Website Review and Suggestions

**Jane_C** · 02-13-2010, 08:14 PM

This is a web site I developed for a Physical Therapy office. This is my first attempt at building a web site. Please let me know what you think.

www.laplatapt.com

**richtans** · 02-14-2010, 01:03 AM

I think you did good for this being your first site. It's a nice simple design that gets your point across. I did notice that your navigational links move up and down depending on what pages you are on. I would format your pages so that these stay in the same place for every page. And with your navigation, aquatic therapy and wellness center are both on the services page, so do you need to have these in the navigation as well? You have some overlapping text on some pages (wellness center page and services page). Also, I think the first thing I noticed on your site was the font for your address in the header. It gives me an informal feel. I think using a font like you have on the Contact page would be better. One last thing is maybe adding a light background color, instead of just white. Those are just some small details I noticed that could help you out, but overall I think it's a good site.

**Knight13** · 02-14-2010, 01:23 AM

Looks decent for your first attempt but their is a lot of white space on the left side of the page maybe move your content more to the left.

**mlobrutto** · 08:09 AM

Your Website failed the W3C html validation test and has errors - http://validator.w3.org/

Change the font - Times New Roman is outdated and adds to the boriness of the overall site.

The header and the footer should be the same width of the left nav buttons and the right slideshow.

On the page - http://www.laplatapt.com/directions.htm The text within the Direction box needs some margin.

I also checked your source code... Your meta keywords should be keywords and separated by commas.

I know that this is your first attempt at website design but if you are planning on using your site to attract new clients your site unfortunately is not going to do it. If you are offering a professional service, your website should match the same professionalism. There are some things a business owner should do for themselves, website desinging is not one of them (unless they own a website design company).

I did a google search of Physical Therapy and wellness La Plata MD and your site was not even listed and secondly, your competition’s site were very well designed and held my interest on their site much longer.

**davemies** · 02-14-2010, 08:09 AM

good first attempt! nice and simple

agree about the font top right in the header

your header should be a gif not a jpeg and there's no reason for it to be a background image

a complementary colour could work nicely as would the same blue used throughout and verdana instead of times e.g.

**Jane_C** · 02-14-2010, 04:23 PM

Thanks for inputs. Your comments were very helpful and have absolutely improved the layout and functionality of the web site. Here's what I've updated:

I fixed the navigation links so they stay in the same place from page to page
I fixed the overlapping text on the wellness center and services pages
I changed the font for the address (in the header)
I changed all the font from Times New Roman to Verdana throughout the site
I added margin in the Directions box
I added commas in between my meta keywords
I changed the header to a gif
I used the colour scheme proposed by davemies

I still need help figuring out why the web site fails the W3C html validation test (as pointed out by mlobrutto), and how to fix it. Also, I don't understand what it means to fail this test. It appears that the web site opens and runs fine.

I have submitted the web site to Google, Bing and HotBot, so hopefully, it will start to come up when a search is submitted.

Again, thanks for all your comments.

**davemies** · 02-14-2010, 04:35 PM

looks good but did you save your header from the jpeg as a gif? it looks grainy like you used dithering in the palette (i.e. web safe colours or too few) and there are dirty compression artefacts left over from the jpeg in the gif (the dots and smudges around the La Plata ....

**Jane_C** · 02-14-2010, 09:15 PM

Thanks. I updated the header, and believe it now looks much better. It is much more crisp and no longer grainy looking. Appreciate your help.

**mlobrutto** · 02-14-2010, 09:56 PM

Here is where you are getting an W3C error on you main page.

Around line 79 - you have this code: <formid="form1">
But you have no method or action. If you are not using a form on this page remove this code: <formid="form1">
as well as line 153 </form>

And then test it again... let me know if you have any errors.

**1quick6** · 08:57 PM

The pictures in your slideshows look very low quality and some even have skewed aspect ratios. To me, photos are incredibly important on a site. Amatuerish photos detract from sites a TON. It is good for a first attempt, though! I might be inclined to buy stock photos to replace the ones you are using. Although it doesn't reflect actual scenes from the facility, it will still add professionalism to the site. Try istockphoto.com. Just my opinion.

I hope they had the patients in the photos sign releases.

**Jane_C** · 02-18-2010, 09:40 PM

I've updated the web site based on the following comments:

Added a color background to avoid the white space
Extended the upper and lower bars to go from end to end
Corrected the code to now pass the W3C htm validation

I agree that the photos don't look great. Any suggestions on how to make them look better?

Here's the link to the web site:

www.laplatapt.com

**Cristin** · 02-19-2010, 08:34 AM

As your first attempt you have done good, I would like to see some more images related to your subject (Health and medicines) on your page.

Goodluck!!!! Keep it up!!

**Jane_C** · 02-19-2010, 09:11 PM

Thanks for the feedback. I improved the quality of the pictures and videos. Your comments have really made this web site much better.

**Pristuno** · 02-20-2010, 10:09 AM

If its a first site i would say Great work ! No flaws at present . Perfect layout and navigation .
Greatly appreciable !!!!!!!!!!!

**dWhite** · 02-20-2010, 10:20 AM

Pretty decent for a first timer.

Part of the background image though is kind of messed up, and is different from the rest of it all.

**davemies** · 02-22-2010, 10:39 AM

have you looked at it in firefox? there's a big white space at the bottom!

the text in the header isn't antialiased (it has jagged edges)

**indyeric** · 02-22-2010, 03:27 PM

I am extremely novice, so with that in mind, I think it looks great. Well laid out, consistant across different pages. I am also starting to prefer pages with the buttons in a column on the left rather than across the top.

**Jane_C** · 02-24-2010, 09:45 PM

Thanks for the continued feedback.

I'm using a different background now, so that when it repeats vertically, it doesn't have a discontinuity. I also updated the text in the header so it is now anti-aliased (looks much better!).

I can view the site in IE 6.0, 7.0, and 8.0, and also in Firefox version 3.5.8. I don't see any white space at the bottom. In what version of Firefox are you (Davemies) seeing the white space at the bottom? Is there a way I can view the site in an other versions of Firefox?

**davemies** · 02-25-2010, 01:44 AM

i'm using latest 3.6
http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable doesn't install into the registry so you can run it along side normal firefox (but not actually open at the same time

)
it's the same in all the latest versions of browsers on windows vista at 1280 x 1024 (and other resolutions) : ie 6-8, opera 10, safari for win, firefox on kubuntu, ...

also your background image is quite large at about 250kb - save it as a jpeg and it should easily come in at under 50kb

**TMSG** · 02-25-2010, 07:26 PM

Definitely shrink the size of the background image. I would also suggest making it a bit lighter. Make the contrast between the content on the page and the background let dramatic.

You should change the titles of every page so that they match the content of each page. Other then that, the site is very well designed from an SEO perspective.