guntherselectric.com

could some people please critique my site?
I've put this website on here before redid the entire layout and want to see some opinions again.
Thanks,
Nick

OK first off make some buttons that are not the default dreamweaver buttons. Come on be creative. Second, google and other search engines can't follow flash buttons. You make some creative buttons. Next, when you click on the services page the home button goes away. Make sure the buttons are all there. Then when you click the webmaster button the design changes and things go downhill from there. Buttons on that page are really pixilated. Need some work done to all of that. Now on the home page image looks very bad as well. I would strongly recommend the above changes to be made. The overall design is alright, except for the webmaster page which is really bad. OK I sound mean but you asked. So there ya go.

I kind of see what you're doing with this mate. I can respect the style you're going for. It does really suit a family business.

There are some problems though.

• That big banner of adverts really distracts the eye. If you MUST have them then I suggest you keep them at the bottom and try and tweak it so they are as un-noticable as possible.
• The image of the three people is incredibly low quality. This drags the whole site down. Get a nice High res image and it will improve the look and feel of the whole site.
• The Generic Dreamweaver Buttons. These have got to go. for many reasons.
  1. Flash buttons are totally uncalled for.
  2. They make the site look unprofessional.
  3. As Jacob has pointed out, they offer limited or no SEO value.
• There seems to be an awful lot of wasted space.
• The site fails Validation with 21 errors.

My suggestions.

Go for a nice, clean (less is more) XHTML and CSS website. Get rid of the flash buttons right away (They were causing the majority of your validation errors).

Try and get rid of the ads. They distract the eye far too much and are an eyesore.


Verdict.

I can really see what you were going for here. I think you just need a little guidence to hit your target.

5/10

Thank you for all of the suggestions I will take them all into account and I don't want the ads but the person who pays for the site does not want to pay extra for hosting so GoDaddy gives free hosting with the expense that the ads go onto the top of every page as for the webmaster page...that is leftover from the old layout of the site which was very unprofessional and thats why I got the Dreamweaver Demo and made the 4 main pages now that I have bought dreamweaver and just recieved it I can fix that. As far as the picture goes I can do that easily its just an old picture from an old camera and the Original Website which was unpaid (sub-domain) and it was not very good at all.
But thank you very much for everything, everything helps and be brutal I want it to be the best it can be.
For the record I am only 14 so dont be too judgemental

Hmm. If you do a little hunting, I'm sure you could find hosting without ads for 15-30 dollars a year. You definitely don't need a thousand features to run your site. I just don't want you to be under the dilusion that hosting is always an expensive commodity. Those ads really are terrible.

It's been said here before. In the world of web design, age is not an issue. we will be no more or less sugar coated depending on your age.

Wow!! For 14 you got talent. Stick with it. OK well I agree with every one those ads are horrid. Get rid of them. Talk to your parents, about finding a website host. Like ryanfait said, you can find a good host for about $15-30 per year. Not a lot at all. Plus it would better for your parents business. If you have trouble finding a host I know a couple that would be really cheap. Just PM I and we can talk about who I would recommend for a cheap website host.

Thanks,
I'm Not arguing I just don't know how many people acctually visit the site so i don't know if it's worth it.
I'll do a little searching before i come back for help because I don't want to be a nag but if i need help I won't hesitate.
Thanks Again,
Nick

ok, I must not be very good at googling stuff if its not too much trouble could you suggest a few sites with the cheap hosting plans?
Also Earlier you said that you didn't like the buttons...any suggestions as far as that goes?
thanks again,
Nick

I agree with all above and i would also change your text if that was possible it just makes the website feel rushed as that is the default text for a lot of programs. Keep up the good work.
rusty

I'll look at that thing about the text, but I have a question and I thought i'd ask your opinion:

My dad wants to add a video or a joke on the homepage somewhere some kind of Electrical Humar

Anyway I Wanted to know what you all thought of this Idea, if you think its good or bad, if you think its good, where should I put it?

Thanks,
Nick

Well, it's not really professional. And just make sure the joke is good if you use one. I would discourage the use of a video, though. Most people will never view one if it's not relating to the information they're seeking, and streaming the video automatically is exceptionally bad.

thats what I thought too, thanks

I remember you saying that you thought that the flash buttons were a bad idea, as apposed to that what do you think I should do?
BTW - I fixed the photo, let me know what you think

I'd suggest you replace the body background color, as that dark olive doesn't really go with your other colors. You might try a really dark shade of that medium greenish blue, something like #527A7A, with white letters. Also, on pages after the first one, you want to make the words "Gunther Electric" (n this same color section) much larger and in the font style you have on the home page. I'd do it at least 50% larger on the home page, too. The font style looks nice.

Also, bring the white a bit off #fff, maybe to the grey side, like #fdfdfd. If you take the olive green out, you could do a very slight blue tinge, like #fdfdfe.

I like the photo and the forms. I don't object to the flash buttons at all, personally, since the site loads so fast.

I think the joke idea would be okay if you had a lot more content, but the site just doesn't lend itself to a joke.

I'd also take off the copyright notice off the bottom bar on some of the later pages.

I don't object to any of your ideas, it's just that I'm new to this obviously, and I don't code, i design so it makes it difficult for me if the stuff is too complicated. I do use DreamWeaver though so I'm going to try to get the most out of it.
so I actually used a template to design this page. I am doing my best to become as familular to the program as possible, so that I can create a page like that custom.
As for the buttons, I agree, but it is a pain to activate them with that Crappy new update from microsoft installed and the majority of people are going to have that, as long as they run XP, what I'm getting at is I would like to know if there is a way around that or a way to group them together so that you don't need to click them individually, it confuses people when they click on it once and nothing happens. they think its broken. thanks for all of the help.
Nick