Website Review and Suggestions

**EricReese** · 06-17-2009, 08:33 PM

Just looking for some critiques on a site I made. URL is this. Articles aren't done as I have not wrote the content for the articles yet

I am waiting for my new domain and then I can add content regularly, every few days, so it is beneficial for SEO so i don't have a bunch of articles all at once. (It would seem suspicious to the search engines.)

Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

Cheers

**victoriaphee** · 06-17-2009, 11:24 PM

I'm sorry but it looks like a blog template to me. You should give your best for your portfolio

**konetch** · 09:19 PM

Yeah, me too. The first thing I thought when I looked at it was that it was a blog. I would try adding a logo that said your name or your site name on it. I would recommend adding a 'Valid HTML and CSS' link to the bottom of the page. It makes it a lot easier for buyers to check. Found a spelling error > Services page under web development make standarts to standards

Also make sure your css is valid, too

http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/v...ning=1&lang=en

Other than that though it looks okay. Make sure you gave your portfolio everything you got. Good luck. One question though, how did you graduate from harford community college when you're only 17?

Alex

**totallyace** · 10:00 AM

yeah i m also feeling that it is a blog type.so you need to change to look like portfolio.and you can contact at <link drop removed> to get job as a web designers.

**EricReese** · 06-19-2009, 09:41 AM

Besides the vendor extensions I use to create the rounded corners, it is valid. Well it's definately not a template but if all you guys are getting that feeling, I shall mock up a new design in Fireworks and present it here

Thank you for the spelling mistake. I shall fix it when I can.

**Destinyx3** · 06-19-2009, 09:51 AM

I would scrap this design if I were you. The colored pencils get cut off, which looks really bad to be honest and the gradient cuts off as well at the bottom. Minor design faults do reflect on your design work.

Also, I would change your body links to something other than the default. Add to your CSS:

Code:

a:link { color: (Whatever color here); text-decoration: none; }
a:visited { color: (same color from a:link); text-decoration: none; }
a:active { color: (same color from a:link); text-decoration: none; }
a:hover { color: (different color from a:link); text-decoration: underline; }

Change the colors to blend in with your site. The default blue and purple links are unattractive.

Lastly, the resume section needs to be more appealing. It is not necessarily needed by clients, but if you decide to include it, spice it up.

Overall, it isn't bad. It is very unique and very descriptive of your services, which is good. Fixing some minor design faults and spell check go a long way. Good luck (:

**LadynRed** · 06-19-2009, 10:04 AM

Quote:

I would change your body links

You should NOT be removing the underline from links! It is BAD for ACCESSIBILITY and Usability. Just leave them alone. People understand that underlined text on a web page means "LINK", and if you rely on color only to denote a link, then you are creating problems for people with visual impairments such as color blindness.

**EricReese** · 06-19-2009, 10:09 AM

Not only that. Users have (because of Google) become accomodated to a blue link with underline, and for visited, a nice purple. Who am I to change that when my design is already based off blue mostly? I am going to scrap this design actually.

The resume is...sort of incomplete because I do not know what a real web design resume should look like. Although now that I think about it, I should just Google it

Quote:

how did you graduate from harford community college when you're only 17?

I haven't..where did you read that in my page. Is that another error I am going to have to fix?

**Destinyx3** · 06-19-2009, 10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EricReese

Not only that. Users have (because of Google) become accomodated to a blue link with underline, and for visited, a nice purple. Who am I to change that when my design is already based off blue mostly? I am going to scrap this design actually.

Yes, we have all been accommodated to default visited and blue link, but that doesn't mean people can't be annoyed by it. At the least, change the purple active link to some other color, you do not have any purple on your portfolio.

**EricReese** · 06-19-2009, 10:55 AM

Ok, well give me some time to make a design. I am working on it now.

**konetch** · 11:05 AM

Oh okay I'm sorry. It didn't say you graduated it said you went to Harford. I really don't think a lot of it is bad, It has a fine color scheme just you really NEED to change the layout, which you;'re doing right now so that's great. Excited to see what it will look like. Good luck

Alex

**EricReese** · 06-19-2009, 02:20 PM

Lol it's ok. We all make mistakes. Took me 4 hours to make this design. Reason it took so long is because this is only the third design I have ever made in Fireworks, so I think it's pretty dang good.

Don't mind the content of the page, it was originally designed for a contest but apparently I only got a 2/5

So I decided I would see what you guys thought of me using this as my design

URL for this image is http://www.devwebsites.com/temp/layout3.png

**konetch** · 06-19-2009, 03:09 PM

It's fine just you're going to need to add a lot more images, plus it still doesn't seem like a portfolio template. Take a look at these links and base your portfolio off of them.

http://www.visualscope.com/index.html

http://www.entheosweb.com/default.asp

http://www.branded07.com/

Just search in google web design portfolio and you'll find hundreds of examples to help you out. Good luck

**EricReese** · 06-19-2009, 03:30 PM

Okk thanks for the input! I will edit the image and post back when I am done. I really appreciate this feedback so far guys.

