Suggestions for Improving My Site

**grahamb** · 18 June 2007, 04:06 AM

I would really appreciate feedback to find peoples ideas on improving my website. I am becoming happier with the way it is looking but I would really like to make it as good as I can.
http://www.bettscomputers.com

**juergen** · 18 June 2007, 06:22 AM

Graham,

good morning. Couple of things that strike my eyes here:

- Google rules the world. Especially as the ads are easier to read due to the color contrast, the eye is lead there instead to your content.

- again the ads. Do they even need to be above your stuff in the sidebars ?

- You have different menu on homepage and content pages. Go for just one.
Different sizes between homepage and content pages. Same here. Go for one.

- Color contrast. While I personally like the colors, they can easily get a problem as especially green on green is not exactly easy to read. This way you make even more marketing for the search engine. Check the homepage and try to read your content fast, then the ads.

- on the content pages, your content flows below your left navigation. Not sure if it is a bug or a feature, but it doesnt really look good. (just saw its a bug. works fine in IE, but not in Firefox

- on some pages ("why networks") you force the center content into a fixed width, no matter what the page width is.

- You did not keep your layout/ colors consistently over all content. Look at "Hardware Links" as an example.

- Use the layout potential of HTML. It might not be much, but a list might be useful when creating one. "Hardware Links" is a good example again. no structure and hard to read.

- on the left side, you sometimes display mainly ads, sometimes keywords, sometimes navigation. I personally would focus on one thing throughout the pages.

- if you have a box with navigation points in it, don't label it with the name of the page. It is called "navigation", nothing else.

- some innersite links open in a new window, some in same. I would guess its just a bug .

- what exactly does the box with keywords do ?

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just stumbled across http://bettscomputers.com/linksdownloads.htm. I like that page much better. Not much contrast still but its a relief to the eyes.

Please don't put the body style in each page as mentioned in the description of this page. Put it in a stylesheet. Then you do not have to edit each page to make changes to your site, just in the stylesheet.

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Overall after looking at most at the pages I find your use of the left and right sides disturbing. You never know in advance what to expect from a page. Only the massive amount of ads for a search engine is omni present.

Would it be possible to just reserve one (and always the same) place for the ads ?
Using consistent menus and page width throughout the site.
Check color contrasts and readability.

Juergen

**parahandy** · 18 June 2007, 10:07 AM

And here is me thinking the only thing odd about it was the commas between the text links.

**salaam** · 18 June 2007, 11:55 AM

Looks nice but the photo on the banner is very poor. You can see the jagged pixels against the background.

**grahamb** · 10 July 2007, 10:31 PM

Thanks for the help everyone.

Juergen: You have put so much time and effort to help me it is really impressive. I am gradually making relevant changes but I am a school teacher and don't have much spare time so it all takes a while. Your idea of just having the one menu bar on each page is very important. I think it makes the navigation clearer. I have changed the heading image on the content pages. I am trying to work out what to do with my home page. Again I am working through your ideas and thank you for your help.

Parahandy: I suppose I dont't need the commas do I? Never thought about it. Thankyou.

Salaam: You are absolutely right the photo looks terrible. It does not add anything to the page. You will notice I have taken your idea and changed the content pages. Trying to work out what to do with the home page.

I am thinking about stopping the Flash animation in the middle of my page and then perhaps the same animation as on the other pages may look alright. I don't want to make it look to busy. What do people think?

Thanks for the suggestions and help. Keep it coming. The site is improving but it still has a long way to go. A real long way.

Graham

**grahamb** · 28 July 2007, 11:26 PM

I have done a revamp of my site. Still many things to do. Always a work in progress. Still need to look at positioning of Google ads and perhaps text colour on home page. I would love to hear what people think of the changes. Please be brutally honest. Honesty is the best way for me to be improving things.

http://www.bettscomputers.com