Profile: Paul Silver

Skills: ColdFusion, PHP, CSS/XHTML, Specification Writing, Search Engine Optimisation, Google Mini & Search Appliance

I have been freelancing since November 2003, writing code and specifications for a number of small and medium sized companies in Brighton, London and the Midlands. Prior to my freelance career I was a senior web developer for a Brighton based web company for two years, and before that a web developer for an international recruitment company and several smaller clients.

My main coding language is ColdFusion. I have six years experience writing ColdFusion, starting with v4.5 and going through to v8, both on Windows and Linux platforms with MS SQL Server and MySQL. Mainly I have been writing recruitment websites and content managements systems (CMS) which are search engine friendly.

I have done a lot of work with Google Search Appliances, first for p2b, helping implement a search engine for Brighton and Hove, and then for a local education project. There are more details about what I did for p2b in the featured sites section.

I also have a number of clients for search engine optimisation (SEO) - using various methods to make sure your website comes high up the list of results on search engines such as Google. I approach this from a technical perspective: first fixing the HTML and structure of the website, then working with a copywriter or the client's own staff to make any amendments needed to the text of the page, finally working on a linking strategy to ensure people and spiders can find the website in question. I have worked with fellow Farm members Nathan Pope, Nick Wilsdon, Paul Perrin and Simon Bloom on projects involving SEO.

Examples of my work

MySportstream is a photo sharing and blogging site themed around sport. I created the back-end using PHP & MySQL, allowing photo uploading, re-sizing, and rotating, blogging and various administrative functions such as checking on reported users and managing advertising. I also carried out the front-end build in XHTML & CSS, based on designs by Nigel Gordijk. It's hosted by fellow Farm member Nathan Pope.

Course Searcher I carried out the site build and implemented a Google Mini to power the searching of Brighton & Hove school websites and their courses. The site uses a Javascript 'behaviour layer' to make the Pathways search slick without excluding people who use older browsers or have Javascript turned off.

Fjord Interiors I created the shop area for this new soft furnishings company, including a shopping basket, admin area to change the inventory and integration with Secure Trading to take payments. Code is PHP with MySQL as the database.

ICP Search I built the site in XHTML/CSS from designs by Nigel Gordijk, and wrote the job vacancy engine, admin area to update the site and RSS feeds for job searches. Code is PHP with MySQL.

p2b search engine for Brighton and Hove I worked as part of the p2b team, writing ColdFusion, PHP and ASP code to turn XML results from a Google Search Appliance in to HTML results pages. I also created the p2b site in XHTML & CSS from provided designs. Featured Site

Constructing Understanding of the Homeless Population I wrote the Content Management System which runs the site (including file upload and search.)

Lawrecruiter is a law recruitment portal for which I wrote the job storage, search, reporting and sales intranet.

SpiderTest is a utility I have written to show people any problems their web pages might have from the perspective of a search engine spider. If you give it the address of a web page, it will tell you anything on that page that needs fixing to allow it to be spidered easily.