Review and Comments Please

E

Ed

Hi All: Using FP03 on WinXP Pro. Redesigned my web and would like some
comments. Both on ease of usability or navigation and general appearance as
well as consumer friendly-informative.Really liked redoing the site and want
it to be somewhat clean & professional looking. Thanks, Ed (the fence guy,
not necessarily a web designer)
 
T

Tom J

Ed said:
Hi All: Using FP03 on WinXP Pro. Redesigned my web and would like
some comments. Both on ease of usability or navigation and general
appearance as well as consumer friendly-informative.Really liked
redoing the site and want it to be somewhat clean & professional
looking. Thanks, Ed (the fence guy, not necessarily a web designer)
Click to expand...

I clicked on this blank space but went nowhere! ;-)

Tom J
 
C

Chris Leeds, MVP-FrontPage

if the company likes it, it's good enough.
I didn't see anything that looked obviously out of place.

HTH

--
Chris Leeds,
Microsoft MVP-FrontPage

ContentSeed: great tool for web masters,
a fantastic convenience for site owners.
http://contentseed.com/
--
 
E

Ed

Looking to do better than good enough. Sure could use even subtle tweaking
if you can spare it. I'm thinking of a flash image of some kind in the big
black square on bottom right. Ed
 
T

Trevor L.

From a rookie, especially in design

I don't like the black background, but that's just me. I do like the way
each page (except the last) fits nicely in a 800*600 screen.

Other aspects look fine, except I wonder why the logo is a shortcut back to
Home, when there is no tip to say so. Since Home is on the top line, is the
link needed anyway?
--
Cheers,
Trevor L.



I choose Polesoft Lockspam to fight spam, and you?
http://www.polesoft.com/refer.html
 
E

Ed

Black background on logo or page? Im thinking of setting logo background to
same color as page 70% gray. last page meaning vertically or are you seeing
extra width beyond 800?
Really appreciate all the comments as this group has helped me with FP and
general web knowledge. Ed
 
S

Steve Easton

Yippee, a site that opens in a 800 by 600 window.

I like it. I didn't check for accessibility though

There's a spelling error here: Cedar Crafted fence installed on concrete ***retaing*** walls with
galvanized brackets

;-)

--
Steve Easton
Microsoft MVP FrontPage
95isalive
This site is best viewed............
........................with a computer
 
D

Dan

Another typo - on the "About UFC" page under "Brief History" you forgot the
apostrophe in "we're" in the third sentence. Spell checker won't find that
because "were" is a valid word. Nice site, Ed.
 
T

Tina Clarke

Ed said:
In My excitement I forgot the URL. Goof. www.unitedfence.com
Click to expand...

http://www.unitedfence.com/

The homepage is a splash page and no good for seo (search engine
optimisation)

If your serious about your website I highly recommended Cricket's Free SEO
Classes

This link includes an overview of the free classes, along with a link to
class registration.

http://www.gnc-web-creations.com/seo-optimization.htm

BOTH the SEO Class and the Marketing Class are required. One must join both
BEFORE one's membership will be approved.

You need content on your homepage .. read google's guidelines on this.

You don't have alt tags on all graphics check out the free fp addon
TP_ErrOmi from http://solution-shelf.com which will do this sitewide for
you, you need to set the options first.

You need a copyright at the bottom of all your pages.

You need a sitemap, privacy policy and disclaimer

don't put hyperlinks borders on graphics

All thumbnails and or pictures should not have a border enabled change them
to nought.
Click a thumbnail to select it.
Right click and choose Page Properties
On the Appearance Tab
Where it says Border Thickness change to 0
Press ok.

You can set this setting to nought globally for FUTURE thumbnails

Go to Tools | Page Options | Auto Thumbnail change Border thickness to 0
press ok.

Showing a hyperlink on a graphic is a very old fashioned thing to do and a
sign of a newbie, this is not appropriate specially for a business site.

If you could write articles on the care and upkeep ... or why certain woods
are better or whatever (you know best) those articles will be spidered and
another intro into your site ... every page is a gateway ... which is why
when your making thumbnails make them open into a larger window which
contains your full template along with some text ... ditto your
photogallerys .. no text no interest to the spiders...

Your main problem is SEO .... if you can learn some CSS (cascading style
sheets) and put all the formatting into a sheet that would help too.

I don't like the green it's too bright .. a more muted natural green would
go well though.

conclusion

Work on SEO
Not a bad site... shows potential.

Tina


http://accessfp.net/ - FrontPage Resource Centre
http://anyfrontpage.com/ - FrontPage Ezine - Free FP Ebook
http://addonfp.com/ - FrontPage Addons
http://frontpage-tips.com/ - Weekly FrontPage Tips
http://msmvps.com/frontpage/ - FrontPage News & Articles Blog
http://frontpage-advice.blogspot.com/ - FrontPage Advice Blog
http://frontpage-ebooks.com/ - FrontPage Ebooks
 
T

Thomas A. Rowe

The home page is not a splash page, as it has links to internal content, and a splash page does not
necessarily effect search engine indexing.

