Please review my dog trainer website

alegriadj · #1 (**permalink**) 09-02-2008, 05:23 PM

Hey there friends,

First of all, thanks to all the great posters on the forum. You hae all helped me learn more than any single course can teach. I've already posted several websites for review and gotten fantastic suggestions to make them better.

Here is my latest:

Dog Training Nassau Suffolk Long Island

Any thoughts on making it better?
Flash too long to load? Suggestions for shortening load time?

I am most grateful.

frost · #2 (**permalink**) 09-02-2008, 06:30 PM

Hi there,

I should point out that I am a coder mostly so I tend to check on the functionality of a site rather than the design.

Heres my review/nit picking:

I am not a huge fan of flash but what you have here loaded up nice and fast.

You do use up a fair bit of real estate with that banner area, then you have the 3 large areas under it (My Approach etc), this causes the site to be pushed way down and smaller resolutions might not even see your content under it. Making this area smaller should save you some load time and reveal your content better.

In your services menu there is a blank box under "refresher".

When I click "home" in the menu i get a 404 page - http://www.haveleashwilltrain.com/Templates/index.htm

The home page seems to be the only one with a fixed width? I assume this is for the flash? All of the other pages go to 100% of my window, this is a little disorienting for users.

I hope that is helpful.

alegriadj · #3 (**permalink**) 09-02-2008, 07:29 PM

Good stuff Frost, I tweeked up those mistakes. I'm not sure I want to mess with the flash stuff.

davebarnes · #4 (**permalink**) 09-03-2008, 09:23 PM

I think it is too narrow with its width of 760px. I would widen it to 850-900.

For me, the grey and blue just don't feel right for a dog-related website. The colors seem cold and not warm and doogy friendly.

Please, no noise when I mouse over buttons. Noise is not your friend.

cocoon · #5 (**permalink**) 09-11-2008, 10:24 AM

On my screen I see only down to the Long Island Dog Trainer text, and so it feels a bit image heavy on what I initially see - one bit of (nice) flash and 4 other images - it kind of overpowers your top menu and I'd rather see some of the text from further down, telling me about what you do etc.

I much prefer the 'inside site' lh menu navigation, and think it should be on the home page. However I found the grey text on that blue/shaded background difficult to read. I also thought the very light grey text on white in your drop down menus hard to read. Also 'refresher' isn't in a box like the rest of that drop down menu.

wpetra · #6 (**permalink**) 09-12-2008, 08:46 PM

I agree with the previous post about the blue and gray. You could use a "khaki green" for the background and perhaps a maroon/burgundy to replace the blue for example.
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alegriadj · #7 (**permalink**) 09-18-2008, 07:38 PM

Hey there Friends,
Thanks for the great comments. The client decided on the Blue and Gray, it matches his company vehicle along with the tame red, white and blue band at the top. I am working on the drop down links. Any SEO input? I would really like some advice on Search Engine Optimization.