redesigned website

kakee

Hi all thanks for checking out my website www.staydoggy.com.
Atfer receiving your suggestions I have now redesigned the whole thing.
I used a free template and some existing coding from the old version of the site.
Please give a look at it again and see what you reckon.
Thanks lads.

daymobrew

It looks a lot more modern than the old version.
Change the font to Arial (from Arial Black) because Arial is web safe. And, the bold look of Arial Black makes the text in the yellow and orange boxes look smudged. It's worse on the Aboutus.htm page.

I would also remove 'www' and '.com' from the header image. I think it makes it look amateur.

kakee wrote: »

I used a free template

As you are using a free template, its license probably requires that you keep a link back to the author's website, normally in the footer.

D.W

kakee wrote: »

Hi all thanks for checking out my website www.staydoggy.com.
Atfer receiving your suggestions I have now redesigned the whole thing.
I used a free template and some existing coding from the old version of the site.
Please give a look at it again and see what you reckon.
Thanks lads.

Kakee-if I am to be totally honest I don't like it at all. Sorry man...The header is overbearing, I don't like the color scheme, it looks like a freebie.... The link in the bottom will hinder any seo efforts also. Your idea/site should be as simple as pie to rank because its such a niche but initial looks count for a lot.

Heres one example which is not even great but may offer ideas... (I suggested previously you look to the UK for ideas and still think you should) http://www.dogfriendly.co.uk/

Pay someone to build you a proper , decent looking site so you can get on with flogging it would be my advise. Again sorry to be harse but I say it as I see it.

kakee

Thanks for the reply and I hear what you are saying.

I have looked at other sites including the one you mentioned and another one is http://www.dogpeople.co.uk.
For me there is too much going clutter on these pages with images, boxes and advertising etc.
I want to keep my site as simple as possible because people who are not used to the internet and europeans who might not have much english can still get to where the accomodation is listed.
If I was asked to register my details before I could get the information I want I would just go to another site.

Thanks Again

Pixelcraft

kakee wrote: »

I want to keep my site as simple as possible

Unfortunately Kakee, Simplicity is the most complex achievement!

D.W

kakee wrote: »

Thanks for the reply and I hear what you are saying.

I have looked at other sites including the one you mentioned and another one is http://www.dogpeople.co.uk.
For me there is too much going clutter on these pages with images, boxes and advertising etc.
I want to keep my site as simple as possible because people who are not used to the internet and europeans who might not have much english can still get to where the accomodation is listed.
If I was asked to register my details before I could get the information I want I would just go to another site.

Thanks Again

I'd agree with you in the main-the example I gave was just really a quick reference more than anything but I hate sites crammed with banners etc.. as they become confusing. Perhaps try and find a balance between their "type of site" and your own. In other words spend some real time researching sites like these (perhaps US based ones also) and store the best ideas, concepts away to use yourself.

I also wouldn't focus too much attention on those that are "not used to the Internet"-your target market whilst niche will have to internet savy as I assume this will be your only form of promotion so think more about the people that are used to the Internet, will be educated, know what they want etc.. My 2 cents anyway. Again to re-iterate I think its a good wee niche and wish you the best with it.

HandWS LTD

you need to make your website's background colour look better. e.g don't use the plain yellow as it's just old fashioned....the world of web design has moved on from that. Use a good image(s), maybe even blurred with paws in the image.

Also your navigation links are just old fashioned too. Try adding buttons to it instead of just a square grey or yellow colours

StuartC

I agree with daymobrew about removing the www. and .com.

I also agree with DW about getting on with selling it and maybe having someone else jump onboard. A lot of people might do a 180 if they land on a page they think looks amateurish.

Best of luck though,

HandWS LTD

Now you have improved. Looking a bit better than what it was like before.

However, you still need some improvements in the home page. For you navigation buttons, try and make them more stylish....something like the box's below the 2 headings "Dog Accommodation In Ireland" & "Dog Friendly Accommodation".

cormee

Great idea for a website! Hope it works for you.

some comments:

> You header is WAY too big, most of the content is below the fold when viewed on 1024x768, lose the giant header, try make it max 200px high.