**delvec** · 06-20-2009, 03:09 AM

Alrighty- content-wise, there's a lot of words but you're not saying much. There's a lot of I can do this and do that but there's nothing to show that you even done this....or that. Also, I don't see the point of the Articles. Its nice to let people know that you know the stuff but your site is making the sales pitch to use your services, the last thing you wanna do is give people a reason to not use you. Sure, you don't layout Website Building 101 for them but it doesn't make sense to have it there.

OK- the Resume.....
The layout of the Headings are a bit confusing. Directly under Experience, should be Web Designer not the company, which I assume is yours. Then it should state Freelance Web Designer. The url is unnecessary because you are already at that site. 3 of the 5 bullet points basically state the same thing- you built websites. You should continue in order like your started with the first bullet. Then describe WHAT you used to develop those sites. The last one is not a job description but you should incorporate the buzzwords HTML, CSS & Java into the others. You should also be specific with what clients you had.

Education- I would totally get rid of "I self taught myself everything I know." Thats not education. And actually, its not the truth. You went to school so you didn't self teach yourself EVERYTHING. I would still list HCC but I would also list when you went and what you studied EVEN if it has nothing to do with WebDesign. You also, should put your High School Education. It IS commendable that you learned this on your own..... perhaps you should incorporate this in your Objective.

Technical Skills- That should be a main Heading. This is what you know doesn't matter where ya learned it.

If you are going to present a resume online- get an active portfolio on the web. Again, people wanna see what youve done and can do. Build a variety of sites to showoff your skills, even if they aren't legit.

With the way the economy is- its a competitive market out there. You need to stand out and show why someone should take a chance with you.

**logic** · 06-23-2009, 01:28 PM

Hello your site is great.

Actually it, the site shares what you do and what you are offering right away in the top left corner the eye follows that space. That is important to us anyways.

You share you are knowledgable in web site design and CSS.

Here is what we did you share our services and products because it was easier then trying to put them all on a single linbe card. All Things Viper though I will be the first to admit we do not update the progress of our project and products often enough.

Best of efforts to you and thank you for sharing with us.

**grdbum** · 06-24-2009, 04:32 AM

Here is my critique of your website.

I like your website.

Starting at the top of the home page, your title needs KEYWORDS, not words like HOME. Put as many keywords that you can within about 70 characters, spaces, and commas as you possibly can. Use words that describe what the paricular page is about, such as website design, web page creation, SEO, logo design, etc. Leave out etc. from your title.

I recommend removing the first sentence of text on the left side of your home page bacause the first 50 to 100 words and the last 50 to 100 words are the most important to the search engines. The first sentence is meaninless for high search engine rankings.

I would like to see your left hand navigation moved up above the fold. Meaning you don't have to scroll to see the navigation.

You should use the alt tag for all of your images. You didn't use it for the pencils. I like the pencils.

I would recommend removing your own website from you portfolio and create about 3 mock one page websites so that you have a portfolio to show your potential clients. Contact me and I can provide images for you to use to create your portfolio and give you some ideas of webpages that you can crate with my images.

I would also place your mock up portfolio lower down on your home page because of the reason that I stated earlier about the first 50 to 100 words being very important to the search engines.

You need a better H1 heading. Your heading should state your USP (unique selling propositiion). In other words, state your most IMPORTANT BENEFIT that a person will receive by doing business with you. Don't state a feature, it isn't the same thing as a benefit. Features, are color, size, etc. Benfits save people time, money, etc.

Be sure to include KEYWORDS in your H1 heading.

I like the idea of having articles on your website. I have created 3 websites for myself and all 3 websites provide plenty of USEFUL INFORMATION. That is a great way to attract visitors to your website.

Under Web Design Services on your Services page, first paragraph, I recommend changing-- ... for every client and place the emphasis on a uniqueness of every project ... Change the a that you see in BOLD above to the. The sentence should read ... for every client and place the emphasis on the uniqueness of every project ...

There are some other sentences on the same page that need revising in a similar manner as the one shown above.

I would change Scroll To The Top to something like- Top of Page.

That is about it for my critique. Nice job overall.

**EricReese** · 06-24-2009, 09:12 AM

Thanks for the SEO critique. I'll make sure to incorporate that into the new code and design.

**grdbum** · 06-24-2009, 12:09 PM

Hi Eric,

You are welcome.

I would like to see your website redesigned in XHTML rather than using HTML. I would also like to see it built without using TABLES.

I hope that you will include a photo of yourself on your website. Maybe a photo of you sitting at your computer with your own website on the monitor.

I would recommend that you create a couple of logo examples in order to give the potential clients a good idea of your work.

**EricReese** · 06-24-2009, 12:16 PM

Well first of all, I see no point in using XHTML. The whole point of it was for XML. Since I do not know XML, or plan to incorporate into my site I see no need. HTML 4.01 is perfectly fine with me . Besides, XHTML doctype with a media type of text/html isn't true XHTML. That's just using the doctype.

Did you bother looking at my code? I don't use tables. I am a strong standards advocate. I only plan on using tables if what I have to display is, by nature, tabular data.

I will try to include a photo of myself. It does help clients build trust with me..

Cheers