Thread: Trial by Fire of 1st ever site.

Before I submit to my trial, I would like to say a HUGE THANK YOU to all the forum members, moderators and administrators. It was your posts and the Voda Blue tutorials that got a complete newbie this far so Thank You.

All help and advise is welcome. Technical, editing, design and anything else you can think of. As you will see at the home page I am not quite finished but hopefully at least 80% there.

My website is www.patternsbysandra.com

Thank you in advance for any help or advise.



Sandra

For the first time doing a website its coming along very nice just a few tweaks here and there. The first tweak I would do is rephase your titles especialy your home page its not good have your homepage title as home you need a strong keyword phase like example cushion patterns| quilt patterns | handbag patterns with that in mind search engines will have something to go on with those three keyword phases in the title possible to be on three or more listings in the directory you can have up to 67 characters including spaces and bars in a title. The next tweak is to have all the same menu bars on all your pages. Now the last tweak would be to center all your pages go into page properties and check the box to be centered. Good luck for the first shot you did well.

Very nice! As jakdin suggested you need to name your pages better (use words or phrases that describe the page) You definately need to work on your menus, all the same on all pages making sure that you can navigate from any page to any other. Very nice work on the logo, layout and concept. The pictures of your product are very good and load quickly.

I found it easy to navigate around your site and it looks bright and 'clean'.
I liked it very much. Some of the fonts you have used for your patterns are a little hard to read if, like me, you need reading glasses. Using the same font for each might look nice. Love your choice of colours for the bags and wish you every success in your venture.
Patsy

Thank you Joe, Ed and Patsy
You do mean the titles are the alt text so that when you hover over the home button you see bag patterns etc, instead of home. I just wanted to check before I re publish every page.
I had read about the complete menu down the side here in voda and a publication on web design that I read. I am considering it still, as the reason I did not do it still exists. I will be adding more pages therefore more buttons and I do not want to change my design concept of the buttons.
Thank you all for your time

Sandra

No we're talking about the page titles, when you right click on a blank area of your page, click page properties, and add a title. For your index just title it the name of your web site Patterns By Sandra or anything to promote your business/site. This is what the search engines pick up on, among other things. And the font that Patsy is talking about is the text you used in the photos of the different products. I would suggest using one web freindly font for all of them. You could also make the text in your buttons a little larger to fill them more and make them bold. Hope this helps, keep up the good work.

Thanks Ed
Fixing the titles. I had already done some fixing of alt text so hope that also helps wiath seo
I have taken up your suggestion of bigger font on buttons. Tried bold and bigger but felt it gave a little too much prominence to the buttons.
I meant to tell Patsy in my first reply that I agree the different fonts are a bit hard to read but as they sere the fonts on the physical patterns I jpeg 'ed' all of them so different browsers would not alter them. I may start them again some time down the track but it will take too long to start again on all of the images. Including the ones I haven't published yet, but have jpeg 'ed'
Thanks for the help - off to fix my titles. Will not re-publish for straight away as I may make other changes.


Sandra

Hi Sandra

Gorgeous patterns!

I like the header - very nice.

I would take out the explanation of the navigation system that you have in your first paragraph. This first paragraph should be used for SEO and introducing vistors to the content of your site - and most people already know how to click on buttons to get around a website.

I have endeavored to make it very easy to find your way around.
The buttons are consistent on each page, so you only have to check on the left or the bottom of the page, for navigation.
The buttons at the bottom are to make returning to the top of the page, finding your way to the shopping cart or contacting me as easy as possible.

Instead, on the homepage I would talk about how beautiful the patterns are (a presell to actually selling your patterns)

I would probably also remove the 'home' button from the homepage (it doesn't need to be there)

If you are going for a minimalist design for your homepage - disregard the following...

• I would move all all the buttons further up the page and place them close together
• I would run a selection of your best patterns vertically down the righthand side - to give visitors to your site an immediate visual of what your site offers (plus, they would look nice there!)

Originally Posted by bysandra

Thank you Joe, Ed and Patsy
You do mean the titles are the alt text so that when you hover over the home button you see bag patterns etc, instead of home. I just wanted to check before I re publish every page.
I had read about the complete menu down the side here in voda and a publication on web design that I read. I am considering it still, as the reason I did not do it still exists. I will be adding more pages therefore more buttons and I do not want to change my design concept of the buttons.
Thank you all for your time

Sandra

What I meant was the page titles that you write in on page properties on top.

Thank you both.

Sunchaser I am thrilled that you like my patterns. Great idea about the home button and I agree with the first paragraph suggestion but for some reason the muse is taking a holiday. I always find it hard to say good things about my own work but I will take your suggestion. Yes i am going for a minimalist design but I am borrowing some of my bags back to to do a group photo and I plan on having a photo of the latest design and maybe a changing testomonial in three frames under the buttons on the home page.

