Please review my site

[PaulP]

Hi,

Just to say I've eventually made my site so would welcome any comments please.

[Collectors-info]

Re: Please review my site

Hi, site looks fine; Friend of mine is looking to move to France & said one of the hard things was finding English speaking trades. It would be worth making this stick out on the front & 2nd pages so the SE’s will pick up on it. Think if I was going to search for a builder & my French wasn’t very good, it would be doing a Google for “English speaking builder/electrician/plumber in France” & so on. Assuming your after work from Brits. Lol. Funnily enough! You need to get the key words in, on some of the pages.
Might be nice to have some info on the rules & regs for buyers. Maybe a 1 to 10 of what a buyer should be doing & some good links.
Couple of the images are a bit fuzzy & a little large on the kb’s, its slowing the pages down on 1st time loading.

Just a curiosity one? Are all circuits wired as radials & in copex in France, & is TWE not used there? or even ring mains.

Good luck.

[PaulP]

Re: Please review my site

Thanks Chris for the comments.

Couple of Questions ; I always have problems with images so how can I crush the Kb's down to increase page loading times ? And I also can't remember hopw to get the key words into my pages ?

In answer to your other questions; Twin and earth is not allowed in France because the earth wire has to be the same c.s.a as the L and N wires and it has to be stamped NF( Normes France). Most circuits are singles cable in gaine (crinkly conduit or kopex as you call it!). Ring mains are not allowed either. Glad to help if you or your friend need any advice.

Cheers,

Paul.

[philipc9635]

Re: Please review my site

Hey Paul

There is a pix resizer in the forum. Just do a search on the forum for pixresizer. You simply upload your picture and re adjust the size of your photos in KBs.

Site looks very professional, well done.

[Collectors-info]

Re: Please review my site

Hi Paul, as Phil mentioned, the PIXresizer is quite a good tool for this. There is a link at the bottom of my thread with some help on using it. If you get stuck or need a hand, just post back here. But if you can, try and avoid using the blue handles on the image for resizing.
On the key word part! It’s in the page properties area where you placed the title for the page. Have a think on how you would enter a search for one of your pages via Google & have these words or phrases within the text of the page or a heading. Now also place these as key words in the key words area. This can also be part of the page title. IE: instead of having your home page as “Home” call it something like “French property renovations”. Worth also remembering that each page should be individual, with the key words that relate to the page they are on.

[PaulP]

Re: Please review my site

Hi again and thanks for the further advice - easy when you know how isn't it !

The problem with amateur users such as myself is that sometimes weeks go by without touching the BV software and then it becomes a daunting task to re-learn what we originally learn't - if you get my drift?

I must be hooked -I'm on my second site now!

[Collectors-info]

Re: Please review my site

LOL, you wont beleave how many times i have done pages & other sites.

Good luck.

[dons1]

Re: Please review my site

Hi Paul!

I live in the countryside in Spain and know how difficult it is to get "certified" help you can trust. So you should be on to a winner.

Since I live in the country I've only got a dial-up connection so your Gallery was very, very slow with me & I eventually gave up. I know you are going to resize, so all should be well. It's just that I guess many of the UK ex-pats buy country property in France to renovate so they may only have dial-up as well?

The other thing you might consider is clearly stating the limits of the area you are prepared to cover. When I was 'phoning around here for work about half the folks I talked to said I was too far away. Even if you just make a list of all the towns, villages etc.

Otherwise, I think your site is very well laid out and clear. I like it a lot.

Regards
John
www.clanfootball.com - "connecting fans around the world"

[PaulP]

Re: Please review my site

Hi John,

Thanks for your input - much appreciated. I know I have a problem with image file sizes -it's not one of my strong points and I just haven't got around to making them less heavy on KB's but I will. I just find it quite difficult to get to grips with.

I know what you mean about dial up. France like Spain is very rural and it is difficult to get broadband in some areas due to the vast distances involved, so I am sure many visitors to my site probably have given up waiting for pages to load!

Good point too about limits - in fact it is the 1st question I ask now as even my department is very large and some enquiries come from far too far away.

Kind regards,

Paul.