Site Critique

W

Webkey Design Studio

New Member
Hey Guys,

Just wondering if you would mind giving thoughts on my site.

Its not finished yet, got to finish my banner on homepage, proof read it for spelling mistakes, and complete some pages, but for the overall look etc.

Webkey Design

Cheers, Lee.
 
It's poor. I mean for a web design agency/studio you miss out key things for accessibility especially. Really simple stuff like hovers or adding a link to your logo to get back to the start.

Each page is filled with pointless text, users have a short attention span if a potential customer see's all of the text they'll just leave. Likewise with the amount of links you have, why on earth you need so many I have no idea.

The colours aren't the best either, if you're going to use white, black and orange be careful. Add some line-spacing at least to the main text and choose a different font.

SEO. We've been through this already, but I had a read of the SEO page, and why the hell you have to run your keywords through a spreadsheet is beyond me. Also do you not add Meta to every site you do?

The code looks bloated and poor as well.
 
:icon_eek:
chris_17 said:
It's poor. I mean for a web design agency/studio you miss out key things for accessibility especially. Really simple stuff like hovers or adding a link to your logo to get back to the start.

Each page is filled with pointless text, users have a short attention span if a potential customer see's all of the text they'll just leave. Likewise with the amount of links you have, why on earth you need so many I have no idea.

The colours aren't the best either, if you're going to use white, black and orange be careful. Add some line-spacing at least to the main text and choose a different font.

SEO. We've been through this already, but I had a read of the SEO page, and why the hell you have to run your keywords through a spreadsheet is beyond me. Also do you not add Meta to every site you do?

The code looks bloated and poor as well.
Click to expand...

Ha Ha,

Chris, you clearly have an issue with what I do, hence your rant on my last post. I am simply trying to learn not cause offence.

However your lack of constructive critism says alot, so I will take little notice. I have recieved some great feedback and took on 3 jobs last week based on the impression my site provided, so it can't be that bad.

In terms of content, I only have to look at my competitors to know I do not have too much, some you simply keep scrolling and scrolling. But you only have to look at their portfolio to see their success, so the amount of text on their site must not be putting customers off in my local area.

However this and colour choice etc, all comes down to your personal liking.

For my keyphraseI was on pages 15 (Google) and 9 (Yahoo) and have since increased to 9 and 6, since going live 3 weeks ago which I think is not bad going, so again cannot be too poor, now I will take the time to learn and make the relevent changes to improve.

I would be interested to know what you consider to be a good webiste?

Anyway, anyone wishing to make construction criticism to help me learn and improve my website I would really appreciate your input.

:icon_eek:
 
Well maybe I'm just one of these people who would like to have a more accessible web.

As for constructive things to say, my view would be to start over, there's far too many links and content IMO, but that's just my opinion.

3 clients - Well done. Although they must be taking a huge risk given that they can't view any of your work.

You can take little notice all you want - You asked for a view from someone and I gave you it.

My idea of a good website:

One that validates for a start! Has good accessibility in regards to design and coding. Has simple navigation making things easy to find, a site that should guide the eye of the user through it, a site that is spaced out unlike yours which is heavily cluttered. A site that thinks about the user, what they go onto the site to do and to make it as easy as possible for them to do that.

As for SEO that's the point you're missing, what you list as an SEO service falls under 'good development practice'. I'll say it again, if a client came to you and said I want a website, 4 pages, not bothered about SEO. Would you put the keyword and description in that site?
 
Webkey Design Studio said:
However your lack of constructive critism says alot, so I will take little notice.
Click to expand...

I would say his first line contains very constructive criticism and also that I agree with it:

chris_17 said:
for a web design agency/studio you miss out key things for accessibility especially. Really simple stuff like hovers or adding a link to your logo to get back to the start.
Click to expand...

Adding hover states to menus aids users immensely and helps them to navigate a website. I think it's also safe to say that it's standard practice to make your logo a link back to your homepage and if you want some high profile examples then try facebook, twitter, amazon ect........

