Time for me to take some punishment...

[PropellerHeadCase]

Finally have my initial site up.

Still working on cutting down the verbiage without losing the content, and upping the picture count a little (one or two pics per page, max), but needed to be on-line to try and get some work for early April next year.

Thoughts and comments appreciated...

But before you have a look, be aware that my design brief was always simple, clean, uncluttered and informational.

So, without further ado...

www.djalanduval.com (http://www.djalanduval.com)

[BeerFunk]

I like!

http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/archives/borat.jpg

If I were to say one thing, well, there is too much text! :eek:

It has got to be the most informative DJ website I've ever seen!

[rob1963]

Al,

The general look of the site is nice & professional.

On the downside, I don't think your design brief was followed very well, and my thoughts are similar to Beerfunk:

I think the text is way too small & there is too much of it.

Prospective clients might find that off-putting & confusing...and simply give up on it as a result.

I'm a great believer in keeping it relevant & simple, so I'd reduce the number of pages from 14 to about 7, increase the text size & reduce the amount of text.

:)

[PropellerHeadCase]

Rob, in what way was the design brief not followed?

Whilst I take on board what you are saying about the info I won't be able to edit it down that much. The informative side of the site is kinda the point - I want people to feel informed and, unlike you guys, I'm not excpecting any person to want or need to try and read the whole thing.

The Events and Weddings pages (and sub-sections on some of the pages), for example, are pretty much mutually exclusive.

I suspect that breaking it up with pics will help, once I have some.


Bear in mind, also, that we've all just recently been talking about people who would rather not deal with us by phone, so if I answer all of their questions...

[Marc J]

I like it :)

[PropellerHeadCase]

Oooh, the Marc J seal of approval! I HAVE done well!

Thanks, Marc.

[Penfold42]

If I were to say one thing, well, there is too much text! :eek:
It has got to be the most informative DJ website I've ever seen!


Al,
The general look of the site is nice & professional.
I think the text is way too small & there is too much of it.


What they said.....

I like it....very crisp....:)

[Corabar Steve]

Nice:beatnik:

[Vectis]

Thoughts and comments appreciated...

Very nice - simple and understated.

Wordy is good - google likes that. You need to make better use of the <TITLE> sections in your various pages but otherwise very neat.

Wonder if it's a good idea to split into two sites - one for NZ, one for UK. Maybe have /uk/~~~ and /nz/~~~ after the domain name. That way you can target your content and metadata better to the different search engines and drop some of the confusing content? It means maintaining two of everything during the overlap period but might help reduce the text somewhat.



It has got to be the most informative DJ website I've ever seen!

Well don't go sniffing round mine then! I, too, am in the process of trying to reduce the amount of guff but it's difficult when over 50% of new customers are coming via the web. Every time I remove something, you can guarantee I get an email or phone call asking for it! Still... I'm working on it! :o

[Shaun]

I think it's really good. It has a nice professional feel to it......nice job, Alan. :approve:

[rob1963]

Rob, in what way was the design brief not followed?

Whilst I take on board what you are saying about the info I won't be able to edit it down that much. The informative side of the site is kinda the point - I want people to feel informed and, unlike you guys, I'm not excpecting any person to want or need to try and read the whole thing.

The Events and Weddings pages (and sub-sections on some of the pages), for example, are pretty much mutually exclusive.

I suspect that breaking it up with pics will help, once I have some.

Bear in mind, also, that we've all just recently been talking about people who would rather not deal with us by phone, so if I answer all of their questions...

Al,

I think the "Simple" part of the design brief was the bit that wasn't followed.

You have 14 web pages, and a ton of info to wade through on many of them.

For example, your "packages" page involves loads of scrolling, and if it was on a piece of paper, would be about 7 feet long!

How long will it take people to wade through all that just to get details of the packages available? and how many of them will be prepared to take the time to do so?

I understand you are trying to answer all possible questions, but I think this will be counter-productive, and feel you can give all relevant information with much less content.

