www.hallgate-timber.co.uk

markhallgate · #1 (**permalink**) 08-03-2005, 03:32 PM

hello,
i have made loads of changes to my site lately, including trying to tidy up some code, and a new navigation system (with lots of help from web pro members, thanks). Any criticism (good or bad) is welcome,
thanks,
mark
i will try to return reviews if you want me to, although i am no expert on coding or design.www.hallgate-timber.co.uk

MuNKyonline · #2 (**permalink**) 08-04-2005, 07:49 AM

Not a bad looking site! The navigation is clear and easy to use. The logo is really good and stands out well. Nice clean images that are relevant to the site.

The contact details at the top are a bit too small. It was a good idea to put the telephone number on there in a large font size but it is off the bottom off the screen. I would find somewhere to fit that in closer to the top. There is also no contact page. A lot of people will look for the contact page. It may be a better idea to move all of your contact details to a separate page?

I would also remove that mailto link otherwise you'll get spammed. There are ways of hiding the e-mail link from spammers.

Last of all I would try and use the same font throughout for consistency. Otherwise nice work =)

webhost1 · #3 (**permalink**) 08-04-2005, 09:50 PM

The house pics in the main header area do not look right. I think they off balance you logo.

Red Maz farm is not centered or lined up with the rest of the site. This is a the top of the page.

Might play around with your menu at the bottom of the page and center it. 2 lines. 6 and 6???

CJacobson · #4 (**permalink**) 08-04-2005, 09:55 PM

Mark, I just gave your site a thorough look, and then I read MuNKy's comments, and now I'm annoyed because he said everything I was going to say. (Almost.)

I particularly agree with MuNKy that you should consider adding a "Contact Info" page.

Put your business hours and your complete address, plus phone numbers and e-mail address all in a more convenient and legible format. Then, at the top of every other page you can replace that boring address line with something more marketing savvy. Taking your e-mail address off the home page may shield you from some spam. Making the e-mail address appear as text (but not a hot link) may also help.

I recommend adding a site-map with every single page on your site listed and given a text link with its most important keywords. Put a link to your site-map on every page. A site-map will greatly help search engines properly index your site. It's also user friendly.

I would blow-away the "links" page. If you must provide outbound links (because you're trading them with other businesses, etc.), IMHO it's best for everybody concerned if you move those links to the lower half of your site-map page. (Your site-map is going to get LOTS of visitors, and frequent repeat visits by all the search engine spiders.) To me, just having a "links" page looks unprofessional.

IMHO you've gotten a bit carried away with navigation links in that row at the bottom of every page. Site-map and Contact Info SHOULD be there. I'd leave "Guides" there. But twelve links is too many.

Don't kid yourself that CSS is hard to learn. It shouldn't take you more than an hour to research and to master using CSS to put all your font-management in one convenient place. (You don't HAVE to learn CSS page layout right from the get go.) You can get rid of all those font tags in your code AND you'll immediately notice your site looking more professional. Currently, any place you forget to specify a font my browser shows its default font... so I'm seeing ugly "Times Roman", especially as I dig deeper into your site. I also noticed that font sizes vary from page to page (for example on that address at the top of the page.)

Finally, on the home page I wouldn't center body text within the box on the left-hand side. It'd be much easier to read if it were aligned along the left.

Nice job!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey man, I'd love to hear any comments you have about my most recent project. It's a website for author K.B. Thomas.

MarcieZoob · #5 (**permalink**) 08-05-2005, 05:08 AM

Try centering the site instead of having it sit off to the left (like on your gallery page, which IS centered). On my widescreen, I have almost 40% of the right side of my screen filled with blank white space.

The header of your site needs a little more graphical interest. What you have now looks kind of thrown together, plus your text logo got cropped at the bottom so your shadow is chopped off instead of blending smoothly to white.

I agree with CJacobsen on the body text on the left - please left align instead of centering, it's hard to read as is.

Navigating some of the pages with your menu caused some confusion - some of the links under timber go to the same page and then I had to figure out where Decking was, for example (it didn't jump out at me). I think they s/have their own pages with more photos.

Under Garden Buildings, is there something else you can say other than "Erection Charge"?

webhost1 · #6 (**permalink**) 08-05-2005, 07:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarcieZoob

Under Garden Buildings, is there something else you can say other than "Erection Charge"?

Setup Charge might be a good saying.