not accessible. A portion of your users could be left frustrated, attempting to navigate and use your website.
I can help make your websites accessible meeting various set levels of the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0). Make your websites accessible by all. It will even have the added benefit of helping your business!
Perhaps an initial accessibility audit will help you understand what is required, or you'd like me to work with you more extensively to solve your accessibility issues to meet accessibility guidelines.
Get in touch, and we can discuss what would work best for you.
Web Performance
Page speed affects traffic, bounce rate, conversions, search rankings, bandwidth and even the environment. Making your website faster is crucial to improve in those areas, and when you do, you will reap the benefits.
I can help speed up your website to improve user retention and conversion and better search rankings. An initial page speed audit can highlight critical issues. I can work with you to resolve these issues.
Get in touch to arrange an initial discussion.
Technical SEO
There is a common saying within SEO circles "Content is king". While great content will help your search rankings, it is only one factor in how you rank in search.
I've already highlighted above in the web performance section that page speed is a ranking factor. Search engines like Google want to crawl, and index pages on your website but poor site structure, broken pages and other key factors will harm your rankings.
Technical SEO can be the final step in your SEO puzzle (it needs to be part of a more comprehensive SEO strategy), but working with a developer who understands SEO on a technical level will add value to your SEO strategy.
Let's have a chat about your situation and see if technical SEO can help you.
Consultancy
I am used to working with companies and their existing development and marketing teams to help build and improve their online offering. I still offer this as a more in-depth service in addition to the separate specialised services above.
If you are looking for this sort of support in a larger team, especially when it is a complex application, my skills roughly match a Front End Developer role covering HTML, CSS and Javascript, but with a clear focus on UI (User Interface).
It is important to highlight this focus on UI, as the term 'Front End Developer' can cover a wide range of skills and technologies these days. More recently, I have seen job descriptions for this role type with the skills heavily skewed to javascript frameworks such as React and Angular (with the focus on SPAs - single page applications) with little regard on the HTML, CSS, Responsive Design and Accessibility.
The skills required to be a 'Front End Developer' today are significant. If you want the job done correctly, especially when frameworks like React and Angular are involved, you need advanced knowledge across the different areas of Front End Development. I prefer to see this role split out as two - a UI Developer and a Javascript Developer. People in these separate roles can focus on being specialists rather than generalists.
So from a consultancy point of view, working with larger teams on complex applications, I am best as a UI Developer who works with designers to bring their designs to life as webpages using HTML and CSS (factoring in responsive design, accessibility and web performance). I then work with Javascript developers (who focus on the likes of React and Angular) to integrate their advanced Javascript functionality into the HTML code. There is an interesting article called The Great Divide to explain the issues with the role title 'Front End Developer' on CSS Tricks.
Connect with me on LinkedIn to see verified recommendations/testimonials from clients who have used me in a consultancy capacity.
Courses (Coming Soon)
Starting in late 2021, I will be sharing the knowledge gained in the last 15 years working on large commercial, public-facing websites. Apart from sharing long-form articles here, I will be creating online courses, starting with a course on web accessibility later this year. Other courses (based on the services I provide above) will follow.
I will also be open to holding workshops with businesses (who have existing development teams), more information on this soon.
People signed up to my newsletter will be the first to hear about my online courses and workshops. Sign up and get an exclusive discount offer on courses when they launch. You'll also get occasional emails with my most recent long-form articles. No spam and you are free to unsubscribe at any time.