Website Review and Suggestions

**nickharper** · 09-18-2007, 03:27 PM

Hello,

I have just finished the basic outlines of my new design at http://www.smarterwebdesign.co.uk.

I have done it all in CSS, HTML and most of the text is database driven for ease of updating and updating remotely without access to FTP etc.

There is a template changer which means you can change the colours of the site and the header image but really is only a bit of fun to have a bit of interaction on site and a bit of a "novelty".

There are still a few bugs with spacing, positioning and of course there is not much content at the minute but eventually I will get more work and design more logos to fill the site up and to show what I can do.

Please feel free to point out any things you think could be improved.

Thanks

Nick

**Monkey Do** · 09-18-2007, 04:39 PM

The template changer is a nice touch, I like the use of the common styling across the 3 header images. On the yellow and green themes though the colour of the header and link fonts doesn't quite stand out enough imo.

The layout is nice and clean although perhaps it looks a little too wordpress-y to stand out as a site offering a creative service like web design. This can depend a bit on your target market though - if your site looks too Gucci then prospective clients can assume that you will be priced out of their budget.

**nickharper** · 09-18-2007, 05:10 PM

Thanks for your feedback and I will definately look into the link colourings but they are obviously a bit bad because the yellow is meant to be orange ha!

I see what you mean about it being "Wordpressy".

A lot of people I will be dealing with are small businesses, friends etc and it is mainly a place to keep all of my work and the main advertising will be word of mouth and my site as a reference and I think this sort of style is clean and tidy and hopefully attractive.

**Monkey Do** · 09-18-2007, 05:30 PM

You're right it is orange I must be having a colour blind spell.

I guessed you might be targetting the small business sector, hence my comment about not wanting to be too Gucci for your target market - I think you've pitched it about right for your market.

As a suggestion if you offer some sort of web-based content updating for your clients you might want to include a page demonstrating that they can update content themselves without needing any web design skills - small businesses may have concerns about ongoing maintenance costs associated with changes to their services/pricing etc. so if you can demonstrate that they can make these changes themselves it may help to sell your services.

**nickharper** · 09-19-2007, 09:55 AM

That's a great idea.

Now that the main site is 99% done I will be looking at things to add that are more interactive rather than just words on a screen so people can see how simple it will be for them to update their own website with it still looking good

I am in the process of advertising locally also so hopefully this should help me generate some more work.

**100mbwebhosting** · 09-19-2007, 10:00 AM

you website looks very promising

**coolkbk585** · 09-19-2007, 07:28 PM

Very good design, Nick.

As said above, I aggree that is has that WordPress look to it. When I opened it I thought at first that it WAS a blog site.

:P

**sorakid** · 09-20-2007, 03:48 AM

Very good design,I can learn something from you!

**switchtube** · 09-20-2007, 04:33 AM

The layout is nice and clean although it looks like a wordpress theme

**HighVoltage123** · 09-20-2007, 07:10 AM

I think I already commented that page somewhere

**ashish** · 09-22-2007, 05:13 AM

it looks like a blog site... nice design and flow of information though..

**joder** · 09-22-2007, 11:51 AM

I like the design. You might want to read up more on PHP sessions. I'm pretty sure you don't want the PHP session id in the URL.

**Dknight** · 09-22-2007, 12:31 PM

Simple and beautiful!
Good job!

**collegec** · 09-22-2007, 01:51 PM

the green isn't working for me.

**freelancevote** · 09-22-2007, 10:40 PM

As far as your business model goes, I think you should offer a "complete package" at a set price instead of telling your clients to contact you for a quote. The web design market is extremely competitive so you should offer a competitive deal.

**Chromatic** · 09-22-2007, 11:09 PM

We build websites for a living. I can tell you with 100% honesty that your website is a cut above most of the other websites on this board (and better than most websites on the web in general).

Such a nice, clean design. Fantastic Web 2.0 usage. I think that the template selection might be unnecessary for a web design company's website; however, it is still a nice touch.

I think you should go back and clean up the wording in some of your text. It doesn't sound very professional.

Other than that, you've got a fantastic website and I wish you the best of luck.

**maxxximus** · 11:27 AM

Great looking site apart from the template option - think it could cause problems.

As someone has already mentioned there is a problem with your Session IDs appearing in your URLs. If someone has cookies disabled ie most Bots and the HTML validator then the sessions will be passed via the URL. This will hurt you in the SERPS when Google visits. The site doesn't always validate. Read up a bit more on Session IDs.

If it was me i'd drop the template option as it looks great in default style.