I've only recently mastered FTP...I had some phobia for it for years. A friend used to upload things for me. That's changed now and this past month I've editing mostly to tidy it up, tweak it, and expand it. How am I doing? Feed back appreciated.
It's at http://www.seawitchartist.com
It's a little hard to know how you're doing without knowing what the site looked like before you started doing it. I do, however, have some suggestions.
The links are too dark a color to be seen well on a black background. You can change the color of the links but I don't know if the software you appear to be using (Frontpage, which is no longer supported) has that capability. Also, the Papyrus font you use for the text is a little hard to read. Papyrus isn't the best choice for large swaths of text. Arial is a better choice for that.
Your site is functional, but the design is very outdated. This might not matter to you if your lovely artwork is more of a hobby than it is your bread and butter. If you rely on your artwork for income, though, you would probably do well to invest in a new design.
J2NYC is right about the font color of the menu. Personally I like the Papyrus font.
If you would work with a CSS file it is much easier to change the layout style of your site. With CSS you change one line in the home.css file and it has an immediate effect on the entire layout of your site.
If you want to use your site to sell your art maybe it is an idea to add a "BUY" button next to every image of your art that is for sale. Making it easier for potential customers to purchase the moment they see something they want. On your homepage I would add an introduction to your site, explaining what the purpose is of your site. (It took me a few minutes and pages to some how understand what the page is for.) In general I think it is a nice beginning.
Thanks for the input J2NYC & jptib. I've written an introduction on the home page, I can edit it later if I think of better words for it, for now some extra keywords in the right place as well. I'll tend to the link color issue when I learn to change it, I hope it can be done in one go. I've certainly listened to the papyrus font case too, I'm fond of it myself, but if it's still missing from a lot of computers maybe one of the 'universal fonts' might be better, I'm not sure that's still important anymore? Normal fonts like Ariel and Bookman I find boring myself, but if I want to cater for the masses maybe I should wear it!
Are you using the Frontpage editor? Your site declares the "generator" to be Frontpage so, assuming that you are, here's how to change the link colors:
To change hyperlink colors:
1. Click the Normal tab in FrontPage Editor.
2. Click the File menu and select Page Properties.
3. Click the Background tab on the Page Properties dialog box. (click gif below to see image) sc4k_1.gif
4. Select the three different hypertext colors from the drop-down boxes and click OK in the Page Properties dialog box (click gif below to see image) aaadelme2.gif
There are easier ways to do this besides using Frontpage, but they do require learning a lot of stuff. I think most of us on the forum hand code our HTML among other things (CSS, Javascript and all sorts of other languages to get sites to work the way we want).
You might want to switch from Frontpage to Dreamweaver. Frontpage is no longer supported by Microsoft and could stop working for you in the future.
Thanks again J2NYC, I hear you, I've been thinking a little about doing that. But...if I took down every page and redone it in Dreamweaver or something else, would this not put me back to the start line with all my google positions? I've got lot of top results on my topics, I get as many as 4,000 + visits a month, I don't want to jeopardize that, or am I mistaken?
A page rating of 3 is nothing to be ashamed of, a page rating of 0 is low, 1 is quite weak, 2 is ok, 3 is good. As far as I know modifying you site is better for your ratings than leaving it idle, so long as you dont screw up what must be good effective keywords you are already using to get all that traffic.
But the font Serif should be reserved for print media only, maybe check "Google Web Fonts" to find one, to be sure everyone views it the same.
Otherwise, nice artwork
Cam
How am I doing?
Reply With Quote
I'm not sure what a good rating is though.
Bookmarks