Metaswirl is hosted on a Slackware Linux server which runs Nginx web server. Let’s Encrypt provides a free TLS certificate for the domain, the whole server has been optimised to run fast and secure as possible. I put this website together by using the “Keep it simple, stupid!” principle.
Design
Cross-platform browser support is essential – I decided to use Bootstrap front-end web framework which has active development, and a large user base. I created a simple, tidy layout with minimal use of JavaScript and selected web fonts what read well on devices at various screen sizes. The logo was designed on Adobe Illustrator using a limited colour palette which is used throughout the website.
Speed
To make the website pages load as fast as possible, I chose Pelican, a static site generator written in Python. A static site generator can generally load pages faster than a CMS with a MySQL backend. HTML, CSS and JavaScript are minified using Grunt, all images have been optimised, scaled to the correct size, and linked locally so they load fast as possible. HTML and CSS is checked using W3C validation services to ensure a perfect error-free delivery.
Content
I will try and add a “interesting” blog post at least once per month, and make sure everything adheres to good SEO practises, spellchecked and easy to read. Most blog posts will have a minimum of 300 words and contain a introduction, body and conclusion. The photo category contains full size images what have a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, this aspect ratio is suitable for mobile devices which are viewed in landscape mode and widescreen displays. All EXIF metadata has been removed.
I am satisfied with what I was able to accomplish and will keep this website running on my server forever. Design, speed and content are important things to focus on if you ever decide to build a website, and always keep in mind the “Keep it simple, stupid!” principle!
