New Website - Opinions

[Mike Oveson]

I split ways with my partner (my sister) last year and just barely got started back on the scene with my new company. I redid the website and was wondering if anyone would be willing to share their thoughts about it. I'm open to all comments, so feel free to be honest. Thanks.

http://www.endlessimagesutah.com/iframe.htm

[Travis Cossel]

The main issue I noticed is that it took too long to load. I don't know if you're on a slow server or if your images just aren't compressed well, but I'd recommend finding a way to speed up your loading time.

[Mike Oveson]

Thanks for the thoughts Travis. Just wondering, are you on dialup or broadband? I've had speed issues with this before, even on broadband, but I'd like to know how you were viewing it.

[Mark Bournes]

Actually it loaded very fast for me. I would be a little more descriptive in "coverage" I'm not sure what I'm getting as far as "coverage?" Otherwise I really like the look and the easy navigation. As far as websites go, I firmly believe in K.I.S.S. "keep it simple stupid." Your site gets right to the point and is easy to find what I'm looking for. Good Job.

[Mike Oveson]

Thanks Mark. I appreciate the thoughts and I'm glad to hear that it loaded quickly for you. I'm trying to make this a very user-friendly site, meaning that dialup and broadband users can quickly navigate through the pages. I also wanted to, and seem to have reached, make it easy for people to find what they needed.

I'm thinking of adding in an "About Us" page that elaborates on the company and what services we provide. The site does not contain a lot of detail at the moment, but I'm also trying to keep it that way.

Does anyone think that a navbar someone in the top right corner region would be helpful? Or is it easy enough to get around in?

[Mark Bournes]

Personally I would keep it the way you have it and just add the "about us" window next to the other 3. I like the format.

[Travis Cossel]

Originally Posted by Mike Oveson

Thanks for the thoughts Travis. Just wondering, are you on dialup or broadband? I've had speed issues with this before, even on broadband, but I'd like to know how you were viewing it.

I'm on high-speed cable, but it was out earlier today so maybe it's just running slower than normal.

[Dana Salsbury]

I really like the centered approach with the fade effect. Nicely done. I think the photos could use some further touch-ups. Maybe they look better on paper, but the center photo looked a little bland. One trick I do in Photoshop is to see what autolevels comes up with and decide if it's better than what I have. Then I tweak it manually. The other two seem a tad overexposed, but I'm pry being too picky. Are those stills?

I look forward to seeing the final product.

[Mike Oveson]

Thanks for your thoughts Dana. The images on all of the pages except in the Video Gallery page are stills that my cousin shot. We used to do photography and videography together, so I use his stills of the events we shot as they are better than DV frames. I did tweak the levels of the images (always do) but I guess we just have different opinions of what looks good. =) I should be finishing the site up within the next week or so. I need to get new demo videos edited and encoded for the web.

Thanks again to everyone who's weighed in on this. I appreciate it.

[Tomasz Kalinowski]

I like the simplicity. Actually you gave me an ideas, which I will use on my own website.

[Jason Robinson]

Cable one get hit hard by the power outages Tues / Wed. Their DNS was down for a while and the up and back down.

[Matthew Craggs]

First off, it looks good. My only critique is that it doesn't give enough information.

You have three options on the main page: Samples, Packages, and Contact information. You go to Samples and you get samples (or will get samples when they go online). Simple enough. Then you have the Packages section, which has your prices. Simple enough. Then you have your contact information which has your phone and e-mail. Again, simple enough.

But where are you located? I see in the fine print of the prices that you mentino Provo-Logan corridor. If I were a bride or groom hunting for a videographer and came across the site from Google my first thought would be: Good. Wedding videographer, nice looking site. Is he available in my area?

I know you said that you were trying to keep the detail to a minimum, but I feel the site would definately benefit from a small, succinct section that says "Endless Images provides wedding videography to yadda yadda yadda" So I would definately agree that you add an "About Us."

I would also recommend going ahead with the navigation bar. You want the navigation to be as easy as possible and it's much easier for me to click the section header at the top of the page, rather than clicking the Endless Images logo and then choose another section of the site.

All in all, though, very good job. It looks nice, clean, simple and the images you used work well.

[Mike Oveson]

Thank you so very much Matthew. I appreciate your insights. I agree that there isn't much "about us" on the site yet, and your point about where we are located is good. I have only been focused on locally advertising and word-of-mouth so I hadn't thought that people might wonder where we were located. Thanks for pointing that out. I think I will add the navbar (just seems to be this nagging thought on my mind) and I definitely need to add the About Us section.

Thanks again for the honest opinion. It is most helpful.

[Steven Davis]

One thing that might be helpful is to explain your coverage area, i.e. where you will travel to. Atleast in this area, there is a phobia about highering out of town help. But when I explain the states we've been to for weddings, it does help people understand.

I'm not an expert, and I'm continually unhappy with my site, (hack at it all the time) but I think you need some type of pattern in the background to tie your logo and content together. That's just my opinion.

Hehe, when you go to put the video on the web, that'll be fun. Probably one of the most annoying decisions you'll need to make is format.

You're correct by the way, about making the site speed friendly. Most people when they visit your site, are going from site to site to site at one sitting. And if your site doesn't pull up quickly, they'll probably not wait, but go on to the next site.

[Michael Liebergot]

One major thing to keep in mind is your coding and spiderable text.

Your entire website seems to be made up of images.
The problem with this is that your site is very bad right now for search engine spiders to find your site. Spiders are sent out by search engines like google to find information on sites, that get retreived for the search engine to place into their database.

What they search for is actual text copy on web pages (not images) and keywords for your website (which you have none currently).

So in essense right now, your website is totally invisable to search engines, and as such invisible to people searching on the web for your services.

The first thing I would do is put some keywords in your HTML copy for each web page. Also each webpage should have a different title for it (Packages should have packages title etc.). And get some actual html copy on your web pages, especially your main, contact us, and about us pages.

Do a google search for "web page optimiziation" and see what I mean.

BTW a site navigation menu for each page is a must.