For example, my own site only has about 20% of the content of yours, but the vast majority of people who contact me are simply wanting to know about availability. I take it, therefore, that everything else they want to know is on the site.

I also agree that some pics will help to break things up a bit.

Please don't think I'm having a dig, I'm just giving my honest opinion.

After all, Marc J is the website expert, and if he likes it, you MUST be doing something right!

:)

[rob1963]

Wordy is good - google likes that.

But do CLIENTS?

[Vectis]

But do CLIENTS?


The key is to get the stuff most relevant to clients into the first two paragraphs... 'above the fold' ... ie no scrolling required. Put all the waffle below. Then, if anyone wishes to read on, they can.

I took an approach whereby I shortened some lengthy pages by having a "Tell me More" graphic at the bottom. Essentially two pages, the second (long) one with a bookmark embedded in it. Seems to work. Most customers hit the short version with the important message. Some go on to read further.

[PropellerHeadCase]

Yes, Vectis, believe it or not, I've somewhat worked along the same lines. The pages that I feel are 'pique their interest' pages will be one screen with little if any scrolling, see 'Your Event', 'Your Wedding' and 'Your Music'. 'Solutions' and 'Frequently Asked' on the other hand are necessarily informational, so I think people would expect to have a bit to read. (Do note that on 'Frequently Asked' the latter two-thirds is related to and linked from the first question).

Rob, I don't take it as a dig, and I appreciate the time you've taken to give the feedback. I disgree with you on one point - "Simple" was followed as far as the design is concerned, your complaint is with the content which is down to me.

The "Packages" page has all of the packages listed in the first viewable page with a precis of what they cover - they link to further down the page which gives the full description. When I originally wrote it I had the individual packages on individual pages linked from the packages main page.

Do I have more pages or keep the one, longer page? If I have more pages do I have links for all of them on the menu-bar on the left? Dilemma.

[rob1963]

Yes, Vectis, believe it or not, I've somewhat worked along the same lines. The pages that I feel are 'pique their interest' pages will be one screen with little if any scrolling, see 'Your Event', 'Your Wedding' and 'Your Music'. 'Solutions' and 'Frequently Asked' on the other hand are necessarily informational, so I think people would expect to have a bit to read. (Do note that on 'Frequently Asked' the latter two-thirds is related to and linked from the first question).

Rob, I don't take it as a dig, and I appreciate the time you've taken to give the feedback. I disgree with you on one point - "Simple" was followed as far as the design is concerned, your complaint is with the content which is down to me.

The "Packages" page has all of the packages listed in the first viewable page with a precis of what they cover - they link to further down the page which gives the full description. When I originally wrote it I had the individual packages on individual pages linked from the packages main page.

Do I have more pages or keep the one, longer page? If I have more pages do I have links for all of them on the menu-bar on the left? Dilemma.

Al,

I guess the thing to do is to see how well it works for you & to get as much feedback as possible...then take things from there.

Marc J is a web design expert & someone I have great faith in, and he said he likes it, so if I was you I'd take more note of his opinion than mine!

:)

[Marc J]

Thanks for the kind words guys :)

There is a lot of content but, as Vectis says, Google likes content! I generally agree with all the comments re reader targetted content first, then the rest followed (for the reader to scoll if they want to, and for Google). Alternatively you can "hide" content behind "tell me more" links like Vectis suggests.

Have to admit I didn't notice the lack of TITLE tags (or rather, the single use). I'd change that as a priority.

I also like Vectis' idea of splitting the site in two - UK and NZ. This could be fairly easy to do with a selection page first, and by very simple use of a cookie you could give the option to "remember me". Altenatively two flags at, say, the top right so the user can switch at any time. This could all be very easily done with a little PHP code, I've done a similar thing for a client who had 4 translations of his site. If the structure of the two halves is the same, and it's just the page content that changes, then it could be done very easily with Server Side Includes for the main content area.

One quick niggle - I'd put a white background colour in the table cell for the main content. If the page is a little slow in loading, the blue text appears against a blue background and catches your eye for a sec.

