Thread: Review for labour hire and recruitment agency

Hi Guys,

First time publishing my website. We are a labour hire and recruitment agency in Australia catering exclusively to the Dental Professional.

At this stage, I will just like comments on design, colours, layout, overall look and feel etc. I think the pages load a bit slow so if you have any suggestions on how to speed it up, I would appreciate it.

The content is not yet finished and I have not done a final spell/grammar check so I am not too concerned about these things at the moment.

www.thelinkdentalpersonnel.com

Hope you like what you see and look forward to your constructive criticism and suggestions.

Many Thanks.

Looks Great But..You have sideward scroll and most won't even see ti..Also center your first page.

I knew that was going to be a problem when I looked at someone elses website review. Back to the drawing board *sigh*

Thanks for the comment.

You will get there..Always working on it..Ha Ha

Hi,

Sharon must be using one of those latest teeny weeny Laptops.

I have no problem viewing.

Your Main Header text is a bit too large for me.
Maybe a redesign for the header would be my suggestion.

Front page has right-side deviation!
Also, enlarge texts into the site pages - small text NOT ATTRACTIVE AT ALL!

Get more colors - it still dental - not funeral!

His screen is exactly the same as mine 1280 by 800 resolution. But if you put it any lower you get a side scroll. Best to keep pages around 975 in width, since a lot of people still have lower resolution screens.

Overall though, you design is very nice and fluid, maybe lighten up the header a little bit though =)

Thank you everyone for your comments. I will make some changes and see how we go.

Nope, I have a 21 inch screen..

Ok, I have made some changes to lay our and design, size and resolution and taken all comments on board. Some pages are still under construction and from what I can tell, all the links are fully functional bar one, the employee downloads page.

If you coud all please look at grammar, spelling, ease of navigation and what you think about the content. Is it too much information? Not enough?

Thank you in advance.

Hi - looks like a great service. I detest going to the dentist - but I want the nicest and most professional service while there!

Once you finish putting the content into your pages, remember to change the title tags. Currently, they all say 'home page'

I was a little concerned that you'd be able to manage a service like this without some kind of database to help you keep track of it all.

I would not have the first page with the picture of the link - for 2 reasons:

1. People often become annoyed when they see a screen they have to click through to get to the homepage.

2. It can make seo (search engine optimisation) a little difficult because it's hard to optimise a page that only has a picture of a link on it!

I understand the message behind the link, but perhaps that could be communicated in a logo?

Your logo just says 'the link' and I think to use 'the link dental personnel' would solidify your name more in web visitors minds.

I thought your site looked well put-together but the thought occured to me that I would prefer a 'cleaner' looking site for a dentist-related site - something with large amounts of 'white space'. Might be personal preference though!
A lot of health-related sites look very muted with loads of white space.

I didn't spot any grammar or spelling mistakes in the pages I looked at and also didn't think there was too much information.

I think you've done a great job - I just personally have a preference for a 'cleaner' looking site in regards to health etc.

Sunchaser,

Thank you very much for your reply. I will probably get rid of that 'Enter Site' page as its starting to annoy me too.

I'm not sure yet how to change the title tags but I will look into that also.

With regards to the cleaner look and more white space, I appreciate your view point on that, I will play around with the colour scheme a bit and see how it looks with more white.

About the database, this is where MySQL comes into it? I have a friend who will be helping me with that. It's way over the top of my head.

Sincerely appreciate all your comments.

Hi :)

To change title tags you simply right-click on an empty spot on a page, click on properties and then type something into title.

This is extremely important to your seo efforts. The titles that you put in for each page will become the clickable titles that you see in search engine results.
Choose titles that sum up each page, using the best key phrases for the page.

You can use MySQL for your databases but you would need a special program to suit your specific needs. If your service doesn't grow too large & complicated etc you might be ok with the site you have.

Hey I got rid of my intro/splash page too... it's just precious seconds that is sort of a waste of time. Plus it's not "in" anymore.

