Web Design- viewpoints

Great points, on all accounts.

This thread should be required reading for anyone who is in need of a website, whether they are doing it themselves, or hiring it out.

Great post. Here are a few SEO friendly site tips.

• The most important is your page content. Make sure you have quality content with keywords.
  
• The homepage is your websites most important page. Don't use it as a splash page or use flash. Make sure it has a decent amount of content mentioned above.
  
• Try to avoid using flash since its not spidered as easily and most flash sites are only one page, your index.
  
• Do not use frames because each frame page will be indexed seperately. If someone comes to your content frame page from google they won't see the header, footer, nav, etc.
  
• Use CSS design and navigation to simplify your code making your content higher up for bots to see.
  
• Use descriptive page titles for your pages.
  
• Use alt tags to describe images.
  
• Use title tags on your links.
  
• Use appropriate anchor text when linking to your pages (don't use "click here").
  
• Use description heading tags to describe paragraph content below (<h1>, <h2>, etc)
  
• Use friendly page links with keywords when possibly (automotive_portfolio_​2.html instead of portfolio.php?id=2)

SwitchBlade wrote in post #9330331
I don't want to be cruel, but if I were you I'd invest some money in getting a pro to do it. I've just given the site a cursory glance but if I were looking for a photographer I'd have just closed your site straight after it loaded the home page. You can put some great pictures on a website but unless people are looking for you rather than a photographer in general they are unlikely to look for them after that first impression is set IMHO.

At least you admit that you don't know what you are doing. If you want it to be a marketing tool to make you money then IMHO you should spend money on making it look as good as you can afford.

I have to make money to spend money. Cant afford to pay some one when Im in the negative all the time :/

But you say you glanced and would have left straight off the home page. Care to explain why? I cant improve what I can work with if I dont know whats wrong. I viewed all the major photographer websites in my area and they all pretty much look like mine or worse lol so I was really just trying to follow the trend of the locals

Jay Jay wrote in post #9331211

• Use friendly page links with keywords when possibly (automotive_portfolio_​2.html instead of portfolio.php?id=2)

Totally agree, but is there an "easy" way to convert the dynamic pages to display a more SEO friendly url?

Hi Crystal - I just went out to your site for the first time. I hope you don't mind, but since you asked I'll give you my non-qualified opinion of your site. I don't do sites, so consider me an amateur in this regard.

For whatever reason your main page image took more than 10 seconds to load.... and I've got DSL Elite which is rated at up to 6MB/sec. download. That amount of load time is deadly today. I thought the site link was broken and almost left. I'm sure others would have had less patience.

A number of your photos are very nicely done, with a pleasant artistic touch - I can see rapport between the subjects and yourself.

For the slide show the images don't seem to transition very smoothly - there's a fair amount of jerkiness to them. An inconsistency I also see is the lack of the navigator buttons on the top of the gallery pages. Site uniformity is really important for a nice "feel." Your text seems a bit too jammed in - perhaps a smaller san serif font. You may want to consider dropping the boudoir gallery.

Now that I've been critical - nothing personal - let me be the first to say that I have no idea how to code or assemble a site. I tried to build one myself three years ago and it was beyond me. At the end of the day with a FT job I was just too tired to study manuals and experiment with s/w. My daughters convinced me to hire a pro, and it was the best money I'd spent. I worked with her for several weeks - we went back and forth a lot - but it worked out nicely in the end.

It is now three years later, my site is has become "stale," it needs to be updated, and new copy and fresher images need to highlight a revised business plan. I'm going back to a pro with new ideas, again. - Stu

obnoxiousmom wrote in post #9331252
I have to make money to spend money. Cant afford to pay some one when Im in the negative all the time :/

But you say you glanced and would have left straight off the home page. Care to explain why? I cant improve what I can work with if I dont know whats wrong. I viewed all the major photographer websites in my area and they all pretty much look like mine or worse lol so I was really just trying to follow the trend of the locals

Hikin Mike wrote in post #9331551
Totally agree, but is there an "easy" way to convert the dynamic pages to display a more SEO friendly url?

