Would love some feedback on my new site!!! :-0)

[creative's]

ive just had my first website done....its not complete yet! please tell what you think ? any good suggestions on how to get more links to my site



im here to make new friends so please add me:green:

thanks guys

Hair and Beauty Academy

 

[Ruth Mills]

Lovely website from a graphic design point of view - the layout and especially the images make your site look really classy.

As it's a professionally designed website, I am going to point out some XHTML validation errors though (that's a techie issue that your web guys will need to look at) - the W3C online validator is coming up with the following errors: [Invalid] Markup Validation of http://www.hairandbeautyacademy.co.uk/index.php - W3C Markup Validator - including some fairly fundamental ones like using an ampersand as "&" in XHTML instead of the properly encoded "&" - and some XML parsing errors too. So I'd strongly recommend that you mention that to your web designers, as it does help with accessibility and browser compatibility if they get the XHTML syntax correct (and you're probably paying them enough too, so I'd insist on them getting it absolutely spot on).

But definitely a lovely looking site.

I'd also be inclined to be paranoid and double check with them that they have legitimately purchased any stock images they are using for your site too - as a couple of people on here received demands for hundreds of pounds from Corbis Images because their web designers had used stock images without a licence - and were being threatened with court action under the Copyright, Designs and Patents act if they didn't pay up. And, illogically, it was the website owner who was deemed responsible for that too - even though their web designers had used unlicensed images without their knowledge.

 

[Mrs.Clooney]

I'm a technophobe :lol:, but my advice would be to take on boardRuth's suggestions. She knows her stuff and is always willing to help.

 

[Ruth Mills]

And in all my techie ramblings, I forgot to mention that there was a typo in your menu - it should be "Charities" and not "Charitys"...

 

[Enchanting Beauty]

It looks really good graphically but yeah, take into view what Ruth said.
Well done

 

[creative's]

hi ruth thank you so much for your advice, still need to finish it off and amend a few things....will talk to my guy about the stock images as that has worried me a bit
you sure know your stuff

any more feed back would be great guys!

 

[Ruth Mills]

hi ruth thank you so much for your advice, still need to finish it off and amend a few things....will talk to my guy about the stock images as that has worried me a bit
you sure know your stuff

any more feed back would be great guys!

Ah cool - that's OK - well I think a lot of people have been caught out by the "spammigation" by companies like Getty and Corbis, when people have used images quite innocently on their websites without being aware of the copyright issues - personally I think that the actions of big companies like that are as morally questionable as the debt collection agencies who try and dupe you into paying "statute barred" debts over 6 years old that they've bought for pennies off banks and credit companies - in both cases it's big companies trying to screw the small guy.

It's only because of a couple of salon geeks on here receiving those demands from Corbis that I actually did a bit of research into the whole image copyright thing (just over 6 weeks ago) - and found out that there is a company in Israel called PicScout who make it their life's mission to trawl the Web looking for unlicensed images (and a lot of the time they completely ignore the "robots" guidelines for search engines too). Here's a good link about PicScout and how they operate... PicScout, Getty Images and Goodbye iStockPhoto..! - thankfully it is technically possible to configure one's web server to block requests from PicScout though (assuming that they continue to use a particular ISP in Israel) - you simply configure your firewall to block their IP addresses; for people who use third party hosting who wouldn't have access to firewall configuration, it would also be possible to use the ".htaccess" file to send "403 Forbidden" errors back to PicScout for that range of IP addresses too (assuming that the hosting company uses the Apache web server, which many do).

Definitely talk to your guy about the XHTML validation issues too - the majority of web browsers should be able to cope with the errors - but I'd expect perfection if I was paying a professional to design a site for me.

 

[Jenx]

I really like your website, very colourful and easy to find your way about.
The images are fab, but yes scary about people trying to sue etc. Definitely get that checked.
Ruth is full of fab info, so definitely one to listen to :hug: xx

 

[lisa82]

Oooo I love it! So many nice bright colours, yet without the headache from looking at it! Great pics too!
I think it looks fantastic xx

 

[Ruthlm]

Hiya, the site looks great, love the colours and the images, looks very proffetional. I noticed that on the home page that the description for the make up course 1 and 2 were worded the same, and not sure if it's just my laptop playing tricks on me but the gallery page and student pages seemed to be written in another language, the make up courses look great, wish I was closer lol x ruth

 

[SunSpray]

Hiya, very lovely bright colourful site.

Just another tiny typo - on the Beauty page, second paragraph it starts with Weather when it should be Whether ....

xx

 

[Ruth Mills]

and not sure if it's just my laptop playing tricks on me but the gallery page and student pages seemed to be written in another language

No need to adjust your set - a lot of web designers use that particular Latin text for bulking out web pages with text when there isn't any proper text to go there yet...

 

[Verve Designs]

It's called Lorum Ipsum and its great for spacing things out when you've not got any real text yet.

Here's a generator Lorem Ipsum - All the facts - Lipsum generator

never know when it'll come in handy!

 

[creative's]

thanks guys

for the positive feed back, i know its not complete yet and YES there is a few mistakes LOL..

just really excited and wanted to know what people thought!!!

im new to the site and really enjoying it ....
:green:

 

[clickcreations]

Site looks great! Ruth's advice is sound on all accounts. The only thing I'd add is I reckon the web designs company on the bottom of the page is a bit of intrusive. A small "made by" is fair enough to credit where credit is due, but a logo that size seems excessive to me... :-D

Also, if you can put a landline number rather that might be a bit better, there is something suspiciously untraceable about mobile numbers imho...

Small things, the site does excellent! Really like the colours and vibrancy.

 

[Ruth Mills]

The only thing I'd add is I reckon the web designs company on the bottom of the page is a bit of intrusive. A small "made by" is fair enough to credit where credit is due, but a logo that size seems excessive to me... :-D

Well, assuming that they were paying full price (£1195 as per the price list on their web company's site General Prices List ) for the web design, then yes, it would be somewhat presumptuous to insist on displaying such an intrusive logo on every page on a client's web site.

 

[angelina221]

I love the site-think it looks great.
The only thing i would say is that i didn't know where it was
I saw the postcode as N1 and thought it was Nottingham :lol:
I'd just add 'London' on to your address for people like me

 

[Ruth Mills]

I love the site-think it looks great.
The only thing i would say is that i didn't know where it was
I saw the postcode as N1 and thought it was Nottingham :lol:
I'd just add 'London' on to your address for people like me

LOL, that would be NG1, Angie :lol:

 

[aangel]

i like it. from a non profesional (not yet anyway lol) i think it looks good and i like the "our location" tab, its plain english instead of trying to find addresses on a "contact us" page. and i love the colours, its bright and cheery. good luck with it all xxxx

 

[Ruth Mills]

i like it. from a non profesional (not yet anyway lol) i think it looks good and i like the "our location" tab, its plain english instead of trying to find addresses on a "contact us" page. and i love the colours, its bright and cheery. good luck with it all xxxx

It would be even better to add a map on the location page too, e.g. a Google map.