Sunchaser,

Thanks for advising how to change the name of the pages.

I have redesigned the layout and left a lot more white. I haven't linked it up to anything yet but could you please tell me if I'm getting any closer to a 'cleaner' looking website.

www.thelinkdentalpersonnel.com/index1.html

If not, can you be more soecific about exactly what you think I should change, recolour, or remove all together.

Many Thanks.

Ok fellow VH users. Made some more changes. I know I can't please everyone as we all have different tastes but I value your opinions all the same.

Please have another look at the site. If you have any suggestions, please be specific, if you think the colour should be different, what colour? etc etc.

I love the way it is looking now and if it weren't for all your previous comments, I wouldn't have found the inspiration to try harder and get more creative, think outside the square (so to speak). So please keep the comments coming.

PS. I am still building the submission forms so don't worry about those yet.

www.thelinkdentalpersonnel.com

Hi everyone,

I know you all have better things to do than to validate my artistic/design/creative ability but I have been working my bum off to try and make a nicer looking website based on previous suggestions.

I would really love to know if after spending at least 12 hours a day for the last few days have paid off (lots of 4am bed times).

www.thelinkdentalpersonnel.com

Eagerly awaiting some reviews.

I think your website looks great and professional. I like the color scheme and the layout. I like how all the pages and section are the same (I use the same sorta idea on my site), with just different content.

It gives off a comforting feeling. Your work was worth it. =)

Hylith,

Thank you for your opinion. Much appreciated and glad you like what you see. A comforting feeling is good.

Thanks again.

Hi,
I totally agree with all the positive comments about the general layout/design/appeal of your site....well done!

so..now comes the time to REALLY nit-pick to make your site "perfect" LOL

The menu button for About The Link - there's a teeny weeny piece missing due to the positioning of the words.

I would also suggest the following changes highlighted in red:

Our Philosophy - "Many companies claim to put their clients first. However few
are able to resist the..."

Mission Statement - ".....very foundation upon which we build..."
"This foundation is based on integrity and..."
"It is our desire to encourage our employees..." (You just
used "inspire")

Quality Assurance Statement - "...matches our clients' expectations..."
"...Australian Dental Association's continually ..."

Privacy Statement - in 2.Using Personal Information - in a), b) & c) delete
to & make d) a separate statement. I also would use a ;at the end of each line

Disclaimer - "... in relation to any [legal, financial or medical] matter..." no need for
the [ ]

I haven't checked the other pages....need more time LOL. If you would like me too, I can, but the above "mistakes", IMO, are not serious enough to 'lose' a visitor to your site.
david

Hi David,

Wow you really did have a good look at my website. But very much appreciated. Glad to have gone past the point of having to once again re-design the website and happy to be just doing the nitty gritty now. So yes, if you have time, I would love for you to have a look at the rest of it

I have made all the changes you recommended except for the clients' and Association's. It is to my understanding that to use an apostrophe in these two situations would actually have the sentence say:

".....new technologies as well as changes to the Australian Dental Association is continually evolving policies......" The word associations is a plural and does not require an apostrophe.

and

".....the changing needs of our client is and we aim to achieve this by...." Again, the word clients is a plural.

A general rule when to use an apostrophe at the end of a word is if the word itself plural noun that end with an "s". (or something like that)

Sorry, I was confused about how to correctly use an apostrophe so I googled it :) Hope you don't take that as me trying to be all that.

