www.ianhart.net

billyboy · #1 (**permalink**) 12-13-2003, 08:39 AM

This is a site I worked on together with my brother and was completed about a couple of months ago... Please take a look at it, I'm very interested in opinions and advice.
www.ianhart.net
Thanks guys. Billy

christoefar · #2 (**permalink**) 12-13-2003, 09:38 PM

I'd like to be able to find a fault somewhere, but I can't, ace site.

Good Look.

tkeneipp · #3 (**permalink**) 12-13-2003, 09:57 PM

Just a couple of little things...

Some of the pages are quite long. You might want to add a "top of page" link at the bottom or a text based anvigation at the bottom so you don't have to scroll up to get to the next page.

If you feel like playing with it a bit, you might try moving the navigation below the big image. My eye sees the navigation, then the image and wants to keep on moving down the page, but I have to look up again to find the navigation.

If you do try the above, I would then make the url part of the main image and lose the faint repetitions of it. That way the image would be at the top of the page and you would gain more screan space for content.

Finally see what it would look like if you removed the borders from the tables and let the background act as a more subtle frame.

Above all that it is a every nice site! I would call it smoooth. It's easy on the eye and the imagry is captivating. Well done.
_________________
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felicity1127 · #4 (**permalink**) 12-14-2003, 08:54 PM

Nice site. I do agree though that some of the pages are a bit too long. But overall a very good site.
Patti

mruser · #5 (**permalink**) 12-15-2003, 12:56 AM

I noticed some code not handeled by my browser though
<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> may want to check your comments. I'm using Galeon on a linux box. I also noticed there are no meta tags for copyright or description. Good little layout though. Very kewl.

Shadows_Papa · #6 (**permalink**) 12-15-2003, 09:15 AM

Greetings. I see mainly technical issues - as mentioned, the line <%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> is not handled - I use Firebird, it's pure Mozilla, on all sorts of Windows platforms.
Looks to me like you could kill these lines:

<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%>

You don't have description or keyword meta tags. You really should have description, keyword tag is still used by some engines, not so much by the big boys (easily abused). Description also shows up in the results of some searches. Either way, get at least those two tags in, the others are non needed (copyright, author, etc. - skip them, useless)
I'd change the title - remove the hashes. Use a comma instead.

With the browser full screen at 800x600 (the most widely used size in the world) I see the word "home" in the lower left. It does nothing. People will see it as what it says - "home". It's a distraction and does nothing, I'd have to ask why it's there.
This site lends itself perfectly to CSS - meaning you can kill all those old deprecated font tags and describe a standard font in a single file - which would be cached. More speed, and better search results.
If you want to be found, move some content - WORDS - closer to the top of the file. I had to scroll to near the end to find text. Not good for search engines. Your preload script, IF used on other pages, should be moved to a different file and "called". It would also then be cached and reused. Again better for loading the page.

I think now I see why the word "home" in the lower left - I think I'd move that up. Seems the top graphics take too much. I have to scroll down to get beyond the "header". I guess personally I'd shrink that so I can more quickly see content.

The pages are fast - especially considering I'm on dial-up. I was surprised considering the number of graphics. Good.
The words "home", "biography", "media gallery", etc. would be best as words, not graphics. It would speed loading even more AND would give you some text content! Always use plain text where you can, it puts you at an advantage for being found. Define the <h> tags in a CSS file and use text in tags like <h2>biography</h2> instead of the graphics. I'd also move them up to the upper left. Those of us who don't normally run browsers in full screen mode will see them then. And, search engines will like them.

Good pages, easy to navigate, quick loading graphics, as said, "smooth", but I guess it bothers me that no matter what page I go to, all I see is the same header graphic. It shouldn't take the full screen. I should see the page differences, otherwise, page to page looks the same, I must scroll down to see anything. I should see it with no effort. I should see "content" in the first screen, otherwise after a few minutes on the site, the header begins to become annoying and in the way feeling. Hate to say that because you've done such a good job with it. Don't scrap it, just shrink it and rearrange a bit.

billyboy · #7 (**permalink**) 12-15-2003, 01:18 PM

Hey, these are very good suggestions! Thanks a lot. I'm gonna talk to my bro on that and see what we can change. Indeed, the site isn't found easily with any of the search engines. You think if I use more plain text it will get a higher rank? Any idea about ranking on google?

christoefar · #8 (**permalink**) 12-15-2003, 02:11 PM

The more key words you use in your text the better, in your meta tags you should include keywords, and put the key words in you body, this increseses the key word relitivity, how much the key words relate to the content. (sorry about spelling).
I don't know that much about this, but I think what I said was right?!

