Thread: Tell Me What You Think About My Home Page

I only had enough time to publish my home page this morning before leaving for work, so tell me what you think about it. Let me know if there are any side scrolls or anything like that. So far I have checked it on two computers and do not see any side scrolls.

More to follow as I get the time.

www.steadyracing.net

Anyone with a computer resolution of 800 width will have a side scroll, since you made the pages total width of 1001.

The page looks nice so far. Right away, though, I suggest you rethink your first headline on the page - they see your name in the header - you do not need a welcome line. What you need there is the top keyword phrase for your page. Also, your name isn't runtogetherwords (like I just did) - Just because the url cannot have spaces - doesn't mean your name can't.

I'd also rather see the tagline you have "home of big dreams and little budgets" be in the header - as again, these aren't words that will help you - they might as well be part of the header - and get words for the se's and people to see right away on the page that are telling them they found what they searched for.

I do like the look at feel you've created.

Originally Posted by Bethers

Anyone with a computer resolution of 800 width will have a side scroll, since you made the pages total width of 1001.

The page looks nice so far. Right away, though, I suggest you rethink your first headline on the page - they see your name in the header - you do not need a welcome line. What you need there is the top keyword phrase for your page. Also, your name isn't runtogetherwords (like I just did) - Just because the url cannot have spaces - doesn't mean your name can't.

I'd also rather see the tagline you have "home of big dreams and little budgets" be in the header - as again, these aren't words that will help you - they might as well be part of the header - and get words for the se's and people to see right away on the page that are telling them they found what they searched for.

I do like the look at feel you've created.

So is it more common for people to have a resolution of 800?

Could you give me an example of what you mean by top keyword phrase?

Do you think that the picture would look kind of "naked" if I do not have the tagline in it? Oh, and what do you mean by they (tagline) will not help me?

Okies, let me suggest you read a bit about SEO (search engine optimization) before I go into details - here's a free ebook - SEO - The Basics - I suggest you read it.

Then - looking at your site so far - I'm not sure exactly what you are focusing on - but I know it'll have to do with racing and that people looking for it won't be inputting the phrase dreams or budgets into se's to find you. So, that's a good phrase to have up in the header.

I hoped you were going to be adding text to the page - if not, you're in big trouble with the se's - as there is nothing there for them now. I thought the picture was the background and you just hadn't added any text yet. And, I do expect you to have a headline - but I want it to be with the right words.

An 800 width resolution is the lowest resolution being used now. I'd say 20-35% of users still have it. Personally, I make my pages at about the width you have - but very carefully, because people don't like to scroll left to right. If you don't want anyone to have to do that scrolling, you'll need to make the width no wider than 800.

That said, I keep close watch on my statistics and am seeing only about 10% of my users are at that width - and I have done the stores with a column outside the 800 - so they get the basic store and text without scrolling.

The decision is yours whether you want to chance that. As time passes, less and less will have that resolution - but will be several years before it totally becomes passe.

Originally Posted by Bethers

Okies, let me suggest you read a bit about SEO (search engine optimization) before I go into details - here's a free ebook - SEO - The Basics - I suggest you read it.

Then - looking at your site so far - I'm not sure exactly what you are focusing on - but I know it'll have to do with racing and that people looking for it won't be inputting the phrase dreams or budgets into se's to find you. So, that's a good phrase to have up in the header.

I hoped you were going to be adding text to the page - if not, you're in big trouble with the se's - as there is nothing there for them now. I thought the picture was the background and you just hadn't added any text yet. And, I do expect you to have a headline - but I want it to be with the right words.

An 800 width resolution is the lowest resolution being used now. I'd say 20-35% of users still have it. Personally, I make my pages at about the width you have - but very carefully, because people don't like to scroll left to right. If you don't want anyone to have to do that scrolling, you'll need to make the width no wider than 800.

That said, I keep close watch on my statistics and am seeing only about 10% of my users are at that width - and I have done the stores with a column outside the 800 - so they get the basic store and text without scrolling.

The decision is yours whether you want to chance that. As time passes, less and less will have that resolution - but will be several years before it totally becomes passe.

Ok I see what you are getting at. Well I'm not making this site to sell anything but I would like to get as much traffic as possible. I'm figuring on the Forum being the main focus of the site. The other stuff will be there as kind of a "bonus" if you will.

I could still put a little description of some sort on the page but I guess the idea I had in mind was something like this website has www.turbomustangs.com where you pull up the home page which is nothing more than a logo and select your destination from there.

BTW your link did not work for me.

I like the background colours, gives the site an exciting feel to it. The main picture was sort of grey, not sure if that was some kind of special effect, but I think a normal photo would look better, but it was difficult to see if it was some kind of a theme running through the site.

Originally Posted by warwickplates

I like the background colours, gives the site an exciting feel to it. The main picture was sort of grey, not sure if that was some kind of special effect, but I think a normal photo would look better, but it was difficult to see if it was some kind of a theme running through the site.

I did the effect on purpose. I originally had a different idea but my wife said that it did not look as good so I went with this one for now.