I am still working on Joe's suggestions. When I first started doing the pages the centre button moved the header too far right. So I didn't use it, but after Joe suggested it (because i 'got' his reasoning) I had a play again and have worked out what I did wrong. Now I am going to do it on every page but there will be other changes that I have to do. So I just have to do a list on the order of importance. Lucky I hadn't done every pattern page.

thank you again


Sandra

You are making fine progress, and your caring touch is evident.

The website demonstrates how a well-thought and clever theme can maintain the crisp presentation intended online, and yet support (if not introduce) the simple logic/nature of your product: patterns, whose intracacies can only been seen when shown simply and contrasted....

I wonder if you would be open to the suggestion of making your navigational icons (your blue 'buttons') proportionally smaller, tighter together -- at least so that all are 'above the fold' (no lower than 500 lines) and with the labels more centered and equidistant inside them??
And personally, I want to clue you in that it is not only Best Practice, but professionally expected to maintain a navigational method that is uniform and consistent throughout your site: keep the "Home" button, for not only will it contribute continuity to your overall site, but visitors often use it to "refresh" page views if they encounter difficulties loading or moving page-to-page (according to their browser or even connection). I defy anyone suggesting otherwise to visit 100 Mainline Brand Store sites and show me one that does not present a "Home" link on every page....

Small things....can mean so much. Don't forget to utilize the optimizational opportunities of properly titled pages (along with the usual META tags), and to consider developing enough Content per page to also implement H-META to propel your site optimally ahead of whatever competition you may encounter!

You have a lot of people offering you wonderful suggestions, and we are all looking forward to your site "finishing" as another great example of how VodaLand produces the net's finest!

Vasili - not having a home button on the homepage was just a little suggestion for this particular site only - if the navigation is going to stay as is. The OP says above that she does not wish to change the design concept of the buttons.
The only button you can see on entering the site is the home button, which might confuse some visitors - who might leave the site without seeing any other pages.

As I said above, and as others said, it would be best to move the navigation up the page - yes, above the fold.

Of course you need to have a link to your homepage on every other page of your site. It's best to keep your navigation consistent, and a home 'button' on the homepage is the usual practice.

Thanks Vasili. Home page updated for comment.
I think I have it - but thought I would check with you all before doing every page. Buttons are smaller and closer - button print is bigger - think I have the title stuff happening - used page centre tool. Seeing as I was changing the button size I tidied up the bottom buttons at the same time.
My question........Have I got the design work ready to do every page. I will do some tweaking of copy and alternate text when I have the whole thing working. But I am not mad on doing every page again - after this time so design & visual comments are most welcome - before I start.
Thanks in advance for your time


Sandra

You still need to work on your titles with key words or key word phase your home page title about patternsbysandra yes you have a keyword patterns thats it. You have key words on the page handbags, totes, quilt ,cushions, quilted. If you added any one of those words to paterns you have a stronger keyword phase in the title if you look at my earlier thread you have three keword phases which include paterns you can use up to 67 characters including spaces and bars in the title. What I would suggest you do look at similar sites take a look at there titles and compare you then understand exactly what my point I am trying to give to you for search engines. The site looks awesome.

Thanks Joe,
I thought I had changed it, to match what you suggested the first time, but after reading your comments I went back in and found out I hadn't. I have changed the home page and pattern page now. (I think). Thanks for the feedback on the looks. I have changed the font on the buttons back to the original size and 'bolded it' because I thought that some of the buttons looked be too cramped. Anyway I am going ahead with the 'centre page' work and hopefully get all the titles better at the same time.(and more work on meta tags while I am there). But I have to redo a lot of setup to match the header and footer. (have only done home and pattern page) I will then work on the shopping cart. Will publish again when I have all that sorted.


Sandra

I think I have it. Changed all the titles, centred the pages, a bit more editing and I think I am ready to start adding more pages. (Using current pages as clones as I had to move a lot of stuff to get the header & footer to centre) I have a question about how many words to use for the meta tags and Joe, if you have time to look, do I need more info in my titles?
I still have to finish making the pages for the 'other patterns' page so that is not ready for critique.
I hope I am ready - I have about half a dozen patterns to write and a bit of printing to do. Thank you in advance anyone who has the time to check my changes for me.
Sandra

This is what I would suggest.
Homepage title.> TOTE PATTERNS | HANDBAG PATTERNS | PURSE PATTERNS
Patterns page.> STYLES| E PATTERNS
Bag patterns page.> PURSES | CLUTCHES | HANDBAGS {this page needs tex info on it for searches}
Other patterns page when then page gets done.
On your bag patterns page it say click any pattern for info you need some of the info below or on the side of the bag a little info goes a long way.

Thanks Joe, I have added captions under a few of the bags. I will have to think about what I am going to put under each bag. I am guessing I should concentrate on my key words. I really like your line between each word for the titles. So far only re-published the bag patterns page.
_______________
Sandra

OK I have actioned all the suggestions and help offered.

My question now is am I ready to take Voda up on the offer to submit to the search engines. Or do I need to do more tweak, tweak, tweaking.

Thank you in advance for your time