Web Design Portfolio | Mat Tyler Multimedia / Design

Here is a list of various websites I have created over the past couple of years which exemplify a good balance of visual creativity, with relevant and accessible information. They range from highly visual and interactive flash based websites, to simple navigation based HTML sites, and content management systems (CMS – which enables you to make edits to some of the web content yourself). Depending on the needs of the client I can either utilise a library of 3rd party templates at my disposal, and customise their content to be relevant to each client, or can create the base structure from scratch. Either way, the sites feature rich multimedia and video content, user input forms, dynamic content management, social networking integration, and more.

Search Engine Optimisation (“SEO”)

“SEO” traditionally refers to the process where a website’s content is structured to ensure Search Engines (like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) access the correct and most relevant information related to your site, thus increasing the chances of ranking higher in search results. SEO can also be used to map your site to the search engine, thus making your result much more comprehensive.

But, let me clear up one thing first: SEO is a broad and often misguided term. I personally don’t believe SEO should be considered an individual service or even an industry. Why you ask? Because any good web developer should always be adhering to better web standards which already encompass all things that SEO bring to the table. When developing a website, I focus a lot of my attention on optimising it not only for browsers and multiple display platforms, but for search engines and an overall greater social networking presence. This, in turn, heightens the experience for the user. This is all part of the service I offer when I develop a website, and the coding practices I employ already cater for this on an ongoing basis. The fact that SEO can be considered an industry on it’s own it’s like saying that SEOs are Mechanics, but only ever tune the car stereo. Websites should not exist without SEO, and SEO should not exist without websites, period.

Most importantly, and I’d like everybody considering “SEO” to think about this first and foremost: the responsibility of maintaining a popular website lies with you, not me! I can give you a good head start and get you up there pretty quickly, but if you want to stay on top of the game you have to be willing to improve yourself, and not just expect the world to come to you! I like this quote from web developer Sam Brown:

“too many people spend too much time trying to get Number #1 rank on Google instead of focusing on improving themselves, their sites and their products”.