Building my own website, please come in and be critical

Great looking Web-Site, I spent about 10 minutes surfing it, we all can knit-pick things ( didn't care for the frames around the pictures on your homepage) but all in all, I thought it was great, especially being your first web site, you being a detailer ( I know you will have it perfected before too long) Congradulations !! I like it, if I was a customer you would have earned my business.........good luck !!
 
Thanks for the help and replys, I redesigned the homepage, trying to make it smaller, and using 'lighter' colors. I also ditched the tacky picture frames.

Please let me know if it is any better (if so I will redo the whole site in this direction, arghh...)

Thanks alot everybody!!!!
 
Much better in looks, horizontal width and total document size (you are down to just under 1MB). There is still a lot of optimization that could be done but mostly by the use of better markup and css which if you ordered that book you should learn a bit about. It definitely is looking better now though.

I have made a new header image for you that is only 17% of the size of your current one and the only noticeable degradation is on the left headlamp and yellow reflection. It is still quite large at 58KB but a big leap forward. Feel free to use it if you wish and I can also compress the other images on the homepage to get you down to about 200K. A little compression on the homepage is fine (you want the people to actually load it don't you?), save the high res images for your detailing pictures where people will want to see them large and inspect the details.


homepageheader2-875x240.png
 
Amazing work in detailing. Site looks good to me as well. Seems a lot of the best detailers are from Florida. Makes sense I guess...
 
looks good, love the prices. (if only there were cars more expencive than c6 corvettes arround me lol)
 
Looking better but still needs some work. I find the mix of many fonts distracting - what, four different fonts just on the home page and too many different sizes? Arial, Batang, Comic Sans MS, Georgia - why all Microsoft specific fonts? What about those of us using Linux or Macs - have you looked at your site when Comic Sans MS or Bantang isn't on the visitors computer?

Your banner image file sizes are still too large (329KB?!) and you have "interest" images (as opossed to "detail" images) that are 374x513 px and over 375KB - takes too long to load, even with DSL.

What's with the cookie that expires in 2037?

On the plus side, your use of white space is easy on the eyes, such as the Services page. However, the white text near the top is on a light background which makes it more difficult to read.

Keep working on it.

Regards,
GEWB
 
Why is it that the Linux geeks are always so picky? Or is it that we use Linux because we are picky? Nice to see a fellow linux user / auto detailer.
 
lgtspecb said:
Why is it that the Linux geeks are always so picky? Or is it that we use Linux because we are picky? Nice to see a fellow linux user / auto detailer.
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Power to the penguin!

My work title is "Sr. Publications Specialist" - I'm in technical communications. My primary roll is developing and writing the user Help for custom software. I also write content for corporate use Web sites. I leave the difficult HTML / JavaScript / Java stuff to the degreed programers (but I can hold my own).

I use Linux BECAUSE I have used Windows since 1988 (Windows 2.0 for 286) and I work in a Windows shop. See my sig line. :D

When setting up a company Web site, such as the subject of this thread, it is important to pay attention to delays. It should take at least four revisions of each paragraph of text before it is ready for the public. Spelling, case, tense and punctuation are important as they are just as much a part of your public/business image as the site layout and navigation.

Regards,
GEWB
 
hi!
think your page is great! i really like the main page where you explain what bella macchina means! it's a nice idea!
and the pictures of the cars are amazing! you did a nice job!
 
I redid the homepage, it should load faster. If this works I will tackle the fonts and continue plugging away. Thank you for the suggestions!!!
 
You've got a ton of text on there. Any way you can shorten it?
 
Unless I'm missing something, I see no testimonials. Everytime you finish a job, you should have the owner write down on a 3x5 card how they liked the job and incorporate it on your sight. Look at Zaino's testimonial page. Smart marketing. People will believe what others say about you before they believe what you say about you.
 
Bradshaw said:
Unless I'm missing something, I see no testimonials. Everytime you finish a job, you should have the owner write down on a 3x5 card how they liked the job and incorporate it on your sight. Look at Zaino's testimonial page. Smart marketing. People will believe what others say about you before they believe what you say about you.
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I choose not to go with testominals for a couple reasons.

In my market, my work is well known, as 90% or more of my work comes from word of mouth.

It is the internet, so to me, testominals are not verifiable.

The type of work that I do on the cars I do tends to calm any fears about service quality, and I have never been asked for testimonials, ever.

I just don't seen the benefit given my market and cliental..

The main reason, the program I am using has a generic toolbar tool and adding another buttons means that I am wider then 800 pixels, which I have been told is bad.
 
Bradshaw said:
You are part detailer part salesman, so I humbly disagree.
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When you are dealing with a fraction of a percent of the population as your sole income producers, I would have to say word of mouth>testimonials any day.
 
Im not arguing word of mouth versus testimonials. Word of mouth is great, the cheapest, easiest marketing a business owner has. But there will be people who will visit the sight and are on the fence about getting there car done. Every little bit helps close the sale.
 
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