You can do it pretty easily using mod_rewrite in apache. You need to change your links in your code and then setup the mod_rewrite rule in an htaccess file. There are a bunch of online tutorials online. If you need any help let me know.

EDIT
If you do change your urls make sure you setup 301 redirects for any old pages that are already indexed.

sapearl wrote in post #9332017
Hi Crystal - I just went out to your site for the first time. I hope you don't mind, but since you asked I'll give you my non-qualified opinion of your site. I don't do sites, so consider me an amateur in this regard.

For whatever reason your main page image took more than 10 seconds to load.... and I've got DSL Elite which is rated at up to 6MB/sec. download. That amount of load time is deadly today. I thought the site link was broken and almost left. I'm sure others would have had less patience.

A number of your photos are very nicely done, with a pleasant artistic touch - I can see rapport between the subjects and yourself.

For the slide show the images don't seem to transition very smoothly - there's a fair amount of jerkiness to them. An inconsistency I also see is the lack of the navigator buttons on the top of the gallery pages. Site uniformity is really important for a nice "feel." Your text seems a bit too jammed in - perhaps a smaller san serif font. You may want to consider dropping the boudoir gallery.

Now that I've been critical - nothing personal - let me be the first to say that I have no idea how to code or assemble a site. I tried to build one myself three years ago and it was beyond me. At the end of the day with a FT job I was just too tired to study manuals and experiment with s/w. My daughters convinced me to hire a pro, and it was the best money I'd spent. I worked with her for several weeks - we went back and forth a lot - but it worked out nicely in the end.

It is now three years later, my site is has become "stale," it needs to be updated, and new copy and fresher images need to highlight a revised business plan. I'm going back to a pro with new ideas, again. - Stu

Thank you for looking at it and giving me a decent description of whats wrong on your end from your perspective. I may have to take the time to pay a real designer but with me only having my equipment for 1 year and not knowing how to get my name on the search engines over the last year, also only making $400 after investing $3000, I seriously dont have the funds to pay some one at this moment.

You're very welcome Crystal - I didn't mean to be overly critical... was only trying to give honest, direct, critical opinions.

I've had to face up with some hard realities on my site and my current business approach, and it'll cost me a few bucks to send things down a different path. But hopefully it will pay off in the long term.

Our sites display our work which are like our personal mirrors. We want to feature them in their best light, and we want to be involved intimately in that process. Hence we feel we can be the designers too. Well, it doesn't always work out that way, and I had to face my own ugly truth .

obnoxiousmom wrote in post #9332388
Thank you for looking at it and giving me a decent description of whats wrong on your end from your perspective. I may have to take the time to pay a real designer but with me only having my equipment for 1 year and not knowing how to get my name on the search engines over the last year, also only making $400 after investing $3000, I seriously dont have the funds to pay some one at this moment.

lol, well I would like to think I could be a good designer :P Im one of those people who meddle into everything creative. But maybe Web design is just more than I can handle with all the ins/outs and coding. Ill look around for a designer and check prices. But how do you know you have really found a good designer? And what if you like to frequently change up your pictures? I get bored with my website often and change it like underwear so I dont want to be stuck in a design or forced to pay all over again to add or take away something

That's a tough question Crystal and hard to answer. Ask for links to sites they've designed, go by word of mouth reference, check POTN.... it's almost a coin toss.

As for frequently changing the pictures, I have that problem too. For my new design I'll likely purchase some sort of gallery generating s/w plug-in that I can FTP to the hosting service running my site. I may not be able to code, but I could probably learn how to upload the new galleries, and then perform that function when I've created new material.

Also, fresh stuff like written content and new images I tend to put on my blog which is my "poor man's website" tie-in.

obnoxiousmom wrote in post #9332453
....... But how do you know you have really found a good designer? And what if you like to frequently change up your pictures? I get bored with my website often and change it like underwear so I dont want to be stuck in a design or forced to pay all over again to add or take away something

Jay Jay wrote in post #9332286
You can do it pretty easily using mod_rewrite in apache. You need to change your links in your code and then setup the mod_rewrite rule in an htaccess file. There are a bunch of online tutorials online. If you need any help let me know.

