Hi guys. I have recently designed a site for my freelance web design. Any comments are welcome regarding layout, design and code etc..

 

It would also be really helpful to know how SEO friendly the site is and if there is anything I can do to improve SEO.

 

http://www.samdelara.co.uk/index.htm

 

Sam

First of all I like this, nothing too complicated but a portfolio website shouldn't be anyway. From a design point of view though i'm not overly keen on the multi-toned text in the header as it seems to be at a rather strange interval. Consider having the part left of the hyphon one colour, and the part on the right another. If you did this then you could remove the hyphon without any noticable difference and I think it would look a bit nicer. Second maybe close up the gap between the content and the footer a little, the gap between the bottom of the footer and the bottom of the page is a little large too.

 

From a technical standpoint tweak your CSS a little, i run a resolution of 1440x900 and the header and footer gradients dissappear past about 1024 or so. Also your background gradient files are a little wide, try trimming them down to just 1px wide. If they're smaller then the page will load faster and use less bandwidth.

 

Also a favicon would be a nice touch, just create a 16x16 icon and save it as a .ico file with something like @icon sushi and throw it in the same directory as your index.htm page.

First of all I like this, nothing too complicated but a portfolio website shouldn't be anyway. From a design point of view though i'm not overly keen on the multi-toned text in the header as it seems to be at a rather strange interval. Consider having the part left of the hyphon one colour, and the part on the right another. If you did this then you could remove the hyphon without any noticable difference and I think it would look a bit nicer. Second maybe close up the gap between the content and the footer a little, the gap between the bottom of the footer and the bottom of the page is a little large too.

 

From a technical standpoint tweak your CSS a little, i run a resolution of 1440x900 and the header and footer gradients dissappear past about 1024 or so. Also your background gradient files are a little wide, try trimming them down to just 1px wide. If they're smaller then the page will load faster and use less bandwidth.

 

Also a favicon would be a nice touch, just create a 16x16 icon and save it as a .ico file with something like @icon sushi and throw it in the same directory as your index.htm page.

 

Thanks 'Cabbage'. That's really useful info. I will take your advice and alter the header img. I hadn't thought about the load time of the page due to the size of those background images. Doh! Favicon it is too.

 

Thanks again.

I like it....

 

I always ask myself the same question: What is you target audience?

 

Are you looking for other professionals to hire you or are you going for the business looking for their own site?

 

I have a reason for asking. I feel you are half way between the two....

 

You're not using totally plain English. You are heading that way but your links, for example, would be of no interest to an "ordinary" customer who wouldn't know what half of it meant.

 

I'm just thinking aloud really...

i like the site in general. very clean. nice work!

I think the site is clean and professional which is what you need for your target audience. easy layed out with attention to detail.

 

I would use you and will do if anything comes up!

 

good luck with the site.

Hi Sam,

 

Nice site! very clean nice use of colours etc. One thing I have noticed from a developers point of view, and that is that you do not appear to have any validation on your contact form. Which means you might receive a lot of blank emails or not get the desired information from potential customers etc. Might be worth employing some basic javascript validation in the short term.

 

Apart from that it's a good job.

Hi Sam,

 

Nice site! very clean nice use of colours etc. One thing I have noticed from a developers point of view, and that is that you do not appear to have any validation on your contact form. Which means you might receive a lot of blank emails or not get the desired information from potential customers etc. Might be worth employing some basic javascript validation in the short term.

 

Apart from that it's a good job.

 

 

Good point "Neo Dev"! I also have noticed that your top image doesnt repeat right, might wanna just add a background image orsaiiign.

 

Cheers

Looks alot better than mine i like it and keep it up

I like it....

 

I always ask myself the same question: What is you target audience?

 

Are you looking for other professionals to hire you or are you going for the business looking for their own site?

 

I have a reason for asking. I feel you are half way between the two....

 

You're not using totally plain English. You are heading that way but your links, for example, would be of no interest to an "ordinary" customer who wouldn't know what half of it meant.

 

I'm just thinking aloud really...

 

Hi 'Liquid'.

 

Thanks for this. It's a good point actually. I suppose the wording and general purpose of the site could be a bit confusing and to be honest I think the reason why is that I hadn't quite made my mind up about who my target audience are. I think at the moment it is other professionals / companies that I am trying to target as this makes more sense for me currently. Most customers / clients tend to gravitate towards established web design companies / agencies or people that they know personally or have built up a relationship with whereas I have had several emails from graphic design / web consultancy (sales) companies who have been interested in my work. I suppose I will try and tailor the site specifically towards this now...

I think the site is clean and professional which is what you need for your target audience. easy layed out with attention to detail.

 

I would use you and will do if anything comes up!

 

good luck with the site.

 

Hi 'Atlantis'.

 

Thanks! That's much appreciated and I will certainly be interested if anything does

Hi Sam,

 

Nice site! very clean nice use of colours etc. One thing I have noticed from a developers point of view, and that is that you do not appear to have any validation on your contact form. Which means you might receive a lot of blank emails or not get the desired information from potential customers etc. Might be worth employing some basic javascript validation in the short term.

 

Apart from that it's a good job.

 

Hi 'Neo_Dev'.

 

First of all thanks for your comments about the site! Much appreciated...also thanks for pointing out the issue with the contact form. I have had quite a few blank emails and I was aware that the form could be submitted blank but just hadn't got round to sorting it out yet. It definetely needs some work!

Looks alot better than mine i like it and keep it up

 

Thanks 'kip'!

Hi again guys.

 

After the comments about my site (all good & constructive - thanks people) I have re-worked it slightly.

 

http://www.samdelara.co.uk/

 

Any comments welcome.

 

Sam

First of all your design is very nice but in needs to be more professional, some suggestions:

 

1. Change your body tag background css with a design or some vector shapes - ornaments. Just grey in only boring.

http://www.vecteezy.com/ (nice website with free vector)

 

2. Try to make your tabs a bit smaller, bring them closer together and give them about 20-30% saturation.

 

3. Re shape your photos with smaller round edges.

 

4. Change the ul/ li css and use a nice bullet or an arrow instead of the plain round one.

 

4. If you use menu links with graphics or flash be sure to have those links in text so search engines can index your website.

 

Best of luck

Looks great Sam!!

Hi guys. I have recently designed a site for my freelance web design. Any comments are welcome regarding layout, design and code etc..

 

It would also be really helpful to know how SEO friendly the site is and if there is anything I can do to improve SEO.

 

http://www.samdelara.co.uk/index.htm

 

Sam

Also your background gradient files are a little wide, try trimming them down to just 1px wide. If they're smaller then the page will load faster and use less bandwidth.

 

repeating 1px wide background images eat both CPU and memory, not good...