Thread: Please check out my first ever site

Hello All

This is my first site and I would welcome any and all criticism. Please don't hold back!!

I need to learn and the only way is to here all views.

Please bear in mind that this site is about miscarriage and that it cannot be too flashy.

Regards

Colin

www.miscarriage-ni.org.uk

Hi Colin,

Haven't you already shown us this site?

I seem to remember myself and Bethers giving you some advice on your lack of optimisation which WILL effect your results. You don't seem to have made many of these recommendations?

I think your site looks really smart and easy to use. I did notice however that on your 'events page' and your 'find us page' you have rectangular click buttons that doesn't display the text correctly, so a little bit of formatting is needed.

All the best

Darren

Colin-
Lovely soothing colors that suit your topic. Easy site to navigate around, though some of the pages seem alittle light on content.

Couple of observations.

1. Your menu bar is huge, and not centered. It is causing an unnecessary side scroll.

2. You might consider reducing the size of the text on your nav buttons, as it's present oversized nature puts things out of balance.

3. Your home page has the title of 'home page' which won't help you with the search engines. Consider naming it "The Miscarraige Association", or at least something that will identify your organization. Have a look at your other page titles as well, and name them to include your organization name or topic; for instance, Man's Emotion about miscarriages, or Fear about Miscarriage - this type of thing.

4. The lettering at the bottom - welcome to our website, would look better all one line. At the moment. the welcome to our part is in the bordered area and the website is not, in Firefox only. It is alright in IE7.

5. As Darrin mentioned above the text is of the buttons on the find us and events pages, but this only happens in IE7. It is okay in Firefox.


Then you should do some reading about Search Engine Optimization.See Beths numerous posts regarding this topic, and have a read of her free EBOOK download, found in her signature in all of her posts.

Hope this helps.

Originally Posted by Marincky

Hi Colin,

Haven't you already shown us this site?

I seem to remember myself and Bethers giving you some advice on your lack of optimisation which WILL effect your results. You don't seem to have made many of these recommendations?

Yes Mraincky, you are correct! But I just wanted to see what others thought. I need to do a lot of work on the home page (advice you gave me a while ago), but other events get in the way!

Thanks to all who took the time to look and give me valuable criticism. It won't go to waste.

Kind Regards to All

Colin

Your "Calendar" and the other "click to enter" buttons should be re-sized to not have the text chopped off....if you did these in LogoMaker, be sure to check "Wrap Text" -- that way the text will create multiple lines evenly based on size.

Thank You page: you have a couple of text boxes that you should reset the fill to AUTOMATIC (transparent) rather than white as it is now.

Events page: "balloons" is spelled wrong.....suggest checking spelling throughout once again, by copying text and pasting into Word to quickly let the tool check for you.

I agree that your HOME page should have something on it, rather than just "Welcome" and be little more than a Portal.....(why would anyone wish to return to it otherwise?)..... and it is critical to have relevant Content on your index page, for optimization metrics build, as others mentioned and "introduced" above.

I do not feel that you need change your navigation font or much else, however, but you may wish to drop the font size one or two notches for a more complimentary look and feel....just a thought. This would become a more important suggestion if you develop content (as mentioned below) for the navigation would then naturally become less important than the Content --- as it should be.

Might you also include more useful links, possibly to other recognized providers, counselors, etc. that visitors might take advantage of, based on your limited amount of inofrmation or content (if this was based on "page size" alone, I would encourage you to extend your page size down to accommodate more information, richer resources -- if possible).

A good job on a site/topic very hard to compose for....I can only imagine your frustration wanting to cover so much but feeling constrained in doing so.
Good job!

I don't want to be rude ,but I found the site very insensitive to a very sensitive issue.You point out all the negative feelings without giving any advice on how to handle them(ie) how the husband can support the mother and vise-versa,how the family can support the couple and their children (if any) To learn how to accept their loss etc.
Sorry I just found it very cold and matter of fact and there is nothing matter of fact about miscarriage.
Two Cats
www.magicpallete.com

Originally Posted by TWO CATS

without giving any advice on how to handle them(ie) how the husband can support the mother and vise-versa,how the family can support the couple and their children (if any) To learn how to accept their loss etc.
Sorry I just found it very cold and matter of fact and there is nothing matter of fact about miscarriage.

Like I tried to nudge above....very hard to compose for, and might be best to include a multitude of refferal links (counselors, credible affirmations, etc.) and other resources.

Since it is so difficult to compose original content that is actually "useful" to visitors if not an expert in that area yourself, you might also wish to consult with a local specialist who can offer material that would be more beneficial......and thus your site become more of a compilation of resources and information, more a hybrid directory?