Thread: Site for review..

This is a site I have been working on for what seems like forever.. Two of the pages still need revamping - trees and other plants, but I sure would like some review and commentary on the site as a whole..
'gulp' ... here goes...

http://www.pondandgardennursery.com

Thanks in advance for your honest appraisel of this site..

Hi Liz!

It's a great site, with all the photos it still loads pretty fast. Nice subject, makes me wish I didn't live in a crackerbox! The usual FF vs. IE text snafu.
Overall very nice!


I

Hey Liz, Job well done as Mike said it loads well and navigates easy.

Your sites always turn out great. Oh and I love the Garden Sculptures, they would look good in my garden.

Hi Liz,

Another goodie.

A couple of personal preference suggestions:

• The bookmark page and map seem to clutter a great header and logo, maybe place 'map' into nav bar
• Consider placing nav bar at bottom of page as well, so visitors can read down and then move to second, third... pages with ease.
• Maybe place nav bar on contact us form (in case I change my mind and want to read on. LOL)
• Have you had a look at placing the border (as per nav bar) around your header and whole page?
• The red bordered info bar (top right) draws attention away from your logo is this your intention?
• On the product pages consider giving the alt tags a name similar to the price list name (we tend to purchase with our eyes) so visitors can see product picture and reference or relate it to the info and price.
• Maybe add a 'purchase or product enquiry form' (drop down list of products) Painful I know, but it makes for 'ease of purchase'.

All that said, I enjoy your site and sushi is still a favourite of mine LOL

Cheers,

no wonder it is taking forever ... it is looking fantstic ... my thoughts were for a border around the page area as it looks like the elements are floating ...

Oh Liz.....you must be exhausted!!!

It's wonderful! OMG the work you have put into this is phenominal. Don't change a thing. It's perfect.

I especially love the dwarf conifer page. So unique.

Congratulations Miss Liz, so what's next? hee hee

Thank you all so much for your comments. I appreciate them considerably.

You know how it is - you work and work on a site, staring at it for hours and hours, tweaking it again and again, and then at some point you hardly know what it relly looks like.. more eyes really help.

Glad it loads okay - some of the pages, especially the catalog pages, are pretty heavy, but I made the images as 'light' as I could without sacrificing too much quality..

Beer and Shepard - Thought about a thin border around the pages, but some of them are already so crowded I didn't want it to look stuffed in the middle, know what I mean? Think I will fool with the idea a bit, though as it could give it a more finished look, I think.

Beer, couple of questions for you: I think you are right about the bookmark and map cluttering up the header, so I will be finding another way to do those. The map, at lease will go in the nav - will figure out where I want the bookmark button, maybe make it smaller or something.
I like the idea of bordering the header, though, make it look more intentional.
The red border around the info box was to let visitors know easily what the page was about, maybe I can thin it out so it isn't distracting..
Question about your alt tab names comments - could you elaborate, perhaps for me, maybe an example page for me to look at? I am not real sure what you mean?

Phil, Mike and Vicki, thanks fo having a look. I love this stuff; everytime I make another page I want more and more plants, and a koi pond, and some trees, and lots and lots of hostas and dwarf conifers.. and on and on and on...it is seriously addicting, just like website building, only more expensive..LOL

Originally Posted by larazovich

Question about your alt tab names comments - could you elaborate, perhaps for me, maybe an example page for me to look at? I am not real sure what you mean?

Hi Liz,
You are going to laugh at me, but can't find the page in question (you have the largest aqua product portfolio I've seen LOL) I had a look at other pages and the 'picture alt tags' are fine on description. (the page was plastic or pvc pond bins or something along those lines???)

Cheers,

Originally Posted by PlayItByBeer

Hi Liz,
You are going to laugh at me, but can't find the page in question (you have the largest aqua product portfolio I've seen LOL) I had a look at other pages and the 'picture alt tags' are fine on description. (the page was plastic or pvc pond bins or something along those lines???)

Cheers,

LOL - I will have a look and see if I cn find it.. Yep the catalog is enormous! It took forever..
Thanks

WOW!! SPENT AGES ON YOUR SITE COULDN'T STOP LOOKING AROUND
I am a nature lover at heart and loved your hummingbird pics should be on National Geographic.
Hope you do well
Two Cats
www.magicpallete.com
www.catpetalogue.com

Originally Posted by TWO CATS

WOW!! SPENT AGES ON YOUR SITE COULDN'T STOP LOOKING AROUND
I am a nature lover at heart and loved your hummingbird pics should be on National Geographic.
Hope you do well
Two Cats
www.magicpallete.com
www.catpetalogue.com

Why, thanks Twocats, I appreciate the coments.. Know what you mean - I love the subject matter, too, and the site has been a blast to build!

Liz,
I've sent you a long email in response to yours. If you want me to post any or all of it, let me know and I will - or we can continue via email.

Overall, as I told you there - I love what you've done. You've spent hours and hours and it shows.