Very professional looking, informative site though.

[PropellerHeadCase]

All good points, Marc, and things I will certainly consider however I have a very small budget so I can't split NZ/UK to begin with. Also I will be advertising on expat Kiwi sites in the UK as that's my initial niche whilst I'm getting established so I really want to portray that.

I agree on the background should be the silver/grey, not purple during loading.

Are you suggesting that the <titles> should be more contextual to the page content?

[Marc J]

Are you suggesting that the <titles> should be more contextual to the page content?

Yes, the page title should be relevant to the content. You can include "The Music Man" and / or "DJ Alan Duval" in the titles of each page if you like, but the general consensus is that the relevant part should be first, so something like: -

Homepage :: The Music Man - DJ Alan Duval
Your Wedding :: The Music Man - DJ Alan Duval
Your Music :: The Music Man - DJ Alan Duval

[PropellerHeadCase]

Ahh, gotcha - cheers!

[RnGary]

I think it looks really good and would give me confidence that i was dealing with a professional.

My only suggestion - which is really to get the hits from the google searches is to put more linked words that relate 'Bath', 'Avon' and 'Disco' and 'Wedding Disco' and similar so that you get the hits from people searching for 'discos in bath' and similar. I googled these and did not find you on the first three pages which is as far most people will look.

(Words from he who has has been planning his website for 6 months now but has done nothing more than reserve the site name....!)

[pagan_flame]

Tidy and well presented site but --- too much text and too small... think "I am an older person booking for my daughter / grand-daughter...Oo now where did I put my glasses?..." :rolleyes: :cool:

Think on your website as a shop - when your prospective customers walk through the door, can they find what they are looking for quickly and easily - or do they have to walk around the whole shop 3 times to find it?

Oh yeah and also - no <META> tags present on any page.

...and you spend £40 a WEEK on new music? Haven't you heard of downloading...? If I downloaded the Radio 1 playlist (A, B and C!) each week it wouldn't cost me £40... :eek:

[BeerFunk]

Marc J is a web design expert & someone I have great faith in, and he said he likes it, so if I was you I'd take more note of his opinion than mine!

:)
That's a very humble thing to say Rob, but sometimes designers get 'drawn in', and it takes a neutral observer to give a first impression of the site.

The thing is, there have been many comments here about there being too much text, so it's highly likely that your average customer will think the same.

To be honest, the site looks good, and that's the only thing I can fault!

[PropellerHeadCase]

My only suggestion - which is really to get the hits from the google searches is to put more linked words that relate 'Bath', 'Avon' and 'Disco' and 'Wedding Disco' and similar so that you get the hits from people searching for 'discos in bath' and similar. I googled these and did not find you on the first three pages which is as far most people will look.

Apparently Google are unlikely to even put a newly started site in the top few pages, if at all. I'll be starting an AdWords campaign shortly to get right into the Bath/Somerset Disco/DJ searches. I'll also be putting ads into a few of the directories that are on the first page of google results for the various (45!) searches that I tried using different permutations of four key-words and two key-phrases.

Oh, yeah, and meta-tags and such will come later once we've tested some permutations out - and once the actual web-guy I hired, rather than the designer, is back from holiday...

[RnGary]

Apparently Google are unlikely to even put a newly started site in the top few pages, if at all. I'll be starting an AdWords campaign shortly to get right into the Bath/Somerset Disco/DJ searches. I'll also be putting ads into a few of the directories that are on the first page of google results for the various (45!) searches that I tried using different permutations of four key-words and two key-phrases.

Oh, yeah, and meta-tags and such will come later once we've tested some permutations out - and once the actual web-guy I hired, rather than the designer, is back from holiday...[/QUOTE]

[Tony Scott]

Really love the look of the site but have to agree that for me at least there is just too much text and info, I found it hard going and I've got an interest in the subject.

I purposely didn't read any other reviews before looking at the site coz I didn't want to be swayed, these are my genuine thoughts on the site.

Very professional look, love it! :)