---
title: "How this site is made | Ian Anderson Gray"
url: https://new2.iag.me/how-this-site-is-made/
description: "The tools and choices behind iag.me: plain, fast pages, no tracking, built to work for everyone and for search engines and AI tools."
author: Ian Anderson Gray
---
# How this site is made

**Draft for Ian to check (28 October 2026).** Written from his existing pages and notes. Still to confirm:

- Where the finished site will be hosted (the test copies run on Cloudflare and on Clook)
- Whether to mention that AI helped write the code

I've built websites for many years, and for this one I wanted to go back to basics: plain, fast pages that work for everyone. If you're curious how it works, here's the tour.

## Plain HTML, no WordPress

Every page is plain HTML, made in advance. There's no WordPress, no page builder and no database waiting to be asked. A small Python program takes the articles and podcast episodes and turns them into finished pages, using Jinja templates. That's why pages load almost instantly.

## Built with help from AI

I designed the site and made the decisions; the code was written with an AI coding assistant, Claude Code, with me checking every step. It's a good example of what I teach: AI doing the heavy lifting, a person in charge.

## Fast and light

- Images are in modern formats, AVIF and WebP, at the right size for your screen.
- Fonts are stored on this site rather than fetched from elsewhere.
- Pages work with JavaScript switched off; the scripts only add extras.

## No tracking

There are no advertising trackers and no tracking cookies unless you agree. Videos and podcast episodes load from YouTube and Captivate only when you press play. More in the [privacy page](https://new2.iag.me/privacy/).

## Built for everyone

Every page is checked with a keyboard alone, at phone width, in light and dark mode, and with automatic accessibility tests. There's an accessibility menu on every page. More in the [accessibility statement](https://new2.iag.me/accessibility/).

## Helping people find it

This is what's usually called search engine optimisation (SEO), but really it's about being clear:

- Every page has a plain title and description, and describes itself to search engines in structured data, a standard format they read.
- Every page also has a plain-text copy for AI tools, and the site offers a summary for them at [llms.txt](https://new2.iag.me/llms.txt).
- AI tools and search engines are welcome to read the site, so they describe my work accurately.
- Old versions of articles are hidden from search results, so people find the current one.

## Search

The search box uses Pagefind, which runs inside your browser, so your searches stay on your device.