Anyway, thanks again for the great review and the excellent feedback and suggestions (not suggestion's) hahaha. Sorry :)

Cheers

OOOkaaay....not going to get into a fight about this LOL...BUT:
the use of an apostrophe is either to show a "possessive" situation, (i.e. "of someone" or "of something") OR to indicate a missing letter eg "don't". The one exception (which gets a LOT of people into troube!) is "its" - as a possessive it stays...but when you want to say "it is" = it's)
In the case of plurals: (& I apologise for misunderstanding that you have more than one Dental Association!!!) when you mean to say, "OF the clients/Associations" then there should be an apostrophe eg. clients'....Associations'. The exception (there's always 1!) is with people's names - how would you write "the house of Mr. & Mrs. Jones"? :)
as soon as I have time I will check the other pages for you,
david

Sorry, wasn't trying to be snot nosed ike I know everything. I was just of the understanding as mentioned before so I googled it for clarity. Yes there are always exceptions but as you said, it's nothing to lose site visitors over and certainly not worth having a massive debate.

Appreciate that you are bringing grammar errors to my attention.

Thanks

Hi Rowena...I'm back :)

On your home page there are 2 buttons I didn't notice before at the bottom. The left takes me to the top of the page & the right one does nothing???? :)

So -
1.Home - the 2nd. para. just doesn't feel good! The "needs" & "desires" element. I have the following suggestion: my words in brown
We often refer to ourselves as being a boutique business because that's exactly what we are; we only provide services to a select group of clients with special needs and desires. For example: a need to access labour hire in regional and remote locations; a desire to have the convenience of labour hire. (You could substitute the 'a' with 'the')

2.Labour Hire (Dental Nurse/Assistant)- patients mind at ease - singular or plural? If singular then "patient's mind" - if plural then "patients' minds"
(Reception/Administrations) - endeavor - US or UK? If UK then with 'u'. customers - not "patients"? (Hygienists & Therapists) - if not thousands,
(Locum Dentists) - patients' needs - here we go again!
At the bottom of the page again 2 buttons that don't work!

3. Mentoring Services - clients' work force. - yup, I know LOL! And same buttons as before.

4. Value Added Services - you must: & I would start each of the following sentences with a small letter - exactly as we receive them - and they will be placed - left & right buttons at bottom: same problem + the one in the middle has no text??

OK, sorry - gotta go - more later.....
david

Ok great feed back again. (laughing at the singular and plural debate)

It's 2.30am here so I won't make any changes now. I just wanted to quickly check what interesting things you had for me before I went to bed :)

Umm, not sure about the spell checker, I guess its a US spell checker being a US hosted site. Spell checker didn't pick it up as being an error. But I will look into it.

Regarding those "page top" and "previous page" buttons, they seem to all be working on my end. I think they are just a little tempermental, sometimes you have to give them a good hard click. Don't know why.

4. Value Added Services- left & right buttons at bottom: same problem + the one in the middle has no text??
Perhaps I was updating at the time you were having a look, everything my end seems to be ok. Can you check again your end please? On the Home Page, if it's the first page you have been to, the "Previous Page" button won't do anything because theres been no other pages viewed, but it does work after you have visited another page then returned to the home page. Make sense?

And just quickly, i really like the suggestion of 'For example: a need to access labour hire in regional and remote locations; a desire to have the convenience of labour hire.' Very good. Sounds much better.

Thanks for all your helpful comments and the humour ;)

Please keep them coming.

Goodnight

Hallo again, Rowena,
Re. those buttons - as of today I still see the problems outlined before.
...continuing -
Benefits of Labour Hire - maybe even over_time - 1 word
2. Costs - either no 's' or next word "are"

Benefits of Mentoring - I wouldn't say "under construction"
- the time-consuming process
- one-on-one

New Client Policy - which outlines

Customer Service Policy - but excels them. I would use "exceeds" (normally one
"excels IN something")
-'w' bullets: just curious, why 'w'? & same
comment as for Value Added Services - if you use
a : then each bullet should start with lower case
- Consistency in their high standard of service- why not?

Complaints Policy - rectify a situation
- happening again in future. "in future" not necessary
- All complaints will be received in a welcoming and non-defensive
manner hmm, not sure if complaints are "welcome"??

