Thread: New Site, Please Review :-)

Hey everyone, this is my new site that I have had running for maybe two months now. Please let me know what you think and if there is anything that needs to be done/or that can be done to improve the quality of the site. Thanks!

http://www.whitetails-extreme.com

I love the the name! Makes we want to go shoot something... and the site looks nice and appealing.

Here's the but. To make your site more user friendly, and SE friendly reduce the image size! SE will not rank you well if your page is too heavy. they assume, rightfully, that people will not waste their time waiting for the page to open. the first image on your home page is 2800x2100 reduced into a tiny little thumbnail like box. that's huge! Your website total weight should not exceed 200kb (most say) I'm fine with a few pages being longer for my own site but that's a personal business decision. Your home page you want it to be as "light" as possible. check the page weight of you pages by choosing tools --> page weight. it will give you the total size of the page and show you each object individually. Just that one image is like 100 times or more larger than what your page should be.

to reduce the size see this link

Thanks alot! the d.l. speed of the page has been a concern of mine since beginning to design it and im glad that i know about the pictures now.

It may take some time to play around with the different programs but at the same time don't forget to name your images something relevant to the page it is on and also to add an Alt tag in the properties of each image. It helps search engines "see" the image.

i say the same thing he said it all

Thanks guys, I modified a few of the pictures. Any better?

Much improvement. Don't forget to do it to all your pages;)

When I clicked on your link for the first time I thought wow, this looks really good and then your background loaded and then I thought oh!! My personally feeling is your background image is a bit overpowering and perhaps might look better washed out a bit.

I like the transparent swirls in your header. I think thats great touch. I would be inclined to bring the main content of the page up the header and perhaps stretch it to the width of the header. The gap between the two for me looks a bit untidy.

Your content is excellent and your pictures and so on are great.

I would also finish your pages off with a footer. It kindve ends the page nicely. You know the sort of thing. Copyright 2009 home | Members | Forum | and so

I think you've done a great job but just needs a little tweaking here and there.

Here is an example of where I've taken the edge/ or emphasis off the background maybe or maybe not...lol
click here

We want to restate two comments made by Darren. First, your body should be the same width as the header. And second, a footer should be added. Right now each page looks like it is cut off, which makes viewers wonder if they're missing something. If nothing else, put a second set of navigation links at the bottom so people do not have to return to the top to move to another page. A footer helps to define the page's end.

Thanks guys, Ill start playing around with your ideas tonight and keep ya updated now that you all mentioned it I really do need a footer. kevin, thanks for the comment man. Im actually in SC about half a hour from GA. You do much hunting? If so join the forum

Ditto with all the comments on slow loading because of images. You background image is around 600kb & could be better off around the 15kb with this type of repeat image. LINK TO SOME SAMPLES.

Can I use a small image like that and it cover the whole background without repeating?

Originally Posted by Whitetails-Extreme.Com

Can I use a small image like that and it cover the whole background without repeating?

Yes! You are better off. But use an image like that in the page properties area under background. There are lots of sites out there with different styles of background images that will come together with no visible join. But test an image 1st, just to make sure.
Click on any image on that site in the link & it will give you a sample on its looks in real time.

I just cant find a tileable (not sure if thats a word) that i like for the background. I played around for a little bit and came up with a few different things. Heres the links to what ive been working on, let me know if there making progress from the original or if the original is better.

Original

Test

Test 1

Definately 'Test 1' for me. The background no longer seems as over powering as it did. I still think you could wash out the colour and tone it down just a smidge.

It looks much tidier that you have brought the body section up to meet the header. The width of the body section is slightly wider than the header so bring that in line so its nice and tight.

I still like those transparent swirls, thats a cool touch!!

Changed it a little, any better?

Yes thats perfect. Thats just enough to take the brightness off the background which kindve emphasisis the actual page which for me is good!!

I really like your site. Very smooth and catchy! I apologize for just jumping into the thread but I was wondering if I may ask you how you made the page move while the background stays immobile? I really like that effect. Did you use the Voda program or write the HTML yourself? I have really only just started to use Blue Voda. Thank you in advance.