> 'Find dog and pet friendly accommodation in Ireland' (or whatever it is) is currently part of your header image, Google can't read images, that phrase is one of your most important SEO phrases, contain it between <h1></h1> tags on the page

> 'Dog and pet Friendly Accommodation Staydoggy.com' - page title, very valuable SEO real-estate, underutilised. Dog and pet Friendly Accommodation Staydoggy.com' where? Change your page title to 'Dog and pet Friendly Accommodation in Ireland'

> Your navigation is all over the place, put it on one line, plus the title of each navigation heading is part of the images. Again this means nothing to Google so change your navigation to a CSS based list (I know you have alt tags but having text is even better still)

> I'd imagine your target market is Ireland, .coms are ok but you should consider getting a .ie, that combined with the fact that your server is hosted in Ireland tells Google your site is aimed at an Irish market. You could set up a 301 redirect from the old domain so there is no loss of ranking etc. If you are going to get a .ie get one that is keyword rich. ie. dogfriendly or petfriendly.ie

> You have two h1's 'Dog Accommodation In Ireland' and 'Dog Friendly Accommodation' change these to h2 and see my second point for your h1 (each page should only really have 1 h1)

> Move the hyperlinked list of counties to the homepage and get rid of the 'Some Examples Of Dog Friendly Accommodation In Ireland' images as they have no context/purpose.

Best of luck, it's a great idea.

HandWS LTD

You are getting better. Nearly there now to get the X factor. Try and change your corners of the plain white template background plus make your font "Find Dog Friendly...." smaller and eye catching. Not too much of an eye catching, as you don't want to distract the customer.

Move your google Translation up high to the top or somewhere else as its not really in a good position.

Get rid of the blue border around the html validation image. Correct the validation links as they are not working properly.

Lets see how you do after this.

tricky D

Read cormee's post again and act on it. Great advice.

Elements are in the wrong place. Keeping it simple, the top left corner should be a nice logo linked to homepage, not Times New Roman with practically no treatment. Top middle should have the dog pics, top right should have functional stuff like translation and contact.

Questions should be higher up on the navigation hierarchy, after Accommodation. All the buttons should be on a single line.

On the homepage you go on about we this, we that. What you need here are reasons to use your service - Need something, we got it, get in touch.

The orange text 'What can I find on staydoggy.com' on an orange background is almost unreadable. Contrast is your friend.

The accommodation page map is not clickable and doesn't look great.

Contact page layout needs fixing and a form.

On most pages text is not fitting correctly or consistently into the yellow.jpg background panel.

Don't know how the Gallery images relate to the site. Needs text and context. Email address not clickable.

How does someone let you know about new dog-friendly places?

Dump the W3 validation stuff, no one except web devs care about that. The pages also have errors so aren't fully compliant anyway.

Align text to the left on the listings page - centered text is more awkward to read. Remove empty listings. Consider providing links to adjacent counties and premium listings maybe linked to full page spreads which you could charge for. Consider getting some ads across the site to make a few more bob.

hth

HandWS LTD

Hi tricky D,

May i ask how much website development you have done? I'm suprised that you mentioned to scrap the W3 validation's. Is this because you have too many error's and warnings?

If you can provide me with your website address, i'll be delighted to investigate it for you and show you where you are going wrong. W3 validation's is not just about building the website and how it looks but much more than that.

Pixelcraft

I presume he meant scrap the actual badges?

HandWS LTD

Maybe he didn't explain it properly. The Badges are not that important. but the W3 validation is important.

tricky D

HandWS LTD wrote: »

Hi tricky D,

May i ask how much website development you have done? I'm suprised that you mentioned to scrap the W3 validation's. Is this because you have too many error's and warnings?

If you can provide me with your website address, i'll be delighted to investigate it for you and show you where you are going wrong. W3 validation's is not just about building the website and how it looks but much more than that.

I do indeed mean the badges, but defo not the validation. Even your own site doesn't bother with them and you like your stuff valid, just like me.

Thanks for your offer, but no thanks. I do know exactly what's wrong with my website - there's nothing public there at the moment. Would you like some assistance on your accessibility??;)

Besides, my experience: you probably wouldn't believe me if I said.

HandWS LTD

Ha Ha....some people don't bother bother with the vaildation but we do and our website is valid. We haven't gotten around to the accessibility yet. We will be doing that for sure. p.s accessibility is another thing thats important for a website.

cormee

The great thing about accessibility is that if you follow WCAG 1.0 guidelines not only will your site be accessible to more users it will also be extremely SE friendly (if you've followed the guidelines correctly).

cormee

HandWS LTD wrote: »

Ha Ha....some people don't bother bother with the vaildation but we do and our website is valid. We haven't gotten around to the accessibility yet. We will be doing that for sure. p.s accessibility is another thing thats important for a website.

You'll definitely have to look into from a Deuteranope and Protanope pov (red and green colour deficit)!