I Wrote About SEO, Then Audited My Own Site
An honest account of publishing an article about guarding fixes, then finding SEO bugs on my own site that had been live for months, and the checks I added so they stay fixed.
My name is Shaun Simpson, and I like to build things!
I'm a senior software engineer in Sydney, Australia, with over a decade of building software that makes people's lives and work easier. I care about the whole job: maintainable code, fast and accessible pages, and honest trade-offs when the perfect fix isn't on the table. Here I write about what I build, what I learn, and the decisions behind both.
Material Symbols Was 97% Dead Weight
A case study in fixing a real performance problem in an existing codebase: cutting an icon font by 97%, the compromises involved, and whether an icon font is still the right choice.
Embrace the Framework: Combine Collections and Pipelines for Reliable Supplier Imports
A practical supplier inventory import that uses Pipelines for processing and Collections for reconciliation, reporting, and action.
Embrace the Framework: Build an Order Processing Pipeline That Can Grow
A complete Laravel Pipeline example for validating, pricing, reserving, and persisting an order without creating an oversized service class.
Embrace the Framework: Make Eligibility Rules Read Like Business Policy
Use a custom Laravel Collection to turn scattered loyalty and promotion rules into clear, reusable business language.
Embrace the Framework: Build Clear Operational Reports With Collections
Use Laravel Collections to turn subscription and invoice data into a useful daily report without filling a controller with loops and temporary arrays.
Embrace the Framework: Break Order Processing Into Steps With Pipelines
Laravel Pipelines let complex workflows grow one focused, testable step at a time instead of one large service method.
Embrace the Framework: Put Subscription Business Rules in a Custom Collection
Custom Eloquent Collections give repeated business rules a clear home and let application code speak the language of the domain.
Embrace the Framework: Make Order Fulfilment Clearer With Collections
A practical look at using Laravel Collections to turn a confusing order fulfilment task into readable, testable code.
Embrace the Framework: Why Working With Laravel Beats Working Around It
Laravel gives us more than convenient helpers. This is an introduction to why leaning into its conventions and tools leads to clearer, more maintainable applications.
Work
- Company
- Otivo
- Role
- Senior Software Engineer
- Dates
- - Present
- Company
- Freelance Fullstack Developer
- Role
- Web & Software Developer
- Dates
- -
- Company
- Online Optimisation
- Role
- Senior Software Engineer
- Dates
- -
- Company
- Buroserv
- Role
- Senior Software Engineer
- Dates
- -
- Company
- Pounce Marketing
- Role
- Senior Full Stack Developer
- Dates
- -
- Company
- Online Optimisation
- Role
- Web Developer
- Dates
- -
- Company
- Studyladder
- Role
- Web Developer
- Dates
- -
- Company
- Netopia (prev. Digital Tradies)
- Role
- Web Developer
- Dates
- -