Finally Got A Website Up, Tell Me What You Think

[dpip4x4]

Tell me what you think. http://www.phaselinedefense.com/holsters.html I have been so busy that i haven't been on in a while. This custom leather business has been booming. This year is going to be great!

[Eccho]

Very nice! A professional looking site. Well done!

[raysouth]

Hello dpip,

Your new site is great. Did you develop yourself or have someone do it for you?

Always wanted a site but never could figure out how to do it and gave it up.

Super nice and best wishes for the new year.

God Bless.

Ray

[MonicaJacobson]

I think it's nice. Very clear instructions and order form, and very clear examples of what you make.

[dpip4x4]

Did you develop yourself or have someone do it for you?

Actually, me and a buddy did this. He uses Webly, and I have never done any web building/designing. It was super easy. The formatting and set up are very well thought out and the program they use to help you design and build, anyone could do. We built just that page in about 5/6 hours. The rest of the site for his training he had already done a long time ago. Also using Webly you control the site and with the click of a mouse you can change anything and then "republish" the site and it stays live. We forgot to add in a line for addresses and i texted him and he had it on there in 10min. After doing this I feel confident anyone can built a website.

Anything you guys would change add or subtract?

[Thor]

Besides all the nice stuff, here is some critique you might want to look into. Please don't take it personal. It looks like a weebly site... I don't care too much for what you see in the front. I'm looking at your source code ... the ugly stuff.

Put all your CSS in an extra file and have this linked. It can be on the page, but shouldn't. You've done that partially already. Same goes for the main scripting portion. In other words, there's a lot of stuff you don't want a search engine having to go through before it finds the important stuff.

Your top banner starts a little slow which is caused by the not optimized graphical elements (pictures). Sizing the pictures to the banner will speed up this process as the script doesn't have to fit them in. For example: your using this picture http://www.phaselinedefense.com/uploads/3/2/2/2/32225077/5438774_orig.jpg which is 1085 * 534px. This picture is placed in here:

<div id="bannerright" class="landing-banner-outer"> <div class="landing-banner-mid"> <div class="landing-banner-inner">

Looking at the specific portion of your CSS file

#bannerright { width: 390px; height:240px; text-align:left; float:left; padding: 30px 40px 30px 30px; background:#333333; }
#bannerright h2 { color: black; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 300; color:#bbb; padding: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; }
#bannerright div.paragraph { padding: 20px 0px; line-height: 140%; }
#bannerright p { padding: 20px 0px; line-height: 140%; }

you can see that this huge picture has to be placed in a small box, which doesn't change the actual size just the display. Therefore make the pictures you want to be displayed in your banner that individual size and your page will load a bit faster.

Further, if you want to be found on Google (not on page 108 or further back) you should ad some text. Not only to your body, but also to the pictures. Search engines cannot see. All they do is read.

However, it's a functional site. One of about 8 billions at this time. Therefore you want to stand out and use whatever you can and is allowed to stand out. Try to compare your source code to the one of leatherworker.net (the home page not the forum) and see what a difference a clean page makes. It may seem to be antiquated but keywords are still important and so is the "Alt Text" feature to pictures and so on.

One more thing you might want to include is the Google webmaster stuff. Read up on it and you can optimize your site to your needs as you can see who's viewing your website for what reason and from which area and so on.

Your site is a good start, just needs some improving. I hope my comments help.

[Chain]

A good start.

A few things I would look at in a contructive way.

• I would look at splitting the holsters into categories and putting them in the top menu instead of just scrolling down the page.
• Don't write text in all caps
• Use a smaller font size for the text.
• Put descriptive text in the "alt" tags for your photos.
  eg this is your code now img src="/uploads/3/2/2/2/32225077/1532916_orig.jpg" alt="Picture" style="width:100%;max-width:1066px"/>
  alt="Picture" is the part that Google reads.
  You can change it to something like alt="Sig Sauer Tacops Nightmare"
• As mentioned above resize your actual images, don't do it with the code. Resizing with the code leaves the image files the original size causing slow loading times.

But it is a good beginning and you have a good basis to work with.

[dpip4x4]

Besides all the nice stuff, here is some critique you might want to look into. Please don't take it personal. It looks like a weebly site... I don't care too much for what you see in the front. I'm looking at your source code ... the ugly stuff.

Put all your CSS in an extra file and have this linked. It can be on the page, but shouldn't. You've done that partially already. Same goes for the main scripting portion. In other words, there's a lot of stuff you don't want a search engine having to go through before it finds the important stuff.

