my portfolio

Since 2005 I've been concentrating on SEO. The nature of my work is that new clients tend to come to me when their website "isn't working right" and over the years I've seen many website disasters.

It's sad to say that many website designers and developers just don't "get" the fact that websites need to be intuitive, user-friendly and SEO ready. Over the years I have met a few and, depending on your needs, will be happy to point you in the right direction.

For commercial reasons, I do not list my SEO clients here. Some of them are in very competitive sectors and are happy to offer a testimonial for my potential clients.

SEO portfolio

I have worked or currently am working (mostly in English but sometimes also in Spanish, French, Russian, Italian, Danish and German) on websites in the following sectors:

• real estate
• property blogs
• short term apartment rentals
• hotels
• tourism/travel agencies
• golf
• city tours
• finance (credit cards)
• designer rugs
• office refitting
• publishing associations
• international law offices
• gifts
• dating services
• internet law
• data security
• home appliances and white goods
• massage centres
• audio and lighting installations
• Spanish schools
• English schools
• TEFL
• document processing (birth, wedding and death certificates)
• experience companies
• celebrity speakers
• destination management companies
• construction companies
• babies supplies
• toys

I am interested in learning about new sectors so don't feel that this is an exclusive list.

As a specialist in white hat SEO I do not practice black hat SEO, so that pretty much rules out websites dealing with porn, drugs and casinos.

Website design portfolio

Each project is different and designed according to factors such as target audience, purpose of web, company image, client's wishes and budget, product, best technology, etc.

To give you an idea of my website design and development capabilities, here are some examples of my work that reflect different objectives, styles, technologies, budgets and corporate images.

In terms of design work, here are some (mostly pretty old) examples of the work I have done:

The Costa Dorada Golf website offers golf holidays and vacations in Spain's Costa Dorada (Daurada). A minisite for the barcelonagolf.com (corporate) website devoted to golf packages for the public.
The Barcelona Mile High Club site demonstrates how an upmarket feel can be achieved without resorting to complicated programming. Fast, intuitive and optimised for the major search engines.
Offers the opportunity to learn English as a Second Language (ESL) via discussion and participation in sessions on art, music, literature, etc. with professionals from these fields, in English. The English Cultural Programme offers a unique way to practice and learn English in real situations. A fast, intuitive site, XHTML 1.0 compliant, built using using CSS. Or in plain English, built using technologies that will become more and more important for browsers and search engines.
The lifestylebarcelona.com site offers special occasions gifts in Barcelona and has been built using CSS and is XHTML compliant, techspeak for 'will work well now and into the future'. It is also built for fast loading, fast and intuitive browsing, and the contents can be easily read and archived by the major search engines. It was also a lot of fun to build. They specialise in corporate events in Barcelona like team building, staff incentives, loyalty bonuses, etc.
The site of barcelonagolf.com is about golf vacations in Barcelona and Catalonia. It was nicely put together but did not rate in Google and some of the other major search engines due to issues that were not thought of when the site was created. My brief was to optimise the site for the search engines, specifically Google, and get results in the SERPs. Result was #1 within a week. Includes a guide to Golf courses on the Costa Brava.
This was a beautifully designed flash site that, like most flash sites, was not producing any results! The owner commissioned me to 'make it work', and after some convincing decided to convert it from flash to search-engine friendly HTML, a format that is ideal for search engines and easy to use for visitors too. I used existing photos, logos and text and managed to maintain the look and feel of the old site. In Spanish and French, uses disjointed rollovers and CSS.
The old barcelona flats website is designed to target potential visitors looking for vacation rental and self catering holidays in Barcelona. The travel sector is well developed on the www because it lends itself so well for people looking for information, at a distance, on their future holiday destination. It is very competitive sector, and can be very profitable, if done well. Previously created in flash, now in search-engine friendly HTML!
The TEFL Europe site is designed to target American English teachers looking for validated TESOL teacher training courses to give them a formal qulaification and help them find English teaching jobs all over the world. Designed to rate very well with the search engines for specific keywords, for fast download and intuitive navigation.
The John Taylor property site is a bilingual site offering luxury houses and flats in Barcelona and the Costa Brava to clients throughout Europe. Optimised for search engines, this site is easily updateable. Will look good and perform well on all browsers. Lots of high quality photographs have been optimised to reduce file size and minimise page download times. In English, Spanish, French and now Russian.
eViews site is about English listening exercises and offers a potentially complicated combination of audio and text material, in the simplest manner possible. With simple instructions that can be interpreted by non-native English speakers. Serves up audio in MP3 format, with prepared texts, has back-end databases for subscribers and previous material, and a secure page for online subscription. My very first website, started in 1999 and still going...
The Windsor site is the result of a major makeover for a Barcelona-based language school. The client has 3 main revenue streams to their business, including TEFL/TESOL teacher training in Barcelona, Madrid, Prague, Windsor, Lisbon, Oxford and London, and wanted to offer their teacher training service to the American market. They also wanted to follow the look and feel of their hard-copy brochure. I adapted existing designs to produce an intuitive, bilingual site, (English & Spanish), optimised for speed and search engine indexing, along with an efficient application process. Revamped 01/2005.
The Voices site is about a TV documentary on the Spanish Civil War for a London-based client. The site serves to reach TV programming managers. It is designed using period photos and emblems from the 1930s, yet with a high impact look to help convey an exciting, contemporary story. Designed for scalability and easy maintenance.
The Cedar site offers a straightforward navigation system in answer to the challenge of a trilingual website in English, Spanish and Catalan. This site is very fast, and displays well for all browser/screen configurations. It shows how with planning, imagination and a common sense approach, that a professional and fully functional website can be built economically and simply. The owner does Catalan to English and Spanish to English translations.
Referrals... the best advertising in the world! One client was so happy with the results from my work that soon after their sister school Windsor TEFL (UK) commissions me too. This is a case of a UK-based business offering TEFL/TESOL teacher training courses that had already created a website with zero results, but were convinced that the Internet could work for them. Made with a logical information architecture that 'anticipates' the information a visitor will want, but also allows them to *jump about*. This site brings in business.
The Second House site reaches international clients that cannot be reached effectively by traditional newspaper advertising, providing an additional stream of customers. A very fast site that brings in good quality leads. Built in PHP to serve up three languages (Spanish, Catalan and English) and help keep upkeep to a minimum.
The site is for a major London English school for people who want to learn English in Oxford, Windsor or London and is a fun site designed for a young target client who is also a non-native English speaker. Fast, very easy to follow and understand, and allows visitors to complete the application and English level testing process online. Optimised throughout for the major search engines.
This site if for people looking for corporate language training in English and foreign languages and is search engine friendly, designed to pinpoint our target client, lead them through our information process, and take them to our 'call to action'.
These days I concentrate on SEO and website consulting. I work with a range of very good website designers and programmers who I will be happy to recommend, according to your specific needs.
What I can offer you....