Would you guys mind reviewing my website?

[expresstech]

Thank you for all the thoughts and advice - I do appreciate the advice and I won't ever improve it without accepting the critique.

Originally Posted by thebeardedone

... I still think its too heavy on the images as the loading time for the page was pretty slow ... which leads me on to another point ... when designing a website do you consider the people who will be viewing the site from a mobile device?

I believe I know why the site is loading slow. Currently, it is hosted our own web server at our home. We only have a 6 meg dsl connection and I imagine page load time can depend some on how heavily we are using the internet. We will probably look into hosting with host gator, their reseller program intrigued us.

To be honest, I hadn't considered mobile users, though I can see that I should. Yes I have used background images generously and everything is still a learning process. I will have to consider ways to combine elements to reduce the images on the site or look into reducing the image quality a bit to make the file size smaller.

Originally Posted by atlanticjim

There are too many items in the boxes (I seem to remember that seven is the limit of choices that is comfortable for the human mind). I would group Virus/Malware/Adware Removal removal together, or just say Virus removal cause Joe and Jolene don't draw a distinction.
The font is too simple, I don't do HTML, but I would like something a little fancier.
When I first read "How experienced are you?" I though that you were challanging me, the website visitor, then I realized that it was a FAQ page. If you put it in quotes it sets it up as being a question that the visitor is asking you.

I always swallow hard and get quiet when anyone criticizes my work so I know that it can be hard to take advice. Please know that this comes from me to you very kindly.

Yeah I can combine the removal services into one. Technically it loads the same removal page for those elements, perhaps I got a little carried away with the linking. =) Though from an SEO perspective I am not sure how that will impact me. Recently I have read some articles that seem to favor anchored text e.g. <a

Thanks for being understanding in regards to criticism. I asked for a review, you guys are telling me what's wrong with it. If I thought it was perfect, I wouldn't have asked your opinions. So I am listening to everything that is mentioned here... I'm going to work on it later today and hopefully I can get some of these issues resolved.

Originally Posted by ICEinLAVA

I agree with thebeardedone that the site takes too long to load. i don't know what exactly was causing it, but i am on a T3 or higher and i had to wait a couple of seconds for those images to scoll down and finish loading. maybe you can change the format of your pictures to a GIf format since you using limited colors.

the navigation tabs bothered me because they were not evenly spaced. they removing any additional and unneeded spaces and returns from the navigation div tags in lines 52
- 86 depending on the page below the body tag.

I liked the map with the marked out area for your service area, but i don't like how it got smashed in the service page.

for some reason ie displayed your onsite or online graphic rather choppy but firefox displayed it fine.

and the footer boxes on the bootom of the service page are not centered to the rest of the page.

Hmm it loaded slow for you as well - yes I am beginning to think we do need a proper hosting plan and avoid using our own dsl for the webserver.

I know exactly what you are referring to with the navigational menu.. The empty spot between Services and FAQ. Yes I NEED to fix that. I am not sure what went wrong in the slicing... Have I mentioned I designed the entire site in photoshop then sliced it? Something went wrong when slicing the menu bar and the uneven spaces are quite the eye sore to me as well. I was hoping avg Joe would not notice - but I really do need to fix it soon.. I believe your response will motivate me to do so.

I'm not sure why IE has a different font for you in those boxes. there was a problem with the fonts appearing differently for some people as some of them were completely out of their containing elements and I Have tried to resolve that problem over this past week. I will look into it fixing it, thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Ah another page with a footer issue *sighs* It doesn't make any sense that it is off on one page compared to another since the footer div on the services page uses the same div tag that the index page does - I must have a ending div tag in the wrong spot - it displays fine on my browser but I will look into this as well.

Originally Posted by Rider

I liked the site, I think it is put together very well. One thing struck me though, your No Fix-No Fee Guarantee has an *. When I see an * I think "conditions" and/or "small print" so I went looking. Typically an * indicates a foot note or something along those lines but I couldn't find any on your site. I think you should either lose the * or spell out the conditions at the bottom of the page.

