Hello all, I have recently performed a redesign of this site and most of it is from a code standpoint. I'm trying to bring this site to a more current code mix, and I'd like it to be more Search Engine friendly.

I'd love some feedback on the initial design, visual appear, crossbrowser friendliness and so forth.

I'm still tuning the code on the search results page, as well as within the forums, but I think it's going in the right direction.

I'm also trying to figure out the best way to build links into this type of site. I'd love suggestions to improve and build quality traffic for this site. I'm always open to hearing what other pros have to say.

http://www.marriedinmaryland.com is the web site.

Also, please let me know if you think I should work on the navigation to make it more natural, or if I missed easy and quick links that people should be able to see.

Finally, I'm thinking of implementing a "lead" form type setup on the site, and I'm not sure of the best place to put that form. Should I incorporate it into the each page of the site, or just provide a link? I'm also wanting to start selling the "profile" pages on the site and including a unique form on there as well, so I can pitch direct leads to specific vendors.

Any ideas and thoughts on how to promote this to advertisers? Value proposition and such? I want to see what others think.

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We offer a total eCommerce solution with eCommerce Web Design using Pinnacle Cart

My first impression is there are way, way too many words on your home page. It'd be much more attractive if you blew away some of the redundant and unnecessary copy in favor of more white space.

For example, five places across the bottom you say "Visit our blah-blah-blah forum to get..." Why not just blow that B.S. away and cut to the chase? For example, under "For the Bride", why not just say "Meet other brides, get answers to wedding questions, share wedding ideas"?

I think you could make pretty much every single sentence pithier. Another example: "all around the state of Maryland"? Why not simply "across Maryland" (since there's no city or county called "Maryland", there's no need to say "state of"...)

"We feature vendors that are located and service Maryland brides." First of all... I'm concerned about anyone who "services" brides! Bulls "service" cows!!! And did you mean to say that the vendors are located in Maryland brides - because that's an equally disturbing way to read the copy. (You would do well to hire a professional copy writer and a professional graphic artist.)

"Check out this weeks featured vendor" should read "Check out this week's featured vendor". (Although... vendor is really the wrong word, isn't it? It invokes someone who sells a commodity, like steel or bolts. Your site's sponsors provide happiness and light! Can you find a word for them that suggests their thoughtfulness and the personal care they put into their work? Instead of calling them vendors, at least call them "specialists" or something less industrial sounding.)

Incidentally, the logo for "Heirloom Photography by Joan" made me think Joan specializes in wedding caligraphy (invitations, etc.)... not photography!

IMHO, "For the Bride", "For the Groom", "Your Ceremony", "Your Reception" and "Your Honeymoon" appear too many places. Why? It looks cluttered to me.

In terms of overall look... I think the design is pretty gloomy for a wedding website. The largest photo is the focal point of the home-page... and it looks like someone's wedding happened on a totally stormy day. Can't you substitute a color photo from a lovely spring day? Something with blooming flowers instead of storm clouds. Maybe pick up some prettier colors in your design? IMHO, your color scheme invokes football team jerseys... NOT flowers.

As for the code... I think you've done pretty well. Congratulations! Your HTML passes "validation". Your CSS has just one easily-fixable bug.

When you have a minute, please contribute a review here: http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=68625

Sorry, but it looks like a site for auto parts, not weddings. Why are the images of people so small and the icons so big. What's that icon for 'Your Honeymoon' all about? Is that a missile? The Bride looks like a Christmas tree and the Groom is shrugging his shoulders.

I never like the idea of no home link (other than the logo/name).

I would say a rethink is on the cards...

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Paul Bilton design services ~ Sites not Sights

Wes, here are my 13 cents to your site:

1. The "height" and "width" attributes should be used with the "img" elements. Using these attributes generally result in faster and smoother (less jumpy) rendering. Using them is also considered to be good style.

2. Consider using the "width" attribute with the "table" element. This is considered to be good style and can cause the table and page to render faster. Note that this is not a deprecated attribute in HTML 4.01 nor XHTML 1.0. It's also a valid XHTML 1.1 attribute.

3. It is usually best not to specify the actual index document name "index.html". Consider using href="http://www.marriedinmaryland.com/for_the_bride/" instead.

4. You might would consider using the <meta name="keywords" content="(actual keywords)" /> to provide keywords that are relevant to each page.
This information is used by many search engines when indexing a site.

5. Identify the primary natural language of a document., but not with the Content-language meta tags, as are not known to be used by any browser. It is recommended that this meta tag not be used.

You can try using one http-equiv tag on a page, but never more than one. Only use http-equiv tags as a last resort, not as a common search engine marketing strategy. It's a strategy that you need to use with caution.

Instead, it is recommended that the "lang" attribute be used to specify the language, like <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> for an entire document in English or <p lang="de"> for a paragraph in German.

6. To maximize the perceived affordance of clickability, underline your links text. Users shouldn't have to guess or scrub the page to find out where they can click.

7. Provide summaries for tables. If appropriate, consider using a "caption" element to describe or identify the nature or purpose of this table. Use this element immediately after the "table" start tag.

Be aware that the contents of this element does appear as on-screen text and should not be the same as the contents of the "summary" attribute.

8. Use relative rather than absolute units in markup language attribute values and style sheet property values. More about this: http://webxact2.watchfire.com/themes...tent_G104.html

9. Separate adjacent links with more than whitespace. More about this: http://webxact2.watchfire.com/themes...ntent_G35.html

10. Use header elements to convey document structure and use them according to specification. http://webxact2.watchfire.com/report.asp?t=2

Also, consider that search engines place a lot of relevance to keywords found in heading tags. Use heading tags, and place your keyword phrase toward the beginning of the tag, when possible.

It is important that your keyword is present in the very first heading tag on the page regardless of its type.

If the keyword is also used as a first word, you will raise its prominence. So try beginning the body of your page with a heading tag rather than a graphic.

Also, consider using heading tags in a graduated manner, beginning with an "H1" tag, then one or two "H2" tags, an "H3" tag, and so forth.

11. Use header elements to convey document structure and use them according to specification. More about: http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/Use_h1_for_Title

12. CSS document has an error: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/v...e%2Fstyles.css
Also take care, when a foreground color is defined, it is recommended that a background color also be defined (by using the "background" or "background-color" property). This helps to avoid conflict with user-defined style sheets and to improve accessibility.

13. Fix your endless broken links.

I hope that all above helps.

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"Being an expert isn't telling other people what you know. It's understanding what questions to ask, and flexibly applying your knowledge to the specific situation at hand. Being an expert means providing sensible, highly contextual direction." Jeff Atwood
SEO Workers - Search Engine Optimization Consulting Company | SEO Analysis Tool | Webnauts Net SEO

Okay, so here is the first round of redos, tried to clean up the home page. Got no idea what to put there! Sooooo...it's a little empty now, but there is some feel and organization.

I changed the entire color scheme and I'm hoping that it feels more "feminine" to all.

Still going through lots of things, please keep suggetions coming.

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We offer a total eCommerce solution with eCommerce Web Design using Pinnacle Cart

I think it's much improved already! Less cluttered. You might try spacing things out vertically a little bit more...