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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Brian www.mibservices.co.uk on July 8, 2012 at 21:43

Looks great, easy to view and good photos. Noticed a small typo error in weed control bit, everything else looks sound.

Weed control

We wil keep paths, patios and beds clear of any weeds

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Permalink Reply by Graham Sturman on July 8, 2012 at 21:50

Thanks for your reply, much appreciated
Graham

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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Mick Gammage on July 8, 2012 at 21:55

the header/background image is 3.4 meg in size and takes ages to load

I have optimised it using photoshop and got the file size down to 174k which is still large but will load faster, once the image has down loaded to a visitors PC its not an issue due to it being in the PC's cache and the other pages then load OK

the rest of the site looks good

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Permalink Reply by Graham Sturman on July 8, 2012 at 22:00

Yeah I'd noticed that Mick, the software I use is suppose to optimise the pics automatically, I'll re size it and save it as a png.
Thanks for the advise.

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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Mick Gammage on July 8, 2012 at 22:03

i saved it as a jpg and it was optimised better than a 28 bit png, the 8 bit lost too much clarity and went grainy even though it was only 601k

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Permalink Reply by Graham Sturman on July 8, 2012 at 22:08

Question for you Mick

I design and host my own website and I get loads of email from SEO companies offering me links and back links to other related sites, of course for a fee. Do you think it would be a good idea to link other landscapers to my site and mine back to them, obviously not within my catchment area, as this would increase mine and their sites ranking on google.

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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Mick Gammage on July 8, 2012 at 22:23

yes its always a good idea to get back links off similar sites or same type of niche as yourself but personally not to pay for them off so called SEO experts as all they want is your money, I get them phoning all the time and they can become an interruption to my daily routine

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Permalink Reply by Brett Sheridan on July 9, 2012 at 10:32

Hi Graham,
I'm not a web developer or an expert in this field but having managed a couple of sites from design to on-going development, I've picked up a few tips along the way.

There's a handful of improvements you could make, some easier than others.
It's easy for people like me to pick issues with almost any site but a lot of this game comes down to personal choice so please ignore anything I put that you disagree with.

One thing that is very simple but can have a big affect on the look & feel of a site is a favicon. It's the mini logo you get in the browser address bar, the window tab and also what is saved against the site in your bookmarks, instead of the blank box you currently have. (Notice the 'L' on this site).
They're dead easy to install and there's loads of tutorials online - just google "favicon how to" or something similar.

Here's some other points worth thinking about:

The pages are all numbered instead of being named. I haven't looked into how you have created the site for all the links to correspond but it may be worth changing this so each page and link is named. Just be aware of how the links are formed and the issues you may experience when changing them as they may 'break' if the entire site isn't updated properly.

The colour scheme of white-on-black is normally advised to avoid. It can be very difficult to read for some people and has been proven to reduce the time a visitor will spend before clicking off the site. Vibrant colours on black can also be hard to view and cause eye strain.
I understand it's personal choice but it may be worth re-thinking how it would look with a clean colour set such as black text on white background with subtle images and colours?

The "Email us at.." box on the index page has some odd spacing between the text with some double spacing and some words joined together.
You could put a simple 'mailto' command on this text which makes it clickable to automatically open the visitors email client and pre-fill the 'to' box with your email address. (Google will help if you are unsure. This is also very easy to do).

Image sizes are one of the biggest issues with sites but this has already been discussed.

The java script you are using for the scrolling images seems to bug every now and then. It might be worth looking to replace with something more stable.

I hope this helps.
Let me know if you would like me to clarify anything on any of the above.

P.S, Contrary to popular belief, not all web developers charge the earth and it might be worthwhile letting a pro give you an estimate to boost the site, if that's what you're after.

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Permalink Reply by Graham Sturman on July 9, 2012 at 17:28

Hi Brett,
Thanks for your advice, few things there I will look into and change. It's good to get feedback thanks again.

Graham

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