Website review needed please www.ourmall.ca....

[reachsteve]

Hello all.

Yeah, I finally have my very first site published! I would like to thank everyone at BV for assisting me in getting this far. As someone who has very limited computer knowledge in general, I am quite amazed that I actually have a site up and running! Thank you, thank you (your forum saved me on several occassions during the process).

I would really appreciate any feedback or reviews of my site www.ourmall.ca Don't by shy - I'm pretty tough and I can handle it. Thank you.

[mattski]

Re: Website review needed please www.ourmall.ca....

Overall I think the site looks good. The color scheme is good and you keep everything consistent throughout the site. I don't see any major issues with the overall design.

The content is another matter. This looks to me like a collection of links to other sites and a lot of those links don't appear to be active. I'm not quite sure what you are offering with this site.

The tips and ideas page is a good idea but I don't see that there is actually any content there. I use Firefox and when I mouse over the page I show that it links back to itself and the link covers most of the page. There are no links to any of the tips and ideas.

The same thing applies to your local shopping links and top travel sites pages. As a potential customer when I see "links" in the description I'm expecting to be directed to that page when I click on it. All you have are names listed. It would probably be helpful to link to the actual pages for those sites. The only links that seem to go anywhere are the ads and the link list on the bottom of the page.

You should consider adding an about us page with some info about who you are and what you do.

So, I guess you should start by determining what kind of actual content you are going to offer. You need to have some reason why people would come and visit your site. If it provides useful information or even a centralized one stop shopping experience then I think it would have some value. Otherwise it looks to me like a bunch of links and I don't think I would come back to a site like that.

[reachsteve]

Re: Website review needed please www.ourmall.ca....

Overall I think the site looks good. The color scheme is good and you keep everything consistent throughout the site. I don't see any major issues with the overall design.

The content is another matter. This looks to me like a collection of links to other sites and a lot of those links don't appear to be active. I'm not quite sure what you are offering with this site.

The tips and ideas page is a good idea but I don't see that there is actually any content there. I use Firefox and when I mouse over the page I show that it links back to itself and the link covers most of the page. There are no links to any of the tips and ideas.

The same thing applies to your local shopping links and top travel sites pages. As a potential customer when I see "links" in the description I'm expecting to be directed to that page when I click on it. All you have are names listed. It would probably be helpful to link to the actual pages for those sites. The only links that seem to go anywhere are the ads and the link list on the bottom of the page.

You should consider adding an about us page with some info about who you are and what you do.

So, I guess you should start by determining what kind of actual content you are going to offer. You need to have some reason why people would come and visit your site. If it provides useful information or even a centralized one stop shopping experience then I think it would have some value. Otherwise it looks to me like a bunch of links and I don't think I would come back to a site like that.

Hello Mattski.

Thank you for reviewing my site. I'm a little confused at this point though.....I have tested the site myself in both Internet Explorer and Firefox and the links actually work for me. The site is indeed intended to be a centralized "one-stop" shopping resource for the Vancouver area. In the Tips and Ideas link, I have written and published 9 different articles on a variety of subjects. I'm not sure what has happened, but would I be able to impose on you one more time to have another look? If what your saying is true, then I have a big problem with my Firefox visitors.

One more thing, I am having another problem with Firefox vs IE that I have posted another thread for re: "Make this your homepage" button. Basically, it works in IE and not Firefox. Have I missed something along the way?

Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Cheers!

[mattski]

Re: Website review needed please www.ourmall.ca....

OK, I think I see what you did here. The buttons you are using for your links are set up in a way that does not make the actual link visible.

To see what I'm talking about move your mouse around the page and see where the cursor changes indicating the location of a link. On your Tips and Ideas page the blank areas of the page show as a link to tips_and_tricks.html as soon as the mouse moves over the button the cursor will revert to a pointer and the link text that shows in the bottom left of your browser is blank. Sorry, I don't know how to fix this, you'll have to consult one of the Blue Voda experts.

BTW I replied to your other post. I did a quick Google search to find the info.

[reachsteve]

Re: Website review needed please www.ourmall.ca....

Hello Mattski.

Thanks again for your support. I think I understand what your saying about the links being invisible and I'm entirely unsure of what I did to make this happen. I did manage to get rid of the link showing on the blank areas of the page, but cannot get the invisible links showing to the bottom left corner. In testing all the links, they seem to work, so unless it presents a problem down the road, I think I'll just let it be for now. Too many weeks doing this already.....! Just for your FYI on the other issue of "make this your homepage button", in reading through the google information, and then reading through Mozilla's help files, it would appear that there simply is no resolution to the problem. Kind of a bummer considering I'm promoting FF on my site! May have to re-think that...

Thanks again.