Appreciate your review of my site

[Sid Wales]

Following your requirement for information about the site www.dyoa.co.uk

Is this site completed or under construction? Under Construction


Do you have incoming links? There seem to be anumber that have been set up through Link Metro but so far I have accepted only one in return

What keywords are you targeting? At this time I have used Wordtracker to try to get a feel for what I should use but I am aiming at any SME who is looking for help to be able to do their accounts

Do you want your code reviewed for errors or improvements? No I use Macromedia and check the code out regularly


Who is your target audience? SMEs who would like to handle their accounts themselves

Why is your site different from sites selling/offering similar info/goods/services? Why will someone want to do business you? I have not yet found another site offering the same service

What is the purpose of the site? To inform and sell packages from simple preprinted hard copy ledger sheets to fully functional software which would be supported

Do you want design suggestions? Please
_

[fisicx]

Hi Sid,

Sorry about this but the site doen't look very professional.

The drop down menus are a bad idea as it all that centered text. Another issues is the width of the document. On a wide screen the lines are far too long. The webstyleguide.com/type/lines.html has some excellent advice and there is some valid theory here: http://blog.fawny.org/2005/09/21/measures/

And the information really is lightweight especially when site www.businesslink.gov.uk providing far more information.

You do mention your coding - I see 32 errors on the home page alone which could do with fixing. The main problem is your use of a DW template which will hamper your site development. Much better to begin with a logical document structure then add the styles later.

[Sid Wales]

fisicx - Thanks for your candid reply. The page width is governed by the menu bar I am using. I don't like the idea of using galleys . I have set up a template to try to be consistant. Thanks for the links - I will take a look and learn. I know of the .gov link and it is my intention to go at least one better than that when the site is completed

Thanks again

Regards

Sid

[AstarothSolutions]

To be honest I have to agree with the other poster... the site does not look professional at all - very much a done at home look to it.

I personally would certainly remove the HTML 4.01 validation icon - firstly I dont think they serve any purpose at all, the only place I would ever expect to see them is on web designers sites and even then I dont like them. Secondly you are missing the link to validate your site. Thirdly, using the validator properly your site fails validation (for a start you have the header identifying it as xHTML and not HTML 4.01). Finally... xHTML is considered the up to date format and so highlighting your site is created using an "out dated" technology isnt the best idea.

Whilst I think this is a minor issue in the whole scope of the site it is a real bugbear of mine.

[marksteadman]

Couple of extra points to add to fisicx's comprehensive review.

I can't read the text in the animated GIF, as it cycles round too fast. Plus there are a few consistency issues (title case mixed with lowercase text, red text with shadow mixed with "flat" black text, etc)

Just to elabourate, I think the reason fisicx says your menus are a bad idea is because they use Javascript, which for one thing will alienate many web users who don't like to surf with this enabled, but will entirely hamper your Google ranking. You can achieve much the same effect (without animation however) by using the Suckerfish technique. See http://www.htmldog.com/articles/suckerfish/dropdowns/ for more info.

Couple of other things very quckly: Copyright statements usually go at the bottom of pages, not at the top. I'd take a look at your copy, the "you are most welcome" text doesn't lend itself to professionalism. If you're explaining to people how to get around the site, that means the site is too complex, and could do with simplifying.

I would disagree with the Dreamweaver template thing: I don't think you're doing anything wrong there, as long as you're coding the HTML yourself and not relying on the WYSIWYG editor.

Bit of a barage I know, but it's all fairly simple stuff once you get used to it.
Mark

[Sid Wales]

Thanks for all the useful comment. Much appreciated

Regards

Sid

[www.infoebookstore.co.uk]

I am no expert, but I do agree with the others.

I use DW and it has some much more professional looking css templates that you could use.

Just a note on your site map, I like the short explanation about each page or section of the site, but please make the heading a link to the page rather than having to go back up to the top to find the link to the particular page you want.

Good luck

Jim

[Sid Wales]

To www.infoebookstore.co.uk and others - again I much appreciate the time you have spent on this. I have noted the comments and will be working on it

To marksteadman - you mentioned the animated banner moving too fast to read. I have tested the site on all of the normal browsers. Are you using anything else to see the site ?

Thanks again

Regards

Sid

[fisicx]

Sid,

Annimated anythings are considered very naff these days. They hark back to the bad old days of the web when it was considered cool to fill pages with loads of special effects. You would be much better off replacing the gif with a simple image describing the function of the link and making sure you have an associated text link.

You need to look at you site on a high resolution screen - preferrably with a screen setting of greater than 1024 and you will see how odd the menu looks. I don't know wher you got the drops down but from a usability and accesibility poit of view, JS driven menus and not a good idea. I'll dig out some articvle explaining why if you like. If you really want a dropdown then should consider using the suckerfish CSS menu.

[Sid Wales]

To fisicx - thanks, I need all the help I can get by the look of things. Please send me the article you refer to

Re the animated item I thought it would catch the attention and appears only on the home page but I will certainly look up suckerfish and the article you will send

Regards

Sid