Up and Running

beebrothers · #1 12-07-2006, 10:06 PM

http://www.beebrothers.org

LadyEye · #2 12-07-2006, 11:15 PM

You've done a great job on your site ....

Your main page (index) needs to be centered, just an oversight because I believe all the rest of your pages are ....

I love the bee on your photos and everywhere, but perhaps consider optimizing the photo on your photo page, it takes a bit for it to open, not overly long, but consider reducing it with pic resizer available to download here from voda ... I don't mean the physical size, but the kbs, and I believe yours is in the mbs ... very large file

You can also alt text your images, then when your mouse hovers over them, you will see a few words ....

From your main page (index) the link to the honey page is not working ...

Your links are set up nicely on your links page, you might consider setting the target to each link as _blank - this will then leave a window of your site open, (it actually opens their site in a new window) so that when they leave that site, your site remains open.

You've done a good job with the titles on your pages, maybe the main page (index) could be called something else, maybe bee brothers home

You've done a great job! Good for you! You've been beeeezzzyyy!! :)

SChajin · #3 12-07-2006, 11:21 PM

A lot of work has gone into your site I agree with Holly, I'm not to sure about the diseases of bees though. You are selling honey.... Sorry but I did not read it though.

beebrothers · #4 12-08-2006, 01:17 AM

Yes I have Beeeeeen busy..hehe..thanks for all input.

I have to tackle it one at a time.

1) the link that didn't work, is fixed..it was on the about us to honey products

2) center the (index page) i have the "center in browser" box checked in the page properties don't know what else to do.

3) i wanted the links to open in there own page and leave mine open, i have to figure out how to do that ???

4) resize the pictures, don't know how to do that, once again, i'll try to figure that out after i download the picsizer thingy.

5) alt-text over pictures, not sure what you mean, or how to do all that either ;)

6) I am going to add a candles and a soap page. I am not that worried about it being a "store front", the product is stocked in a general store and others, this is something fun for the kids and an attempt at a resource for education
someday a shopping cart and all that might be an option, baby steps :)

6.5) rename the "index" page to something "homie", thought i had to have it named .index or is that just in the file/html?

7) i think thats it...i will try to look up what i need to improve, if i can't figure it out, I'll beeeee back..

thank you very much, BV is addicting.. :)

allstarfaces · #5 12-08-2006, 01:44 AM

We produce and stock
and wide variety of raw
New England ????????????????

YOU NEED TO CHANGE THIS

beebrothers · #6 12-08-2006, 01:48 AM

got the typo thanks..

figured out the _blank

Changed "home" to Bee Brothers

working on the photos

checked the index page, the center in browser box is checked not sure what else to do..

thanks

allstarfaces · #7 12-08-2006, 01:50 AM

get a job lol

beebrothers · #8 12-08-2006, 02:07 AM

i drive a school bus in the am's
i day trade during the day
i am working on my masters degee in public health at night

Job..NEVER
:p

darklight · #9 12-08-2006, 02:16 AM

Looking good. Instead of having your email addy exposed like that, how about creating a contact form?

Teri

beebrothers · #10 12-08-2006, 02:18 AM

OK..i think..on the figure it out list..

thank you

darklight · #11 12-08-2006, 02:25 AM

You will find alot of information regarding contact forms here:
http://www.vodahost.com/vodatalk/forms.html

Regards
Teri

beebrothers · #12 12-08-2006, 02:30 AM

yepper, i have five forums and almost all the tutorials open...

got the form figured out, just not how i want to lay it out..

You guys know i'm addicted now (ALSO) and you keep giving me things to do (improve my website)

i appreciate it..thanks again..

LadyEye · #13 12-08-2006, 02:44 AM

Did you republish your index page when you ticked center in browser? Maybe that is what you need to do, as it is not centered like your others.