Your top banner starts a little slow which is caused by the not optimized graphical elements (pictures). Sizing the pictures to the banner will speed up this process as the script doesn't have to fit them in. For example: your using this picture http://www.phaselinedefense.com/uploads/3/2/2/2/32225077/5438774_orig.jpg which is 1085 * 534px. This picture is placed in here:

<div id="bannerright" class="landing-banner-outer"> <div class="landing-banner-mid"> <div class="landing-banner-inner">

Looking at the specific portion of your CSS file

#bannerright { width: 390px; height:240px; text-align:left; float:left; padding: 30px 40px 30px 30px; background:#333333; }

#bannerright h2 { color: black; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 300; color:#bbb; padding: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; }

#bannerright div.paragraph { padding: 20px 0px; line-height: 140%; }

#bannerright p { padding: 20px 0px; line-height: 140%; }

you can see that this huge picture has to be placed in a small box, which doesn't change the actual size just the display. Therefore make the pictures you want to be displayed in your banner that individual size and your page will load a bit faster.

What is a "CSS" file? How do I see the code you are talking about? We use weebly because you literally grab pics and drop them in the pics box and same for text box. I really have no idea what you are talking about. I really appreciate your help I just don't understand. I am not computer illiterate but....... you are waaaaaaaaaayyyyyy ahead of me on this one.

How do I resize the photos and what does that mean exactly? I have a photo bucket library I load everything to and then copy and paste it into the pic boxes.

A good start.

A few things I would look at in a contructive way.

• I would look at splitting the holsters into categories and putting them in the top menu instead of just scrolling down the page.
• Don't write text in all caps
• Use a smaller font size for the text.
• Put descriptive text in the "alt" tags for your photos.

  eg this is your code now img src="/uploads/3/2/2/2/32225077/1532916_orig.jpg" alt="Picture" style="width:100%;max-width:1066px"/>

  alt="Picture" is the part that Google reads.

  You can change it to something like alt="Sig Sauer Tacops Nightmare"

• As mentioned above resize your actual images, don't do it with the code. Resizing with the code leaves the image files the original size causing slow loading times.

But it is a good beginning and you have a good basis to work with.

So when I write in the box that says text, I put ALT=" yada yada" ? or am I missing something? What does that do? Where do I see the code?

Edited February 3, 2015 by dpip4x4

[Thor]

CSS stands for Content Style Sheet and as I just double-checked you can only take control on weebly if your are a so called power user. Are you a power user? You'll find that information here http://www.weebly.com/features/#!/ssl-and-seo.

Right click anywhere on the page and choose "View page source" or whatever the equivalent option is with your browser.

Yes, I have some expertise in this area as I had a life before leather ;-), but that's also the reason why I would stay away from weebly and all sorts of ready-built websites. Compare it to a western saddle. You can go to the local tack store and buy one of the rack or have one custom made by a guy who knows what he's doing.

I would recommend you find some young college student, give him $500 and have a stunning website. Another option is to go and get one of the "Dummies" books on website building. If I'd be in your position I would get a hosting plan from hostgator.com or a godaddy.com, an easy to use WYSIWYG html editor, that'll do most of the stuff for you and you don't have to pay extra for standard features. I hate those rip-off guys. Sorry I got carried away...

So you'll probably want to stay with weebly and here's a video explaining you exactly what to do with your image. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLG11TNNUlA. This nice British fellow explains it in depth. The info you're looking for is at 3:05 minutes.

So re-sizing a picture is fairly simple. First find out what your target size is and then open the picture with an image editor of your choice. That could be Gimp, Photoshop or whatever. There are two things you have to do. Change the dimensions and maybe the dpi. For internet pictures you don't want anything else but 72 dpi or pixels (whatever your program displays there). Now the dimensions are the ones you have been given by your website theme. Please review what I wrote about the dimensions of your banner.

Regarding the "alt" tag feature. Don't get to fuzzy about it. Keep it short and precise, but also using common terms. I've seen people writing 5 or more sentences... That's not what you want. One sentence with a maximum of 8 to 10 words is the most you should do. Words like to, and, of, or... don't really count.

Let's say your working on this picture:

The ALT text could be: Blue gun (Model), Kydex holster, clips to belt or pants.

The picture should also be re-sized to fit the box it's placed in. The picture is 639px wide but the box is only 495px That's like fitting a 1" belt into a 3/4" loop. It'll work but will take some time.

OK I complained enough. Your site will and does work. On the bottom line that's all that counts, but visitors are picky and so are search engines. Think of them like of a woman coming to a house. If it's nice and clean, she'll like it and tell others. If not, she won't come back.

A short note on keywords. There are good practices and bad ones. If you place a keyword in the keyword meta text - let me use the leatherwranglers stuff.

