Website Review

TomB · 28-03-08, 10:02

Hey All,

Hows everyone doing this miserable Friday morning (at least in Edinburgh anyway)

I was wondering if there was anybody that would be interested in giving me some feedback on my new website. I've been building it for about 2 weeks now.

I've asked my friends and they are being polite and saying it looks great, but I want some feedback from people i don't know.

So . . .

www.clearbluedesigns.co.uk

What do you think? Is it good enough? Do you like the design, layout, functionality. If you were a potential web design client would this site inspire you to contact my business or do you think its horrible and what a joke!!! Is the branding ok? Does the content speak for itself or leave you with questions.

I happily work on clients works without problems, but i have the greatest difficulty on my own projects as I am so harsh and nothing ever seems to be good enough (that's not necessarily a bad things as its supposed to be advertising my business), but i'm never 100% happy with it, there is always something niggling at me about it..

All feedback will gratefully received, whether in this forum or by pm.

Thanks in advance everyone and have a good Friday morning!!

Tom

Brian McIntosh · 28-03-08, 10:38

Hi Tom,

I like your site. It's easy to navigate, good pictures and everything loaded pretty fast on my machine. The only niggle I have is the services buttons look a bit childish in my opinion but I've seen a few sites that have the same style of buttons so maybe that's the way things are going nowadays. When I clicked on the e-commerce button I got an error message to say the page was not available.

TomB · 28-03-08, 10:45

thanks snapper.

that was one of my biggest niggles as well.

I really wanted a visual representation of the services, but when trying ot pick pictures and make them into meaningful little squares like that it just didn't work.

I wonder what would work?

so if you need a website, would the site encourage you to contact us?

Go one be honest i can take it!!

Brian McIntosh · 28-03-08, 11:43

Strangely enough, I will be looking for a web developer in the near future. My website is template driven, which works for me for updating it, but is of no use when it comes to SEO and Google rankings. As far as your site giving out the right image, I probably would consider getting in contact.

barryhynd · 28-03-08, 12:15

Hi Tom,

I actually like the buttons but I would say that it's very subjective.

One thing that doesn't feel right for me is the whats new and latest work and the little fsb button should be on the right and not the left. It's also a little inconsistent when you move from page to page. Other than that i think you have the areas covered in terms of contact details and testimonials etc. I think if I found your site (so how good is your seo?) then I would certainly consider contacting you.

TomB · 28-03-08, 13:09

hey barry,

thanks for the comments.

I think it is subjective for teh buttons, some people will look and think yuck how awful, others may like them.

same with the left column i quite like it being there, having it on the right side changes the flow of the website. i've had a quick look though with them swapped around and it kind of works, but would require a re-think of how the end user would use the site.

In which was do you mean its inconsistent. is it because it changes on each page? this was something else i struggled with. i didn't want to be stuck with the same thing on each page, i wanted to put content taht was relevant to the page that the person was looking at. Like in the portfolio section having a callback allowing the person to quickly get in touch with something they see.

but for usability it should be consistent, hmm maybe i could do something about that, thanks for the suggestion.

Hows goods my seo, not bad, i'm no expert but then who is when it come to seo. i got my own website from page 776 of google, to page 4 in three weeks for web design edinburgh, however i've dropped to page 7 as i've just changed all my content, so will have to wait for the next cycle to see how well it does with these new changes.

if you want to chat more, drop me an email and we can chat

Cheers

Tom

RedEvo · 29-03-08, 17:55

I'd say you should add a great strap that sells what you do.

d

TomB · 01-04-08, 13:00

Hi RedEvo,

A strapline is a great idea, don't know why i never thought of that. Now i just have to think of one, without sound cheesy.

i just realised as well i've been reading your seo blog for months now.

tons of useful stuff on there, you have such a great writing style, i find your articles so easy to read, but they feel like they've be written just for me. it was your starter for ten article that first got me started on seo and got my website from page 776 of google to page 4!!

Great stuff!!

Tom

RedEvo · 01-04-08, 13:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom WD

Hi RedEvo,

A strapline is a great idea, don't know why i never thought of that. Now i just have to think of one, without sound cheesy.

i just realised as well i've been reading your seo blog for months now.

tons of useful stuff on there, you have such a great writing style, i find your articles so easy to read, but they feel like they've be written just for me. it was your starter for ten article that first got me started on seo and got my website from page 776 of google to page 4!!

Great stuff!!

Tom

Cheers Tom, very kind of you

d

Greg Findley · 13-04-08, 10:57

Hi Tom,

Just a quick pointer, on your header image- http://www.clearbluedesigns.co.uk/in...s/Banners4.jpg

I would split that into two images, a left part for the logo, saved as a gif, and then right part for the ice cube image saved as a jpg. This should help to keep your logo crisp, assuming its vector? whilst maintaining the image quality for the photo

Greg