Any feedback (good or bad) would be much appreciated. I have designed it with SEO in mind.

 

modernweddingphotographers.co.uk

 

I've also just started looking into getting a blog for the site and came across google blogspot, would it perform better on the search engine if the blog was actually on my webspace rather than linking to something like google blogspot? If anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated (I know absolutely nothing about blogging so even obvious info would be great!).

 

Al.

Hi Al

I like the front page of your site, but I also think there's room for improvement. I think adding a hover state (change of colour/ background/font-weight etc would make your navigation links more user friendly. I don't find your text very easy to read, I would consider changing the line height to 1.1em , and maybe add a little letter spacing too.

I am less keen on the rest of the pages on your site (the gallery is quite nice though) mainly because of the centred text. I don't find this easy to read at all, and the site design loses its structure. I think it would be nice to justify your text to the left and maybe balance it out with a different photo for each page. I'm sure you're not short of images you could use

The same goes for the form, it looks very strange centred on the page.

Nice colours and photos though

 

I could give you some SEO advice, but you're better off waiting for some of the more experienced SEOers. I'm sure some will be along soon. I can't guarantee my advice would be very useful in this area!

Hi Al,

 

Taking a constructive look at your site's copy...

Just like notbanksy says you really need to left-align the text - I got a headache and gave-up trying to read it (but I promise I will once you sort out the alignment!). Another thing to consider is that such wide text is not easy to read - the optimum is around 15 words wide.

Even though yours is a photography site I think the copy needs a bit of an overhaul - it's very fragmented and cluttered and doesn't flow or read well. Oh, and you'll need some full stops in there!

If I can shamelessly plug myself - have a read through Copy Corner for some advice. I'll happily look over your copy but not until I can read it without feeling motion sick!!!!

 

As always my advice is given in the right spirit to be helpful even if it does sound nitpicky!

Hi Al,

 

Taking a constructive look at your site's copy...

Just like notbanksy says you really need to left-align the text - I got a headache and gave-up trying to read it (but I promise I will once you sort out the alignment!). Another thing to consider is that such wide text is not easy to read - the optimum is around 15 words wide.

Even though yours is a photography site I think the copy needs a bit of an overhaul - it's very fragmented and cluttered and doesn't flow or read well. Oh, and you'll need some full stops in there!

If I can shamelessly plug myself - have a read through Copy Corner for some advice. I'll happily look over your copy but not until I can read it without feeling motion sick!!!!

 

As always my advice is given in the right spirit to be helpful even if it does sound nitpicky!

 

Thanks for the replies. I can see what you mean about the text, I'd never really looked at it that way before but there is definately a better way of constructing the pages and aligning the text. Not sure the text doesn't read well though? Do you mean content or scattered alignment?

I will be creating the site with css shortly so could incorporate a better design with clearer menus then.

Thanks again.

al

Not sure the text doesn't read well though? Do you mean content or scattered alignment?

 

I mean the actual content. There aren't any real paragraphs or text that flows together - just separate fragmented sentences. Effective copy should create an atmosphere and lead a visitor where you want them to go. If you're pitching a fairly emotional product (i.e. wedding photos) I would be a bit more 'poetic' with my copy.

Hi there,

 

I really like the font choice that you've made and it's colour makes a nice contrast with the dark background.

One CSS thing, if I may....it might be worth giving your classes more meaningful names (rather than style119, style61 etc). If you have to come back to the site after a time away from coding it, you might have trouble remebering what those classes do.

 

Oh, and the use of tables in your markup for layout purposes is a no-no.

I also agree with the comments re the text alignment.

 

Other than that, I really like what you've done.

One CSS thing, if I may....it might be worth giving your classes more meaningful names (rather than style119, style61 etc).

 

Yeah I agree. You need to have external CSS whenever you style a page because the reusability of the code.

 

Since the human brain parses information from the topleft corner to the bottom right it would be an idea to put the 'home' link in the beginning of the navigation list.

 

There is absolutely no need to wrap images into <a> tags if they don't lead anywhere. There are many examples for this error on the page.

 

The arrows are facing the images (previous>)(<next) which is kind of deceiving.

 

For your own sake don't use 'mailto' especially not with your full email address unless you love to get viagra spam mails (have to say some of them are funny)

 

The layout part was covered by the others. The site has a lot of potential though...keep it up