My new website

[terena]

Hello everyone,
I have just created a new website for my business, it has taken me ages to do, and I think my family are quite fed up with me now. I would appreciate your comments on the site - thankyou. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[zigzag]

Re: My new website

Your family should be very proud of you.
You have obviously spent a lot of time sizing and lining things up. Very neat and simple to-the-point layout.
The initial page flash loading time may be a problem for slow lines. Let's see what others have to say.
Personally I would take the Google link off your Welcome page. It's tempting to click on it, and you may lose a visitor.
The underlined "Curtains and Blinds" makes you thinkk that it's a link. I would rather put this in upper case as a heading.

Try and see what the text looks like left and right justified, rather than centered. It may look better. Again, a personal viewpoint, but I would make the text on the home page darker brown. Brown and grey look great together.
I like the "Gallery" title surrounded by pictures. It's different. Try a one pixel border around each picture and see what it looks like. You need a "click to enlarge", but I guess this is phase 2.
The message board is a good idea. Looks good.

The whole site has a neutral feel, as it must do, with your subject/service. Obviously flashing red, yellow text and dark blue boxes, will offend some viewers looking for home decor services. Yet, you have managed to capture attention.
Now, how do we get the search engines going. Please have a look at your keywords, and add a few more from your page content. As examples, you can safely add the following:
curtaincall, curtain call, drapes, cushion covers. Add the words "home decor" and "home decorating" into your text, and then add these to the keywords.
A very commendable start.

Regards

[LadyEye]

Re: My new website

Well Terena, your family must only be upset if you haven't been keeping up with your "curtain call" because your website is simply splendid. You've done a wonderful job with easy navigation, colours are subdued, or perhaps they are upset that for being in business for 9 years you haven't done this before, or maybe are still holding you responsible for using their best sheets, lol :)

A couple of things, on your history page, just one sentence may need adjusting - "I wanted to something in which I enjoyed" - might need a little changing ....

Your site loads very quick and the only other thing I might suggest and probably isn't even necessary is on your gallery page, if your photos could be made to enlarge if you clicked on them. That is, if you have those photos in a larger size, you could add them as a gallery which creates a thumbnail and could be close to the size you have and then when clicking on each photo, each enlarges for a larger view.

You have done a wonderful job. I wish you good luck, 9 years in business, you are happy, you are well on your way, good for you!!

[Bethers]

Re: My new website

You've done a great job, but there is still more to do.

You need to fix some of your title tags - and you definitely have to get your location prominently on the site. I'm all over the place and find this: "We also offer a free collection and delivery service within a 10 mile radius, combined with a hanging service if requested."
Where are you that covers that 10 mile radius? Do you sell outside of it or only there? Make the website work for exactly what you do.

One way to do that is to put your name, address and phone number into the footer of every page. This also inspires confidence that you are a legitimate business. Your contact us page needs a complete address also.

For the title of the home page, I suggest: Curtains | Blinds from Curtain Call in Devon (Or in Devon, GB? or in Devon, England?) Again, the more specific you do this, the better the se's will do to give you traffic looking for what you have and who you are.

I also suggest you take off any mention of your "website". Think of it this way. If you have a store that resides in a brick and mortar building - how often do you tell people to look around our brick building? You don't - you tell them to look around your store. Here the store/info is ON a website - just like it could be in a building. By the way, if you have a brick and mortar store - this should be an adjunct to it and then you could say something like, Please browse our online store where we hope we've provided you all the information you need about us to help you with your ordering from us. If you have further questions, please call or come in to visit our physical location at - blah blah blah.

(Now, I don't know if you have a physical location, but it sounds like you do - so take advantage of that fact!)

I suggest you make all your gallery pictures clickable to see them in a larger picture. Would definitely help.

Title for each page need to reflect THAT page - not be all the same. So on your Services page, how about "Curtain and Blind Services by Curtain Call" and so on and so forth.

Is there a way for people to order from you? I didn't find one - and that's essential! On the home page you say "if you are still not sure, you can always contact us." First, the words contact us need to be made clickable to your contact page or to an email address. But my other question is - if they don't contact you, how do they order from you? That isn't clear anywhere - I never found an order page or anything to order? Is that coming?

I love the style and colors of the site. Everything is easy to read and understand. I'm not a fan of all the centered text - I would suggest either left aligned or, best, justified, for most pages. Centered works best for headlines and specific smaller elements most of the time.

But, my number one concern for you - is if you are hoping to bring business in - you never are asking for it or making it easy for people to call or order from you. And that is a must.

[ez-ez]

Re: My new website

Very nice.. I just tried the message board and it's all good.

Good work.

[terena]

Re: My new website

Thank you everyone for sending me your comments, they are much appreciated. I have taken them into consideration and am at this very moment trying to adapt the changes on my website. Speak soon.

Terena

[terena]

Re: My new website

Hello everyone!

Well, it's getting on for 10.30pm, my family are bored with me, and I have made some tweaks to my website. Still not finished, but tell me what you think so far. Just got the quotation form to set up, and sort the gallery out. Got a problem there, every time you go to enlarge the pictures, they go all blurry, don't know what to do. Tried it as pop-ups - no good, slide shows are too quick. HELP!

Terena