MetroRichmondRealEstate.com

ccera · #1 (**permalink**) 11-21-2005, 10:43 AM

http://www.metrorichmondrealestate.com

All comments appreciated.
Here is what I already know:
My code won't totally validate. Generates no errors but about 60 warnings. This is due to fairly old sitebuilder software. I can't really fix it without adding a lot of my own html, and I'm not really able to do that.
Weather page - I really want a real time weather magnet, but weather.com provides a script which won't work with my program. If anyone can suggest one that will work, I will be truly grateful!
Several pages need more keyword dense content to help my rankings. Specific suggestions are welcome.
Search listings page frames my broker's search. My choices are to frame it or to simply link to it. However, I used iframe, if anyone knows a more graceful way to do this, I'm open to suggestions.
What would you like to see that I'm missing?
Thanks!
CiCi

webmaker · #2 (**permalink**) 11-23-2005, 06:14 PM

I am not a designer that is why I am always asking for help myself. But My personal opinion is that content is more important. I think that you could have alot more information on you home page by cutting some of it down. I do not think that you need the menu bar at the top. I think that if you give short descriptive links after your tag. Your homepage would be much more effective. It is not easy to do. I have been trying to do it myself. Still working on it. I read that you should never use click here. Rather say what will happen or what people will get when they follow a link.
ex. http://Search for new listings in th...mond area now.
I also think that your tag should be at the top. The first thing people and search engines read.
You have a link to your homepage. This is your home page. If you keep the menu on top for your homepage onle keep the most common links like contact about sitemap. I think you should take the others and make descriptive links about them. ex. You did this with the Relocation link in your content.
Try not to have multiple links to the same place as you did with contact us. Either leave it in the nav bar or in the content.
lastly, the rotating grafic takes up alot of you space. I would move it to the left or right and wrap you descriptive links around it.
Can you not put all of that small print on your about page that is located at the bottom?
Anyway, like I said I am having a hard time following these ideas myself. Let me know what you think about my ideas.

ccera · #3 (**permalink**) 11-23-2005, 10:47 PM

Thanks for the review!

I agree with some of what you said. I have moved the flash image to one side. All of the required fine print would probably be best moved to the about page or even it's own page, but it will take a little while to get it done since I'll have to change the required link to it page by page.

As far as the nav, the only previous feedback I've had was to keep it consistent from page to page. My 5 buttons on top I'm not willing to move, but for row 2, I can at least remove the text from the button for the page I'm on and leave the blank button as a place holder. Would this look better or worse?
CiCi

JuniorOnline · #4 (**permalink**) 11-24-2005, 09:26 AM

Hi there

I tend to view the site in terms of usability and how effective it is to convert what you offer to sales? from what I have seen so far this is what you need to do:

- the main homepage is kind of all over the place. I would highliy recommend getting rid of the photo and Image at the top left corner of the page. You can place these under (about us) or a different page giving more meaning to what they are.

- the top menu you are using feels like a Google advert.. I would suggest stretching it across the page.. or instead do a border around the content.

- Never centre your font : makes it looks un-organised. Learn from what other good, big, well known sites do. Their titles and headings are usually left aligned ;) there is a reason for that.

- font too big (are you using Verdana?)its usually best at size 10.
- for the recent sales page (why not display the images on the left side and have text on the right) ? you can use headings and sub-headings with different colours to give it a nicer touch.
- Alt tags for the (Sales page) probably other pages too needs updating. use relevant keywords which will help you in SEO.

any more questions send me a PM - happy to help.
T

ccera · #5 (**permalink**) 11-24-2005, 06:30 PM

Thanks for all of the great help!
I agree about the font - in fact, I had already started bumping it down a size before you posted!
With some of these things, I am facing software limitations, but I am trying to implement as many of the suggestions as possible.
No one seems to like the top menu, so I am totally changing the nav.
What colors would you suggest for headings and subheadings?
I have pictures on the right on Recent Sales page because there is not a pic for each sale, so I thought it would look less awkward the way it is.
Thanks again,
CiCi

JuniorOnline · #6 (**permalink**) 11-25-2005, 04:21 AM

Hiya:)

Happy to help..

why not use (HR) tags in HTML to break each property from one another. this should make it look more organised.

this is what I would do - keep the background colour as it is, but introduce a middle centralised table with white background and add all the website content inside. you can keep the table at 750 width which gives you enough space to put the information. websites with little content tend to go for smaller use of the page space to make it look fuller...

with white background in that main table, you can use main heading in the same blue colour your currently using and sub-headings in a lighter shade of blue. blue is a very professional colour, just needs to be used in the right amount.

by the way the copy right footer should be at the end, and all other links are on top of it.

