Thread: Please check out my Pet Shop Website!

I can't wait to see what y'all think! This is my first attempt at building a site after paying lots of money to other people, only to not get what I want.

I know there are still some links under construction - I don't need input on this. But I do want desperately to know what y'all think about the layout, colors, and any other bells and whistles that could be used on the site.

Any and all constructive criticism is welcome. Thanks so much for taking the time!

Rebecca Huff
www.therustonpetshop.com

P.S. I think Blue Voda is awesome.

I think it looks great. You just have to center your page. right click on the background then page properties and check the box that says center in browser. I have a widescreen computer and your page took up my whole computer screen. make sure all computers will be able to see it all. I would just put your information on 800 wide and not 1000 wide.

You may want to not have it open up new brosers each time you look at a page.

you are off to a good start ... I really love your colour set up ... a few things thouh ... we normally stick to a width of between 800 and 1000 so there is no sideways scroll for our visitors .... each page needs a unigue name instead of index on each page ... keep up the good work and I hope it all goes well for you ....

I agree with all the above comments.

Your Home button link on the other pages are incorrect. On some pages you have something like this: http://www.therustonpetshop.com/www....tonpetshop.com

...on other pages you have http://www.therustonpetshop.com/index.htm
The link should be http://www.therustonpetshop.com/index.html
Note the html extention.
Otherwise it looks greate.

Man is Blue Voda addictive! OK - here I am at 4am, and i think the revisions are complete! See what you think??? Thanks, Rebecca

www.therustonpetshop.com

Hi Rebecca,

Welcome to BV, I have a couple of comments:

• The "Please join our newsletter..." is overlapping
• The training link is dead
• Remember that by turning text into .jpg files (pictures) you are offering SE's very little content to list you for.

Cheers,

Originally Posted by PlayItByBeer

Hi Rebecca,

Welcome to BV, I have a couple of comments:

• The "Please join our newsletter..." is overlapping
• The training link is dead
• Remember that by turning text into .jpg files (pictures) you are offering SE's very little content to list you for.

Cheers,

Hi Andrew,
I knew about the training link. What do you mean overlapping? Nothing looks wrong from my screen. I'm not sure what you mean by turning into pics... Do you mean that for example on puppies page I should add some text to go along with the pics?

Thanks for the comments!
Rebecca

Rebecca,
What Andrew ment was the top line of the "Join our fan' is half way up on the black space above the whit block. It shows like that on mine too. The other thing is the whit oval with text in it and other text areas are on the page as ".gif, & .jpg" instead of staight text on the back ground. The S.E.'s don't see those, they look for text.
You have done alot of great work, Love the animals. Good Luck!!

Hi Rebecca, I think you have done a cracking job and it so interesting to look at and it really catches your interest.

Someone as mentioned your newsletter text needs adjusting. If you grab the text handles and stretch it, it will go on 2 lines instead of 3.

The other thing you might want to look at are the menu buttons Home, Puppies. Other Pets etc. It seem's you have a minor transparency issue, because they are blue with a white background, but when you hover your mouse they turn red without the white background, which I think looks a little bit tidier.

Excellent job though and you've made use of lots of features which I think is great.

Darren

Hi again,

Two things:
1. The Submit button on the index page "Please join our fun...." is underneath the text "Get info on Pet Care...." 1st line of text.
2. It is very frustrating to open many of te pages in a new window. To browse one's own site, it is advisable to open each page in the same window. To do this, leave the Target fileds with the links empty.

Otherwise, looking good.

Hi,
I noticed on your puppy page that the text under Featured Pet, goes down into your site's side banner. This is for the pet adoption pic.

Wow, thanks to all of you for the input! I am going to make all revisions let you know. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I could use more text? Thanks, Rebecca

Originally Posted by getselfin

Wow, thanks to all of you for the input! I am going to make all revisions let you know. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I could use more text? Thanks, Rebecca

your home page is your single most important page .... firstly ... it is usually the first port of call for a visitor ... etc ... it's your first opportunity to grab your visitor and make them want to keep reading ... so ... you need text which is also vital for search engines to search ... you have the look and the feel down now you need to write something ... take a look around at other sites that are trying to achieve something similar to you ... take a look at what they do, get some ideas and take it from there ...

Hi, like the concept & idea. Few things to look at.
Most of the images want optimizing & reducing with software/program. They should also be renamed correctly so SE’s can find them.
Try not to use the handles on the images as it can really distort them badly. IE:…..
http://www.therustonpetshop.com/animated_pug.gif
http://www.therustonpetshop.com/pet%20shop%20pics%20006%20(500%20x%20375).jpg
http://www.therustonpetshop.com/A-TO...NATUREACID.jpg
http://www.therustonpetshop.com/acalogo1%20(251%20x%2021).jpg
Are all great looking images until the handles are used.
Optimizing the images will also speed up your pages dramatically for 1st time visitors without the use of broadband

ok - great input - thanks! Will use pix resizer??? on the gifs and images??? Is that the program you are referring to ?

