Ready for review...

[marciemayer]

Please have a look, all ideas and sugestions are greatly appreciated. This is my first site and I've only been doing this for a couple of weeks. Thanks in advance, after I cook dinner I'll have a look at some of your sites. Thanks,
Marcie in Greece

[marciemayer]

Re: Ready for review...

www.redtractorfarm.com Keep forgetting you guys aren't mind readers...

[bill2006]

Re: Ready for review...

Marcie,
With a bit of detective work we have found the site you didn't post : - )
www.redtractorfarm.com

You really have done a fine job. Really like it.
There are a few things you might want to consider:
-Center your pages, you might wnat to reduce the width to 800.
-The NavBar text has two different sizes, for presentation purposes you are better off using the smaller font.
-Your pages titles can be improved. Go to page properties and change 'index' to "Welocme to RedTractor Farms' ; 'volunteer' to 'Volunteer at RedTractor Farm' etc. all this will help you with SE's.

I'm sure you'll get lots of volunteers.
Good luck!!

[Bethers]

Re: Ready for review...

I'm not one that feels all pages need to be centered - but I do like it better :) - but I do feel you've made the pages too wide. I no longer build everything to 800 wide - but I do stay under 1024 - so that the majority of the people surfing won't need to scroll your site right to left.

You've got a nice clean, good looking site.

As Bill stated about the titles - you also need, in the same place, to change all your keywords and descriptions. The titles need to be reflective of what's on the page - using keywords - not just a word "home" etc. The keywords need to be ONLY the major keywords you are using on THAT page. The description needs to be a short description of the PAGE that you are on - not of the site as a whole. And never should 2 pages have the same title or description.

Good work so far.

[marciemayer]

Re: Ready for review...

Thanks to you both, Bill and Beth for taking the time to look at my site and make such very helpful sugestions. I have a couple of questions about this meta tag thing before I do all 26 pages!
1. Do I need to put the plural form of a tag as well as the singular (eg: greek vacation,greek vacations)

2. Somewhere these last days I ran into a meta tag finder, can you direct me back to it...actually it didn't work when I was there and tried it but maybe that was just beginners luck.

3. Is it possible for visitors to see my page titles,meta tags and page summary. How does that work.

I'm not sure about centering my pages, I sort of designed them to hug
the left side but I'll definetely try it and see how it looks. My 3 top nav buttons purposely have a larger font because that's where I want visitors to go. Thanks again for your input, I really appreciate it.
Marcie

[Bethers]

Re: Ready for review...

1. You can or not - again the meta keywords are not widely used by se's anymore - It's more important not to overdo or spam them and to stick with only keywords used on the page.

2. I use Site Report Card. Just remember these are using computer programs. They are great for things like checking coding and spelling, etc. They can count characters. But they can't tell you what keywords you should be using on a page - they can only pick out what they believe yours are by the text, titles, etc you've given the page.

3. The title is what shows in the blue top of the screen (right now look up and it starts "Ready for Review" - This title is also what will be saved to their computer if they bookmark you - so it's important that is be very descriptive - and uses the keywords of THAT particular page. The description will sometimes be used by se's when they show you in search results. Therefore it needs to tell exactly what will be found on the page - without being too lengthy - and in an interesting manner. In other words - a short descriptive ad copy.

4. Center the page in BV by going into page properties and selecting Center.

[marciemayer]

Re: Ready for review...

Thank you, thank you, thank you.........

[Debi]

Re: Ready for review...

Oh my Gosh Marcie! I want to visit the Red Tractor Farm! What a wonderful website...It takes you there...with lots of terrific info! GOOD JOB!
I know everyone is different, but I agree w/ Bill - I don't mind scrolling down, but don't like scrolling across.
I think the 3 nav buttons are fine, as you have a purpose for it.
I used http://www.widexl.com/ to make sure my Titles, Keywords and Descriptions were relevant. It was very helpful for me.
Gotta go, I'm booking a flight to Tzia!
Debi

[choco777]

Re: Ready for review...

I'd say it has been a well spent couple of weeks. Love the colors, ditto the above advise, can't go wrong listening to Beth. REALLY like your site!

[Vasili]

Re: Ready for review...

Πολυ Καλα!

On top of the other mentions, you may also wish to use the VodaHost pix resizer to reduce the file sizes of your images (not the layout size, but the file size) to speed up the loading time required.

Bravo! Oreo......

[marciemayer]

Re: Ready for review...

Wow, I'm really overwhelmed by such a positive response...
The sideways scrolling thing has me worried, in my browser and on my ****py little laptop the page fits exactly from edge to edge. Have you all found that a sizable chunk of the content is over to the right?

Do I need to drag everything, item by item - page by page, to make it more narrow or is there a way I can crop it from the left side and have all the content shift to the left? Hope that question makes sense, just woke up!

Vasili, do you or Γιώργος or anyone else you know do Greek translations for BV sites? It would be easy for someone like yourselves who are so familiar with BV. Αν ναι, κόστος? I have a hard enough time spelling in English and Kostis is way too busy.

Thank you so much everyone for taking the time to help me.
Marcie

[Bethers]

Re: Ready for review...

I answered you about the sideways scroll in another thread.

[jazzyeditor]

Re: Ready for review...

Thanks for your response. I looked at your site, the name is intriguing. You did a great job. And your place looks absolutely gorgeous. I think someone may have mentioned this, but the word "coriander" seems to run off the page on the home page. I really like the transitions between the pages. I think it's a nice touch.

[Vasili]

Re: Ready for review...

Vasili, do you or Γιώργος or anyone else you know do Greek translations for BV sites? It would be easy for someone like yourselves who are so familiar with BV. Αν ναι, κόστος? I have a hard enough time spelling in English and Kostis is way too busy.

My ability to translate back and forth is limited when it comes to writing.....I am able to do so only talking! And, General Naval's ability to translate into proper English is limited too, I am afraid!

My Stamatia would be perfect for you, but honestly, her time is severely limited also. Let me see if I can find a friend who has the skills needed in both Greek and English that might be able to help you out on a "project basis"......give me a few days to ask around??

[marciemayer]

Re: Ready for review...

Thanks Vasili.