Glad to be of help. Also, I viewed some of your client sites and I like the visuals, but from what I can see, the marketing might need a bit more cement. For example, the yoga site starts with "Welcome". At the bottom of the page it says, "Plant your practice. Nourish your heart." Why doesn`t it say this instead of Welcome? Why start with a very pedestrian "Welcome"? I don`t know what "Plant your practice." means but I assume it has something to do with yoga. Shouldn`t this be at the top? Just a question.
Similarly, the construction site begins with a welcome. This doesn`t make sense either, especially when you could start with "We build the best and fix the rest." This is a web site, not a secretary answering the phone. A secretary says "Hello" when he/she answers the phone and "Welcome" when he/she greets a visitor. The web site doesn`t need to welcome people, it needs to clearly and crisply communicate the product or service while helping to position the organization relative to its competition or relative to something. Ideally it inspires action. A phone call, a download, some business.
Some specific language critiques I would have upon viewing your portfolio might include the following:
I`m sure you didn`t write the copy, but if you`re providing a marketing-assist in addition to web design, you should be able to steer your clients away from worn ideas. The construction company is obviously well-established. Why not have the rather beautiful picture covered in testimonials? Do you know the difference between inductive and deductive copywriting? You might, but your clients probably don`t. In case you don`t, here`s a link: http://www.canadaone.com/ezine/feb02/advertising_copy.html
When I look at the construction site, first I see the picture. Then I ignore the Welcome message. Next, I look at the first line, "We exceed expectations with quality and service.", and I ignore it as well. This is very white bread and very worn out indeed. Anyone who looks at this will simply think "that`s what they all say". Why is that testimonial at the bottom? That makes no sense! Shouldn`t it be front and center? Other worn out ideas are "We`ll watch over the entire project" and "On-time and within budget.". What about "this enables you to focus on your company and not be stretched..." Is there a truly original or mind-catching thought anywhere on the front page? Who cares if the other pages are boring. The front page needs to be awesome, in context granted, but awesome. Who knows. Maybe people who go to construction company web sites don`t care.
There`s a lot of text in all these sites. If it`s brochureware, then I guess it`s fine. But when someone is looking for a product or service, I always like to think about the "Back" button. It takes a prospect about 1 second to go right back to google and resume their search. That`s why web sites *need* that killer hook. You don`t want the prospect to hit the back button, right? Just try counting the number of times you hit "Back" and return to google because a site could not hold your attention.
Last.
I notice two words on the bottom of your site. XHTML and CSS. So I assume that I should be able to view your source code and check if your site is XHTML and CSS compliant. Guess what? I was highly, highly impressed that the front page XHTML and CSS were compliant. That`s really excellent and a very smart move. Now, I doubt that you have very many clients who know how to do this, but I can tell you what. If the front page had not been compliant, I would have been completely unimpressed. Instead I am completely impressed. Your site also looks the same in Internet Explorer and FireFox. Another mark of good design. Your company obviously does good web design work. That`s entirely clear. However, as I said at the top, I think the marketing angle needs a lot more cement.
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