Website Review and Suggestions

**TFG Trading Co.** · 08-02-2009, 10:47 PM

Hello everyone, This is my first site ever made and just learned as I went. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks

www.TFGTradingCo.com

**TWD** · 08-02-2009, 11:47 PM

For your first site its a pretty good job

A few suggestions for you.

The TFG Trading Co image looks a bit rough because you
created it in GIF format. Always use PNG24 for smooth edges.

The graphic at the top of the page is nice but it doesnt really
"nail" the whole concept of what your site is about. I had to
read a bit to figure out what you are selling.
A good site should only take 2 seconds for visitors to do that.

You should scale the images in your graphics editor.
Not in HTML. That will give better load times and the images
wont look distorted.

The rollover effect on the main nav menu lacks contrast.
I cant read it when I mouse over.

Did you buy a template to get started on this?
Some of the underlying code looks a bit strange.
A lot of html errors, even for a first website.

W3C Validation
Result: 356 Errors, 10 warning(s)

**TFG Trading Co.** · 08-03-2009, 12:09 AM

Thanks TWD- Good to know about the png24 format on images, I was wondering why it looked rough like that. I dont know where to start with the code errors, how do I clean that up, and is this something I could do ?

When you said scale your images in graphics editer, do you mean the one on the web site creator ?

**TWD** · 08-03-2009, 03:10 AM

If you purchased a template I would ask the template provider for some explanation about why there are so many validation errors.
You can run your site through a validation program like this one
http://validator.w3.org/
that will tell you what code looks dodgy.
If your site is working now you might not need to worry about it too much
but in the future as browser versions are updated, old HTML tags are deprecated and some CSS attributes no longer supported, you might find that your website starts to behave in unpredicatable ways. Thats why its good
to future proof your site by following web standards.

About the images, I mean you should open up your copy of PhotoShop or PSP or The GIMP or whatever you are using and make the images the correct pixel size. Dont rely on HTML to resize them for you.

**TFG Trading Co.** · 08-04-2009, 09:22 PM

Just wanted to give this a bump, I fixed a few things

**TylerW** · 08-04-2009, 09:43 PM

I also think that for your 1st site, it is pretty darn good. I would have to agree with the previous advise about a couple things.
1)I like the Logo, but smooth it out. I also cannot tell very easily what services this site is offering...Make it big and obvious..
2) I am not a fan of the big white border below your logo, I would find a way to smooth that transition out.
3)All pictures need to be the right pixel size

good luck!

**TWD** · 08-04-2009, 10:25 PM

Looking better.
You need to kill the drop shadow on the Logo.
It just makes the graphic look "busy".

And fix the image sizing and the rollover menu contrast.
That will get you about 50% of the way to where you need to be.

**TFG Trading Co.** · 08-06-2009, 10:49 AM

How do you know if your images are the right pixel size ?

**TWD** · 08-06-2009, 10:59 AM

Well in Firefox (if you are not using Firefox by now then you should be)
right-click on the image, click on "Properties" and you should see something like
479px × 359px (scaled to 125px × 125px)

This means your browser is taking an image 479px by 359pixels and bashing
it into a 125 px by 125pixel box. With destructive image results obviously.

So the solution is either crop and scale your images in PhotoShop first
OR create a larger box to put them into.

**TFG Trading Co.** · 08-10-2009, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TWD

Well in Firefox (if you are not using Firefox by now then you should be)
right-click on the image, click on "Properties" and you should see something like
479px × 359px (scaled to 125px × 125px)

This means your browser is taking an image 479px by 359pixels and bashing
it into a 125 px by 125pixel box. With destructive image results obviously.

So the solution is either crop and scale your images in PhotoShop first
OR create a larger box to put them into.

Ok Thanks ! I took the top graphic out since it didn't really match the theme I was going for and made a more plain looking site. I fixed most of my coding issues by re-working the home page still need to adjust image size