Points of Difference - now the bullets are 'v'? Consistency, Rowena,
consistency....it's such a good site
- costs involved with long distance travel is see Benefits of
Labour Hire!
- well-known
- be personalised "personal" is good enough

Client Registration - You are under no obligation to proceed with services after registration. However, we do request that if you change your mind, and no longer wish to be registered, that you contact us and we will remove your details from our database.

Job Seeker Registration - Are you traveling - you have used mostly UK spelling so far. Ergo, "travelling" with 2 'l's is UK

OK - sorry, no more time right now,
david

Hi David,

I don't know what is going on with thos buttons, they work when click on them? Might check it out from someone elses PC and see what happens. Im baffled.

Ok, so you want me to keep the bullets uniform? Any particular preference?

I will go through and make all the grammar corrections you noted. FYI, re: previous message, I put the apostrophe at the end of 'clients' and BV spell check said it was an error but when I copied and pasted paragraph into Word, it didn't pick it up as an error. I think Word is configured to ENglish Australian (basically UK spelling) but Im a bit baffled about it. I thik I put it in anyway as per your suggestion.

I was also considering a modification to home page, last paragraph. Will get your opinion before I do anything. Here goes;

Our sole purpose isto provide a service of convenience and The Link Dental Personnel are the first labour hire agency in regional New South Wales and Victoria to offer dentists and specialists who either want, need or desire the convenience of labour hire; access to this great service.

Or I can just leave sleeping dogs. Any preference?

Once again, thank you for the time you have spent helping me fine tune my site.

PS. forgot to reply to a few things from other message.

2.Labour Hire (Dental Nurse/Assistant)- patients mind at ease - singular or plural? If singular then "patient's mind" - if plural then "patients' minds"
(Reception/Administrations) - endeavor - US or UK? If UK then with 'u'. customers - not "patients"? (Hygienists & Therapists) - if not thousands,

RE: customers - not "patients"?

On the front desk, the person who walks in the door is not necessarily a patient, they may simply be there to purchase dental products or make enquiries. Once they are seen by the dentist, they become a patient. Just for you info so you understat why I would leave it at customer instead of patient.


Oh yeah, and we do welcome customer complaints because we can't improve if we don't know what the problem is. It was something in the small business management course that I did about the percentage of customers retained because they had their complaint dealt with vs. customers that were lost becuase they didn't complain, they simply went elsewhere. They drummed it into us that complaints are good. They are an 'opportunity' for improvement. LOL

Hi Rowena,
Patients vs. clients....I understand, thank you!
re: Our sole purpose isto provide a service of convenience and The Link Dental Personnel are the first labour hire agency in regional New South Wales and Victoria to offer dentists and specialists who either want, need or desire the convenience of labour hire; access to this great service I like it :)
re: buttons - the button you actually use is up to you of course. I only mean that whichever button style you decide on should then be used throughout the site. The "Tips" pages are an exception where you're using a '?'

Resume Tips - as www.hotgurl******** no www. in an Email address?
avoid using fancy hard-to-read fonts.

Writing a Cover Letter - "Briefly outline your skills and experience which are
relevant to the role -no need for "which are"
"Avoid using fancy hard-to-read fonts

Addressing Selection Criteria - when I open this link there's no way home! Closing the page exits me from the site.
Interview Preparation - Practise your answers - a VERY common mistake: the
verb is "practiSe" & the noun is "practiCe"
- The interviewer will probably answer most of them
throughout your interview. However, it's best to be
prepared.
Dress For Success - faultless!! BUT, I have to ask: men NEVER go for these interviews?? LOL

Interview Questions - They know you're not perfect
- For example: or , you may have limited experience with the
computer program they use. However, you are very
proficient at using a computer and learn quickly.
- Perhaps, you and a co-worker had a conflict. However, once
you approached

OK, that's pretty much it, I think? One final general observation/question: on the left side of all pages you have a panel - "Clients", "Must Read" & "OFFICE HOURS" - "Must Read".......what? and mousing over the image produces a 'hand' which suggests I should click & be transported somewhere else....but nothing happens!! ( You want to have all Upper Case for Office Hours?)

