Right then people of all knowledge….

I have just set up my own business and developed my own website using iWeb.

All went fine until I changed the website design today.

I deleted the old site and now it won’t upload the new site. I realise that iWeb does have it’s limitations in terms of SEO etc but for a relative novice I have put together a good site that meets our business needs and it hasn’t cost anything apart from my time.

So the question is, would it be worth investing in a package such as Dreamweaver?

I’m annoyed at the minute as my site was working but now has nothing coming up when I try to view it on my Mac. Strange thing is I can see it on my iPhone?

AT Commercial Interiors

Could it be the host server that has a problem as when I try to upload it says there is an error?

I would avoid dw if you don’t know any web design. Dreamweaver certainly won’t solve your current problem. How is the site hosted?

seems to appear on my mac?

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Screen Shot 2012-06-17 at 22.16.30 by mr_mo12, on Flickr[/img]

Yes, forgot say I can see it on an iPad.

Working OK for me.

Dreamweaver is a bit outdated in many respects, and has been for many years. There was a time when it was industry standard but web development has changed, and although what Dreamweaver does is great, it doesn’t do it the best way…

It is hosted on an FTP server.

It loads ok on my Mac now, I just had to delete the cache in Safari.

Why not use Dreamweaver? A lot of people seem to recommend it?

Now trying to verify with google!!!

I can see your website.

SB

if your looking at a new website have a look into CMS’s, Joomla, WordPress, that sort of thing rather than looking at Dreamweaver. Really depends on how much effort you need to put into the website, what do you need it to do?

Dreamweaver was cutting edge in 1997, it really isn’t very good tbh. I’d second the suggestion to look at cms’s. WordPress is & joomla. It’ll keep the overhead down, you can even get some templates to make it easier.

If you really want to design it all yourself rather than just do it cheaply I’d advise you start with something like bootstrap.

Ok thanks for the input.

My business partner and I are pleased with the result, it needs a few tweaks but in our industry it will fit in quite well and looks the part.

Anyone got any comments on the site and its layout? We know the industry inside out but what about from you washroom novices? Is it clear what we do etc?

MrMo the website is to give credibility to our company, most companies have a website.

Also in previous employment 80% of new business enquires were web generated so really we see it has a step for that first contact with a new customer. If they send you an enquiry it is generally genuine.

As it stands at present the cost is only the hosting so if we need to spend a little to get it optimised then that could be possible. However like any start up business we need to keep our costs down to a minimum hence trying to do it ourselves.

@curvature, just to clarify what i meant, whether you see it as simply a web presence, as a portfolio, whether you want to use it as a way of collecting custom, offering online quoting etc.

I am not sure what options iWeb gives, but have a read on SEO, and see if you can play with the content with that in mind.

MrMo

As much as I love Apple products it would appear I need to do some work on the iWeb package.

Our website is to bring in enquiries, nothing more.

In the future we will have a webshop for spare parts and accessories but I have been quoted around £2.5k for an up and running e-commerce site….money we don’t currently have to invest.

I have been reading up on SEO and realise that we do need to re-write some of the content.

Assuming you know nothing about the washroom industry what do you think of the site?

If you had some toilets to refurbish would our site interest you?

Thanks

Nick

You expect 80% of your enquiries to come through the site but don’t want to spend money on it? I feel you have a little bit of cognitive dissonance about it. 2.5k for an ecommerce site is actually pretty cheap tbh.

I reckon the site looks OK for a first attempt. If someone had recommended you it’d be enough to make me think you’re a genuine company. Contact details aren’t immediately obvious though- could you also put them on every page, e.g. in the footer? And grey text on a grey background isn’t the best colour scheme 🙂

Freeway is similar to iweb?

I’d recommend Freeway

No VAT details, no address – mobile number contact only? Sorry turns me off.
You only have one project image – can you use some more?
Locations – oh, I’m in Dudley – but you don’t work there – just highlight the geographical areas on the map and list the counties. Unless of course you really do only work in those specific towns in which case I apologise.
You might want to reread the text and tweak it a bit here and there.

