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Please critique Homeberries.com for over all flow

 
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JenB

posts: 24

Mar 12, 2008 12:27 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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Homeberries.com is my baby, where I design and sell my embroidery designs as a download file.
 
I am working in a niche market that still has a lot of growth possibilities. It`s kind of a craft revival of sorts.
 
I designed the site myself using Yahoo - Sitebuilder, Xara Xtreme for the graphics and a years worth of doing and redoing. I do not know how to code. I make all of my graphics myself and I`ve worked hard to keep it fresh and clean.
 
I`ve tried using a shopping cart and I didn`t like the limitations it allowed me for overall design. I use paypal now for transactions and e-junkie for the downloads.
 
I`m looking forward to suggestions and comments.
 
Jennie Baer
JenB7/10/2008 3:54 PM


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http://www.homeberries.com.com
Motivate Kindness
Webline

posts: 687

Mar 12, 2008 4:28 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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I think your graphics are very well suited to your sites topic. The thread/loop things ( sorry I`m ignorant on what they are called ) at the top that act as a menu are a neat idea.

There are a couple of downsides.

Images...
Your main page is nothing but images, which create longer load times and use more bandwidth.
They do nothing for helping with SEO. Search engine spiders want to see text, they don`t "read" images.

Consistency....
Some pages have the page background and trim images, some don`t. You will look more professional if they are all the same.

SEO....
Basically non existant.




-------------------------

M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons


barbhd34

posts: 9

Mar 12, 2008 5:12 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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If you want to use images .... 

and I`ll have to echo WebLine`s comment above .. all images are tough (impossible) for search engines (Google) to read ...

So, if you really want to use all images please add Alt Tags to your images so search engines can "read/index" the site and consumers can pre-read what`s going on with your site before the images load.

Your images have the code for Alt Tags already ... so just add an image description to the existing code: alt="" should be alt="image of Homeberries embroidery patterns featuring flowers" or something like that.

BTW - love your idea, might just have to go download a pattern or two :-)

- barb



JenB

posts: 24

Mar 12, 2008 5:26 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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Thanks so much for the tips. I am going to see if I can fix the Alt Tags tonight.
Should I change it for all of my wording images or just my photos??
 
Jen


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http://www.homeberries.com.com
Motivate Kindness
barbhd34

posts: 9

Mar 12, 2008 5:56 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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all images :-)

Google will thank you.

- barb

JenB

posts: 24

Mar 12, 2008 7:47 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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I added Alt tags to the homepage, could you check it for me please and let me know if I did it right?
 
Also, Webline, I see what your saying about keeping all of the pages looking the same. I`ll make it a goal to update the out of date pages within the next couple of weeks. Thanks for the comments.
 
Thanks,
 
Jennie
www.homeberries.com


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http://www.homeberries.com.com
Motivate Kindness
CraigL

posts: 9051

Mar 12, 2008 7:48 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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Y`know what strikes my mind, thinking about your site? It has nothing to do with a critique, but here`s the deal. ALL kids come home with a drawing they expect mom and dad to hang on the refrigerator for the rest of their lives. Why not offer a side line of business, where someone sends you a scan of one of these drawings by their kids, and you do the embroidery version, frame it, and send it back? That way the picture really WOULD last forever!

Just a thought... :-)
JenB

posts: 24

Mar 12, 2008 9:27 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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CraigL,
 
That`s a good suggestion, however I try to stay away from doing "crafts for sale" because it would make it harder to mass produce with my budget. However, having a person send me a drawing and making it into a finished pattern isn`t a bad idea. Computer work is always quicker than hand work. Thanks for the idea. :D
 
P.S. still looking for feedback on my homepage Alt tags.
 
Jennie
www.homeberries.com


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http://www.homeberries.com.com
Motivate Kindness
CraigL

posts: 9051

Mar 12, 2008 10:26 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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All your alt tags are unreadable, in about a 1-point type size (that`s 1/72 of an inch). When I expanded my view about 40 times, I could read them, and they weren`t all that useful. I`m guessing the size of the alt tags doesn`t matter all that much, but the content should be something interesting.

You don`t have to start every alt-tag with "Image of...." and then a generic title. You can use the tags to put in descriptive things about your site that search engines might pick up. For example, instead of "Image of Homeberries Home button," you could have the alt-tag say, "Embroidery patterns for home crafts." That gets you "embroidery" and "home crafts" and "crafts" all in one line.

Someone searching for "embroidery" would then likely find your page easier. Instead of the image of a book, you could say, "How to do primitive embroidery book." Things like that.

Use the alt tags to increase the number of keyword phrases without "spamming" a search engine.
Webline

posts: 687

Mar 13, 2008 2:55 AM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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That will help, but adding standard text would be a lot more beneficial.

Another thing is that there is so much code created by your site builder that the code to content ratio is only 1%. meaning that your main page is 99% code and 1% actual textual content. Not ideal for search engines.



-------------------------

M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons


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