Please review Callaghaninfo.com

She has: 4 posts

Joined: May 2006

Hi,
Please take a look at my website, it is to promote my band and I built it in Flash. I am not getting many visitors and wondered if I should learn CSS and rebuild it. But before I do all that work I would really love people's opinions on what I have already so I can try to get it right first time or maybe it doesn't need rebuilding after all Wink

Thank you in advance to all who take the trouble - and be as harsh as you like - it is all helpful

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

Wow, that music is loud! Way too loud, IMO, I had to rush to find the stop button.

Here is a review of a band site done in flash really really well. Yours, not so much. I think that if you're going to do a site in flash it has to be really really good. You have to really take advantage of the benefits Flash has for your site over HTML and CSS. Because you're right - the downside of Flash is that it's not as SE friendly. So you have to make the site so good that it's worth giving that up. I hope I'm making sense Smiling

There is nothing here that really needs to be done in Flash. So you might as well take advantage of the SEO advantages of HTML and CSS since the same look and interactivity can be accomplished there.

I like her music!

They have: 75 posts

Joined: Mar 2006

the design is good and the site is attractive
i dont find any textual content on the main page.
textual content helps your site with better visibility in search engines.

Nomax5's picture

They have: 76 posts

Joined: Apr 2006

I really like your site Callaghan much more than Megan’s example “theinvention” which seems to be showing off someone’s ability with flash rather than someone’s ability to make music.

Yours is faster and easier to navigate IMHO.

Megan is right about the music though perhaps the music could have a really really long fade in on that first track.

Also your site works in Firefox but crashes my internet explorer big time, can’t view it in IE at all.

Also I like your voice, it sound good.

He has: 698 posts

Joined: Jul 2005

I absolutely do not like music starting on a web page with no user interaction. I love music on a web page like this one. If you have the control bar at the bottom but do not have the music start automatically, it would be much better in my opinion.

I agree a bit with both sides of the flash debate. While you could just about achieve the exact same thing this site offers in CSS/HTML, you do not need to get so elaborate like the example. I think simplicity is the key. With that said, I think your best route would be simple HTML and CSS.

Also, you need to look over some of your grammar, spelling, etc - especially on the biography page. Wink

Good luck with your band. Laughing out loud

Kurtis

They have: 15 posts

Joined: May 2006

i dont know ifits me, or the site, but m browser is completely frozen when i opened the site, mabey it could be because of the music. i dont know, just thought id say.

Nomax5's picture

They have: 76 posts

Joined: Apr 2006

No PaqizeUK it happens to me also ... when using IE

He has: 12 posts

Joined: Sep 2005

I like the design. You might want to vertical-center it thought.
I noted the music doesnt play anymore on load - very good as that would make me leave a site instantly.

I'd put the pay-pal donation button to the bottom center (directly below the functional part).
About the menu links.. perhaps make the background hover in a different color? Also you have a lot of unused space on your site.

They have: 15 posts

Joined: Apr 2006

I like it. I agree that the Paypal button looks a bit out of place and the music took a few seconds to load off the start/appeared choppy. Could be my connection tho.

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They have: 10 posts

Joined: May 2006

Personally, I hate band sites with Flash... but they almost all use them! I think that Megan is right, make your site with HTML\CSS and that will certainly help your SEO. I think that a great band site can be made with just HTML\CSS and incorporating small bits of Flash where needed. You can build a flash-based music player. I see you have a myspace link which i assumes goes to your Myspace Bands page. If you could incorporate a flash audio player like myspace has, i think that would be much better. Oh yea, and dont put it on auto start. I agree with the others that it was too loud and shouldnt start automatically.

www.Staga.net
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