A bit of time spent really understanding your customers’ needs would be worthwhile. Speak to your friendly ones and ask them what impressions the website created and how you could improve what you have. Even better, speak to the customers you didn’t get and ask them too.

Rachel

SAS, aP, allthegear.

Thanks for the constructive comments, the business and the website are really in there infancy at the moment and will require constant updates.

Awaiting VAT number so realise it isn’t there but should be this week.

Contact details in footer is a good suggestion and will update this.

We are a small company and by having the mobile numbers means we will be contactable. Chances are the landline would go to voicemail 75% of the time, unless we put a divert on it.

Text does need tweaking, we want to get more keywords in to it.

If I remove the towns name and only use counties would that limit any searches at a later date? There is a note to say we have customers all over the UK though.

Looks fine on a Windows PC, Chrome browser. Couple of things I’d personally change:

* The photo used for the “Contact Us” link, looks a bit like a student going snowboarding, not someone I’d necessarily trust with my money.

* On the “Contact” page itself you list both you and your partner as “Directors”, sounds a bit silly tbh, even if it is factually true. It also makes it clear that this is a two-man operation, I’m not sure if that’s something you really wanted to give away.

Bonus point: the “alt” text on the header links is irritating, but that may be a limitation of the software you’re using, it seems to generate really long and horrible filenames: “Contact_AT_Commercial_Interiors_Products_Toilet_Cubicles,_Washrooms,_Toilets,_Cubicle_Systems,_Vanity_Units.css” ???

Good point regarding the contact picture – standard iWeb image! I would look worse though 😀

Appreciate the ‘director’ comment…will give it some thought but agree with your point.

Re the bonus point, I can easily change that as I created them. Are these not required for SEO or do I need to incorporate h1 and h2 text in the main page body?

No idea about SEO, it’s more that when you hover the mouse over the links the text that pops up in a tooltip is irritating! (TBH the filenames themselves are probabaly fine, you just need to change the title tag for the links.)

MrMo the website is to give credibility to our company, most companies have a website.

Also in previous employment 80% of new business enquires were web generated…………

Then why not get a proper job done? The first contract would pay for the site.

From a potential client perspective…. If I sus’ a ‘homegrown’ DIY site I’m gonna be wondering where else you are making savings.

Could be wrong, but the only way to be sure your web design is right is to check it manually with all of the popular browsers (So IE, Firefox, Chrome and safari)

IE is notorious for not being standards compliant, but it’s the most popular – really you’ll need to borrow a Windows machine and check it out on there.

Just a quickie – even if that alt tag is for SEO (which wont make much of a positive difference imo – better to write something meaningful instead which includes a couple of keywords), underscores are bad search engines don’t see them as separate words – hyphens are better.

oh – I would obfuscate your phone numbers too
Use this to get alternative characters for your phone number.
http://www.albionresearch.com/misc/obfuscator.php

Having the word director and a mobile number there is asking for spam calls.

A boring point, but as a limited company you need to have your registered address on your website.

The first thing is that it is better to have a website than not.

We developed our first site in iWeb and you can do actually quite a lot wit a bit of hacking about.

Get rid of the apple logo in the footer
Add an address to the contact page
I would say you need a land line number even if it just diverts to your mobile
Create a better looking menu
Maybe a logo for the header – or maybe not hmm…
Contact us picture looks poor and does not match other images
Not sure of grey on grey text
Text layout needs to be improved with bullet points, paragraphs etc

Overall I like the look and the images are great. Just a few tweaks will get it looking good.

If you want it to work well for say google think about H1 and H2 tags, google analytics, google webmaster, add your business to google maps and use terms in your text that your customers are likely to search for.

Do you use iWed SEO tools or similar.
Look at SEO doctor to check the site is setup right,

If you want any other help drop me a email as we have been through much of this.

Just read the replies so thank you for your input!!