I am Dan Strand, and I sign my work as The Web Architect.
For years I built websites for clients, mostly small businesses and people starting something of their own. I liked the work. What I did not like was what I kept finding: owners who did not control their own sites, sites that looked finished but were fragile underneath, sites that search engines and AI assistants could barely read, and sites nobody had updated in years.
I fixed those problems one client at a time until it stopped making sense, and then I started turning the fixes into tools. I tell that story in I Was Doing Fine Building Websites. So Why Did I Get Into This Mess?
What I make
The tools sit under one name, The Web Architecture:
- NoTiesBuilder, a site builder that delivers a standard WordPress site in the owner’s name.
- FreeYourWeb, for moving a site out of a platform, host or agency the owner wants to leave.
- Seventeen WordPress themes, each designed for one kind of site.
- A family of plugins, free on WordPress.org, with paid versions that carry the names of builders’ tools.
The four rules
Everything I make has to pass four rules: the site is the client’s, it is well built, it is ready for AI search, and it is kept current. They are also the four standards of Web Architect Certified, the free certification I set up for builders who work the same way.
This site
This is where I explain, in my own words, why each of those things exists and what I think about the problems behind them. I write about my own products, so I have an obvious interest in them. I say so whenever I mention one, and the editorial policy sets out how I write and check what I publish.
If you want to get in touch, the contact page has the details.