The following are good to have but are not necessarily needed:

A copyright notice (USA the site is copyrighted the moment is created)

A privacy policy statement (only needed if asking users to provide personal identifiable info),

A sitemap is not needed if all content can easily be found by following the navigation structure

A disclaimer... For what?
--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
 
T

Trevor L.

No I meant the whole page is black, except the left which is a dark grey.
Perhaps the logo should be different in colour to the page.

I would use lighter colours, but I am not in any way shape or from a design
expert. I have only recently starting making my own webpage. But they say it
is easier to criticise than to do (and I do mean to be helpful)

Yes, vertically. There is no extra width beyond 800
--
Cheers,
Trevor L.


I choose Polesoft Lockspam to fight spam, and you?
http://www.polesoft.com/refer.html
 
E

Ed

Trevor, Thanks, Just starting a. Lot of fun and I do appreciate the advise
as I will try different things to enhance the site. Ed
 
E

Ed

I want to thank everyone who helped out and took the time to help me. Web
was fun to make and I will look into everyone's advise. The thing I would
like to learn would be CSS. I don't really understand even the basics behind
it but think it expands on the theme concept. I do like working with
FrontPage and know the programs worth my time to learn deeper. As far as
search engine opt I am a local contractor and really not looking for people
around the globe to come to the site. But I do want to be able to refer
potential customers to see my work and have a pleasant experience while
surfing.
Thanks, Again and best to All. Ed
 
T

Tina Clarke

Thomas A. Rowe said:
The home page is not a splash page, as it has links to internal content, and a splash page does not
necessarily effect search engine indexing.
Click to expand...

It improves it ... spash as in NO content.
The following are good to have but are not necessarily needed:

A copyright notice (USA the site is copyrighted the moment is created)
Click to expand...

I live in the UK and the net is universal .. i don't have time to check who
lives where, it also gives the site visitor an indication on when the
material was created .. something I find extremly helpful.
A privacy policy statement (only needed if asking users to provide
Click to expand...
personal identifiable info),

Does he have his email address on his site? To respond to him they have to
send with their email address ... that's personal information which he keeps
in his address book by default - presumbly and or it's in the email unless
he deletes it the moment after reading it ... but probably keeps it for
reference ... hence a pp required... does he live in Calif? Does he live in
the uk? ... Required then. ... plus se's like you to have one.. Plus it
shows your willing to think about such things ... which is good for visitor
trust...I can't remember this site crit .. is he selling stuff? .. then he
needs a pp.

A sitemap is not needed if all content can easily be found by following
Click to expand...
the navigation structure

Some people like to skip the nav and go straight to the sitemap ... (I do
for one.. with different nav systems (specially if they are using a nav bot)
not all the nav shows up on every page .. I like to see all the pages that
are available .. .plus search engines follow the links on that page ... any
help given the visitor is NOT a bad thing.

A disclaimer... For what?
Click to expand...

was he selling something? providing resources? giving help or articles tips
etc? I forget ... but for any of those...

I think I'll write an article on each of my crit reasons in more depth and
just point to that .. that way I won't have to keep typing this stuff out

Tina
 
T

Thomas A. Rowe

See inline

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================


Tina Clarke said:
It improves it ... spash as in NO content.


I live in the UK and the net is universal .. i don't have time to check who
lives where, it also gives the site visitor an indication on when the
material was created .. something I find extremly helpful.
Click to expand...

All you have to do is check the contact us page, if one is provided.
personal identifiable info),

Does he have his email address on his site? To respond to him they have to
send with their email address ... that's personal information which he keeps
in his address book by default - presumbly and or it's in the email unless
he deletes it the moment after reading it ... but probably keeps it for
reference ... hence a pp required... does he live in Calif? Does he live in
the uk? ... Required then. ... plus se's like you to have one.. Plus it
shows your willing to think about such things ... which is good for visitor
trust...I can't remember this site crit .. is he selling stuff? .. then he
needs a pp.
Click to expand...

A email address is not really identifiable, as you have no way to really determine who the person is
behind an email address. If you have info/links on a laws in the Calif and the UK please drop me an
email with them or post here.
the navigation structure

Some people like to skip the nav and go straight to the sitemap ... (I do
for one.. with different nav systems (specially if they are using a nav bot)
not all the nav shows up on every page .. I like to see all the pages that
are available .. .plus search engines follow the links on that page ... any
help given the visitor is NOT a bad thing.
Click to expand...

As I stated, the above is good to have, but are not necessarily needed.
was he selling something? providing resources? giving help or articles tips
etc? I forget ... but for any of those...
Click to expand...

You still didn't give a reason for having a disclaimer, and what is the disclaimer to disclaim?
 
E

Ed

Looking forward to article. Where do I get such policies? Are there
standards available or would they be copyrighted? Ed
 
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