& finally.....I think you've done extremely well.
david

Hi David,

I wasn't sure if you would like that paragraph, glad you did. Yay for me :)

RE: addressing selection criteria, ok I will have a look at that. It's supposed to open in a pop up window. Ok yep, I see what I have done there. Thanks.

I almost got excited when you said Dress For Success was faultless until you pointed out the fact, and you are right, that males have job interviews as well. I was being narrow minded targeting dental jobs (99.9% female orientated). SO that balloon deflated rather quick, LOL.

Shouldn't be able to mouse over the images, they haven't been linked to anything so don't know what to do about that. Will look into it.

The "must read" relating to our office hours, when to call for general enquiries vs. making a booking and the contact number etc. I put office hours in caps lock just to draw attention to it.

Ok, spirits lifted again when you said ive done really well. Many thanks for your keen obseravtions, nit picking and helpful information. Glad we crossed cyber paths :)

All the best,

PS. I don't know much about dressing a man for success, other than basic principals...clean clothes, clean hair, clean nails, shirt ironed etc.

Any tips you can give me to add to the page?
wear a tie?
Not wear a tie?
Plain shirt vs. pattern?
Plain tie?
Shaved or at least trim and well kept facial hair?

Anything else?

Hi Rowena,
Dress code for men - yeah, well...you're in Australia so I'm not too sure what goes & what doesn't. In South Africa for example they have very smart "shorts" suits - matching shorts & shirt - that are acceptable by most business people. Don't know if the same goes in OZ?
I would say it depends on the weather at the time. If really hot, maybe smart trousers, open neck shirt - with not too many buttons undone - would pass. (And leave the heavy gold chain at home!) If not uncomfortble, a suit is always good! Plain shirts are always better - ditto the tie. Shaved is also always better (some prejudices still exist LOL) but a beard is OK when neatly trimmed. For sure, 2 or 3 days growth is OUT! (However trendy it may be)
You're absolutey right about the smoking advice, nails etc...all goes too for men!
happy to have been of help,
david

Hi David,

Didn't realise you were in SA. And you're right, unless you live in far north OZ, even on a hot day, long pants are expected. But you pretty much confirmed what I thought re: tie, plain shirt, clean shaven etc.

Thanks,

Take care :)

You're welcome, Rowena.
By the way, I live in Germany but I visited SA some time ago & remember how practical their clothes were.
Good luck,
david

In your home page, the "about the link" link is over the black circle. You can see part of the gold background on top of the black circle. Move the black circle to the front. Simple little fix to make it look more professional;)

Originally Posted by adir_sharon

In your home page, the "about the link" link is over the black circle. You can see part of the gold background on top of the black circle. Move the black circle to the front. Simple little fix to make it look more professional;)

Sorry, I'm not sure what black circle your talking about. Is it still a problem because I can't see what it is your refering to.

But thanks for letting me know.

Guten Tag David,

May I beg your indulgence one more time please. Made a few mods to website to make it a little more interesting and fun.

Different pictures and a different way of marketing/selling special offers that we have. The idea is to encourage clients/customers to return to the website regularly and to explore all the pages.

Well, you will see what I mean when you have a look. You will find it easy as you have gotten to know my site pretty well.

Hoping you like.

Danke (<< is that right?)

If you open up your page in firefox you will clearly see what I am talking about. Nearly 45% of internet users are using Firefox. You should test your site on firefox, ie, and opera.

Using firefox, your links are not separated by those vertical deliminator lines; the browser changed it to offset black circles.

Here is an image of it. Hope this help a bit. I would recommend making it firefox and ie friendly. Good luck!

