New Website Layout....now What?!?!?!

[VetTechJess]

recently i asked people to please critique my site VetTechJess

I was told it was a good start with the site and everything but it needed some work for lack of a better word for it. One of which was a new layout. Some people suggested templates, which I created just now using a premade template.

tell me how it looks and how else I can improve traffic to my site and make my site more attractive.

there was nothing I could do about the big blank area to the right...atleast nobody told me how to shorten it yet so I improvised...

please tell me what you think!!!!!

[Mark Lapierre]

I have few design skills so I won't make many suggestions for change, however I do suggest downloading and installing firefox so you can see what it looks like. One of the important aspects of web design is making sure your site looks good in all major browsers. It looks fine in IE, but not in FireFox. (there are other browsers but those two cover most users. how much work you put in and how many browsers you check depends on how many users you want to reach and keep) Firefox - Rediscover the Web

Your header image contains some text, text which would be relevant for search engines, so it may be a good idea to use actual text rather than that image. Interestingly the text in the header image looks fuzzy with my glasses on, but looks fine with them off!

As for the blank bit on the right, posting new articles would be a good use for it, however you also have the option of centering the entire site, distributing space equally on both sides. Like on many blogs, such as Scott's: Scott H Young

[VetTechJess]

okay i fixed that...now firefox users can view my site as well as IE users.

NOW WHAT???

Anything else I should do?

As far as the tigerdirect ad on my site, for IE it appears blue and gray, but for firefox it originally appeared as white text so I had to change the text to black, so deal with it and don't complain (about the tigerdirect search box), it was out of my control!!!

Other than that what should I do?

If I have the wrong ads on my site (which it wouldnt surprise me if i did) then suggest animal related ads. Trust me Ive joined clickbooth, linkshare, and clickbank, as well as adsense (adsense isnt up yet....still working on the color coordinations)...by all means please suggest more income streams that dont require a minimum web traffic requirement.

Any *positive* help would be appreciated!!!

[Mark Lapierre]

It looks fine to me. However it's now practically invisible to search engines. What I mean by that is that by replacing all the text with images you've removed all the content that search engines use to list your site.

[VetTechJess]

Originally Posted by Mark Lapierre

It looks fine to me. However it's now practically invisible to search engines. What I mean by that is that by replacing all the text with images you've removed all the content that search engines use to list your site.

how would i be able to do both? it seems like im damned if i do and damned if i don't...

what would you suggest that would help?

[bellbird]

Hi Jessica, You definitely improved the look and conciseness of your site. Well done! I like the new layout better. I would suggest however to please remove that visitor counter. What use does it have beside for yourself alone to know about? It serves no purpose for the visitors and it's quite like BIG.
Also I would be interested to see your site with a centred look as suggested above. Move the ads somewhere else. They are distracting from your own pieces. Just my 2 c! It would look more balanced and better layout. Again: well done on your improvements, great job

[Mark Lapierre]

I'd suggest reading up on CSS. Here's a few links to tutorials to start off with: CSS Layouts Tutorials

And don't let the amount of information or learning put you off, there's a lot to learn at the start, but it's worth it.

[aussieNickuss]

You have a very very simple layout and I replicated it quickly using CSS and XHTML. I left off the right hand panel, but if you want that there as well, it's only a small addition.

I copy and pasted Googles cached text of your site (I didn't have the time to type it in from the image on your site), so it may not be recent. I also just copied and pasted the Education block to give you an idea of how it works.

It's all made using floating DIV's and looks identical in IE and Firefox. It's all CSS, ie. no images (except for the header image) and no tables. This is code only and just serves as a way for you to learn CSS based around your own sites design. You will need to plug in all your own content.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

	<head>
		<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
		<title>VetTechJess</title>
		
		<style type="text/css">
		
			BODY {
				background-color: #ffeb9c;
				font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
				font-size: 12px;
				color: #000000;
				margin: 0;
				padding: 0;
				text-align: center; /* Centres main DIV in IE ... DO NOT EDIT */
			}
			
			#Container_Outer {
				width: 600px;
				margin-left: auto;			/* Centres the DIV in Firefox & other *REAL* browsers. */
				margin-right: auto;
				text-align: left; /* Cancels out the CENTER text alignment above. */
			}
			
					#Container_Inner {
						width: 600px;
						float: left;
						background-color: #FFFFFF;
					}
					
			#Header {
				width: 600px;
				padding-top: 80px;
				float: left;
				margin-top: 10px;
				margin-bottom: 20px;
				background: url(http://www.vettechjess.com/My_Homepage_Files/IMG_23.jpg) no-repeat top center;
			}
			
			#Main_Menu {
				width: 600px;
				display: inline;  /* Prevents IE doubling the horizontal margins */
				float: left;
			}
			
					#Main_Menu ul {
						list-style: none;
						margin: 0;
						padding: 0;
					}
					
