Home: Message List - I would like feedback on my website and services

Re: I would like feedback on my website and services

david_aa — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:50:59 GMT

My tip is to redesign the home page, make text more readable and put menu categories in less detailed groups.

Re: I would like feedback on my website and services

coffeebreak — Wed, 13 May 2009 22:05:33 GMT

Your site actually looks nice. Your page is very user friendly and easy to navigate. Is this your first website, because if so, either have begainers luck or your had one heck of an IT department. Really it does look nice.

Re: I would like feedback on my website and services

Yakimova — Sun, 10 May 2009 04:44:47 GMT

I didn't like the colors very much. The combination of blue, beige and brown make the home page look depressing. Also make sure that there is consistency in the use of upper and lower case letters. If you look at the links located in the left hand side of the home page you'll notice that some descriptions start with upper case letter and some with lower case letter.

Best of luck!

Sasha

Re: I would like feedback on my website and services

A_Ellicott — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:38:38 GMT

Very much improved over the first version. Way to go! I personally think there are still too many navigation buttons down the side, but that could just be me.

I'm not smart enough to understand all the technical stuff John6x6 said. However, I will second his comments about web browser compatibility. I use the Firefox browser and some of the content goes off the page to the right. Also, I'm guessing that if your site is not displaying the way you want it in Firefox, it likely is not displaying properly in other non-Microsoft browsers as well. If I were surfing the web for your services and the site came up the way it does now in my Firefox browser I would probably click back and go on to the next site rather than scroll back and forth.

Over the weekend I started reading a book on promoting your website. One thing the author mentioned is that if you have too many keywords in your header or use the same word over and over again, that can hurt you in search engine rankings. I looked at your keywords and I think you have too many and have "dog" repeated too many times.

As far as getting more visits, have you considered paying some of the search engines to be shown at the top? Just curious.

Keep up the good work.

Re: I would like feedback on my website and services

John_6x6 — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:34:52 GMT

Oh by the way, try a search engine spider simulator tool at webconfs.com. This will give you a visual idea how a search engine reads your website. Use this as one of your tools to organize your content because it strips away all the presentation code and images. When viewing the text in the tool, if the content reads well and makes sense to you, it will makes sense to a search engine AND your website visitors.

Best wishes with your business and your site plans. If you have questions, feel free to contact me.

John, 6x6 Design

Re: I would like feedback on my website and services

John_6x6 — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:23:35 GMT

Hi HappyTails,

Everyone seems to agree - content organization. However being a web developer, I have to say Archangel's point about statndards compliance is a VERY important one and needs further explanation. I highly reccomend before you reorganize, look carefully into finding a web designer and web hosting that's not Microsoft dependant. Here's why:

Microsoft Office uses applications such as Microsoft Frontpage, a WYSIWYG editor (what you see is what you get). This editor creates all kinds of horrible presentational code (inside the nuts and bolts) inter-woven with your website's content. Search engines only want to read and index your content. As a result, a search engine spider looking at your content has a very dificult time navigating and making sense of your website's code, hurting you in the long run. You see, you may have good content, but the "nuts and bolts" of your website can prevent it from being interpreted properly. An example of this is already evident - your page breaks apart in browsers other than IE.

With a well designed site, this is not an issue because it it universally accepted AND accessible to those with disabilities or people needing special browsers like text readers. Government sites have to be accessible to those with disabilities. I dare say if the government has to, eventually so will everyone else. Why not save the expense now. You're planning to repair your site, be sure to get it right and universaly accepted.

Benefits of proper redesign;

People like it
search engines love it
you get more traffic
its universally accepted
works in most browsers
prevents a forced redesign down the road and saves you a boat load of money.

Re: I would like feedback on my website and services

HappyTails — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:33:49 GMT

Good Morning
I thank you again for your precious time. I have made some changes on my Web site. Do you think I am on the right track?

I did remove many of the navigation buttons on the left, and my site stats dropped drastically. Bounce rate on the home page went from about 10% to 50%, site useage dropped dramatically, so I put some of them back. Visitor numbers dropped more than 50%, I'm not sure why.

Part of my goal was to make the site more relaxing. When people are living with a dog that has behavior problems they are very stressed and frustrated. I am trying to give them a sense of hope. Everyone hopes that they will end up with Lassy, but most end up with "Dennis the Mennis"; very discouraging.
Thank you again for your help,
HappyTails
Dog Psychology Help
http://www.dogpsychologyhelp.com

Re: I would like feedback on my website and services

britinusa — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:32:43 GMT

Ok, Great content, and shows subject expertise. The rest of the replies have summed up my thoughts, tons of content but tough to figure out where it is.

I suggest you reduce the content on any one page and let it spill it over to other pages.
A visitor that clicks is engaged! That's good - make them click!!!

A few technical(ish) things.

I didn't see a site map.. almost a must if you want to get noticed in the search engines.
Meta tags do pretty well, but you exceed a few ideal limits, check out seo centro for guidelines
missing page error is ugly, if a page is requested but does not exist, then send them to the home page.
Follow basic web practice - people don't read on the internet -- they click-n-skip -- so make the point in sound bites.

Hope this helps.

Paul

Re: I would like feedback on my website and services

billspecial — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:38:53 GMT

I would have to agree with the advice you received from everyone else, Something I noticed just because I am anal when it comes to misspelled words, Your phrase on the home page that reads Blog A Question or Comment the word Comment is misspelled. However, not to be a professional site it looks good.

Re: I would like feedback on my website and services

A_Ellicott — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:39:12 GMT

I'm going to second the comment about the wagging tails. Lose them. They make your site look like a myspace page; not a serious business someone would give their money to.

I hope you don't feel too beat up by the comments. Not only do you have a lot of good content but by learning this yourself you will be able to keep it fresh and updated as well. One of my pet peeves is to go to a company's website and find a nice, clean, professionally done site...that hasn't been updated in years and has old information on it.

Keep working!