Thread: Suggestions to help me overhaul my site needed.

Hey guys, I need to overhaul my website. You can find my temporary website at www.azareafsbo.com/index2.html ...

I want it to be less cluttered than other realestate websites, just as professional looking, but with a simple structure.. I plan on having an introduction video on the front page, and also having video walk thru's of each of the properties...

Any suggestions in regards to look, feel, graphics, structure, navigation etc would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance...

PS, I'm still working on the form page, and the payment navigation.

I'm heading out to a movie right quick, but it looks great from what I could see. Very nice job.

Very nice, I like the layout and color choices, simple, clean and yet professional. One thing I would highly suggest is that you have your navagation menu on every page, exactly as on your home page. Most people (including myself) find it annoying having to return to the home page every time just to get to another.

Very nice indeed! As dito above, having the menu bar in every page is a must. And it's also something I need to do in my site as well!! New years project!

Cheers,

Very nice site, well laid out. Nice style.
Im fussy so would like to see the words within the buttons slightly lower.

Fab job though.

Andy
Z a p p l e Design
www.z a p p l e .co.uk

Thank you all for your comments... this is just the info I was looking for...

I'm on the road now, and will update it here shortly.

If anyone else has suggestions I completely welcome them... I want this to be the best site it can be, and I welcome all suggestions.

Thank you again... You guys are great!

I posted my site before and made some changes I thought were pretty good that were suggested by some members.

I've been working on it, and could use a fresh pair of eyes on my site. I finally got it to the point where I want to start promoting it, but I just want to make sure it's professional enough, and looks good.

I'm going to create a forms page, so people can just submit a form with property info, and photo's, but I'm still trying to figure that part out...

www.azareafsbo.com

If you can also check out the Sellers link and Buyers link... I embedded a couple videos, and need to find out if they are working correctly.

Thank you in advance.

Is there anyone there?

Hi, site looking good, but would avoid resizing images with blue handles if best results are wanted. Some of your images have a hazy look to them in comparison to the original. IE: http://www.azareafsbo.com/AZFronthome.jpg

Originally Posted by Thumpmonkey

Is there anyone there?

No... all the lights are on and nobody's home!

Karen

Hi, site looking good, but would avoid resizing images with blue handles if best results are wanted.

Yeah, the photos of the demo listing are just photos that I found on the internet, then resized to make them more uniform... it's not an actual listing...

I know what you mean though. The camera I use takes very good photos and they will be all a uniform size, so the actual photos will be really good quality...

I wanted to find out what the general consensus was before going out drumming up listings.

Thanks a lot, for the comments, and if anyone has others feel free to let me know..

Very good job!! One thing on the mortgage page there is no way back to your home page. You had your buttons on the rest of the pages, even though they moved from the side to the top, keep the same theme through out the site.
Keep up the good work!!

You had your buttons on the rest of the pages, even though they moved from the side to the top, keep the same theme through out the site.

Thanks for the advise, So keep the buttons either on the side or on top throughout the site, but not both?

I actually wanted the mortgage page to open in it's own window... Do you think I should put a close window button on it, or make it like the rest of the site, and not have it open up into it's own window?

Another month has gone by and I expect the site is now as you intended it to be. I was searching for info on adding a video to my site and came across your thread. I had begun to realize that YouTube is the way to add video and was glad to see on your site how it looks.

Your site looks very good, very professional. The text slips off the lilac area onto the black on your home page, however. I would have increased the width of that text, moving Advertising Rates up to the level of Welcome.

Can you add your bottom of the page-menu bar to the bottom of Mortgage Tools? That would solve the problem of losing your viewers.

And then I have a question: how did you superimpose your website on your listing photos? I could use that trick.

Good luck with your company. Phoenix is a great place to be. Ever heard the organ at Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa?

Sarah, thank you for your comments... I am not able to see the text slipping off as you pointed out... could you give me the area you are referring too?

I was also having a friend of mine do an introduction video to the site for the front page, so I was waiting to finalize that before moving the Advertising Rates button... however I could move it until she's finished with it...

As for the superimposing the name, I just added the text onto the photo's in BV... Right now I will be adding the properties by hand, but in the future I do plan to get it set up so the clients can upload their properties and photo's themselves.

As far as the Mortgage page, I wanted that to open it's own window outside the site, then all people would have to do is close the window when they're done, however I think I will add the menu at the bottom of the page since this is an easy fix, and there really isn't any reason not to.

Thank you once again, and keep the comments and suggestions coming, they're greatly apprecieated.

I thought a screen shot would be visible in this field when pasted. It wasn't so I sent it as an attachment to the contact email address on your site. Had a prompt automated response - always appreciated by senders.

It's just the last line "Us for more information."

I use Firefox but always check pages on IE as well because they often show up differently/worse.

Another suggestion: add your url, and a signature if you want, so they appear beneath your messages on the forum. I've heard it helps your Google rating. Go to User CP and click on Edit your details. There you enter your home page url. Click on Edit signature to add a name.

And a last suggestion: add a favicon. That's the image that appears on the task bar left of the name of the active page. You have a white sheet of paper at the moment. Click on my url and you'll see a miniature of my site's logo.

http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon/

1. First, copy an image (called favicon.ico) into the folder with your index.html page.
   
   
2. Upload the generated file ("favicon.ico") to your site with Tools/FTP manager/IP of site. Copy flavicon to public area.

Verify it's there by typing http://mysite.com/favicon.ico in the browser's location,

Next, insert the below code in the HEAD section of your site's main index page: <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico">

3. Publish. Wait. It should appear within the day.

Oh, now I see that the screen shot appears like this:

[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/User/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.jpg[/IMG]

Wrong. That's just a listing of irrelevant urls. So I'm still in the dark about how to add a screen shot to a message on the forum.

Sarah, I pulled up my site in Firefox and saw what you were talking about, so I lengthened the page slightly, and it fits now. Thanks... I also put the Advertising rates button up at the top as you suggested, and it looks better for now.. I'll get a better idea of the placement once I get the intro video placed on the page.

Thanks for all your help. I will also work on your other suggestions...

The home page looks fine now. Glad to have been of help.

You said that a friend is making an intro video for your home page. Have you found a way to put it on a BV page without using YouTube or is that the only way to add a video to a site?

I will upload it to several video hosting sites including Youtube with a link back to my site, but I'm not sure which video hosting site is the best. Whichever one that is, I'll use that host for the site.

maybe embolden the text in your navigation bars? it might just be me but the text seems unprofessional so thin. great looking site though! :)

Good idea.

By the way, your Contact link is broken on http://www.qcgrafix.com/