					#Main_Menu li {
						margin: 0;
						padding: 0;
						display: inline;
						float: left;
					}
					
					#Main_Menu a {
						display: block;
						width: 125px;
						height: 20px;
						margin-left: 10px;
						margin-right: 10px;
						border-left: 2px solid #ffcc00;
						border-right: 2px solid #ffcc00;
						text-transform: uppercase;
						text-decoration: none;
						line-height: 20px;
						text-align: center;
						color: #000000;
					}
					
							#Main_Menu a:hover {
								color: #ffcc00;
							}
							
			#Main_Content {
				width: 540px;
				margin: 30px;
				margin-top: 0;
				display: inline;
				float: left;
				line-height: 18px;
			}
			
		
			#Content_Blocks {
				margin-top: 20px;
				margin-bottom: 30px;
				float: left;
				width: 540px;
				padding-bottom: 30px;
				border-bottom: 1px solid #ffcc00;
			}
			
					.Info_Block {
						display: inline;
						width: 168px;
						height: 182px;
						border: 1px solid #ffcc00;
						margin: 5px;
						float: left;
					}
					
							.Info_Block a {
								font-size: 11px;
							}
					
					.Info_Block_Title {
						width: 168px;
						height: 25px;
						line-height: 25px;
						float: left;
						background-color: #ffcc00;
						font-weight: bold;
						text-indent: 10px;
					}
					
					.Info_Block_Text {
						display: inline;
						margin: 15px;
						margin-top: 0;
						float: left;
					}
		
		</style>
		
		
	</head>

	<body>
	
		<div id="Container_Outer">
			<div id="Container_Inner">
		
				<div id="Header">
					<div id="Main_Menu">
						<ul>
							<li><a href="#">Home</a></li>
							<li><a href="#">Links</a></li>
							<li><a href="#">About Me</a></li>
							<li><a href="#">Contact</a></li>
						</ul>
					</div>
				</div>
				
				<div id="Main_Content">
					
					<p>Welcome to VetTechJess! My name is Jessica Golden and I am studying to be a Veterinary Technician. I developed this website as a way for like minds to come together who don't think twice about spoiling our furry little friends as if they were our own children.</p>
					<p>This website is all about the Veterinary Field, in particular the sides of the Veterinary Field that we do not see every day. To browse this site more, feel free to click the sections above, which also includes how to contact me. Don't forget to check out the links below to have a wealth of information from many different websites at your fingertips.</p>
					<p>MOST IMPORTANTLY, HAVE FUN AND ENJOY THIS SITE!!!</p>
					
					<div id="Content_Blocks">
					
							<div class="Info_Block">
								<div class="Info_Block_Title">EDUCATION</div>
								<div class="Info_Block_Text">
									<p>This includes all necessary education in order to become a Vetinary Technician!</p>
									<p>:: <a href="http://www.vettechjess.com/My_Homepage_Files/Page3.html">Technician Education</a> ::</p>
								</div>
							</div>
						
							<div class="Info_Block">
								<div class="Info_Block_Title">EDUCATION</div>
								<div class="Info_Block_Text">
									<p>This includes all necessary education in order to become a Vetinary Technician!</p>
									<p>:: <a href="http://www.vettechjess.com/My_Homepage_Files/Page3.html">Technician Education</a> ::</p>
								</div>
							</div>
					
							<div class="Info_Block">
								<div class="Info_Block_Title">EDUCATION</div>
								<div class="Info_Block_Text">
									<p>This includes all necessary education in order to become a Vetinary Technician!</p>
									<p>:: <a href="http://www.vettechjess.com/My_Homepage_Files/Page3.html">Technician Education</a> ::</p>
								</div>
							</div>
							
							<div class="Info_Block">
								<div class="Info_Block_Title">EDUCATION</div>
								<div class="Info_Block_Text">
									<p>This includes all necessary education in order to become a Vetinary Technician!</p>
									<p>:: <a href="http://www.vettechjess.com/My_Homepage_Files/Page3.html">Technician Education</a> ::</p>
								</div>
							</div>
						
							<div class="Info_Block">
								<div class="Info_Block_Title">EDUCATION</div>
								<div class="Info_Block_Text">
									<p>This includes all necessary education in order to become a Vetinary Technician!</p>
									<p>:: <a href="http://www.vettechjess.com/My_Homepage_Files/Page3.html">Technician Education</a> ::</p>
								</div>
							</div>
					
							<div class="Info_Block">
								<div class="Info_Block_Title">EDUCATION</div>
								<div class="Info_Block_Text">
									<p>This includes all necessary education in order to become a Vetinary Technician!</p>
									<p>:: <a href="http://www.vettechjess.com/My_Homepage_Files/Page3.html">Technician Education</a> ::</p>
								</div>
							</div>
								
						</div>
						
						<i>YOUR ADVERTISEMENTS ETC HERE</i>
								
					</div>
				
				</div>
		
			</div>
		</div>
	
	</body>

</html>

Just copy and paste the above code into a fresh HTML document so that you can view it in a browser. Once you get the hang of it, the CSS styles should be in an external .css file so that all the pages on your site can use it.

