A bit slow to load on dialup and doesn't fit 800x600 well (horziontal scroll bar)
the mouseover images on your navigation need to be pre loaded as they take forever to show up.
Never resize an image with width and height tags, the picture of the steple is 84kb and resized using the tags, resize it in an image editor (ifranview is awesome for this) and it will speed up your loading time heaps.
If you use mozilla as a browser, on the toolbar, click view/page style/no page style and see what your page looks like - scray huh
Microsoft office huh :eek:
Ok, the midi hasn't loaded but looping it probably isn't a good idea, imagine someone browsing your site with speakers turn up, start reading a prayer or something then BAM the music starts, could take a few years off put a console on the page with option to play and stop when wanted.
You also have some links pointing to your harddrive (c/o MS office) in the head section
the copyright section needs to be in the main table as the background is the same as the right, but the left is seen more (the gradient)
Oh man, no background music, NEVER EVER EVER use background music. That is a sure fire way to keep visitors from looking at even the first page.
The links on the left should be jutted together to look like a solid box,rather than having the small gap between each, and the gradient going from top to bottom of the left rather than just the links maybe.
Thanks for the review. I will be putting th epreload code after the site is finalized. I like the idea about putting a console for the music becuase they really want music on their site. Thanks again.
You should have taken Busy's advice; I was going to say the same thing but I didnt want to be redundant... I have revisited your site for countless times already at different days and you havent still heed the advice given the advice written above... Anyways thats your choics; all I could asy is that unless you speed up your page and fix the quirks, Visitors will leave without seeing the page...
There is nothing to tell people about you or your church on the first page of the site. It is just a bible verse and a short sentence saying that CUMC welcomes you - well, sorry, but being lectured at by scripture really isn't very welcoming.
On your first page, you have a picture of the church building. Now, nice as Church buildings are, I seem to remember the idea of a church was about the people worshiping God, not the building. People visiting your site will connect to pictures of other people, not pictures of building. It is a human thing
I also suggest that you have something like a Visitor's page showing people what they can expect on a visit to the Church. Some things to consider include: What is the worship like, do you have a dress code, what can children do, will visitors feel welcomed? Thing like this can make a big difference in getting people over the door.
I am always worried on a Church website if they put Church history before the statement of beliefs. It makes me wonder whether the Church know where they are going on their spiritual journey or whether they are really so bogged down in tradition that they won't let God act in the way he wants to. If visitors wanted a history lesson, they'd have gone to a library
That's all I'm going to say and I wish you all the best for the future.
Hello, All these reviews are very helpful and I wish that I could do everything (well almost) that people are suggesting but I can't. For example, the welcome page has the church picture....well, this is what they want on the home page, so I had no choice. As for the other reviews and suggestions (Busy, Demonhale), I will be making the changes and will be uploading the site soon, after I have a meeting with the pastor. This is a voluntary project and I am just trying to give them what they wanted. But again, thanks a lot all of you. .
I would just suggest that you ask the pastor what he wants from a website - if it is to attract newcomers to the church, he is going to fail with the picture of the church. Is he serious about using the web for God's will or is he too worked up with tradition to let God get a say. If the latter is the case, it is very sad.
Some suggestions (and this is all they are).
Seperate your content more, the picture of the church etc could be on a "where are we" or "how to find us" or whatever page showing the church and giving directions to it.
I know you want to give as much info as you can on one page and this is good sometimes, as well as pictures do tell a thousand words sadly search engine dont look at the pictures. The more descriptive pages you have on different subjects, the more keywords you are using for search engines to find and list you on. The golden rule here is to not spam keywords, use them honestly throughout site (dont abbrevate) but keep it all neat and tidy (easy to find).
Keep in mind the viewers and the search engines (who gets the people there), the two are totally opposite so you have to find the perfect balance between text and pictures (use alt tags and captions to describe the pictures). Make your index (welcome page) inviting with just enough information so people go to other pages BUT (always a but) remember search engines dont only list your index page so every page needs to be inviting, informative and rewarding so as to make people come back.
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Busy posted this at 22:49 — 8th July 2005.
He has: 6,151 posts
Joined: May 2001
A bit slow to load on dialup and doesn't fit 800x600 well (horziontal scroll bar)
the mouseover images on your navigation need to be pre loaded as they take forever to show up.
Never resize an image with width and height tags, the picture of the steple is 84kb and resized using the tags, resize it in an image editor (ifranview is awesome for this) and it will speed up your loading time heaps.
If you use mozilla as a browser, on the toolbar, click view/page style/no page style and see what your page looks like - scray huh
Microsoft office huh :eek:
Ok, the midi hasn't loaded but looping it probably isn't a good idea, imagine someone browsing your site with speakers turn up, start reading a prayer or something then BAM the music starts, could take a few years off
put a console on the page with option to play and stop when wanted.