I might try a color picture but I'm afraid it will take away from the site as a whole because it is such a big picture. I just kind of wanted anyone that visited to be able to know right away what kind of site it was without being to over bearing.

The one you gave has an entry page - all the links, etc are on the page after that. Personally, I avoid those - because it simply gives people one more click - unless that page is really something special that makes me REALLY, REALLY want to enter - I don't know if it's what I wanted to land on. And the se's won't send traffic to that page very often, as it has nothing on it - so most people won't find it unless you give out the url.

Sorry about the other link, it's fixed now. I have no clue how the voda host part got in there. And getting traffic from the se's requires the same SEO whether you are a store or not - just some different focus.

Well Bethers I made some changes. Tell me what you think now!

www.steadyracing.net

I am viewing in 1024 resolution so I do not have a sideways scroll, however, I don't know if it is just me or what, but with your image the way it is placed on the page, I want to scroll over to the right to see the rest of the image ... is it not in the picture itself? So for me, the image seems incomplete. I am not saying anything about your page width, just the image seems to be missing a part.

Do you have a double colour on your font or is it just in bold. Makes it a little fuzzy for my reading .... and your font on the nav bar is not ***** and clear ...

Originally Posted by LadyEye

I am viewing in 1024 resolution so I do not have a sideways scroll, however, I don't know if it is just me or what, but with your image the way it is placed on the page, I want to scroll over to the right to see the rest of the image ... is it not in the picture itself? So for me, the image seems incomplete. I am not saying anything about your page width, just the image seems to be missing a part.

Do you have a double colour on your font or is it just in bold. Makes it a little fuzzy for my reading .... and your font on the nav bar is not ***** and clear ...

That is just how the picture is. I wanted to get more of the track in the picture so the trade off was less car.

I do have a double color on my font. Does it alls seem fuzzy or just the Welcome statement>

I don't know how to keep the nav bar from being fuzzy. I just typed the text and it put it in there for me.

Originally Posted by BLK306

That is just how the picture is. I wanted to get more of the track in the picture so the trade off was less car.

I do have a double color on my font. Does it alls seem fuzzy or just the Welcome statement>

I don't know how to keep the nav bar from being fuzzy. I just typed the text and it put it in there for me.

Oh, okay, that's cool, its a great photo .... (was just looking for a dent, someone hit my car and thought it may have been you, lol)

It does all seem fuzzy to me ... sorry :( I know its pretty but try just increasing the font a couple sizes, maybe that would work ...

What type font is on the nav bar .... arial works well usually ...

Originally Posted by LadyEye

Oh, okay, that's cool, its a great photo .... (was just looking for a dent, someone hit my car and thought it may have been you, lol)

It does all seem fuzzy to me ... sorry :( I know its pretty but try just increasing the font a couple sizes, maybe that would work ...

What type font is on the nav bar .... arial works well usually ...

OK I made some font changes and got rid of the double color in the welcome statement. Tell me what you think now?

Originally Posted by BLK306

OK I made some font changes and got rid of the double color in the welcome statement. Tell me what you think now?

Oh wow, an incredible change ... an awesome job, that is just perfect ....

much much better .... Bravo to you!!

Just a few suggestions for the text on your page ... if you like ...

Steady Racing is a DFW based high performance online community for the racing enthusiast. At Steady Racing, racers,
gear heads, and car enthusiasts alike can all come together and share their racing experiences, knowledge, and love for cars, trucks, or just about anything that makes (maybe use with instead) horsepower. Check out our Gallery for some great pictures, our Videos for outstanding heads up action, or our Project section just to see what else we have up our sleeves. While we do cater to racers everyone is welcome here at Steady Racing.

Originally Posted by LadyEye

Just a few suggestions for the text on your page ... if you like ...

Steady Racing is a DFW based high performance online community for the racing enthusiast. At Steady Racing, racers,
gear heads, and car enthusiasts alike can all come together and share their racing experiences, knowledge, and love for cars, trucks, or just about anything that makes (maybe use with instead) horsepower. Check out our Gallery for some great pictures, our Videos for outstanding heads up action, or our Project section just to see what else we have up our sleeves. While we do cater to racers everyone is welcome here at Steady Racing.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Okies, much much better - but you still need to tweak it for the keywords/phrases people will use to find you.

You need to use the best keyword phrase in you page title - now it simply says home. I did some research but don't know what you want to target - I tried DFW racing - and very few people are searching for that - but there are a couple. I also tried high performance racing - not many there. So I went more general and looked at racing - and, of course, got thousands of searches - with the breakdown under it. You need to do this and find the ones that apply to you - and then you'll know how people find the sites- and those are the words you need to use so you'll show up when they do the searches.

Because you are DFW based, I would keep that on the page and would put it in your home page title even tho it doesn't get a lot of searches. Why? Because the people who do search for it - will be happy to get something representing exactly what they search for. For the same reason, I'd make it DFW, Texas. You need to find more of those terms/phrases.

Since this is a site of high speed cars, try putting more cool pics, more graphics.

this looks more like a simple personal site.

this is just a suggestion.