The scripts you are using for changing images is really really bad. the spiders would land on the main homepage and probably leave before they index the whole page. I would recommend using all these images across the site to give it more of a nicer look and feel instead of grouping them under one image that keeps changing. what do you think? OR if you really like it this way, why not save the scripts in an external javascript file?

what sort of problems are you having with the html editor? you can always use free html editors from www.downloads.com. sometimes they give u 30 days free trial..

thanks
T

ccera · #7 (**permalink**) 11-25-2005, 10:15 AM

Thanks! I am glad everyone is giving me helpful feedback.
The whole site was done with a sitebuilder using templates. Some changes, such as colors and top image, I can make to template, but most have to be page-by-page. (For instance, I can add a table with their software, but I'll have to do each page separately, and some pages I probably can't do at all, such as the calculators.) Although it allows some user HTML snippets, it doesn't really like them, and it won't run user scripts at all.
If the rotating images will really cause that much trouble, I will replace with a single image. I'm not that attached to it, and no one else seems to be either.
The copyright statement is where it is because the program automatically adds the bottom links, and I don't like them. Maybe I'll just delete the links all together. I am moving all of the fine print to a separate page anyway, but the link to that would be at the bottom without the rows of links the program creates.
CiCi

ccera · #8 (**permalink**) 12-08-2005, 01:16 AM

Don't want you to think I ignored all of the feedback. I started making all of the changes, but I am getting ready to move the site to a new host and continue building with new, more flexible software. It will be great - I will actually be able to do separate META tags for each page, which I can't now.
Just realized I had 3 sites with 3 dif hosts, and thinking of creating more, so I wised up and got a reseller account for the same cost as the 3 I had.
When I get it redone I will post a new thread.
I am pretty happy, since I've gotten 4 leads in the past 10 days, and 3 in the past 4 days. Not bad for averaging only about 15 uniques/day. Think what it will do when it's optimized!
CiCi

MarcieZoob · #9 (**permalink**) 12-09-2005, 07:16 AM

When trying to use your "Search Listings", I was completely put off by having to give you my email address before I could even look. You're going to lose a lot of site visitors that way (and potential buyers).

ccera · #10 (**permalink**) 12-09-2005, 10:33 AM

You're right, Marcie, it will chase a lot of people away. It is a calculated risk, however. The alternative is to simply let people search as they wish and hope they call me. Out of fewer than 60 unique visitors in the past 5 days, three of them have actually filled out the form with not only email, but real names and phone numbers. I've found so far that often those who are serious potential clients will fill out not only that form, but multiple forms on the site.
So far, only one person has submitted made-up info. Which, of course, is the alternative available.
I've also been surprised by the low number of exits from that page. I actually expected that number to be high compared with other pages.
Thanks,
CiCi

ccera · #11 (**permalink**) 12-27-2005, 02:56 PM

I made many of the changes which had been suggested before moving my site to the new host. I now have many more options available to me, but would like your thoughts before I continue.
I have already redesigned the home page, and would like to know which you like better. I started from a template using CSS and then changed the colors, font style and size, and header image (in other words, I kept the soho layout and chyanged the rest!). Obviously I am leaning toward this new look, in no small part due to the use of CSS and the vastly simplified code. However, if the more organic look of the rest of the site appeals to everyone, I could still more or less recreate it with my style sheet. The one thing I don't want to do is leave the huge mess that makes up the current code for these pages.
I am aware that the menu on the gray pages is horrible, different for nearly every page (I had to change it to default settings for my software, which aren't really logical). If I decide to go with the gray, I will fix the nav so that the links match those on the new home page.
To see the new home page: www.metrorichmondrealestate.com.
To see the gray version which I had changed to from the old blue, click on any link on the home page.
Oh, one more thing. I was thinking that if I go with the new look, I might put the form Marcie was talking about in the newsbox on the left of the listings search, so that it's optional rather than mandatory. Any opinions?
Thanks,
CiCi

SnerdeyWebs · #12 (**permalink**) 12-27-2005, 04:47 PM

Here's my reivew only cause you asked me so kindly =)

HOME
Links are light purple? Change to blue cause it's just going to be too hard to read.

Put in a couple more paragraphs to bring the images at the bottom a little closer to the end of the page to get rid of most of the white space.

MENU
That menu should not change or move. When I visit other pages it's all different. Not good. Then, there is a different full menu on the other pages. Why hide them?

RELOCATION
I think there is a copyright issue here. Mapquest does not allow anyone to take a map and copy it to a website. What I would do is insert a frame I guess and have it load up a map with info set to that area. There are some instructions on Mapquest or Google maps that should help. I think there is even a add this map to your web site link on one of them

* I would look into that right away =)

LINK ROLLOVERS
When you change the link color.. be sure and change the rollover as well. It almost dissapears!