You also have some links pointing to your harddrive (c/o MS office) in the head section
the copyright section needs to be in the main table as the background is the same as the right, but the left is seen more (the gradient)
CptAwesome posted this at 23:03 — 8th July 2005.
He has: 370 posts
Joined: Dec 2004
Oh man, no background music, NEVER EVER EVER use background music. That is a sure fire way to keep visitors from looking at even the first page.
The links on the left should be jutted together to look like a solid box,rather than having the small gap between each, and the gradient going from top to bottom of the left rather than just the links maybe.
mjgca posted this at 05:30 — 9th July 2005.
They have: 11 posts
Joined: Jun 2005
Thanks for the review. I will be putting th epreload code after the site is finalized. I like the idea about putting a console for the music becuase they really want music on their site. Thanks again.
sparkimarki posted this at 22:21 — 9th July 2005.
She has: 13 posts
Joined: Jul 2005
I think the site looks fine but I experienced quite slow load times for all pages.
angmi90 posted this at 12:44 — 10th July 2005.
They have: 6 posts
Joined: Jul 2005
The background music is not good. I do like the navigation links on the side. Besides the music, I think it's not too bad of a site.
demonhale posted this at 14:18 — 10th July 2005.
He has: 3,278 posts
Joined: May 2005
You should have taken Busy's advice; I was going to say the same thing but I didnt want to be redundant... I have revisited your site for countless times already at different days and you havent still heed the advice given the advice written above... Anyways thats your choics; all I could asy is that unless you speed up your page and fix the quirks, Visitors will leave without seeing the page...
02bunced posted this at 18:17 — 10th July 2005.
He has: 412 posts
Joined: May 2005
OK, my review.
There is nothing to tell people about you or your church on the first page of the site. It is just a bible verse and a short sentence saying that CUMC welcomes you - well, sorry, but being lectured at by scripture really isn't very welcoming.
On your first page, you have a picture of the church building. Now, nice as Church buildings are, I seem to remember the idea of a church was about the people worshiping God, not the building. People visiting your site will connect to pictures of other people, not pictures of building. It is a human thing
I also suggest that you have something like a Visitor's page showing people what they can expect on a visit to the Church. Some things to consider include: What is the worship like, do you have a dress code, what can children do, will visitors feel welcomed? Thing like this can make a big difference in getting people over the door.
I am always worried on a Church website if they put Church history before the statement of beliefs. It makes me wonder whether the Church know where they are going on their spiritual journey or whether they are really so bogged down in tradition that they won't let God act in the way he wants to. If visitors wanted a history lesson, they'd have gone to a library
That's all I'm going to say and I wish you all the best for the future.
God Bless
David
mjgca posted this at 04:29 — 11th July 2005.
They have: 11 posts
Joined: Jun 2005
Hello, All these reviews are very helpful and I wish that I could do everything (well almost) that people are suggesting but I can't. For example, the welcome page has the church picture....well, this is what they want on the home page, so I had no choice. As for the other reviews and suggestions (Busy, Demonhale), I will be making the changes and will be uploading the site soon, after I have a meeting with the pastor. This is a voluntary project and I am just trying to give them what they wanted. But again, thanks a lot all of you.
.
02bunced posted this at 06:08 — 11th July 2005.
He has: 412 posts
Joined: May 2005
I would just suggest that you ask the pastor what he wants from a website - if it is to attract newcomers to the church, he is going to fail with the picture of the church. Is he serious about using the web for God's will or is he too worked up with tradition to let God get a say. If the latter is the case, it is very sad.
David
Busy posted this at 11:34 — 11th July 2005.
He has: 6,151 posts
Joined: May 2001
Some suggestions (and this is all they are).
Seperate your content more, the picture of the church etc could be on a "where are we" or "how to find us" or whatever page showing the church and giving directions to it.
I know you want to give as much info as you can on one page and this is good sometimes, as well as pictures do tell a thousand words sadly search engine dont look at the pictures. The more descriptive pages you have on different subjects, the more keywords you are using for search engines to find and list you on. The golden rule here is to not spam keywords, use them honestly throughout site (dont abbrevate) but keep it all neat and tidy (easy to find).
Keep in mind the viewers and the search engines (who gets the people there), the two are totally opposite so you have to find the perfect balance between text and pictures (use alt tags and captions to describe the pictures). Make your index (welcome page) inviting with just enough information so people go to other pages BUT (always a but) remember search engines dont only list your index page so every page needs to be inviting, informative and rewarding so as to make people come back.
wwwbug posted this at 14:53 — 13th July 2005.
They have: 10 posts
Joined: Jun 2005
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