Originally Posted by sameer

Since this is a site of high speed cars, try putting more cool pics, more graphics.

this looks more like a simple personal site.

this is just a suggestion.

My gallery is full of other cars but I have not published it yet. I think I'm going to have a problem with the page loading really slow. So I'm going to have to do some research on what I need to do to the pictures so that it will not load so slow.

Originally Posted by Bethers

Okies, much much better - but you still need to tweak it for the keywords/phrases people will use to find you.

You need to use the best keyword phrase in you page title - now it simply says home. I did some research but don't know what you want to target - I tried DFW racing - and very few people are searching for that - but there are a couple. I also tried high performance racing - not many there. So I went more general and looked at racing - and, of course, got thousands of searches - with the breakdown under it. You need to do this and find the ones that apply to you - and then you'll know how people find the sites- and those are the words you need to use so you'll show up when they do the searches.

Because you are DFW based, I would keep that on the page and would put it in your home page title even tho it doesn't get a lot of searches. Why? Because the people who do search for it - will be happy to get something representing exactly what they search for. For the same reason, I'd make it DFW, Texas. You need to find more of those terms/phrases.

I'm beginning to understand better what you are talking about. I was a little worried when I was writing my little into there about it being too long, so I was trying to keep in short and sweet.

As far as putting other key words in, is that something that can be done and embedded in the page with the key word digger?

Oh and how can you tell how many people are searching for certain things. Are you just doing a Google search or something like that and seeing what pops up?

BTW thanks for all of the help and input!

Menace,

Im not Beth, but Digitalpoint.com has a good tool for searching for phrases and how many times those phrases or words were searched for in the past 30 days.

Also, while reading your text, you want to read it outloud to yourself so you can get a tangible image in your mind how it really sounds to your reader. I had a chuckle when i read: "Steadyracing racers". I understand you are trying to brand, but it wont work like that. id say something like, Steady Racers offers free resources for racers, fans, enthusiasts etc etc.

You also want to link up your keywords or navigation terms in your narrative. Gallery should be hyperlinked to the Gallery, projects to the Projects, etc etc.. You dont want them to have to go search the navigation bar, after already scanning your text. Make it easy to click to the interior pages.


Karen

looks good like the colors i too view everything as 1024 x 768 i don't use 800 x 600 it makes everything to big and i'm not blind yet :) excellent job. :)

Also, to add to what Karen answered for me :) - you don't need all your keywords on every page - as each page should target some - it's impossible to target all of them in one place.

As to your gallery - if you use the gallery feature - and have it show thumbnails, you'll be surprised how fast they can load - and you can make it so that people can click on them for them to open in another window at full size.

Keyword digger will pull out the words you use - it doesn't tell you what words you should be using - and pulling out words you've used is useless if they aren't the words people are using to search for. Use the tool Karen suggested - I use it almost daily.

Originally Posted by Bethers

As to your gallery - if you use the gallery feature - and have it show thumbnails, you'll be surprised how fast they can load - and you can make it so that people can click on them for them to open in another window at full size.

Well that is the way I have it right now. However, when I made another gallery with about 9 pictures on one of the pages I published it seemed to load really slow. So, I got rid of the gallery and just put two decent sized pictures on there instead. Do you think it could have just been my computer loading them slowly? I mean I don't have the fastest computer but I'm not on a dial up either.

Could you have possibly not checked the box for them to display as thumbnails?

Originally Posted by Bethers

Could you have possibly not checked the box for them to display as thumbnails?

Maybe. I'll take a look and see what I can figure out.

The design on the page is fantastic. What a photo as well! Totally superb! I dont really have anything useful to say - just wanted to say its looking really good!

Regards
Teri

if you have a 800 pixel width screen, then you have an ANCIENT MONITOR! Don't even bother making a 800x. If someone does have a 800 wide pixel monitor, then that is their fault, not yours. Make it 1024. :) Standard.

Originally Posted by pemdas21

if you have a 800 pixel width screen, then you have an ANCIENT MONITOR! Don't even bother making a 800x. If someone does have a 800 wide pixel monitor, then that is their fault, not yours. Make it 1024. :) Standard.

You still want to keep them people on your site. When making a website, you need to cater for as much as you possibly can. I havent been on any professional websites that you have to side scroll. Side scroll annoys the hell out of me - personal opinion but I think you will see that it applies to alot of people here.

Teri

Now, now Pemdas - many people - 20-30% of the computers out there - are still at 800 - and lots of them are because that's how the computers are set on their jobs.

You need to consider everyone - and even though I design at 1000 - I do so keeping those people with 800 still in mind.

By the way - the resolution has nothing to do with the monitor - it's how the computer is set - not the monitor.

Hey BLK306

I've only just had a look at your site but overall I like the feel of the site.

Keep up the good work and remember it takes time to develop a good site.

Love the red Camero

Thanks for the kind words everyone. It is a work in progress and I'm tying my best to build a great site. Thanks for all of the help and input you all have given. As a website building newbie I can use all of the help and support I can get.

Very Impressive..... Makes me wanna join in and race ... keep up the good look.... Doug