Thread: Phew! Re-did my site. Any input appreciated.

Finally! I am still just plodding along learning all the BV tricks and shortcuts so pages take me ages to do but I think I'm done re-styling my site.

I don't know if anyone remembers but I was worried before about whether it was the right mix of cozy and professional (so it fits with the product but would still make customers feel safe ordering off the site.)

I took suggestions of making the text darker etc. though I haven't been able to work on the JAlbum gallery yet. I also changed the wording that was recommended. Thanks for them tips!

I just had two main questions this time that I was hoping people might help me out with- does each page (especially the gallery) take too long to load? I'm worried there may be too many images in each page.

Do the input areas for the forms look yellow on any one else's computer / browser? Is this an error I've made or just something that comes up in 'preview?'

Any other help on this new version- new perspectives, pointing out any grammatical errors etc, tips would be much appreciated!

You did a wonderful job. Superb on the layout: not too much detail and spaced evenly and centered. It loads fast on my machine so you will need somebody's elses input. Yes, the background on prices comes out yellow.

Adorable kids BTW.


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Hi Emmy,

I was onme of those who thought your first effort was more than good enough, but anyway....

custom-made announcements, greeting cards and invitations

This title on your homepage deserves more.... make it bigger and capitalize it.

Custom-Made Announcements - Greetings Cards - Invitations

Your gallery does take far too long to download, I have fast broadband and it froze for me.

Otherwise, you definitely have an eye for design and layout, very nice

You still need to work on your meta data though, especially your page titles. Remove 'Cherry Lane Memories' It means nothing to anyone searching for your products. Use this limited space to put page titles like:

Hand Made Greetings Cards | Invitations | Announcemet cards

etc etc .....

Nice job though, cute site.

Thanks guys!

Marincky- thanks! Yes, I remember your replies and I thought they were really helpful. I tried to bring back some of the idea from the first version like the ribbons and everything at the top. I only just worked out what meta data is though. LOL. I will get on to that right away. And making the subtitle in the header bigger. Thanks for taking (even more) time to help me along. :)

Originally Posted by Emmy26

Thanks guys!

Marincky- thanks! Yes, I remember your replies and I thought they were really helpful. I tried to bring back some of the idea from the first version like the ribbons and everything at the top. I only just worked out what meta data is though. LOL. I will get on to that right away. And making the subtitle in the header bigger. Thanks for taking (even more) time to help me along. :)

You're welcome, it's a great site and making tweaks here and there will make it even greater!

Emmy,
Hats off!!! Your site is great. Ramsey idea about the subtitle hit me too. Your order forms only showed yellow in some of the lines, like those were a required field, not too odd for forms. Your gallery only took a few seconds to load for me but I'm at work (SHHHHHHHH, don't tell anybody)
and we have a major trunk connection. I think you have done a great job!!

Hi, your images in the gallery are in png format & would be better with jpg. The good thing is that png converts ok & would really speed up the pages.
IE: 100kb on site, converted attachment = 17kb.
The site has a nice feel to it. Well done.

Individual enough to be detached from the standard 'business' type of site, yet not so individualised as to make it look look like an amateur site. The baby under the blanket is in exactly the right place. Super job, very professional! (Apart from the slow-loading which I'm sure you'll address shortly.)

"From a strong love for design and a fondness for 'the moments of a lifetime', Cherry Lane Memories began in May 2007 and launched its online site in February 2008."

Should this be in first person plural like the rest of the paragraphs? It sounds a bit 'cold' in the third person.

As a new business, we don't yet have a huge back-catalogue of designs. Check back regularly however, and you should see more and more designs appear in our galleries, which will eventually be divided up into our different Collections.

I don't think there's any need for this, it's almost like telling your visitors that you're not up to scratch. Instead of highlighting what you haven't got, how about talking up what you have got?

Please remember that we also design completely-custom designs as well, so should nothing appeal perfectly to what you have envisioned for your announcement, we are always able to design something tailored perfectly to your requests.

Similarly, this is a bit too much on the apologetic side, it encourages the visitor to believe that your designs are somehow flawed and inadequate. I'd have something more along the lines of "In addition to our high quality announcements, greetings cards and invitations we also offer superb custom designs, tailored to your personal requirements!"

If you do stick with the original paragraph, we also design completely-custom designs is very awkward because of the double use of "design".

Keep it up, you're learning fast!

Hi Emmy,

I liked it before but it's a great job. You are accomplishing very well projecting your uniqueness and combining it with a very professional
image. You're like, one of our stars, girl!

Best of luck!

absolutely gorgeous ... you have had some great advice and I have nothing more to say other than .. well done and keep up the great work ...

your site is beautiful. It does take a LONG time to load, and yes, I too believe jpg would be faster - especially if PIXresizer is used. It helped my site a lot.
Good luck! Keep it up.

Thanks guys!! For the nice things you said and for the tips. :) I'm hoping to get on to those after the weekend. I really should do it now but it's Sunday and tomorrow's a public holiday...I've declared both of them lazy days. Heh.

You have follow much of the advice that was suggested to you in your last thread, and yet chose to allow the little bows to remain along the top of the header --- why? Left as they are now, they prove to be distracting from the "upgraded" header you have striven so hard to improve to make look more 'professional'. IMO they do not fit nor "contribute" to your site....but if you insist on using them, consider using them sparingly, more as adornments for page corners only...

The addition of a slogan as suggested (*Ahem* glad to see you did so! - LOL) was a dramatic leap forward, but it does need to be "completed" in a sense, as others have intimated: If your Logo is in BLOCK, then italicize your slogan; if it is in blue (for example), then it needs to be a shade lighter....etc. Compliment the Logo/Brand with subtlety, whcih thus makes the Brand more prominent but design. And, be sure to capitalize each word accordingly...or if in "ee cummings" style, then make sure it is colored/italicized and sized proportionately to make perfect visual sense .... (I tend to still see this too small as it is now, almost as if it is a second thought rather than an important underlying statement).

> Another thing about your slogan...if created as text in BV rather than LogoMaker, then repeating it in your page content is wasteful, considering you have such limited page content as it is: consider using different combinations of absolute key phrases to mention, possibly by trimming more of the superfluous "story/emotive" language and replacing it with with effectual clues that both the SE's and visitors intuitively look for....

Overall, you have surely "cleaned up" the layout effectively, and set the tone for your visitors to find within a professionally prepared selection that promises to deliver what limited words were presented in your "introduction" (nudge-nudge.....maybe now you see how important it is to develop this a bit tighter, less schmoozy, and with more professional punch than emotional tugs?) Maybe re-size your font one notch to be able to fit a bit more in?? You need more to "optimize" you know...
LOLOL

Really good progress!

Hello Emmy,
I love the new site. I would order from you when I needed something special for an occasion.