<meta http-equiv="keywords" content="Leather Wranglers, Paul Zalesak, Rosa Zalesak, Pabloz, leathercraft, tools, leather tools, quality tools, leather craft, leather craft tools, leather workshop, leather classes, teach leatherwork, leathercraft, knives, knifemaker, Albuquerque knifemaker, custom knifemaker, Zubi, leathercraft tools, finger carving, leathercrafting, tooling, leather tooling, hand-carved leather, leather carving, leather carving tools, swivel knife, swivel knives, Home of the SK-3, best swivel knife, SK-3, SK3, SK3 swivel knife, SK3 swivel knives, SK-3 swivel knife, Al Gould, Al Gould special, SK-3 swivel knives, custom swivel knife, quality swivel knife, quality swivel knives, swivel knife blade, anodized swivel knife, round knife, head knife, Tranto, Deeter knife, leather knife, leathercraft knife, skiver, skiving knife, Rhino head knife, pull-cut round knife, pull-cut, APT trim knife, APT, Mini Lui, Mini Sam, trim knife, most beautiful round knife, custom round knife, most beautiful round knife in the world, nicest round knife ever, awesome round knife, most awesome round knife, cordwainer tools, cordwainer knife, leather trade show, leatherworkers, leathercrafter, Doodles Designs Patterns, Floral Carving, diamond sharpening stone, diamond hone, DMT, DMT benchstone, bench stone, EZE-lap, swivel knife contest, swivel knife shootout, Billy Wootres, Wootres, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sheridan, uncompromised quality">

It works. Don't use the same word more than 6 times here. Double-check yourself. Stay with singular and don't use plural. Don't use your name in the keywords. That's useless. If that is anywhere on the site it will be found by Google. Especially if it is on the about or contact page.

Now what most people don't do, and that's why there stuff is not high ranked in search results, they don't back up what they say. Meaning - if you have it in your keywords, it must be found in text body, description, help lines, internal links (they can and should also have a description).... This being said, I have to mention, that if multiple words are in the keywords and are not found on your site, it might be considered keyword spamming get the page to end of the line if not excluded from the index.

There's a multitude of things that can be done. Read up on this here https://www.google.com/webmasters/ and find out what you can use for your business.

I disagree with what Chain said about the font size. Well I don't totally disagree. For as long as you don't have a separate page for mobile devices I would keep it this way. It looks good on a mobile device like a tablet or smartphone. If one day you want to have one for ordinary website visitors using their computer and one for mobile devices, I agree with Chain. But that's a whole different story.

Ok, I guess this gives you a lot to read up on and to look into. If I can be of any help, just let me know.

[cgleathercraft]

your getting a lot of very useful information for SEO that will usually costs hundreds or thousands of dollars. Their advice is solid and i'm going to implement a lot of their suggestions into my own site.

If you have a college kid build your website make sure to ask for sites that they have built. Some can follow instructions from a book but can't build a decent site to save...well...anything. Call and talk to their instructors too. They will give you a good recommendation.

[BDAZ]

I think the web sit isn't up to the quality of the holsters and instruction. Too amateurish. I find the use of "urine yellow" a bit off putting.

Cya!

Bob

[dpip4x4]

I think the web sit isn't up to the quality of the holsters and instruction. Too amateurish. I find the use of "urine yellow" a bit off putting.

Cya!

Bob

thx but its our company colors that match the Gadsden flag colors. Thanks for the compliment of the holsters though!

Edited February 3, 2015 by dpip4x4

[dpip4x4]

your getting a lot of very useful information for SEO that will usually costs hundreds or thousands of dollars. Their advice is solid and i'm going to implement a lot of their suggestions into my own site.

If you have a college kid build your website make sure to ask for sites that they have built. Some can follow instructions from a book but can't build a decent site to save...well...anything. Call and talk to their instructors too. They will give you a good recommendation.

no doubt. This place has been a huge help to me over the past year developing my skills and the processes of making holsters. I am really wanting to do this myself though and not just pay some one so thank you Thor and Chan for all the input and practical training. Its awesome we have this resource to help one another out.

[BDAZ]

thx but its our company colors that match the Gadsden flag colors. Thanks for the compliment of the holsters though!

I have been a web master since '95. The fact that your company's colors are yellow and black doesn't mean you have to use them as the basic colors for your web site. You want the viewer to focus on your products, not the Halloween colors.

This advice is worth what you paid for it heh heh..

Cya!

Bob

[dpip4x4]

touche'

[Thor]

The fact that your company's colors are yellow and black doesn't mean you have to use them as the basic colors for your web site. You want the viewer to focus on your products, not the Halloween colors.

Of I could vote for this post I would.

One thing you should do is to put yourself in the position of your customer. He won't care a lot for your business colors but for comfort.

[dpip4x4]

I think it's nice. Very clear instructions and order form, and very clear examples of what you make.

holy smokes! your website is great and your work is fantastic. that mandolin bag is just sick!

[MonicaJacobson]

lol, thanks. I can't take credit for it, my husband made it for me (really, it's a wordpress plug-in), and he's an industrial designer, so he knows what he's doing. I have a few wrinkles I haven't bothered to iron out... the pictures of similar items on each product are very pixelated, and my brand is inconsistent... oh well. At some point, the webpage is unimportant (as long as it's clear, uncluttered, and everything is easy to navigate), I think the pictures are the most important. Also, no credit to me - my husband also dabbled in professional photography, so I have all of his camera equipment.