I guess you could call it a blog anyway. Fairly new to the whole creating websites scene, but it was entertaining creating. I enjoy music, and really the sole purpose of the site is exposing music that has just been released, and then connecting their type of music or sound with other artists. I just see so many music blogs sites that look complicated, and i wanted to do something simplier. thanks

 

www.youswipiswap.com

Hey,

 

Personally I'm not keen on the layout, Navigation at the bottom to me isn't inviting, think of it like this, user comes to your website, first thing they expected to see in my eyes is, header, navigation, content, in that order, where your nav is at the bottom it would be the last thing they see.

 

Had a look at your source code, and to me, looks like you made it in photoshop and used image slicer tool and exported as HTML page? This puts it in a table and images in the table, thus giving you no content.

 

and if you got crawled by google, it wouldn't pick any content up, thus not helping your page ranking.

 

For fairly new, your just starting out, So ill help you out

 

Learn HTML(XHTML) and CSS, this will make your site more accessible and easier to update. as updating your site now will involve you editing each image.

http://www.w3schools.com/Xhtml/ XHTML tutorials.

http://www.w3schools.com/css/ CSS tutorials

 

Sorry if it sounds harsh, by no means is it meant to be, just helping you move in the right direction, if you want some help feel free to PM me, and ill help you make your site into XHTML and CSS site for you.

 

Ben

Design-wise I like the big background pic and the transparent sidebar and menu. But I also agree with Ben, the menu 'below the fold' isn't doing it for me. Also the just sliced up layout isn't very accessible or search engine friendly, those links above will be great resources!

ended up changing the design to a more friendlier look. still isnt in html though. i've been messing around with it for the last couple of days with the html. could someone tell me the benefits of converting it to html? I understand so search engines will be able to find these particular links and connections. Also, it won't take as long to load and editing each page would be much easier. Why couldn't I just keep it as is, throw some meta tags in there and call it a day?...or will i just be better off putting it into html? thanks

There's definitely a strong Asian influence in your background images! I like the images. But the advise above is good - get it coded up well and remove the high reliance on tables to position your page.

 

I'll reiterate the advise above - use those links on XHTML and CSS. It'll improve your site drastically.

ended up changing the design to a more friendlier look. still isnt in html though. i've been messing around with it for the last couple of days with the html. could someone tell me the benefits of converting it to html? I understand so search engines will be able to find these particular links and connections. Also, it won't take as long to load and editing each page would be much easier. Why couldn't I just keep it as is, throw some meta tags in there and call it a day?...or will i just be better off putting it into html? thanks

 

Well, you can leave it the way it is... Obviously the pages load and people can see and read it. It's just not best practice.

 

People like pages that load quick... Metatags are just a small part of what the search engines read, so your page won't be ranked as well as other pages that have real content in them... The pages aren't accessable because people using something other than a browser will have a tough time with your page, screen readers specifically will be very quiet.

Appreciate all the replies. I understand I am just starting when it comes to all this technical procedures. I decided to give the site a whole new look, using Joomla. It took awhile to figure out at first, but it made thinks much easier for me once I got the hang of it. Any followup feedback would be greatly appreciated. I feel like I need more things going on some of the pages, but i'm just starting out. Thanks again.