Also will work on writing something... are you saying only on the homepage is where the search engines look?

Does anyone think the addition of a forum or blog would be a good thing to do? Maybe a lost and found blog? I am unfamiliar to the world of blogging....

Thank all of you for your help!
Rebecca

Also, I am working in the dark to fix the overlapping text on the homepage "sign up for newsletter". It looked perfect on my computer, but off to others.. did I fix it? Thanks Reb

Hi, Yep! pixresizer will do it (But not on the animated ones). Have a quick read of the using pixresizer below.

The SE's will look at every part & ever page of your site & treat them as individual ares. So optimize each page.

News letter looks good to me in FF & IE.

Good luck.

I am happy for you!! Bit jealous too... :))
I am in the process of attempting to save an OLD website and I am behind you on the BV learning curve... Good JOb!!

I would have this comment concerning text... and developing the text..
Having spent nearly a year studying keywords, placement , selection of them, etc.. all with an eye towards "what does it TAKE to bring my website up high on search engines so the customers can FIND me?

To me, if you want clients (customers) that is. opening a web site without attention to keywords and exposing yourself to clients is like opening a store in the mojave desert and expecting folks to find you..

Here is what i decided to do.. this might help..
One tool i use is this one

http://www.webconfs.com/keyword-playground.php

type in keywords that you THINK folks might use to find your service(s).. write down the results you find using this tool along with the number of times searched on last month (the numbers).. Ignore phrases that seem totally NOT to apply...

THEN,, i could go into a rendition here of how to rank the list you just made and which words or phrases to use FIRST.. but let me try to simpify what i did that worked for me.. Selected the LESSOR (smaller times searched on).. yet that were specific enough phrases that *****d to me and my products.. No sense bringing someone into your site that isn't looking for what you have.. Reason I did this... is like a lot of folks I want what i want and i want it NOW... the LESSOR searched on phrases (smaller numbers) are as a general rule, LEAST competitive.. and this means easier for you to rise higher, quicker in rankings...
Likely they will show up first in msn,, (maybe two weeks to three),, then next start showing up in yahoo (month or two) and later... google..

One of my highly promoted keywords is "tree tables".. If you search on google you will see my web site is number 1... That is because i paid attention to tree tables as a keyword phrase when i wrote text, labeled my pictures, and created hyperlinks... I sprinkled in the words tree tables..
I have not checked lately but used to be that the phrase tree tables was not even showing up as anyone searching on it in the key word tools... and yet, it is used to find my web site..

in summary... go thru your products and services (index pages) and make keyword lists for ea. product/service... then focus FIRST on writing your text... But make it REAL ,, make your text meaningful..

and you will do just fine..

good luck - i'm STILL jealous.. :)) good job!!!

You are doing very good! The site is looking better and better. Your page rank is up to 1/10 in google already.
Keep up the good work!!

I think your web site looks good. However, i am very new and having issues of my own.

Originally Posted by getselfin

I can't wait to see what y'all think! This is my first attempt at building a site after paying lots of money to other people, only to not get what I want.

I know there are still some links under construction - I don't need input on this. But I do want desperately to know what y'all think about the layout, colors, and any other bells and whistles that could be used on the site.

Any and all constructive criticism is welcome. Thanks so much for taking the time!

Rebecca Huff
www.therustonpetshop.com

P.S. I think Blue Voda is awesome.

I have a lot of questions. One is how do I link a button to a page, I have used a fixed menu sucessfully but when I add a button, i can't figure out how to make it connect. I am trying to add a home button that will go back to my index page.

I apologize if this is the wrong place to ask this question but I don't know where else to start.

Originally Posted by 1coolgranny

I have a lot of questions. One is how do I link a button to a page, I have used a fixed menu sucessfully but when I add a button, i can't figure out how to make it connect. I am trying to add a home button that will go back to my index page.

I apologize if this is the wrong place to ask this question but I don't know where else to start.

Hi Granny,
Don't worry - this threw me for a loop at first also! Once you have the buttons in front of you, you can name them and/or add as many as you like. YOu can also drag and drop them anywhere on the page. Then, to edit, double click the row of buttons - then double click each individual one to edit the info and add a link. You will need to know the address of your homepage and also make sure it is published, then add it under url for that button. You can also "browse" to find where the homepage is stored, then click that to create the link as well.

To see if it worked, preview the page and click the button.

I hope this makes sense and is useful.

Send me a link when you get it going!

Rebecca
www. therustonpetshop.com