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Website Critique     
 
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Web Site Needs Help
Posted By: planzon99111 on 11/5/2006 3:57 AM (CST) 125 Points
Hi,
I hired an intern to put my web site together. On the surface it looked good at first, but the more I checked things out the more problems I uncovered. Problems included invalid and missing tags, errors in the scripts, low rank, a little of everything. Knowing nothing about web design, I set out to learn on my own how to correct some things since ultimately I want to be in control of changes. I think I have done an OK job, but I would like honest opinions and suggestions from people who know about this kind of thing. I'd appreciate the truth with no sugar coating. http://www.appletonareapetsitting.com
Source begins around line 200. Thanks!

Posted by: KathySmithFilms* Member Response
11/5/2006 4:25 AM (CST)
Hi ahromea,
Your site is very nice. I like it and it's professionalism about what you do and serve as an example for this community.

The words Rates could be changed as I didn't see price, so it could have something like Personalized Service or Quotes Contact. On this I'm not certain of the wording.
Other than on logo cat at the bottom on just one page; a picture 4 down on the gallery seems to be missing; and
http://tardelkennels/poem is the only link that didn't connect
all navigations work and easy to stay with the site without feeling like I gotta run.

I don't want to sugar coat but I gotta say Ahhhhhhh!
Kathy
 
Posted by: mop Member Response
11/5/2006 9:44 AM (CST)
I agree with Kathy. Especially the ahhhh part.

The site is clean and easy to navigate. My only sticky point is at the end of the gallery. Getting back home should be simpler.

Copy wise: Your passion and ethics are very evident. You write from the heart and I clearly "get it" and am sure most pet lovers will too.
That's the good part. Now the bad part. (It's not too bad really!) You do have some run on sentences and need some punctuation. Normal mistakes. Get a proof reader to go over your copy and tighten it up a bit. And actually, part of your charm is the way you express yourself. You write like you speak. So make sure when you clean up your copy that you don't sanitize it and lose that personal, chatty, professional tone.

I would add some photos to your gallery showing your staff interacting with the pets. People want to see the connection that your employees have with pets who are in their care.

One more thing... where the heck is Appleton and the Fox Valley? Sure I could look it up, but I shouldn't have to. I want to know(quickly) if you are in my neck of the woods so I can hire you!

And I agree with Kathy about the rates. You don't give rates, you give reasons why you don't list rates.

I would prefer to see a price range. It gives the consumer an idea of what this service could cost. Something like:
Our rates differ( blabla) and range from $25 per day to check in on Goldie and drop some fish food in his tank, to $250 per day to feed and entertain 3 labradors, a canary, 1 old cat who needs injections daily, water the plants, sleep over, bring in the mail blabla.

Hope this helps.
 
Posted by: planzon99111 Author Response
11/5/2006 4:08 PM (CST)
Thank you kathysmithcasting and mop for taking the time to look things over. I was ready to be "slaughtered" on this, but your responses are encouraging. Those are excellent points on the word "rates". I agree that the wording should be changed and yes, a range is a great idea. I should be able to fix that link easily.

I have not ventured into doing any work on the gallery yet-I don't know if I need a program or not for that. But, I can say that I don't like the way it doesn't show on the "Gallery" tab-you have to click on another to actually get there-I have no idea why she set it up that way. Or why only one picture shows at first-it's misleading or confusing, I think.

I'll look into the run on sentences and punctuation to see what you are talking about.

Any input on the source code and how to get the rank up?

Appleton is a city of about 72,000 in north east Wisconsin. The paper industry is big here. Many small communities run together around the Fox River so it is referred to as the Fox Valley or Fox Cities.
Lisa
 
Posted by: margec Member Response
11/6/2006 8:39 AM (CST)
Hi, Lisa,
I enjoyed looking at the site, (who can resist all those cute little puppies and kittens!) but as a web content writer, I have to recommend cutting the amount of text way back. You've got key points you want people to get on each page, and it's unlikely that visitors will actually read as much as you've written. There are ways to get short scannable points across and still be from the heart, as your text is now. Use headlines and subheads to capture the key points, and use bulleted lists to summarize content up front. Then if you must say more, you can tell your stories for those who will scroll.

After a few minutes on your site, I got a message from my virus protection program that some (unwanted) program was automatically being downloaded and installed on my machine. That's not a good thing. I'd ask your hosting provider about the level of virus protection they've got.