Hope that helps.

(if you have any Q's, just give me a yell)

[Minsc]

Also, you hid search engine keywords on your page which might get you banned. If you get banned on a search engine, people will be reluctant to link to you since it would lower their ranking.

When you made your text into images(which you shouldn't do, use css as someone said), you made them jpegs. Use jpegs when encoding photographs and gifs with images that have few colors. Don't use mspaint or something to encode jpegs and gifs since you can't change the compression, pallate, ect. I use Paint Shop Pro for encoding but there should be a cheaper alternative.

Your image-links should have alt tags to help with SEO, in the future...

And you should have more content and internal links. I'd worry about those first.

And you should try to get some links from websites that aren't directories...
Ask the websites that you link to on your main page to link back to you.

Don't post articles in the huge blank area since it'd look bad. People using lower resolutions would have to scroll horizontally and it's not standard... I'd have the content be in the middle of the page with smaller navigation elements on the top or left.

The title of every page other than your main page is "Administrative Offices". Not sure what it's supposed to be...

The counter goes off the page. You don't need to explain that it's a counter since most people have seen one before.

You need headers, bold words, and lists in the "About Me" section to make it easier to read.

Your forum link could just be "http://vettechjess.createforum.net/index.php".

[JohnPlace]

Jess,

My advice is to take a look at several professional sites and take note of the things that make those sites user friendly and attractive.

Also, as another poster said, you need more content of your own. Right now it resembles a link factory.

Good luck with your site!

[CyberCoder]

Jess, you need to focus on one problem at a time. There has been a lot of good information here, but, you have created a site that SE spiders will not like.

Below is a copy of what the SE spider will see, this is done by using Lynx Text Browser, which is recommended by Google to see a site the way their spider does. There is NO content !!


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[VetTechJess]

can i rename the IMG's and post them to the server without it screwing up my site? what names for the IMG's would everyone here suggest that would hint at content??

BTW::: I am working on adding some other content to the website...I am gonna create individual pages for each of my animals and blog on each of them...I don't know how much blogging can be done on the days in the lives of five cats and two ferrets...

Maybe I can add an online blog for myself to create content that has a little bit of change to it...

any thoughts??

[Minsc]

Originally Posted by VetTechJess

can i rename the IMG's and post them to the server without it screwing up my site? what names for the IMG's would everyone here suggest that would hint at content??

A search engine can't read images.
You have to use text if you want your content to be indexed.
(although an image with a relevent name will help out with SEO when you use them)

You could just replace the images with divs of the same size and position if you want a quick way to fix your problem...

Also, if you change the names of your images, change how they're referenced in the html document or you'll have broken images.
To do that:
Look for the text "<img " in your document.
It should have something like "src=" next to it, before the ">".
After the "src=", there should be a filename of an image in quotes(or not in quotes).
Change the filename to the new name of that image.
Repeat until you've done it whereever you can.

But you should use text instead of images for content.

You should write about how to do something, about a skill, something you know about more than most other people, ect, instead of your pets and yourself. I doubt many people would be interested in your pets but might want to improve how good they are at something.
Or you could write something funny or interesting.
And I'd recommend writing about one thing.

[Interpreneur]

Jessica,

Congratulations on taking the first step, and please don't get offended, but your site looks very 1995, especially with that counter.

I would recommend you launch your site initially as a Wordpress blog with a nice animal-related WP template, and when you have traffic, start building other aspects of the site around it. With Wordpress you don't need any special knowledge to get the site looking great and the search engines will probably like it better.

Having links to about.com is a bad idea because of all the pop ups that site generates.

I'm not trying to be mean, but traffic is precious, so you have to give every single visitor a reason to come back for more. You can easily accomplish that with a blog by typing one post per day, and that post could be about anything you care about. Take ownership of your site. Make it your own.

Good luck --- and whatever you do, don't give up. I like your spirit.

[JohnPlace]

Originally Posted by Interpreneur

Jessica,

Congratulations on taking the first step, and please don't get offended, but your site looks very 1995, especially with that counter.

I would recommend you launch your site initially as a Wordpress blog with a nice animal-related WP template, and when you have traffic, start building other aspects of the site around it. With Wordpress you don't need any special knowledge to get the site looking great and the search engines will probably like it better.

Jess, I agree with Interpreneur. Go to WordPress.com and start a WordPress Blog. It's very easy and they look professional. And you won't need any technical skills unless you want to modify your theme, which you can avoid altogether if you are so inclined.