Web Perfectionist: What I Do

Basically, I do a lot of things related to building websites. They include, but are not limited to, graphic design, HTML/CSS web page design, SEO, copywriting and various forms of consultancy. I have also looked into accessibility (this site is 100% WAI-AA compliant) and programming (this site is built upon a PHP-powered framework developed by my colleagues but significantly improved by me to meet my needs).

At my current job, I've had to work a lot with Drupal, an advanced PHP-powered content management system developed by a large team of volunteers. Drupal and I didn't get on well at first, but now it's my CMS of choice. Exploring it and discovering its advanced features and hidden abilities is a real joy.

Graphic design

I'm relatively new to this web discipline, but this site is designed by me using Paint.NET - a free but powerful graphic processor created by a team of volunteer developers as a substitute for extremely powerful but expensive tools like Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia Fireworks. I find Paint.NET intuitive and easy to use and can recommend it to every beginner as the first step to more professional graphic packages.

Paint.NET is available for free download at GetPaint.Net |

At the same time with practising designing nice-looking layouts in Paint.NET I'm learning to use Adobe Photoshop and might switch to it one day.

HTML/CSS

These are technologies that help you turn the graphic image of your future web page into your actual web page. There are different ways of coding web pages; mine always conform to the latest standards. Fellow web designers will understand the following semi-geeky statement: I never use HTML tables to control web page layouts. Why? Because using tables for this purpose is an obsolete technique that produces semantically incorrect web page markup and poor accessibility, apart from other drawbacks. Real web perfectionists never do it. I'll explain it in depth in my future articles: watch this space.

For now, suffice to say that my layouts are purely CSS-driven, and the code is always valid.

Search Engine Optimization

It so happens that I've been doing SEO since 2003 something. Search Engine Optimization in itself involves many things, and I've tried my hand at them all, from search engine friendly copywriting to directory submission and from keyword research to technical reviews. What I have never, ever done is playing with unethical techniques aimed at deceiving the search engines in any way, shape or form (which is also known as search engine spam). I strongly believe in ethical, honest SEO that complies with the search engine guidelines and respects the rights of searchers and competitors.

These days, I prefer search engine friendly website creation to SEO work as such. I've grown tired of chasing Google rankings, and refuse to do it now. Another thing I no longer do is all forms of the so-called "link building". I say let the Internet build itself organically.

I still happily accept work related to keyword research, SEO copywriting and reviews.

This site is very friendly to search engines as far as structure, architecture and navigation are concerned; it also has all the necessary meta information. But all the content is written from the heart; I've forced myself to forget about keyword density and only included my keywords where they fitted naturally. And that's how it will remain.

Some say that's how SEO should be done.

I owe a lot to SEO Best Practices Search Engine Forums |, and I would like to thank the Administrator, Doug Heil, and the whole community of the forums for all the knowledge I have acquired there, for helping me keep my beliefs strong and for all the friendship I have found in that wonderful online place.

Copywriting

Copywriting (writing textual content for websites) goes hand in hand with SEO, so I've had a lot of opportunities to try my hand at it. Since I usually optimize English-language sites, I usually copywrite in English.

I've learned most of the differences between British English and USA English and can use either standard for my copywriting; with the help of a good spell-checker I could manage any other local version of English easily.

Needless to say, I can write in my native language - Russian - just as well.

When I write copy optimized for the search engines or edit existing content to saturate it with keywords, I usually also take care of the title tags and other SEO-related meta information.

Drupal Configuring

Drupal is an advanced content management system developed by a team of volunteers - you can read more about it at Drupal.Org |. Like any advanced, feature-rich software it can be confusing at first. If you would like to have a Drupal-powered website, but can't find your way through the Administration interface, we can talk.

I have worked with Drupal. I can take care of your initial settings, blocks and menus. I can upload and install additional modules and make them work. I'll show you how to upload your content and make your URLs clean and search engine friendly.

Another task would be to customize the visual design of the site, because you can't let your site look like one of Drupal's standard themes, can you? For this purpose I usually upload Zen Classic - one of the additional Drupal themes, not included with the default installation, but still very popular. It's table-free, which suits web perfectionists, and very easy to customize by means of overriding CSS classes and just slightly modifying the template. Your site will look just as you wish it to look by the time I'm done with it.

Accessibility

The art of making websites accessible to people with disabilities is yet another important part of web building. Real web perfectionists will do it. We respect all our visitors, trying to make sure everyone will be able to use and enjoy our websites.

I was taught basics of accessibility by my good friend Deborah K. Gell (Deb) who is even more of a web perfectionist than I am. Deb owns WebSavvy |, an accessible web directory, to the team of which I proudly belong. Together, we are currently discussing the feasibility of launching into accessibility consultancy as business partners. Watch this space.

Translation English to Russian and vice versa

If this is what you need, I can help you too. Translation is something only natural to do if you are bilingual; I have done it many times in my life for a living and of course I can do it again.

Last modified: 01.04.2010