There is nothing wrong with conditions, necessary for CYA. But if you have them you should have them spelled out someplace if you use the *, even if you only say something like "Certain restrictions apply."

Nice site, good job.

Rider

Yeah I mentioned earlier that I do not have TOS put together for the site yet. I like your idea about "Certain restrictions apply" and when I am updating the site later today I expect that I will add that in there until I properly define those conditions anyways.


----

Thank you all again for the thoughts and for taking the time to review and respond. I have enjoyed reading your responses as it helps me to see the things that I have missed. I will work on as much of it as I possibly can this evening. I am sure I will have another insomniac episode until I have it perfect.

[expresstech]

Well I've attempted to update most of your suggestions.

-Eliminated No Fix No Fee from all pages and this should also reduce the current need for a definition of terms of service.
-Correct Navigational Menu graphic spacing (Hopefully)
-Removed several images with text embedded in them. Replaced with proper background and text on top - hopefully this will reduce some loading issues that some of you experience. Though it's unlikely until I get a proper host. Still need to reduce file size of all images though I don't think it will ever be fully designed for mobile users.
-Hopefully corrected some font issues
-Attempted to fix footer location.
-Created Uniform Service area map throughout the index and services pages
-Combined virus/spyware/adware removal into 1 link across all lists. My service lists seem even smaller now =/


It is hard to know if the changes corrected the font or footer issues since I can not see how it looks on your end.

I'd like to add a testimonials section and update various parts of it some more. Time will tell.

[greggh]

http://expresstech.biz/upgrade.html

The text in the center box "Power Supply Replacement" falls outside of its container. Things like that look really unprofessional to the typical users.

The site itself is simple and easy to read at this point. But its the little touches like those that will end up standing out to users.

[expresstech]

Originally Posted by greggh

http://expresstech.biz/upgrade.html

The text in the center box "Power Supply Replacement" falls outside of its container. Things like that look really unprofessional to the typical users.

The site itself is simple and easy to read at this point. But its the little touches like those that will end up standing out to users.

Thanks for bringing that to my attention - It appears fine on my end in both IE and Firefox. So I rely on other people viewing the pages and reporting any differences. I absolutely agree that is does look unprofessional and I definitely want it resolved! This must be something from my update earlier because you are the first person who has ever mentioned it.

[greggh]

Just for more information. I am in linux (I do not run windows on my personal machines.) I am using Firefox 3.5 and My screen resolutiuon is 1680x1050.

[Platte Computer Repair]

On the page of expresstech.biz/upgrade.html exsisting is misspelled.

[expresstech]

Originally Posted by greggh

Just for more information. I am in linux (I do not run windows on my personal machines.) I am using Firefox 3.5 and My screen resolutiuon is 1680x1050.

Ahh nice. What distribution? And if you don't mind looking again - I'd like to know if it is still out of place.

Originally Posted by Platte Computer Repair

On the page of expresstech.biz/upgrade.html exsisting is misspelled.

Wow how did I miss that?! hehe thanks =) Should be fixed now too.

[greggh]

Originally Posted by expresstech

Ahh nice. What distribution? And if you don't mind looking again - I'd like to know if it is still out of place.

Debian, always Debian. It is better but not perfect. Probably another 4-5 pixels and it would be great.

[expresstech]

Originally Posted by greggh

Debian, always Debian. It is better but not perfect. Probably another 4-5 pixels and it would be great.

*grumbles* endlessly at cross-browser / os compatibility.

Nice.. I haven't used Linux in years, started with RedHat 5.1 or some such... Though lately I've been feeling the urge to go back to it more and more.. Previously conformed to M$ for gaming purposes - it was just easier =)

[JRDtechnet]

Its never too early to work on SEO, google for example ignores meta keywords( so you'll want to utilize your meta description tag better.