Howdy folks. I'm new to this forum and am hoping to meet some others who are working on web pages and get some feedback on my site. I'm pretty much open to any and all opinions.


Thanks in advance!
dwbears

Hi Dan,

Welcome to Texas! I enjoyed looking at your site, and the really neat things you have made. I especially loved the stand-up puzzles. Too bad I don't have toddler grandbabies!

About your site....I liked the organization of it very much, it was clean, simple, straightforward and to the point, very relevant to your products, and it has a friendly and welcoming atmosphere.

I am not sure if you really want those table borders to show like they do or not. Have you tried the pages by reducing the table border pixels to 0? If not, you might give it a try and see if you like that way any better. They really aren't bad, but I'd like to see what the pages look like without them, too.

One thing I would avoid...even though it is very nice..is the "entry" page. You really don't need that. It is aggravating to click on a site to go and see what it is all about, and then have to click again to enter. I am entering the first time I click, so why should I have to "enter" again? Don't misunderstand me, I do like the first page, but I just don't think it is necessary.

On your home page, I see you do not have a title in your source code. You should include a very descriptive title (it won't show on your screen, just in the source code). That is primiarily for search engines, and you also need a meta description and some keywords that will help people find your site.

At the bottom of the home page, I would add a lengthy discussion of your products, etc., using as many keywords as you can think of. The search engine will pick up this "rich content." You might do some research on search engine optimization and page ranking.

Have you included a complete description of each product in the ALT tag? If not, I suggest you do so, as many people have graphics turned off when browsing the web, and the search engines will pick up the text. If you use tables, it is good to include a table summary outside the table.

You need a lot more relevant links...reciprocal ones. If you are interested, please e-mail me and I will suggest a forum where you might find a number of them.

You might wish to take a look at my site, www.neckwares.com, and view the source code on the home page. While it isn't perfect and is a work-in-progress, because I am learning, too, you will see what I mean about title, meta description and keywords. Also note, that I added quite a bit of text at the bottom as an afterthought, when I found out about the need for "rich content." It was only a temporary addition, and I am working on much better content at this writing.

I have also been working day and night on gathering links, and just got my Links page up yesterday. I realize now that I will have to organize them a little better, but that will be taken care of soon. Maybe you can get some ideas from my site.

I hope I have been of some help to you.

Tested in IE6 56k modem 800x600. Loads nice and fast. Might be nice if the links changed colour when the mouse is passed over them. Otherwise, a good solid design. Good luck with it.

Nick

Thanks for the tips. I'm trying to keep my site as informative as possible about the products and at the same time keep it as simple as possible to avoid lengthy load times for the pages. I'll definately go check out your site Najoba and see if I can pick up some techniques I'm sure I need.

I think I understand what you mean about using descriptions in the ALT tags. Right now there is a very brief description of what each graphic is. Probably a two or three word description. So, you say I should use a COMPLETE description?

I'll go check some of the possiblities you suggested and see what tweeking I can do in the next few days.

Thanks for the comments!
Dan[/code]

Najoba,

I checked out your site and I really like the way your images are animated when you click on them to show differnt views. I think this style would also work well on some of my items. Thanks for giving me some insentive to improve. When first reading on web design and the basic HTML books they were always saying to keep the site as simple as possible to avoid long load times. Since I'm using a DSL account I'm not sure what is a long load time now for folks using dial ups & modems. Will adding the animations to the images slow the page down or does it only affect the time of opening the image and not the whole page?

BTW, I went and changed the frame borders on most of my pages if you care to see. I agree that the pages I've changed look much better without the boarders.

Thanks again,
Dan

www.bearinthewood.com