Examples of my work

In this section you can find links to stuff that I've done for my employers, and stuff that I've done at home to keep my skills up-to-date.

Writing content

I specialize in writing content for the web, where you must write for your users, and for search engines. I aim to write concise, scannable content, making intelligent use of the most popular phrases from search logs.

I use one word instead of five, and I convert jargon into plain English. Most of the time, I'll ditch the marketese too, as I find that most users either ignore it or get annoyed by it.

Every web page I create has a clear aim, and I structure my content carefully so that it achieves that aim. I place my words and my headings carefully, so that my website visitors get both the information that they came for, and the information that I want to give to them.

With, all this in mind, I can write about any topic, for any audience, in any style.

Here's a few recent examples of my work at Lewisham Council:

Check out my blog - Tall Tales for my more, well, 'freestyle' writing.

Search engine optimisation

For me, search engine optimisation is all about how you use words on your website.

Sure, I can improve your website's Google ranking, or the way that your own search engine works, with technical tweaks and fixes. But, the real secret is to build every page of your website with intelligent use of words in your content and in your metadata.

Fine-tuning search engines and web content

At Lewisham, we use Mondosoft's Mondosearch engine. We look carefully at the words that our customers use when they search our website, and we use those exact words on our website. Using your customer's language, and not your company's corporate terms, is key to helping your users find the information they want.

I go to great pains to ensure that people find what they are looking for - and this means making constant adjustments to the way our search engine works.

Improving page ranks with major search engines

I have a whole range of tricks that will improve your site's ranking, including using search engine provider tools, such as Google webmaster tools.

I've carried out my own research on optimising websites for the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Ask.

It's an area that I continue to pay close attention to. Earlier this year, I prepared a report for a jeweller with an online shop (lovediamonds.co.uk) in order to improve its Google page ranking.

I've put my research into practice with this site, and with Lewisham Council's website. Google me and you'll see the results. (Hint: I'm the web developer, not the Country and Western singer).

Information architecture

There's are various views about what information architecture is, but I'll go with this one from Wikipedia:

"The art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability."

At Lambeth Council, I worked with consultants from Fortune Cookie to create the architecture of the whole website, during the re-design of the site in 2003-04.

At Lewisham, I've introduced structures which are simple and usable in the areas of the site that I manage. I believe in using strong categories that offer users clear choices as they navigate through a website.

Being a Psychology and IT graduate, I'm very interested in the human-computer interaction elements of web design. I keep a constant eye on the research (Nielsen, Reiss, Tufte and others) and use this to inform my practice.

Of course, this goes hand-in-hand with good content that is built for people, and for search engines.