New Site, Please Review :-)

[Whitetails-Extreme.Com]

Hey everyone, this is my new site that I have had running for maybe two months now. Please let me know what you think and if there is anything that needs to be done/or that can be done to improve the quality of the site. Thanks!

http://www.whitetails-extreme.com

[pink_eeyore]

Re: New Site, Please Review

I love the the name! Makes we want to go shoot something... and the site looks nice and appealing.

Here's the but. To make your site more user friendly, and SE friendly reduce the image size! SE will not rank you well if your page is too heavy. they assume, rightfully, that people will not waste their time waiting for the page to open. the first image on your home page is 2800x2100 reduced into a tiny little thumbnail like box. that's huge! Your website total weight should not exceed 200kb (most say) I'm fine with a few pages being longer for my own site but that's a personal business decision. Your home page you want it to be as "light" as possible. check the page weight of you pages by choosing tools --> page weight. it will give you the total size of the page and show you each object individually. Just that one image is like 100 times or more larger than what your page should be.

to reduce the size see this link

[Whitetails-Extreme.Com]

Re: New Site, Please Review

Thanks alot! the d.l. speed of the page has been a concern of mine since beginning to design it and im glad that i know about the pictures now.

[pink_eeyore]

Re: New Site, Please Review

It may take some time to play around with the different programs but at the same time don't forget to name your images something relevant to the page it is on and also to add an Alt tag in the properties of each image. It helps search engines "see" the image.

[djbigphilly]

Re: New Site, Please Review

i say the same thing he said it all

[Whitetails-Extreme.Com]

Re: New Site, Please Review

Thanks guys, I modified a few of the pictures. Any better?

[pink_eeyore]

Re: New Site, Please Review

Much improvement. Don't forget to do it to all your pages;)

[DarrenC]

Re: New Site, Please Review

When I clicked on your link for the first time I thought wow, this looks really good and then your background loaded and then I thought oh!! My personally feeling is your background image is a bit overpowering and perhaps might look better washed out a bit.

I like the transparent swirls in your header. I think thats great touch. I would be inclined to bring the main content of the page up the header and perhaps stretch it to the width of the header. The gap between the two for me looks a bit untidy.

Your content is excellent and your pictures and so on are great.

I would also finish your pages off with a footer. It kindve ends the page nicely. You know the sort of thing. Copyright 2009 home | Members | Forum | and so

I think you've done a great job but just needs a little tweaking here and there.

[DarrenC]

Re: New Site, Please Review

Here is an example of where I've taken the edge/ or emphasis off the background maybe or maybe not...lol
click here

[indytnt]

Re: New Site, Please Review

We want to restate two comments made by Darren. First, your body should be the same width as the header. And second, a footer should be added. Right now each page looks like it is cut off, which makes viewers wonder if they're missing something. If nothing else, put a second set of navigation links at the bottom so people do not have to return to the top to move to another page. A footer helps to define the page's end.

[Whitetails-Extreme.Com]

Re: New Site, Please Review

Thanks guys, Ill start playing around with your ideas tonight and keep ya updated now that you all mentioned it I really do need a footer. kevin, thanks for the comment man. Im actually in SC about half a hour from GA. You do much hunting? If so join the forum

[Collectors-info]

Re: New Site, Please Review

Ditto with all the comments on slow loading because of images. You background image is around 600kb & could be better off around the 15kb with this type of repeat image. LINK TO SOME SAMPLES.

[Whitetails-Extreme.Com]

Re: New Site, Please Review

Can I use a small image like that and it cover the whole background without repeating?

[Collectors-info]

Re: New Site, Please Review

Can I use a small image like that and it cover the whole background without repeating?

Yes! You are better off. But use an image like that in the page properties area under background. There are lots of sites out there with different styles of background images that will come together with no visible join. But test an image 1st, just to make sure.
Click on any image on that site in the link & it will give you a sample on its looks in real time.

[Whitetails-Extreme.Com]

Re: New Site, Please Review

I just cant find a tileable (not sure if thats a word) that i like for the background. I played around for a little bit and came up with a few different things. Heres the links to what ive been working on, let me know if there making progress from the original or if the original is better.

Original

Test

Test 1