Coding high performance sites
I just updated my wife’s single-page site for her color consultancy business, Perfect Palette Design. Her site, which I hand-coded, encompasses everything I recommend:
- Semantic HTML without any code bloat.
- Image optimizations that not only change image sizes but also swap out images that look best on mobile and desktop screens.
- Schema.org markup that disambiguates all content on the page for bots.
- Minimal CSS that’s inline in the
<head>and only has what’s necessary for rendering the page. - No JavaScript, because modern HTML and CSS is all I need for a clean and clear brochure site.
The site has always performed well in organic search, and that’s without any links or paid promotion. All of her business has either come from people finding her site in search engines or from customer referrals.
This update added new images, updated copy, customer reviews, and new pricing. I decided to use Claude to analyze the new content against the Schema.org markup I had written, and to my surprise, it suggested many helpful additions and updates I hadn’t thought of, and helped me clean it up a bit.
While I remain wary of AI tools because of their impact on society and the environment, I’ve begun using Claude more regularly to optimize Schema.org markup, code JavaScript and WordPress functions, and create fast prototypes. Its ability to reduce tasks that used to take weeks to minutes, and to do certain technical tasks often better than I could, makes its use unavoidable for technical tasks.
Anyways, check out her site at perfectpalette.design, and make sure you view the source!