Originally Posted by Bethers

Liz,
I've sent you a long email in response to yours. If you want me to post any or all of it, let me know and I will - or we can continue via email.

Overall, as I told you there - I love what you've done. You've spent hours and hours and it shows.

Either way, Beth; Most likely will go with email, but I want to thank you publicly for your help. Your comments are so precise and well thought out; so valuable to me.
I appreciate your eye for detail and your direct communicative style. You are a gem.

Thank you so much.

Hi Liz,
Sites looking good. On the bookmark part you may like this one? http://www.addthis.com/ Gives a nice load of alternatives as well as a bookmark. There is one on one of my sites under the bird/logo’s feet http://www.collectors-info.com/ It’s a freebie.
Ditto with the Fire Fox issue. It quite bad on some pages. Most of the images are great & load well, but may of pushed the reduction a bit to far on 1 or 2, & have gone a bit grainy. I do like a bit of gardening myself & at this very moment discovering they joys of buying the wrong bamboo for a small garden. It’s a bit like a child that used to crawl & has now found its feet & getting into everything. LOL.
Got 1 or 2 pushing 20’ plus this year.

Good luck with the site.

Originally Posted by Collectors-info

Hi Liz,
Sites looking good. On the bookmark part you may like this one? http://www.addthis.com/ Gives a nice load of alternatives as well as a bookmark. There is one on one of my sites under the bird/logo’s feet http://www.collectors-info.com/ It’s a freebie.
Ditto with the Fire Fox issue. It quite bad on some pages. Most of the images are great & load well, but may of pushed the reduction a bit to far on 1 or 2, & have gone a bit grainy. I do like a bit of gardening myself & at this very moment discovering they joys of buying the wrong bamboo for a small garden. It’s a bit like a child that used to crawl & has now found its feet & getting into everything. LOL.
Got 1 or 2 pushing 20’ plus this year.

Good luck with the site.

Thanks for having a look, Chris.

Thanks for the bookmark tip, Chris - looks cool - am having a look-see.

Regarding Firefox - Seems the biggest issues come where I have h1 or h2 tags - then there is this wierd spacing that is really hard to get rid of..Got any tips?

Yeah I was afraid I had overdone the reductions on a couple of the pictures, bummer. I sometimes find it hard to acheive that balance between clarity and load time.. You are the master of that! Tips?

LOL about the bamboo - Planting it in your garden can be the most brilliant of wizardry or your worst nightmare.....

Thanks again for your appraisal..

Hi, just been trying one out the Winntec just posted on the H1 problems, & seems to work well.

http://www.vodahost.com/vodatalk/report.php?p=185017

With the images its sometimes better to have a few less but retain quality of the ones you are using. Or just add another page.lol

Chris (or anyone who understands this)
Is this the post to which you were referring regarding the h1's and Firefox?
I am not skilled enough to understand how to use this information.. is this something that you can explain how to do simply to me?

thanks

h1 tags still seem to be important from my experience
I fixed this as follows:

<style type="text/css">
h1 {margin-bottom:0em; margin-top:0em; color: #black; text-align: left; font-family: BlackChancery; font-size: 200%; }
</style>

It's the different margin sizes that mess things up, by setting them directly to whatever suits you it overrides the FF & IE defaults.

John

Liz,
That was the post he was referring to, yes.

How are you adding the h1's currently? Are you doing it using the text box or using the html box? If you aren't using the text box - try that - and enter the html by right clicking after it's done. Using the text box puts it in the same spot on the page on both browsers (I think) where using the html box, they are sometimes a little off.

Originally Posted by Bethers

Liz,
That was the post he was referring to, yes.

How are you adding the h1's currently? Are you doing it using the text box or using the html box? If you aren't using the text box - try that - and enter the html by right clicking after it's done. Using the text box puts it in the same spot on the page on both browsers (I think) where using the html box, they are sometimes a little off.

Here is what I am doing:
I enter the text I want in a text box
Then I right clidk to html and enter <h1> in the before tag and </h1> in the after tag
Is that correct??

That is how I have been doing it, and it seems to drop the text in Firefox ...

Hi, bit of a case of experimenting. But the 1st part of the code go’s in the head of your page & adjust the 100&#37; for your font size

<style type="text/css">
h1 {margin-bottom:0em; margin-top:0em; color: #black; text-align: left; font-family: BlackChancery; font-size: 100%; }
</style>

The second part is the text on your page& this go’s in a html box.

<h1>your text will go here for your h1 header</h1>

Thanks to you both, Beth and Chris for this solution.
It worked easily when I :
1. put the aforementioned code in the between head tag tab, adjusting as you said for the text size,
2. Used the text box for placing the text, and then right clicked to place the h1 tags as before.

I also repeated the procedure for the h2 tags

Thanks to you both. Much appreciated.
One problem solved, on to the next group.. LOL

It's actually something that will help a LOT of people - Chris - you want to start a thread with the instructions - and they can use the html box or the text box (text box is easiest now) or do you want me to?