Critique my site please?

Hi,
It’s a nice, clean theme – easily read and organized.
You have to get rid of that header image though. The blue bg isn’t even the same as the rest.

Do remember that you need to give credit when using those professional pictures. You may own copies of them but the copyright is still held by the photographer.

Oh! That’s right. I will do that now. The credit to the photos that is.

Any other ideas?

I have never understood guys running commercial sites who put ads on them. Why send your hard one traffic elsewhere? Why give up prime blog real estate to ads? Why not put your USP in their place? Just my 2c.

I plan to replace some ads with my own as I go along. Just was using the theme as is for now. It had these areas for google already. I agree though. Just need to have this site pay for itself somehow until I get it going full speed.

I would recommend a little tweaking:

1. Your site doesn’t validate. Why validate? Because you’re relying on error-correction by a users browser and this error correction can and does vary radically across different browsers and versions. See here for details.

2. Your base font size is way to small.

3. Your header looks very “awkward”. The page links (about, contact, resume) are too hard to read due to contrast problems. Your tagline in the header is far too small too. I also have no idea why the links (maconcardeals, youmans chevrolet) are even there.

4. Your body text has a very wide margin.

5. Your footer text has no margin.

6. Your theme doesn’t scale well unless I’m using 1025×768 and have my window maximised and have my desktop toolbar at the top or bottom (which I don’t).

7. Take care with your language. One of your posts says this:

“Please tell us how you like your Chevrolet Impala. Other’s will find your input invaluable in their decision to buy a Chevrolet Impala as well. How does it ride? How does it fit your budget? Do you like the looks? Anything Chevrolet Impala.”

That sounds clumsy to me, as a human reader. The words “chevrolet impala” are repeated 3 times in one short paragraph and create the impression that you’ve deliberately overloaded your paragraphs with keywords which you consider to be important to search engines.

First, proof your copy (text) carefully. “Other’s” is not possessive; lose the apostrophe. I realize you are a car salesman, and likely not an English major, but no matter. Your web site, if it is to sell your services, has to be credible. Typos and grammar nits ruin your credibility with readers.

Also, I’m all for family and you have a nice one there, but that should not be the reason that I buy a car from you. Everyone has a family and everyone’s children need shoes, clothes and school supplies.

It’s nice to personalize it a bit, to humanize yourself, but I believe if a person comes to your web site, he’s interested in buying a car and you have to keep him interested and make him want to buy that car from you.

Tell him what you will do for him and what his car buying experience will be if he chooses to deal with you. Tell him you won’t harangue him with high pressure tactics, that you stand behind your deal, that you won’t disappear after the paperwork is signed, etc., etc., etc.

Also, if you plan to use people’s narratives on your web site as testimonials, be sure to get their permission first. Most people won’t mind and in fact would probably enjoy the limelight, but be careful and do ask first. ??

As an aside, my first job while I was in high school was at Mission Chevrolet in San Antonio, Texas. It was the most fun I ever had and got paid. You’ll be able to figure out my age when I tell you that back then, you could buy a fully loaded Corvette for under $9K and the Bricklin (manufactured by an Arizonan in a Canadian plant, sporting a Ford engine and sold in Chevrolet dealerships) was brand new and expensive as all get-out. ??

Thanks guys.

I personally believe the design looks just fine and wouldn’t change anything. However, I would recommend looking into SEO’ing up your template a little bit – starting with the <title> tags.

Thanks. Also about the comment left about using people’s narratives. They actually put those comments on my site themselves.

Okay, I have made a few changes….How is it now?

I have completely changed my site. I am now using the Anaconda theme. Can you guys tell me what I need to do to make it better?

In IE6, there is a horizontal scrollbar. You need to resize something to make it fit better. My resolution is 1024×768.

Hi there,
I’ve just had a look at what must be your new layout…having not seen your previous one this is what I think of the new one – the grey at the top is a bit hash and impersonal and doesn’t really go with the site – especially as it seems to have so much of your personailty shining through…what about a different colour that still looks work-like and professional – such as blue or british racng green? I do however like thewhole 3 column thing though – that does work well. Hope this helps.
FDB