Blog
Articles about web development, design, performance, and related topics. Subscribe via RSS to keep up with new articles, or browse by topic.
- What a canonical URL tells search engines
A canonical URL tells search engines which version of a page you prefer when the same or very similar content has several URLs.
- How serverless functions work
Serverless functions run code in response to events while a provider handles servers, scaling, and much of the deployment infrastructure.
- Finding and fixing redirect chains
Find and shorten redirect chains so browsers and crawlers reach the final URL with fewer requests and less room for failure.
- What Makes Code Maintainable?
Maintainable code makes its purpose clear, limits dependencies, protects behaviour with tests, and stays easy to change.
- Git habits that keep a project understandable
Practical Git habits for clear commits, focused branches, useful reviews, and a history people can understand.
- Web accessibility starts with the basics
A practical introduction to accessible content, semantic HTML, keyboard use, contrast, media, and testing.
- Writing an article with ChatGPT
Use ChatGPT for outlines and rough drafts without handing over fact-checking, judgment, or your own voice.
- Use your Netlify domain as a Mastodon username alias
Make a Netlify-hosted domain resolve to an existing Mastodon account through WebFinger.
- CSS Grid or Flexbox? Choose by layout direction
A practical way to choose between CSS Grid and Flexbox based on the layout you are building.
- The non-technical skills that make developers better
Communication, judgment, collaboration, and other skills that make technical work more effective.
- Pull website data into Google Sheets with IMPORTXML
Pull public structured data into Google Sheets with IMPORTXML and a focused XPath query.
- Embedding audio with Hugo shortcodes
Create a small Hugo shortcode for reusable audio players with an optional caption and preload setting.
- Enable raw HTML in Hugo
Enable raw HTML in Hugo's Goldmark renderer, and understand the trade-off before switching it on.
- Why Linux is a strong choice for programming
Why Linux is a strong development environment—and the practical cases where another operating system may fit better.
- Technical SEO for beginners
A practical first pass through crawling, indexing, site structure, performance, mobile use, and structured data.
- Hugo shortcode for raw HTML
Render selected blocks of raw HTML in Hugo content with a small custom shortcode.
- Show related content in Hugo
Use Hugo's built-in related content feature to show a short list of relevant pages after a post.
- Set up Tailwind CSS in Hugo
Set up Tailwind CSS in a Hugo project with the Tailwind CLI or a PostCSS build step.
- What makes a good laptop for web development?
Choose a web development laptop by workload, memory, screen, keyboard, ports, and operating system—not a model name.
- Practical ways to improve search visibility
Improve search visibility by matching intent, publishing useful content, and keeping the site easy to crawl and use.