SEARCH
Wow, search is just too plain. How about adding a bunch of popular results manually under the search area or something.. anything =)

CALENDAR
Nobody is going to download that thing =) not in their right minds. So, I suggest a calendar for you that we place on many sites and it's free. Just visit this calendar website and select if you want to embed the code ( I would ) or link to it. Now, when you make changes to it the site will update automaticly. Nice tool!

Ok, I gotta hit the road for a meeting. But, once you consider these changes let us know when you've made some adjustments and I will be happy to review again until it's just right!

And, thank you for reviewing my other site today!

ccera · #13 (**permalink**) 12-27-2005, 05:24 PM

Snerdey,
Thanks for your help. I will darken the link colors (and rollover) a bit. I will also doublecheck them on an LCD screen this time. Colors in general seem to show a bit darker on my screen than on most.
I got the Mapquest map from someone who should have known better. I will change the map to one not destined to get me in trouble. ;)
The calendar - YIKES - must not have liked the hosting switch - it was functional before. I will fix immediately or check yours out if I can't.
Menu- I know it should stay the same. Once I decide between the two layouts, I will have a properly set menu. I am going with the short version, though. To answer the "why hide them?" question, it was suggested that my original full menu of about 20 items was simply too much for viewers to wade through, so I only list the broad categories with text links for anything else. The other alternative would be foldouts, I guess, but that is beyond my technical expertise at this point.
Still didn't get an answer to my main question - should I go with the look on the home page or that of the other pages?
Thanks,
CiCi

SnerdeyWebs · #14 (**permalink**) 12-27-2005, 05:48 PM

opps.. the new look =)

ccera · #15 (**permalink**) 01-02-2006, 10:26 PM

Okay, the whole site has now been converted to the new look. What can I do to further improve it?
I am still trying to go through each page and improve use of meta and alt tags.
I did not replace the search or site map pages. Does anyone think I really need them?
Also, Snerdey mentioned adding text to the home page to cut down on the blank space. I completely agree, but every time I write something there I end up removing it. I definitely need another paragraph. Any general thoughts?
All constructive feedback is greatly appreciated. :)
CiCi

ccera · #16 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 11:04 AM

I am getting a lot closer to valid code. My home page and many of the others completely validate. My form pages seem to generate the most errors, and I am scared to mess with them too much-at least now they function.
I came into this not even knowing what I didn't know. I have learned a lot here.
I decided to build the site myself after researching other Realtor's sites throughout my area. Nearly all of them have the same 2 weaknesses: they are all built using one of 4 real estate site builders (with a LOT of the same content) and they use the agent's name as the domain name. The prevailing thinking on the domain name is to keep your name in front of the viewer, but I think you need to get them there first. Which would you click on during a search, "cicielder.com" (which does point to my home page, BTW) or "metrorichmondrealestate.com"?
The downside of doing it myself is that I needed to try to avoid a homemade look, and I had to create a huge amount of content (although ERA does provide some resources for us to use in our advertising as we see fit).
Thanks to everyone for their help in getting me this far. Any further advice would be greatly appreciated.
CiCi

NewZeal · #17 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 04:42 PM

Hi cici

Your site is well-presented, laid out, easy to navigate and gives a professional appearance.

I am wondering about the brown and grey blocks top left. They don't seem to serve a purpose and muck up the colour scheme.

I tried the top of page button at the bottom of the page and only got to the top of the content. I realise you are a code newbie, and I have no idea what access you have to the code, but I can tell you how to make the page return to the top proper if you think you want to give it a try.
Near the bottom of each page you will have a line similar to this:
Return to Top

Delete the page title so that you have
Return to Top

and put the following on the line below <body> nearer the top of your file:
<a name="top"></a>
Try it on one page to make sure it works and make sure you can get back to what it was easily if it doesn't!!

Good luck

ccera · #18 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 07:20 PM

Thanks NewZeal,
These are the kind of little details you just stop seeing after you've looked at it for a while. Originally the site was done with a site builder which used images for the page headings, so the top of the content was as high as I could put an anchor. I didn't even think of moving them now that I could.
That brown and gray was leftover from the template on which the new look was based. When I changed the colors, etc, I never changed that little image. It is now white and blue, but I still think I need to either try to match the blue sky in my header or one of the darker blues. I also need to center that logo, or at least go a bit to the right, but it has to be done page by page (all 38!).
I have complete access to the code now, so these type of tweaks are much easier. My biggest problem seems to be the forms, which don't validate and according to a Mac user (in G&D forum), show up funny in Mac browsers. I am working on finding different form maker software.
Thanks again,
CiCi

