Re-designed old site

[Jeana_d]

Hi,

Please check out my website www.jdkinvitations.com and let me know what you think! Thank you!

[Vasili]

Re: Re-designed old site

Nice indeed!
Why isn't it Centered properly?

[Jeana_d]

Re: Re-designed old site

Thank you I never noticed that! I guess that's what this forum is all about, I'm blind to so many things I look at all the time!

[Vasili]

Re: Re-designed old site

OK! If you really must know .... before you center in browser, make sure you are completely 'registering left' in the workpane your page design (at the 0/0 axis), so when you do center it, it will not be lopsided.

Also, I love the fact you 'trimmed' your page to make it look like an embossed invitation, or a border with class, but you should be sure to make them equidistant and precise, yes? Throws off my eye unnecessarily.

Lastly, a suggestion to make it more balanced and to keep Branded credibility 'above the fold' where you need it most: I would personally re-size the 'knot' logo anbout 20-25% smaller and place it higher up in the page (in the header, actually) to the right of "Request a Consultation" (which may need to be made a size or two smaller in font size) --- so it's under the cities and above your navigation.
Being blue like it is, by making it smaller so there is more space around it and thus lesser an obtrusive contrast, having it in the header will be something Visitors will immediately associate and use. If possible, link it directly to your ad/mention in the current issue.
Besides .... it eliminates completely the mish-mosh placement at the bottom of the page.
* Don't forget to give the knot's logo a new perfectly SEO-oriented title when saving it at the new size. This way when you import it to use in BV in the Header, it also brings a fair contribution to SEO values!

Very important: In Page Properties, re-title your page completely (lose the "Home" title) to something more like "Custom Wedding Invitations & Fine Stationery from JDKInvitations.com | Home Consultations in Cleveland, Indianapolis, Muncie, Louisville"
Also while in Page Properties, make sure your META is filled out and that all your Keywords are actually anchored in that page's Content.


Just a couple of ideas to help balance things out without having to make the page taller!

[ahimsa]

Re: Re-designed old site

...."About" link doesn't work?

[Jeana_d]

Re: Re-designed old site

Question - what would be a good SEO oriented title that will help out my site in a search? I'm guessing I include my business name and "the knot", but I'm not sure what would be the best name. Also, how can you make a html block smaller? Thanks so much for your feedback.

[Vasili]

Re: Re-designed old site

Paste the link script here, and I will modify it for you (let me know exactly the sixe you want it, and you can experiment by making a placeholder "shape" in BV and noting the width and height in teh X:Y plotter bottom right of the BV workpane).

I gave you a good optimized page title above:
"Custom Wedding Invitations & Fine Stationery from JDKInvitations.com | Home Consultations in Cleveland, Indianapolis, Muncie, Louisville"
or better yet (with fewer words)
"Custom Wedding Invitations & Fine Stationery JDKInvitations.com | Cleveland, Indianapolis, Muncie, Louisville"

Be careful about musing over the use of another's brand (in this case, liberal interpretaton of links, banners, and image for 'the knot')....
Using the brand, business name, or other entity in your web page titles is not only foolhardy, but most likely a violation of most internet agreements: 1. you do not own the rights to promote in first position their name which would be considered dilution of brand awareness or consumer confusion; you are an advertiser, which means any arrangement is by "subscription" of for a term only (when that term is up, so is any value of co-branding, but more importantly you want only sustainable organic SEO values attributed to your site); check the terms of tha agreement that supercedes your use of their HTML link (which was provided via some sort of affiliate agreement), as it will confirm the permitted puse of such banners and links, and specifically should define use of their name, brand, links, and kew word promotions outlines.

[Jeana_d]

Re: Re-designed old site

Also, I tried moving the pg to 0,0 but it didn't end up centering the page, it left it at 0,0, even though I had "center in browser" checked. 'm not sure why it's doing that. I just changed it to be centered manually after trying out the 0,0.

[Vasili]

Re: Re-designed old site

You should always design your pages "locked-left" into the 0/0 position according to the guides along the edges of the BV workpane ..... once you check "Center in Browser" in Page Properties, your website will automatically be centered when displayed.

The key is to be touching the edges of the ruler guides for both the left side and the top of your web design: it only makes sense if starting at "0" a header that horizontally measures 960 wide shows the right edge at 960 against the rule rather than 983, yes?
Also, once set to 0/0 it is easy for you to accurate determine the spatial relationships of all the elements of your website design.

* If you press on your keyboard CONTROL + "A" at the same time, all the elements in your BV workpane will be 'highlighted' and are now a group that you can move at the same time perfectly aligned with either your arrow buttons or your mouse. Click once anywhere on the screen to 'release' the grouping.

[GulfCoaster]

Re: Re-designed old site

Nicely done! Looking forward to the minor updates, like on About Us page > last sentence: did you mean to write "They OFFER ..." or something?

[Jeana_d]

Re: Re-designed old site

ooh thanks for catching that.

[Patience]

Re: Re-designed old site

Gorgeous, very well done.

Didn't check all of the links, but under "personalize", the link to "paper colors" is not working. Links are the bane of my existence...

Your layout focuses on the product. Really nice job. Best of luck to you!

[pink_eeyore]

Re: Re-designed old site

I would recommend creating mailto: links for your contact email accounts at the bottom of your home page. Personally, I usually do not bother with contacting a business if I cannot click the email address or fill-in a form without it automatically opening up a new outlook messages. Guess I'm lazy but it's all about convenience I think.

If you aren't sure how to create it, it's pretty simple. Highlight the email address, and go into the menu to create a link. Rather than using the "http://", drag the arrow box down and choose the mailto: Enter the email address and you are done. play around with it, it could give you more conversations when people take less steps to contact you.

Best of luck!

[Jeana_d]

Re: Re-designed old site

Thanks, I will definitely do that!

[Jeana_d]

Re: Re-designed old site

On the "paper colors pg", which I have called "Color-selections.bvp", I have it saved like all my other pages, and I actually looked at it online yesterday, but now the link doesn't work, as mentioned in the previous post - Iget this error message. Any idea why?
Not Found

The requested URL /Color-selections was not found on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache/2.2.15 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.15 OpenSSL/0.9.8e-fips-rhel5 mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 Server at www.jdkinvitations.com Port 80