Hi Rowena,
see post #20 in this thread...my first observation:
The menu button for About The Link - there's a teeny weeny piece missing due to the positioning of the words.
This is what Adir is referring to

Originally Posted by adir_sharon

In your home page, the "about the link" link is over the black circle. You can see part of the gold background on top of the black circle. Move the black circle to the front. Simple little fix to make it look more professional;)

Also the problem with the 2 link buttons at the bottom of each page still exists??

As for the new "look" - I like it - I found the treasure chest!!
Can't help you with the PDF download problem, I'm afraid....that will take a General to help you! One will, you can be sure :)
Keep tweaking!
david

Originally Posted by adir_sharon

If you open up your page in firefox you will clearly see what I am talking about. Nearly 45% of internet users are using Firefox. You should test your site on firefox, ie, and opera.

Using firefox, your links are not separated by those vertical deliminator lines; the browser changed it to offset black circles.

Here is an image of it. Hope this help a bit. I would recommend making it firefox and ie friendly. Good luck!

Thanks for the screen shot. Now that makes a hell of a lot more sense. See, I use internet explorer, didn't even think to check it on firefox. In IE, those circles are just a vertical line separating the words. Hmmm, what to do about that??!! It looks damn ugly with them big black circles!!!

Thanks a million

Hi David,

In light of the new information I have received re: word cutting off black circle in firefox bowsers, I wonder if you are having the problems with those 2 links because your using firefox for your web browser.

I'm almost sure that if you used internet explorer, you wouldn't be having the same problems. Any ideas how t make it uniform in both FF and IE browsers?

Glad you like the new tweaks. I'm tweaking the header again to be more uniform with my new staionary I received today (logo, letter heads, business cards etc), try to maintain the corporate image.

Hope your not getting to sick of me yet :)

I think your site is looking a lot cleaner - well done Rowena.

(I am a copywriter/editor & agree with grammar changes as suggested by ahimsa. Grammar is frustrating at times!)

Adir - where did you read that 45% of net users use Firefox? I'm not sure what the precentage is, but I know the percentage changes from site to site. Sites that web savvy users visit would show a high Firefox %.
My site has less than 15% of visitors using Firefox.

(I totally agree that a website needs to look good in all major browsers.)

Sunchaser,

I can't remember but I did a search on it months ago, here is a link that will show you web browsers statistics month by month.

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

looks great. like the color scheme it is fitting. one thing. I am looking at it and when I mouse over the dropdown menu I see that half the drop down menu items are hidden ie the words are cut off. you can fix this by simply widening your dropdown menu box in bv otherwise the site looks good very well done.

o and the link you have at the top of your page for job vacancy I went to that page and it is not centered.

Originally Posted by Sunchaser

I think your site is looking a lot cleaner - well done Rowena.

(I am a copywriter/editor & agree with grammar changes as suggested by ahimsa. Grammar is frustrating at times!)

Adir - where did you read that 45% of net users use Firefox? I'm not sure what the precentage is, but I know the percentage changes from site to site. Sites that web savvy users visit would show a high Firefox %.
My site has less than 15% of visitors using Firefox.

(I totally agree that a website needs to look good in all major browsers.)

Thanks Sunchaser,

Glad you like the lighter design. I keep tweaking it trying to make improvements but I fear that it's becoming a bit like a never ending tattoo, just keep adding more and more until eventually, you lose the theme.

It's got me buggered tho how to deal with this issue of other web browsers.

And yes, David has been very patiently helping me fine tune the grammar.

Cheers for the comments.

Originally Posted by steve-d

looks great. like the color scheme it is fitting. one thing. I am looking at it and when I mouse over the dropdown menu I see that half the drop down menu items are hidden ie the words are cut off. you can fix this by simply widening your dropdown menu box in bv otherwise the site looks good very well done.

Hi Steve,

I'm not too sure why the drop down menu is not showing the full text. I can see the full text in my browser. Don't know what to do about that, everything seems in order.

But thanks for letting me know about that page not being centred, I have rectified.

Cheers