Hi,

 

I joined the forum out of frustration, as I have little clue as to what makes a good website or how to make mine better.

 

May I ask for a critique of my website, http://www.softtonesphotography.co.uk

 

I live in Leicestershire but hope to move to Bristol, if anyone will buy my house. But after about two years on the market it would seem unlikely that will happen soon. Hence the spread of locations listed as covered at this time. I know that may be an issue with Google.

 

Thanks

I'll be blunt. That is awful, just awful. Consider hiring a professional developer.

If this is your first shot at making a website, well done, it's really not a bad attempt.

 

If this is not your first website:

Wow, your in trouble. From a professional developers point of view, this website stinks, Hard!

 

First things first, Get rid of that damn music! If you don't want to get rid of the music, set it so that it doesn't automatically play on page load.

 

Your address and/or folder structure is messy.

 

WTF is at the bottom of this page? http://www.softtonesphotography.co.uk/new_layout/albums_index.html

 

If this is a serious business I think you 100% need to get a professional in to make a site like this.

 

Feel free to email me at me@sdoyle.net if you need this doing properly

If this is your first shot at making a website, well done, it's really not a bad attempt.

 

If this is not your first website:

Wow, your in trouble. From a professional developers point of view, this website stinks, Hard!

 

First things first, Get rid of that damn music! If you don't want to get rid of the music, set it so that it doesn't automatically play on page load.

 

Your address and/or folder structure is messy.

 

WTF is at the bottom of this page? http://www.softtonesphotography.co.uk/new_layout/albums_index.html

 

If this is a serious business I think you 100% need to get a professional in to make a site like this.

 

Feel free to email me at me@sdoyle.net if you need this doing properly

 

Thanks, it is my first website, but I can't afford to pay a pro... hence I am asking for an impartial critique.

So the music is gone, and the page sorted

Any other constructive comments please let me hear them

You have (what i presume) to be 3rd party scripts to handle your contact form blog etc. They move away from the sites design which I'm not keen on. I feel everything should follow your brand.

 

You also seem to have your website in a folder called: new_layout. I'd try and get rid of that so that every page sits within the main htdocs/httpdocs (whatever way your server is setup).

 

On this page: http://www.softtonesphotography.co.uk/folio_index.html There is a video which won't play (in my firefox at least) without a plugin (presumably quicktime of some sort). I'd consider hosting the video at youtube and using their embed code.

I just want to iterate, for a first website, this is a very good attempt, and I'm sure no one in these parts will disagree.

 

You seem to have got the fundamentals in place, It's just going to be a case of learning, testing and adjusting.

 

Don't be disheartened by my earlier comments, there not applicable and ignore comments that purely say: "this sucks".

 

I'm not afraid to admit, this website is 10x better than the first website I ever made.

I just want to iterate, for a first website, this is a very good attempt, and I'm sure no one in these parts will disagree.

 

You seem to have got the fundamentals in place, It's just going to be a case of learning, testing and adjusting.

 

Don't be disheartened by my earlier comments, there not applicable and ignore comments that purely say: "this sucks".

 

I'm not afraid to admit, this website is 10x better than the first website I ever made.

 

 

Hi again,

 

Your comments are valid, even "this sucks" and I am grateful for any feedback, I want to know how it is seen by people coming for the first time to the site.

 

The contact form is php, but every time I try to change the layout for some reason the form stops working. It is probably a simple error on my part. The blog is hosted by the same company I use for the hosting of the website one.com though the website is built with Dreamweaver. The reason I use that is I have been told (correctly or not) that as the URL is not the same it counts for back links.

 

the folder called 'new_layout' I will get rid, it was for the new album pages and at first I kept it all separate from the other pages until I felt they looked ok.

 

Thanks for the info on the video not working in Firefox.

 

Thanks, for the help

Sorry I'm misunderstanding? Someone told you dreamweaver is good for back links?

Sorry I'm misunderstanding? Someone told you dreamweaver is good for back links?

 

no using http://leicestershire.softtonesphotography.co.uk instead of http://www.softtonesphotography.co.uk/blog.html is good for back links as the blog is not part of the same website site.

I'm no expert on SEO so I'm not sure if the backlink thing is right or not but there is nothing stopping you from matching up the design of the blog to the design of the site. It comes across as a little unprofessional having two different designs. The same is applicable to the client area. I click to see one of the client photo galleries and I'm taken out of the current site with a small link back. Again, this should have the design matched up and the same header with a logo so I can click to go back to the main page (the logo should also be a link back to your homepage, btw). I don't really have any clue that these sections are part of the same site.

 

The typography on the navigation needs some work too. I'm not sure the font really matches with your company.

 

Are you part of a company? I ask because you text says 'My photography...' but it also says 'couples choose us...' so I'm not sure which it is.

I'm no expert on SEO so I'm not sure if the backlink thing is right or not but there is nothing stopping you from matching up the design of the blog to the design of the site. It comes across as a little unprofessional having two different designs. The same is applicable to the client area. I click to see one of the client photo galleries and I'm taken out of the current site with a small link back. Again, this should have the design matched up and the same header with a logo so I can click to go back to the main page (the logo should also be a link back to your homepage, btw). I don't really have any clue that these sections are part of the same site.

 

The typography on the navigation needs some work too. I'm not sure the font really matches with your company.

 

Are you part of a company? I ask because you text says 'My photography...' but it also says 'couples choose us...' so I'm not sure which it is.

 

it is mainly 'I' but with may daughter it is us. I need to be clear on that, thanks

It may help with rankings (You'd have to ask an SEO guy) but faily sure it's not gunna help u accumulate back links lol