As far as search engine ranking goes, it takes time. I got distracted by the threat of an automatic program installation and didn't go back to look at your source code, but you'll want to make sure you have used the keywords you think people will search for in text on each of your pages, include the most important words in your page titles, and include keywords in meta tags. Theoretically, Google likes you to have related sites link to you. You might decide to work on that over time; for instance, vets, city business guides, maybe travel agents if they still exist...For more about how to improve your search engine ranking, look at Search Engine Watch. http://searchenginewatch.com/

Good luck--

Marge
 
Posted by: Frank Hurtte Member Response
11/6/2006 9:40 AM (CST)
Simple straight forward easy to understand.
I would not work too hard on the search engine side of things... being in Appleton, you biggest opportunity is to provide people with information that causes them to mark your site.
Also, you may want to look into linking from other sites... ie chamber of commerce, humane society, et.
 
Posted by: skoobie99 Accepted Answer
11/6/2006 1:52 PM (CST)
ohromeo,

One quick peeve is the length of all the pages I checked - remember "short and sweet" beats out lengthy and verbose any day and the website should not look like one of your paper brochures.

The other thing I'd like to know is where is Appleton?

Other than that love the pictures and the gallery.

Hope this helps,
John
 
Posted by: Jesse Accepted Answer
11/6/2006 6:30 PM (CST)
You are looking for more of a "technical" evaluation? Under the hood so to speak? The HTML, etc.

On the surface, the website works reasonably well and the design does the job. Behind the scenes... it's riddled with problems and poor choices.

The HTML is not valid and very poorly written. As such, it's not search engine friendly and will be awkward to maintain.

More importantly, there is unnecessary and badly written Javascript. I'd remove it immediately. It causes problems with IE7 (which will rapidly become a majority browser).

No sugar coating... it's not professional work we need to encourage web standards and best practices. It's important for the health of web and web marketing and web professionals like myself.

I do hate to discourage someone who's just getting into this stuff... the good news is it's a short road to victory as you are on the right path.

Please take a moment and surf through these excellent resources from the top dogs of the industry:

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/ALAprimer

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/alaprimer2
 
Posted by: DrewSire Member Response
11/6/2006 8:02 PM (CST)
I opened the source code for the site. Why is there a huge space before the html code starts. Search engines will not even spider your page. That needs to be fixed.
 
Posted by: planzon99111 Author Response
11/6/2006 9:15 PM (CST)
Thanks a million to all of you who are speaking up on my web site issues.

Now we are getting into the nitty gritty and that's what I am mainly interested in. No wonder the intern's instructor refused to reply to my questioning of the job done-apparently it's a reflection of her lack of teaching skills.

I guess I was trying to make a brochure out of the web site-so it should be shortened.

My first posted response tells about where I am located.

That is the first I have heard about an auto program trying to install and I have been on it numerous times without seeing that. Just to be sure I put in a trouble ticket with the hosting to see what they have to say about it.

The site is difficult to work on, Jesse. Even in Contribute the pages display all out of whack. I am trying to fix this mess but I have no educational background on it, I'm trying to pick things up as I go learning on my own. I am not discouraged at all. I am more driven now. When I'm done I can email the intern's instructor and ask for MY grade!

What Java script exactly do you think is not needed?
 
Posted by: Jesse Member Response
11/7/2006 1:09 PM (CST)
Which Javascript? ALL OF IT except the Google Urchin script for your stats.

Please understand this only about using the right tools for the right job and for this website and your objectives -- keeping it simple is key.

Your navigation needs to be removed from Javascript and done in proper HTML. It's a very strange choice and if a user disables javascipt... they can't get around your website. Bad for usability, bad for search engines, bad for... you get the idea.

The header graphic, change to a nice simple JPEG.
No need for this to be in Flash. I love Flash but it's not serving any purpose here. It would also allow you to strip out a bunch of misused scripts and... you get the idea.

All the "dont' steal this content", the useless encryption scripts... I thought I'd seen the last of this in 1999.

Overall - you'll make it simplier to manage, better for your websites health, and I'll sleep easier knowing this mess is being attended to.

Also - I am surprised the page renders at all. The problems you have in Contribute (great tool for you to use) maybe because the DOC declaration is repeated (i.e. you must only have ONE HTML tag, ONE !DOCTYPE declaration, etc).

I should note that the font and copy layout on most pages is actually pretty good. Readable and good use of white space. Content is king, so you are still winning some battles, just not the war... yet.
 
Posted by: planzon99111 Author Response
11/8/2006 7:59 PM (CST)
Thank you to everyone for taking the time to give your opinions on the web site. All are being considered and I will be making changes from your advice as I learn how to.
 


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