Thread: Pease look - I'd really like some input!

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze! I've put alot of time and effort and would like some feedback, of any type. Thanks!

You've done a great job - I'm very impressed.

If your not an experienced web designer... KUDOS to you! it looks real good!

It's a nice site. Well laid out. Easy to navigate. Good links. I find the habit of having google on your home page a bit strange - this will direct traffic away from your site rather than in to it.... just a thought. Well done and good luck.

Thanks so much to those who gave me input - of course more is happily accepted - if there is ANYTHING I can do to make it better, please tell me. It is my first site, but I plan more, through Vodahost, of course.

Cheers!

Amanda,

I put the Google searchbar there for people to search the site, which is what I think most would use it for. I am also hoping its presence will help with my page ranking, I could be totally wrong in this, of course. Thanks for your input, it's much appreciated.

It won't do anything for your page ranking and it could lose people off your site. Is there anyway with our sites here to put in an onsite search? That's a feature I'm interested in also.

If not, can you make it be JUST an onsite search feature?

Thanks Bethers, I think I'll take it off then. One can write code to search within one's site - I'm just not that well versed!

Originally Posted by jane bond

Amanda,

I put the Google searchbar there for people to search the site, which is what I think most would use it for. I am also hoping its presence will help with my page ranking, I could be totally wrong in this, of course. Thanks for your input, it's much appreciated.

Aaahh! Yes, having just read another thread I now realise that it's one of the few ways you can 'search your site'. That's why people do it so often. OK. Thanks for the lesson :o)

Hi, lots of work has gone into this site, Well done!
The only thing that caught my eye is the navigation buttons are out of line? have you used 3 sets of nav buttons?

Originally Posted by jane bond

Thanks so much to those who gave me input - of course more is happily accepted - if there is ANYTHING I can do to make it better, please tell me. It is my first site, but I plan more, through Vodahost, of course.

Cheers!

Hi your doing just great all links working fine someone did mention the nav bars but as this on all pages you might of want that.
one thing you might want to think about change the skin or backboard stye of your fomum , so many sites i've been on with forums tend to be all the same styles , no offensive to phpbb it is a great forum but they do have other great skins (styles) that you can download use or change. see racefan20 thread The things you can do...

great job, and good luck for the future.

Thanks Pixel and Alien. Yeah - I need to work on my forum, there's so much else to do, it's kind of on the back burner, but I do really want to change the look of it. I will definitely follow racefan20's ideas.

I'll take a look at the nav bars, only the homepage should be out of line as there is the extra graphic on the top. Thanks again for your input!

Hi,
What a great looking first site,you have obviously put a lotta work in and it`s payed off,very well done.
regards
Jay

Re the nonsense about search boxes - read ANY web design magazine and you will find that these tools have become an essential component of web design, especially in larger websites. To quote the Feb edition of Web Designer, 'A search box has become a standard element in all but the most basic site layouts these days...'

A search box is hardly likely to drive visitors away from your website. That job is best left to poor content, bad design and unoptimised images which take forever to load... By the way, with regard to the last point, researchers have discovered that websites have about 50 milliseconds to make an impression on their visitors (Behaviour and Information Technology, Gitte Lindgaard).

If part of a visitors expectation is a searchbox, it's probably best to include one.

Great job Terri!
Love the colors and the navigation is very smooth and elegant, just as your site is!
One critique -
At the top where your google search is, there are two radio buttons without any explaination of what they are for...maybe you should have more detail to let others know why to click the button..smiles!
Keep up the good work!

Thanks much all!

Steve W - that's great to hear, I have noticed it's a feature of many large sites so I will keep the searchbox.

BTW, when you are making the selections in Google for the code for the searchbox, you can elect to have the search results open in a new window, so you do not redirect people from your site.

Kate, there was no way within the Google code as they laid it out to specify (they REALLY don't want you messing with their code either), I guess you have to take what they give you **sigh**. If I can put some explanation on the page without distracting from the look, I will. Thanks for the input and you have a beautiful site as well! I just love the hummingbird.