New web site, tell me what ya think?

[N.H.BOY]

someone else built this site for me, please tell me what you REALLY think!!
Thanks
www.4daughterslandscape.com

[FlemingIslandLawnService]

It's awesome except for the photo gallery taking forever to load. It took about a minute or so to load and my computer is not slow by any means. Some people might not be willing to wait that long. It looks much better than my basic website that I just got done with: www.flemingislandlawnservice.com

[mdvaden]

Like the look of the site. A warmer background color behind the home page would be more my style.

Names sounds good.

I think you should reduce your images to the best ones you have. When I looked at the first one, it took a minute figure out if anything changed or if you duplicated the image.

Try cropping the photos to just the part that changed on some of them. If it is a full view, then hopefully everything in view has changed significantly.

Some afters won't look better. Like pruning. And why I don't use many after shots from pruning. Sometimes the full green un-pruned shrubs look better to viewers, considering they were not at the site themselves.

Here's my idea of a before and after.





See how there is not need to look at various parts of the scene to figure out what may have changed and where?

[N.H.BOY]

Oh yes before and after pics...Im taking some them off because they dont look like my best ones Its one of those things that this is the first year with a "good" phone to take snap shots as over the 6 years I have not taken any Lesson learned I have a free maintenance on the site for a year, so more pics later in the season. I dont like the length of time it takes to load pics. Thanks for looking

[mdvaden]

Originally Posted by N.H.BOY

Oh yes before and after pics...Im taking some them off because they dont look like my best ones Its one of those things that this is the first year with a "good" phone to take snap shots as over the 6 years I have not taken any Lesson learned I have a free maintenance on the site for a year, so more pics later in the season. I dont like the length of time it takes to load pics. Thanks for looking

The pics don't take very long to load for me. But I'm on FIOS.

In fact, not even "long". They just loaded.

[HeyLook-Media]

The html is clean and the site looks nice. Your designer did a good job. Sometimes as designers we make things look too "epic" and it subtracts from the sales copy and content of the site. Its very simple and to the point.

The one thing I don't like is that your buttons seem to be flash based and when someone visits it on a iPad or iPhone they cant navigate! The can only see the main page.

[N.H.BOY]

Originally Posted by HeyLook-Media

The html is clean and the site looks nice. Your designer did a good job. Sometimes as designers we make things look too "epic" and it subtracts from the sales copy and content of the site. Its very simple and to the point.

The one thing I don't like is that your buttons seem to be flash based and when someone visits it on a iPad or iPhone they cant navigate! The can only see the main page.

Good point as I use my smartphone on sites. What type of buttons would you suggest I use so I can tell my designer? Thanks for the kind words.

[HeyLook-Media]

CSS or JavaScript should be just fine. Css would be the most compatible version since not everyone runs javascript
http://speckyboy.com/2009/05/27/22-c...nd-techniques/

[mdvaden]

Originally Posted by N.H.BOY

Good point as I use my smartphone on sites. What type of buttons would you suggest I use so I can tell my designer? Thanks for the kind words.

Keep in mind that the number of people looking for a landscape service from a phone compared to a computer, is minimal.

I'm not big on Flash myself, but remember to keep a website mostly tailored to higher-end internet devices, which would be more like Desktop computers, laptops and like I-pads.

Especially for graphics and stuff.

The full screens give the richest presentation experience. But if something can help a puny little phone without taking away from regular computer users, then may as well adapt.

Keep in mind that you can use links as well as buttons if you wish.

[HeyLook-Media]

Here is a snippet from this week for the analytics I keep for one of my lawn care customers.

Safari is giving as many hits as any other browser.

I wont mention who or the site. However, this person uses radio ads, flyers and door hangers to promote their business. I believe its probably the radio ads promoting the extra safari 5.0 traffic since most people listen to the radio while riding in the car.
just some food for thought!
-N