JuniorOnline · #19 (**permalink**) 01-10-2006, 12:17 PM

in comparison with what we saw before and what we are seeing now.. its 180 degrees of change. I am really impressed! Great new layout and design..

my only suggestion would be to make the font smaller.. verdana looks nice in size 9 and 10

Good work:))

ccera · #20 (**permalink**) 01-13-2006, 05:15 PM

Thanks for all of your input. I am still working on a few things:
I have put my "call to action" on the top of my home page, and am thinking of doing it that way throughout. Does anyone have a better idea of how to get this above the fold before I do that? Also, is it possible to add it to my css file instead of doing each page manually?
My visitors are not going as deep into my site as they were with the old version. I think this is a direct result of the menu style. The old version had secondary links on most pages. Any suggestions on what might work best? Can anyone suggest a good css menu tutorial?
I am working on converting the forms to php. Only the Contact Us is completed.
Still working on improving content overall. Any particular suggestions?
Thanks,
CiCi

nexthost · #21 (**permalink**) 01-14-2006, 12:30 AM

I think your website is looking good. One visual change I would make is to change the font for the -
For the Personalized Attention YOU Deserve,
Contact CiCi Today! (804)437-6974
text at the top of the page - in its current font/size it is not very clear. I would also put it at the top of all the pages.
One content/usability change I would make is remove the registration of my details. When I visit RE sites I want to SEE what properties you have - I dont want you calling me unless I specifically ask you to.

nexthost · #22 (**permalink**) 01-14-2006, 12:32 AM

I think your website is looking good. One visual change I would make is to change the font for the -
For the Personalized Attention YOU Deserve,
Contact CiCi Today! (804)437-6974
text at the top of the page - in its current font/size it is not very clear. I would also put it at the top of all the pages.
One content/usability change I would make is remove the registration of my details. When I visit RE sites I want to SEE what properties you have - I dont want you calling me unless I specifically ask you to.

ccera · #23 (**permalink**) 01-15-2006, 03:50 PM

Thanks, nexthost, for your comments.
I think the text at the top of the home page is looking better now. I am working on adding it to all of the pages, but there are about 40 of them now, so it will take a little while.
I understand where you are coming from regarding the form before searching. Actually MarcieZoob made a similar comment earlier in this thread. However, a large percentage of my local visitors actually fill it out, and the purpose of the site IS to generate leads. I tried adding a "No thanks, I'll just search" option, but then I wasn't getting many forms filled, of course. I have a couple of ideas which may work out to be more user friendly while still fulfilling the purpose of the site. I will repost as I test things out.
Meanwhile, if anyone here wants to try out the search page, you can enter false info or simply go to http://www.metrorichmondrealestate.com/SearchNow.html.

Quote:

I dont want you calling me unless I specifically ask you to.

Also, it is important to note that phone number is not a required field on the form.

Thanks,
CiCi

quickcreative · #24 (**permalink**) 01-15-2006, 06:53 PM

The site looks good.

If you don't enter a required field, I'd trap that myself and redisplay the form with the error. It'd look a bit neater than the formmail error.

ccera · #25 (**permalink**) 01-15-2006, 08:32 PM

Thanks Robert. You're right, it would look neater to do it that way. In the mean time, I think I should at least change the field names so that the message is better. I am just learning how to make forms, so I will adjust them more as I learn more.
There are some disadvantages to doing a site of this size myself when I am just learning, but the alternative was to have a cookie-cutter site like every other agent in our area.
CiCi

ccera · #26 (**permalink**) 01-22-2006, 05:59 PM

Okay, Marcie, nexthost, and everyone else. I have changed my search page to encourage visitors to give their info without requiring it. If you click on "search" in the promo box or the "search listings" button, it takes you right there.
Do you all approve?
Thanks,
CiCi

janeth · #27 (**permalink**) 01-22-2006, 11:30 PM

I did'nt read all the other reviews so forgive me if I repeat stuff others have said.

I would fix the header so it went all the way across the top of the page.

Right now it looks like I'm missing something at the top.

I would move the picture to the top and the text under the picture.

I would also try the background the same color as the left menu just to see how it looks.

The picture is a nice touch but how would it look if you moved the picture into the text instead of the header?

ccera · #28 (**permalink**) 01-23-2006, 12:43 AM

Janeth,
Thanks for your review. Actually, none of it was already said.
I did change the background color and I think it's growing on me. :)
I can try resizing my image to make the header stretch across. I didn't want to make it too high, but I can check it out and see how it looks.
I'm kind of partial to having the call to action above the header and the picture in the header, although I am planning to add more images to the pages without them.
Thanks again for your input,
CiCi

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