Your page does need to be called index, you've done that perfect .... I am referring to the page properties, there is a title box, where you have titled your page, in the pop up box when you click on page properties... it can have a different title there in that box .... (but not how you saved and published the page)

ALT Text - double click on your picture and a pop up will open, there you will see alternate text, here you can add a small description of the picture ...

For your links to open in their own page ... you need to set the target of that link to _blank .... you will notice when you insert the link there will be a spot there that says target, there you can change it from being empty now to _blank ... this will fix that for you ....

You can always start slowly using paypal for your store front, if you have just a few items, that is pretty easy when you are ready...

Great job once again ....

An alternative to the pic resizer is this online image optimizer
It offers you 6 or 7 choices of your picture with its reduced resolution, and will give you the percentage saved and you can choose ...

Click Here for the on line image optimizer ....

:)

asirimarco · #14 12-08-2006, 03:15 AM

"links" and "photo" pages need to be centered - everytime you work on them make sure they are correct width and centered before republishing

Bethers · #15 12-08-2006, 04:01 AM

OK, I'll talk some SEO - your titles aren't ok - starting with the home page.

You need to do research on what people search with to find what you have. I know that I was in New England this summer - and I brought home maple syrup - but I saw honey also. However, no one is searching for New England honey also - so while it's good to have on your page, I can't suggest it for your title. People ARE searching for raw honey - they are also searching for buy raw honey and buy raw honey online - so those are good phrases for you to use - all together or at least using all the words somewhere on the home page. They are also searching for bee honey. For the title I'd probably put "Buy Raw Honey from Bee Brothers Apiary".

Each page needs just as good a title - using keywords for THAT page that will help people find you.

I'd get rid of all the under construction signs and put in a very short paragraph about what that page is - for example - on the products page - you could say something like - Products are being loaded - including raw honey, whatever honey - etc. Please come back soon to see them all. You're guaranteed to find the best raw honey from Bee Brothers.

That short paragraph will possibly cause interest and bring anyone back who might find you now (including bring back the se to see what's coming).

I don't know what you plan to put on some of the pages - but things people are searching for include "benefits of honey" and "health benefits of honey" - so having a page with that information - and giving valuable information there - could bring you traffic (and titling the page correctly, etc).

Since I'm not real knowledgeable about honey - I don't know which of these might be types of honey that you have or could optimize for - but they are being searched for:
brown honey
clover honey
honey milk
sweet honey

Of course, you should do this research yourself -

get your titles in line and then start working on page headlines! If you want to know more about it - a beginners ebook (free) is here: SEO E-Book

darklight · #16 12-08-2006, 12:40 PM

Beth- That is a great guide!
Teri

beebrothers · #17 12-08-2006, 01:28 PM

fantastic information...i see what your talking about..took a cup of coffee to understand..

overwhelming to say the least..but it seems the "little" things make a huge difference..

i will remove the UC signs, add a paragraph

add a benefits page
add a types of honey page
fix titles to reflect the page
add a headline to the page (now the <H> you mention i can't figure out???
do some paragraph editing to streamline
got to get a better grasp on the meta tags and page desciptions?

questions:

1) is there a way to change/update the properties of my navigaion bar and have all the pages update at once :) or one by one is the only way??

2) same with publishing, can i publish them all at once, or one by one?

3) is there a way to open all the pages at once to edit them?

4) can i improve my template and have all the pages follow suit without changing them all, thats exhausting :)?

this forum and you helpers is priceless..thank so much

Bethers · #18 12-08-2006, 09:04 PM

Because you are new - if you are willing to change all your pages over to php pages instead of html - you could do a php include for a navigation bar that would then only require one update when you change it (that's what I'm now doing on a store I'm moving to VH and I recommend for you with a store that isn't yet moving up). Here's the information on it- and it wouldn't take a lot for you to do:
http://www.vodahost.com/vodatalk/blu...ge-bv-php.html

I really like your Bee Brothers site and think it can do very well for you - as it gets optimized.

Thanks, Teri!