Also have you actually sat down and read the body copy on your home page?? To me it feels like it has just been wrote for SEO purposes and is actually very bad if a human reads it! It mentions key words far to much which makes it much longer and messier than it should be. New visitors to your site will want something that is clear and concise so they can understand its point in a few seconds!
This is not helped by the amount of links that you have in your body copy as this also makes reading harder.

Hope some of that helps you to improve you site, and despite you thinking that Chris has an issue with you, I would urge that you take his advice on board as most of what he's said on this thread makes absolute sense to me. :icon_thumbup:
 
Wow Chris, I do beleive he took that completely the wrong way. Beleive me, listen to Chris. He seems to have an eye for detail. I for one will take a look into your site a little more in depth when I get the chance.

I am in no way an SEO wiz, but in this day and age you NEED to know the basics when you are coding your html. I agree with Chris that your site's coding is very bloated and not really using the neccessary tags for a decent SEO site.

You are offering a website design service and not really portraying that in your current design. It's plain and basic of which is NOT grabbing your users attention nor really any attention in my opinion.

The thing that majorly niggles me on your website is that on a 1024x768 (probably a majority of the non tech savvy users) resolution your content on most pages is below the page break, so what information are you actually trying to get across here?

Here I have a similar problem >>> Creatabledesign.co.uk concept by Creatable Design
I started on that version which is the first version for my actual site, unfortuneatly I don't feel that for a freelance designer it portrays anything with that amount of text. IMO

In any event, these comments are NOT me having a bash, merely pointing out the obvious of what you need to think about. I am with Chris and Sweetums here.

Where's your portfolio? Seriously, your portfolio is what get's you the clients. How do you butter the bread (get clients) when the knife is broken? (No portfolio or anything that really catches your users).

Anyhow, I hope you take this as fairly constructive.

I will look forward to your reply.

Just to add something to that, can you fix the html on your portfolio page as in Firefox 3.5 the scrollbars go absolutely crazy and the page is broken.
 
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sweetums said:
Also have you actually sat down and read the body copy on your home page?? To me it feels like it has just been wrote for SEO purposes and is actually very bad if a human reads it! It mentions key words far to much which makes it much longer and messier than it should be. New visitors to your site will want something that is clear and concise so they can understand its point in a few seconds!
This is not helped by the amount of links that you have in your body copy as this also makes reading harder.
Click to expand...

I second this, I found it hard to read visually - actually quite difficult to focus on. I'd say for a start you need to up the line spacing. But, like sweetums said above, once I'd got my eyes to work the content was like reading a Google search page. I appreciate it must do well in search engines and it clearly works if you've got customers but it didn't do it for me - you need to re-write it for human beings in my opinion and, to an extent, sod the search engines. Also, get your site to validate - it's good practice.
 
Chris is right. The site's a mess. I'm no expert on coding, so I'll keep off that, but you're advertising graphic design as one of your services and the typography and layout isn't good.

As someone else said, there are no examples of your work on the site, and people really need to see that.

You say:

"I have a reputation of creating a clear and concise web design, with a simple navigation system that guides you every step of the way and is SEO Friendly. I follow specific guidelines and strategic techniques so your design is accessible to your clients and search engines."

From where?

Can I ask what you studied at college?
 
SparkCreative said:
Can I ask what you studied at college?
Click to expand...

I found that hilarious. I am not sure this guy will be back as he probably realised that he needs to rethink his strategies. I don't beleive that was the aim by anyone on here as we are merely giving our design critique and some people are so into their work that they won't hear any of it.

I hope the guy comes back and discusses things with us, people will go so far as to help if they don't get their critique thrown back in their faces.
 
lol yep.

That's why I like this forum. We don't take any crap. If people with less experience come asking questions with the right attitude I'll offer my help all day long.
 
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