Here I am again with the Monday review on Tuesday! Mondays just aren't long enough for me most weeks. lol. Here's Shannon's review request....
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Please, anything I can do to improve my site is welcome! http://www.bolinfamilyjewelry.com
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Hi Shannon!
From the private messages we've exchanged, I know you've been working very hard on your site. Dave Cottrell gave you some good advice in his forum, too. I'd like to add to that.
For everyone else reading along, first have a peek at Shannon's current site;
http://www.bolinfamilyjewelry.com
Now, may I show you something? Peek here;
http://www.lindacaroll.com/adland/shannon.html
The page is empty, of course, but I did a couple of things. I made the page header wider to fit the width of your page.... and I removed the background and used just a background color so that the focus will be on your jewelry instead of the background image being so overpowering.
If you like the header image, you can grab it here;
http://www.lindacaroll.com/adland/shannon1.jpg
If you like the wider header, you'll need to set your table to 797 pixels wide. That's the width of the header image.
A few other suggestions I think would help.
1) Center the whole page.
Right after the tag, add
. Don't forget right before the tag. That way, your header and content will all flow down the center of the page.
2) Main page Images.
In the body part, put the text under the image boxes. Right now it's just flowing beside it. If you put each bit of text under the image, you'll be able to have the images line up nicer.
3) Left column:
Move the xml, yahoo, msn links to under your navigation. You want people to explore the site so they
want to re-visit you, so put the content right up at the top so they see what you offer first and foremost!
4) Banners:
Unless they are making you substantial income, I'd remove the banners. You don't want to lose people to a banner before they get interested in what you offer. If you only use them for traffic, there are much better ways to get traffic. As you tweak and work your site, we'll help you with that.
5) Counter:
I would suggest that you remove the visible counter and replace with an invisible one that you log into to see your visitor stats.
We want you to look like a small but professional little home business, and hit counters make a site look more like a geocities or tripod page. Not as professional.
6) Text content:
Always left justify your text content unless it's a heading at the top of the page. (just remove center tags).
We've all seen sites where the text runs right from edge to edge on the screen. To avoid that crowded look and leave a nice padding of of white space around the text, you can use a div padding tag (if you know that one) or even just put
before your text starts and
at the end of the text.
7) If your site was my site, I'd also remove the fashion feeds. I can't see how they enhance your site or do anything except take your traffic away anyway. You have nice jewelry and I don't think the feed articles do anything to add value for the person that visits and might like what you offer.
Odds 'n Ends...
... You might want to try the links on the left in a different color. Deep navy or black, maybe. The red doesn't hurt anything, but I wonder if a deeper color might feel more elegant.
... If you like the background colors I used for page background and left column, they are:
page bgcolor=#008b8b
left column bgcolor : #48D1CC
In Closing....
I think the above things are a good start. I'd love to see you work on those for now. But, just like Martha did, I'd really enjoy watching your site evolve and grow. As you do make changes, this is "your" spot, where you can come back to ask for feedback, ask questions and we can all watch and cheer you along!
For everyone reading along...
Any feedback? Thoughts?
: )
Linda