Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Howdy,

A few obvious things right off the bat:
1.) Your Image text is very hard to read and looks like the sampling done on it was terrible (jaggy lines when there should be none). If you want to go with text of that style you need to make sure the white stroke around the text is thicker, and make sure the text is formed/made at the resolution it is to be shown at (this ensures proper sampling).
2.) You need to make the menu options text different than the main header/logo text. For usability and logic flow reasons you want to establish what text is clickable compared to what text is just display. Using the same text for both elements confuses this issue.
3.) Why are you separating the main header elements into 8 different image elements? For each element that exists the client sends out an http call. Thus the more elements you have, the more http calls you have, and since there is a set limit on concurrent http calls, you cause the page loading to be delayed. The best practice is to combine images and other elements, so you reduce unneeded http calls. As an example on your site, the entire header, including the menu, could easily be done with a single image, which reduces your current 8 http calls for those elements into one http call.
4.) Your seo optimization needs serious work. None of your images, even ones that are links, have alt tags. And your only main seo thing done is the keywords meta tag... and you`ve done that all wrong. Seo for a page is done by targeting phrases/keywords, and this is calculated by keyword density (how many times that word/phrase comes up within the volume of other words). This means that listing a lot of random keywords that vaguely relates to your site is not seo. You need to find the most searched keywords/phrases for a site of your content, then optimize each page specifically for them.
5.) Listing your email using "mailto:" is just inviting spam bots to harvest your email and spam you. Instead use a form with some sort of thought involved (but easy choice) bot check (Ex. is ice hot or cold?).
6.) Your links are gray. Even though they`re underlined you need to make them a different color than the rest of the text to signify they`re clickable.
7.) Each section could be organized better. You may want to use some sort of horizontal rule or something to separate each section instead of havign sections just float about.
8.) Some of your image file sizes could be a lot smaller with no noticebale difference.

Though i must say, your html code output is quite small, which rare to see (and good).
Hope that helps!

Holy cow...Ive got work to do!  Thank you for your input and Ill get to work on correcting these things.

Also, not enough contrast on the content so it`s hard to read. And the tab font (hollow outline) is almost impossible to read at all. Your images on the home page are disjointed and scattered, and make no sense. So I`d suggest re-thinking your overall layout.

Usually, white text on black backgrounds doesn`t work very well. It can work, but it really needs some visual contrast analysis, which means someone understanding graphics and how people see the world. If you don`t know someone like that who can help, then I`d suggest dark text on light background instead. It`s less complicated.

Your background is not good. Black is supposed to be mysterious and not drown the foreground. Black is not the color you need or want for this. White is a much better color or a lighter shade. This black background makes it very difficult to read

The "ammo list" should be a PDF file not a MS Word document. This will stop people from changing the information. Always use a PDF file for the internet & downloads.

Under "contact us" you should have a PO box or street address to let the public know you`re not a fly-by-night business. And there should be a place where they can type in a comment, question or complaint right there. This will defuse some of the anger especially if it`s a complaint.

When I click on any of the menus, Classes, About Us, Things You Need to Know or Contact us, once on those pages, you should be able to get back to the home page by clicking on Texas Covert Carry. So far that doesn`t work! If it`s one thing you want, it`s to let the customers get back to the beginning if they get lost or want to back up to the start page. Even though you have a "home" button, you still need to be able to get back to the beginning by clicking on the title of your website.

Too many images along the left side and they`re too small. Pick one or two good images and make they large enough to see. Remember, people surfing the internet are wearing glasses . . . including grandma!