Updated Site ...The home page needs help

[golash]

Hi

I don`t do this professionally and did use a template that I customized. Just wondering if it works from a

style perspective. The home page is my biggest problem. Should I add more images and text. To me it

seems boring. I did try to keep the content short and to the point.  I`ve heard too much content on the home page can turn the web surfer off.

 

http://www.woodsolutions.com/new/new/

This was the old site: http://www.woodsolutions.com

[nrg_alpha]

Hey golash... thanks for admitting the use of a template (some people have been caught using a template without admitting it firsthand).

 

The home page is my biggest problem. Should I add more images and text. To me it

seems boring. I did try to keep the content short and to the point.  I`ve heard too much content on the home page can turn the web surfer off.

 

I agree with not adding more stuff.. Indeed, keeping things simple is best (your visitors will appreciate it).

 

- Using Yahoo's Yslow, you can optimize some images (via it's built in smushit tool). Home page can save ~31.88 KB for example.

- for SEO purpose, you can ditch the meta keyword tag, as it doesn't have any value anymore.

- for the contact link, I think having a built in contact page would be better than using mailto and having MS Outlook express.

- I would get rid of the 'This free Dreamweaver template created by JustDreamweaver.com' at the bottom, as it doesn't lend to the professional image.

- I would make the logo in the header a link that jumps to home page (something I fall prey to as well with my site).

- I would personally remove the peeling page effect within the header graphic.. I keep thinking this is a link or that if I mouseover it, it will reveal something.

- In your code, I'm not sure why there are <span> tags within your li tags.

- Also, you shouldn't need to use <br /> in between each <p> tags, as you can adjust the spacing of these <p> tags using css.

- Pretty cool.

 

Over all, it's clean and lightweight. It seems to serve it's purpose well without getting complicated.

[golash]

Hi

Thanks for the tips. I did the original site in 1998. Since that time I haven`t done too much

with HTML. Now with CSS, my head is spinning. I have the total training for expressions web.

CSS is much more involved then the old days in Front Page.

I have a few questions. I`m used to seeing underlines for hyperlinks. Should there be underlines or

is that old school.

Also, my headings are the same color as the hyperlinks. I`m not certain with the colors the same and

no underline, visitors will know what is click able.

I was trying to line up the left side bar images with the text for each of the three topics on the home page.

In Firefox they seem more misaligned then in IE 7.0. To be truthful I don`t have a lock on CSS and positioning. That must be the reason for some of those strange tags.

[nrg_alpha]

I have a few questions. I`m used to seeing underlines for hyperlinks. Should there be underlines or

is that old school.

 

My guess is that the default link state has the text-decoration property set to none (haven't delved into your css).

 

Also, my headings are the same color as the hyperlinks. I`m not certain with the colors the same and

no underline, visitors will know what is click able.

 

If this is a concern, perhaps you can change the colour of the headers to a different shade of blue to help differentiate those from the links (maybe making the headers the same darker blue as what you have with 'Welcome to Wood Solutions' on the home page?

 

I was trying to line up the left side bar images with the text for each of the three topics on the home page.

In Firefox they seem more misaligned then in IE 7.0. To be truthful I don`t have a lock on CSS and positioning. That must be the reason for some of those strange tags.

 

Welcome to cross browser development... There are plenty of css positioning tutorials, just google it.. you'll find them. I recently came across this link, which provides quite a few additional links regarding css in general (I'm sure you'll pick up a few things in there ). We also have a css forum available at your disposal. Overall, css isn't 'hard' per say, just tricky to get at first (sort of like regex ). Just a matter of playing around with it and looking at tutorials and perhaps visiting your local bookstore to see if any css books catch your fancy. Plenty of learning resources abound for sure.