Mystery Shopper Site

I think the design is reasonable, i'm not sure about the main content being in bold. I would also have to left to right justified. The biggest problem IMO though is that the design doesn't lend itself to having a lot of text.

Is the bar under your logo meant to be a loading bar, because it's not loading for me! I am guessing it's to do with that Preload script which should be in a JS file. To do this take the JavaScript and paste it into notepad, then delete the open and close tags so it is literally just the code. Save the file as a .JS file and then link to it in your HTML header with this: <script src="YOURJAVASCRIPT.js" language="javascript"type="text/javascript"></script>

Why does your title bar have 'SEO!' in it? Is it a reminder that you need one? MSN especially is fond of descriptive title tags, and you appear to have no Meta tags for description or keywords.

-Rob

First impression is it's a mismatch of templates.
The layout seems to be different styles, the logo image on the right hand side looks like the image is loading, but it's not so am confused. I am confused by the links, at right there are 3 icons, an up arrow which usually means "top of page" but it looks like you have it as a home link, the people icon is the company link yet you have that on the top left. The contact link is actually a quote request form. Search is before the content, how do I know what to search for if I don't know what your site is about?
The image of the chess pieces is cut off? the knight is looking right, but the image is cut off just after, so whats there? Is it meant to be the logo? if so it should be blended to suit the left image.
Next to your headings is a small icon pointing down, yet when you click it, you go up.
small bold text is hard to read. very confusing layout.

Second impression is you're not to be trusted.
The top left links hide the address in the status bar, this is a trick of porn sites, link farms, scammers and other unsavory groups. If I can't see where I am going, I wont go there

The "our purpose" statement, is there more to it? it just ends with "with more information than other...", anyways, I feel that it needs to be at the top of the content as it tells us what you're about within 10 secs which is what you need to capture your viewer, instead I'm looking around the site but nothing is jumping out saying "read me, this is what we do, are about, want to do for you ..." The only real thing that jumps out is the logo as it looks like it is loading. would get sick of waiting and leave without looking at anything else.

Another code problem is your stylesheet should be inside the head section, not between the head and body.
Sorry for being so blunt.

Thanks! This is all about constructive criticism, I take no offense. So I take it's not a good idea to just throw up a template with my content? I wanted to get a website up quick, so I could concentrate more on other parts of this new business venture. I guess I need to take more time, maybe design my own, and really do this right. This is the first thing my potential clients will see, and first impressions are huge! I like the templates on http://www.templatesbox.com, but they all are photoshop templates with slices, and I don't want to modify them too much fearing I will screw up the alignment. But, I probably could find one with all the suggestions you guys made, so I'll keep looking.

Thanks again!

First of all, I don't like the rollover links in the navigation. I would prefer a brighter yellow rather than the dingy brown text.

Second, the home, company, and contact images/links above the banner don't have any rollover text, so I have no idea where I'm going (mostly concerning the middle image).

The content of the site is all strewn about and there are so many boxes that I find my eyes jumping all around the place. Lastly, the links at the bottom are hard to read because the colors are not a good mixture.

I think, the type of the font used on your site is not consistent. At least, there are four types. So my first sight is that it is a litte neatless.

However, the color theme is good.

I think the problem is that you're trying to squeeze your content into a template that just isn't right for it. Your text description on the right, for example, needs a lot more space so you can use a proper bulleted list of the services offered. I would clear out everything under the grey bar and just keep that room for the text introduction.

Some of the template elements haven't been customized properly here either. "Welcome to our company webstie" is way too generic to be useful at all. "Short About" doesn't make sense either.

The logo is obviously not part of the template. The blue background needs to go and the fonts should be improved. I would seriously consider hiring a professional logo designer* to do a logo for you. Branding is really important for any business and a good logo designer* can make that a reality for you.

You also need a better tagline "Helping your business run smoother" is firstly grammatically incorrect and secondly, does not have any unique meaning. That could be a tagline for any business, anytime, anywhere. Why is it yours? Again, much too generic.

Overall this template isn't doing a great job of showing off what your business is and what you can do for the client. I would consider having a professional** do a site for you. If you're worried about cost you should build that into the business plan and get a loan if needed.

*by "logo designer" I mean a properly trained, skilled graphic designer with a lot of experience in logo design. Not some hack "web deisgner" who woke up one day and decided he was qualified to design logos.

** by "professional" I mean an actual, skilled website designer with a strong portfolio and some business sense. Not some unskilled hack who woke up one day and decided he was qualified to design websites.

nice post note meg...

Quote: *by "logo designer" I mean a properly trained, skilled graphic designer with a lot of experience in logo design. Not some hack "web deisgner" who woke up one day and decided he was qualified to design logos.

** by "professional" I mean an actual, skilled website designer with a strong portfolio and some business sense. Not some unskilled hack who woke up one day and decided he was qualified to design websites.

Someone wanted a rant? lol

overall the site has a pretty good design, but i noticed right away the texted seems a bit small.

also. I found myself, not knowing where to look. I think the page needs a bit more direction in terms of where content is placed.

This index page is very cluttered and I am unsure if this design fits what your company does. The pictures do not seem to fit your site and what your company does.