EDIT
If you do change your urls make sure you setup 301 redirects for any old pages that are already indexed.

I've done a bunch of 301 Redirects, but haven't done a mod_rewrite yet. Thanks for the tip!

obnoxiousmom wrote in post #9332388
Thank you for looking at it and giving me a decent description of whats wrong on your end from your perspective. I may have to take the time to pay a real designer but with me only having my equipment for 1 year and not knowing how to get my name on the search engines over the last year, also only making $400 after investing $3000, I seriously dont have the funds to pay some one at this moment.

I thought I have helped you in the past with that, but I can hardly remember what I did yesterday! You can check out this thread: https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=793272

But in a nut shell, I think your title tag 'Welcome to C. M. Strickland Photography. Portrait, Maternity, Newborn, Family, Boudoir and Senior Photography in Anderson and the Upstate of   SC' is WAY too long.

Get rid of the "fluff", like 'Welcome to C. M. Strickland'. You need your location first then a few of your keywords followed by the word 'Photography' or 'Photographer'....all in about 70-80 characters or less. Right now your at 149. Something like 'Belton South Carolina Portrait, Family, Boudoir and Senior Photography'.

Next, you need more content on your home page. I have a short bio on my home page. I would use a <h1> tag emphasizing your specialties helps your view see your key words and Google like that kind of stuff too.

^You did help me with my stuff and I thought I had done what you were saying by adding all the extra stuff to my home page and adding the SEO stuff lol Guess Im still not getting it

obnoxiousmom wrote in post #9332453
lol, well I would like to think I could be a good designer :P Im one of those people who meddle into everything creative. But maybe Web design is just more than I can handle with all the ins/outs and coding. Ill look around for a designer and check prices. But how do you know you have really found a good designer? And what if you like to frequently change up your pictures? I get bored with my website often and change it like underwear so I dont want to be stuck in a design or forced to pay all over again to add or take away something

If you ever decide to change up your site I would be glad to help you out. I offer websites for photographers that you can easily manage the entire site. Just check the link in my signature if you are interested.

obnoxiousmom wrote in post #9331252
But you say you glanced and would have left straight off the home page. Care to explain why? I cant improve what I can work with if I dont know whats wrong. I viewed all the major photographer websites in my area and they all pretty much look like mine or worse lol so I was really just trying to follow the trend of the locals

Right the text seems to be too large and apart from the main heading on the home page all the same size. I'm guessing something is meant to load in the centre of the page but nothing does.

The top two lines I'm reading as "Home Creative" "About Photography" and then my head gets too confused, it would be aided with the "Creative Photography for Every Occasion and Any Location." being in a smaller font size or a change in background colour/border/etc to make the two feel more separate.

The about page is feels like a wall of large text, and that text rolls over your contact details at the bottom. There's not actually a lot there to read, but it almost feels like it with the size of the font.

The pricing page is a mess with different sized text and text rolling over itself.

Your blog on the other hand while basic is a much neater and nicer display for your work than your site.

As I said initially though seeing that first page as a first impression the site feels unfinished and thrown together. I'd have left as it had loaded and looked no further as an "average" browser. People may not be able to make a good looking site but they know what one looks like and will gravitate toward one over a worse looking one. Someone utterly useless can have a great looking site but they'd get more interest as that first impression is what matters.

</harsh>

Now for the constructive part of the criticism. I'm going to assume here that you only have internet explorer on your PC. I'm also assuming that you coded the site yourself. I'd look through your CSS and the CSS on your blog, probably take the nice white/dark grey/blue/orange colour scheme from the blog and use that to alter colours on the main site, change the font to a sans serif one (my personal preference, not everyones) at least for the navigation and contact details. Navigation I'd set in the blue, contact in the orange, header and main text in the grey. Shrink the font size on the menu slightly, and shrink the content text size, maybe add some form of border between the menu and the main text or more space on the home page so that it's more defined.

Having viewed your source code I see that the home page is meant to run a flash movie in the blank space but no-one else knows that. Make sure if you keep it that you display a message that the slide show requires flash and I'd place a plain image underneath myself so that people see at least something even if they can't see the flash.

Hope that feels more helpful than it does horrid.