Good Look

Shadows_Papa · #9 (**permalink**) 12-15-2003, 05:58 PM

In a word - yes.
Search engines like "content". This means "words", not just any words, words that relate to your site, or what you do, etc.
In our case, my wife sells quilting supplies, fabric, books, etc. So, our site has words "quilt" and "supplies" and "fabric" in the page content, and the title has the name of the business and the key words.
Other page titles are like "quilting books at name of business" and a description tag would have "quilting books, supplies, fabric and software at name of business" that way anyone lookinf for quilting software or quilting supplies will be shown a list of pages with those words. If I've done my job, we'll be right up there in the first few. In your case, you could end up #1 as you won't have a lot of competition - we have a LOT of competition. Use key words wisely, don't repeat them over and over in the title and description, make sure what you put in the title, description and key words tags appears on the body of the page - if I look at our pages, those words above are in the body more than once, just once in the description, etc.

Hope that helps!

Shadows_Papa · #10 (**permalink**) 12-15-2003, 06:08 PM

Hey cool chris - it wasn't the Queen's English, but it was understandable and correct!

:-)

Take a look at www.thequiltjunction.com for examples - look at the title, the placement of the title, the description and key words - note those same words are used in the body.
It's like this - a teacher gives you 3 new words to learn to spell and use. The assignment - use these 3 new words in a story with 50 words or less. That's the body. Pick your key words - this is easy, the chaps name! maybe "movie" or "play" or whatever else he's involved with and use those words as your "key words".
That's it! (well, pretty much, not enough room here for a lot of expansion on the topic)

Hey - anyone want to do a search for "quilt supplies iowa" or "quilt shop iowa" and tell me why another site does better than US??!!??

billyboy · #11 (**permalink**) 12-16-2003, 06:52 AM

You're absolutely right, I already started making some changing plans :). You're really a great help and it's obvious you know much more about sites than I do. I'm just a beginner.
But tell me please, if more people view my site, is it gonna be more popular and google friendly and all that? Because it is a shame, very few people have seen it. I mean the forum is practically empty. I'm sad about that because I wanted to do something big and then I opened my eyes:). Heck I said... not that easy. But it's a matter of knowing some little smart tricks I think. Pls tell me about popularity and google if you can...
Thanks a lot, I owe you a great deal.
Billy

LantanaD · #12 (**permalink**) 12-16-2003, 07:59 AM

I thought your site was great. Very professional looking.

On the biography page, I thought that it looked like the FULL NAME was larger or a different font. Or maybe it is my eyes. Also, the FULL NAME made it sound like you were being booked, or filling out an application. Just my opinion.

Lisa
www.lantanadesignwear.com

Shadows_Papa · #13 (**permalink**) 12-16-2003, 08:55 AM

Ahhhh, Google. It's very unfortunate Google is on the pedistal it's on and worshipped so much. They are out for one thing - big bucks. Going public will be their downfall, they will start to treat their employees like crap, they will cut benefits, and we'll be suffering on the other side. Trust me, I've been there.......
Anyway, link popularity is only a small part of Google's thing. A part, yes, but don't get OVER concerned. Keep it as part of the total package. You want GOOD content, no, GREAT content. Good use of keywords. That's the keys. From there, others will see, then like, then link to the site. I can tell you that helps sometimes, but it's not everything. Our site has twice as many large sites linked to us than our competitors, yet our competitor, a site up for only a few months and with only 3 other sites linked to it, comes out on top. We have at least a dozen linked to us (it's an industry where links are rarely exchanged because of competition, etc. - it's not an information site, it's a business site, so no other quilt store site in their right mind would link to us)
Why are we not #1? Dunno. We have more links, we've had thousands of hits, people like us, yet on Google, we don't rank #1. Another local store's small site does.
What you can do - search Google for sites like yours, see if they would exchange links. I know for example, I'm a BIG fan of the Moody Blues and if you do a search for them you will get a big list of sites. Sites like that seem very willing to exchange links. Each site dedicated in some way to the Moodies seems to also have a list of links to other similar sites. That's cool. Commercial sites are less likely - if someone finds us do you think I want to link to a competing store so our visitors can leave and visit them? No. It's like if a customer walks in would I say, by the way, there's another store up the street you should visit. I MAY say that as they leave AFTER they buy something, but you don't have that control on the web. On the flip side I find that when I ask if others will link to us, they say no, because they don't want their customers to leave their site and go to competition. Thus no quilt store site will link to us. They all say NO. Many will tell you why they won't link to us - competition. In your case, it should be easier.
However, the real key is wise use of content - make the site appealing, good use of words - in plain text so search engines can "read" it, make people want to visit, and then others may be very willing to link to it. If your site was junk, and I had a good site on the same or a similar subject, I'd not be willing to link to you, but make yours good and I'd be happy to.
Like they say - "build it and they will come......."
I say - "build it WELL and they will come"

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