Thread: Finally got my site up and running

I'm not a web designer in any way shape or form so until my budget allows me to employ a developer I've had to just make do with my limited HTML knowledge and iWeb.

www.bleedink.co.uk

It's still a bit of a work in progress so things are due to change a bit but I'm chuffed that I've got it online at last.

I like its simplicity and your logo's quite nice. On the downside, the background looks like kitchen roll to me, I dislike the pop-up portfolio and the watermark on the images isn't helpful (or necessary - certainly not seen a portfolio done like that before) - would be nice to have a bit of text explaining what I'm looking at here too.

Also not crazy about some of the marketing-speak which is a bit OTT for my palate.

The watermarks are too much, I agree and are something I'll be adjusting/removing over the next few days.

The portfolio is an unfortunate combinations of my coding abilities and the limitations of iweb. The alternative was a self contained gallery which wouldn't look out of place in a primary school website from 2001. I have read a few tutorials on how to incorporate a lightbox gallery into a site built in iweb but they seem to be a bit hit and miss.

I like the layout and feel of the site (easy to navigate, nicely spaced etc) but have to agree about that background but then I'm a 'plain white' guy myself. The background file also needs to be optimised desperately. 725kb is too big for web.

You know I'm going to say that the coding makes me cry a little inside

I also think you need to review your text with search in mind. You haven't really said what you do. The words 'Bleed Ink is a graphic design company in York' wouldn't go amiss because, if I was looking for a graphic design company in York, that's what I'd type into Google. You may want to just check out using some header (h) tags in your text as that would help enormously.

It's a good basis for your business website but it still needs refining which I'm sure you'll be doing.

Oh, and lightboxes are pretty easy to install. My fave at the moment is colorbox; ColorBox - customizable lightbox plugin for jQuery 1.3, 1.4, & 1.5

Made a few gentle tweaks.

Originally Posted by bigdave

I'm not a web designer in any way shape or form so until my budget allows me to employ a developer I've had to just make do with my limited HTML knowledge and iWeb.

www.bleedink.co.uk

It's still a bit of a work in progress so things are due to change a bit but I'm chuffed that I've got it online at last.

Personally it looks a bit sparse, I think some graphics (considering what your site is about) on each page would increase the attractiveness. Also, perhaps case studies would be a good addition instead of just images in the portfolio.

Are you concerned with SEO at all? I was wondering so little in alt text on the images for instance but obviously there's much more on that.

In some ways its not specific enough, I like to see something directly about who is running the comapny and background.

Anyway, I hope this doesn't come across over critical. It's meant to be constructive.

Regards

Not sure I like the portfolio images opening in a new window

There seems to be an overwhelming feeling of disapproval to the way the portfolio operates. I'll change it around tomorrow.

With limited coding knowledge any reason why you didn't just use wordpress? I think wordpress looks professional and is very easy to use/skin.

Having the mobile number before the landline makes it look like a one-man band?
More text please, with your keywords.
I quite like the kitchen roll