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Please review A Basketful & more again

ZaiZai subscriber Posts: 2
edited August 2007 in Website Critique
Hi, I`ve been here before - got some great insights - made the changes that I could and I`m back for another critique. 
I make gift baskets, my goal is to sell them - I designed the site using pagebuilder with yahoo. My last critique - it was mentioned getting a new logo (the image that I am using currently is not permanent) just until I can think of a nice design.
My last critique from CraigL - you gave me a lot of suggestions to work with and a website to check my validation W3C - I did check it and my site comes up with about 72 errors must of them "alt" errors for my images.  When I try correcting this problem in pagebuilder my whole format is changed around on my pages. Any suggestions on how to fix that or should I use another site builder.
Any and all comments are appreciated.  I was not fortune to get critiqued by Videography before - hope you catch this one. Well here we go. Be gentle, no serious, give me some honest critique.  Thanks in advance
My website http://www.abasketfulmore.com</A>
 
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Comments

  • vwebworldvwebworld subscriber Posts: 40
    Hi,
    Check your image file sizes.  The basket on the right (raspberrybask.jpg) is over 300K!  Try to keep the file sizes in the 30K to 50K range.
    Also, I would delete the image animation ...windygray.gif.
    While the background image is nice, the problem is - it is smaller than your webpage, both in width and height.
    You have two <head></head> sections in your webpage code...there should only be one. Also, sicne word was used to create the page or content there is a bunch of extra code in the html file.
    Are you useing geocities to host the site? I see you have hotlinked the background image. This could be a problem if the source of the file happens to change the location of that image file... your image will not be found.
    ~Roland
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  • VideographyVideography subscriber Posts: 401 Silver Level Member
    As Craig said, does it really matter where you are located?  But, when you say "we are in Richmond", it hits a pet peeve of mine - do you have any clue how many "Richmonds" there are in the US?  No where on the site do you mention the state.But, if you do not have a store-front or expect to see your clients in person, then why does it even matter?  You could mention it in your shipping info: "Ships from Richmond, KS" or whatever state you`re in.Your "Shipping" page ends mid-word.I just happened to click on the Baby Bassinet and noticed the price was $49.9"On the product page, you have a "Buy Now" button that just takes me to the Pay Pal login page, but the "add to cart" button takes me to the PayPal shopping cart.  Very confusing - use one or the other but not both.Also, your product pages say "Free Ground Shipping", but your checkout doesn`t allow me to select any shipping options and there was a shipping charge on the checkout form.  You are definitely going to see some cart abandonment here.I also use PayPal for my cart, and I just tested the "continue shopping" button and it doesn`t work there either.  It did the last time I tried it. (I am using FireFox 2 as well).  Curious.  I tried your site and mine with IE and the "return to shopping" worked fine.
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  • ZaiZai subscriber Posts: 2
    CraigL said"I saw one issue when I clicked "Buy now." I cancelled the order, and it threw me out of your site completely. I have no idea how to resolve that, since I`m not a developer."Thanks again CraigL for your input. If you can remember - can you tell me where you had the above problem at (what product).
    I`m still working on my tagline and making things stand out with tasteful headlines- it`s like I have writers block.  I made some changes to the contact page and email page - I still have to check compatibility for Firefox. Thanks again for your input.
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  • ZaiZai subscriber Posts: 2
    Roland said
    "While the background image is nice, the problem is - it is smaller than your webpage, both in width and height.
    You have two <head></head> sections in your webpage code...there should only be one. Also, sicne word was used to create the page or content there is a bunch of extra code in the html file.
    Are you useing geocities to host the site?"
    Hi Roland and thanks for your input.
    You state that the background image is smaller than my webpage - do you know how I can fix that problem.
    I was looking at my source code and notice that I have a lot of extra code as well - I am using yahoo pagebuilder and this is what happens. I have not tried taking the extra code out, it might mess something up. Any suggestions
    and yes I do use geocities.
    Again thanks for the input.
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  • vwebworldvwebworld subscriber Posts: 40

    Hi Roland and thanks for your input.
    You state that the background image is smaller than my webpage - do you know how I can fix that problem.
    I was looking at my source code and notice that I have a lot of extra code as well - I am using yahoo pagebuilder and this is what happens. I have not tried taking the extra code out, it might mess something up. Any suggestions
    and yes I do use geocities.
    Background image: Two problems -
    (1) the image is linked to a geocities url geocities(dot)com/clipart/pbi/backgrounds/Template_Business/ florist_bg2.jpg so if geocities changes the location or name of the file your background disappears.
    (2) The image is not wide enough to fit all your page content within the image boarder so the right edge of the image runs down the middle of your web page. And since your page is longer than the image height... it must repeat.
    May be the easiest way to solve the image height is to limit the content of the page  - only put then amount of content lines that will fit with in the height of the  background image.
    The better solution - use several images.. one for a header back ground and one for the main body background. Where the main body image repeats as needed.  The header would include the darker corner part in the upper left.
    As for the width problem. Again you could limit the content width, but that is not too wide. So the better solution is to create a new back ground image with a wider width. OR if you modify the background image to eliminiate the right margin graphic.. then there is no problem.  Except, do not have the image repeat horizontally.
    Your Code:  That is what you get when you use a sitebuilder or similar package. You are limited as to what you can use to create/modify your code. IF you can upload an htnl file, then I`d suggest creating your webpages outside of sitebuilder, then uploading them.
    It appears that there is some microsoft word coding too. Maybe you have copy and pasted tex from a word document?
    ~Roland
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  • ZaiZai subscriber Posts: 2
    Videography said
    "On the product page, you have a "Buy Now" button that just takes me to the Pay Pal login page, but the "add to cart" button takes me to the PayPal shopping cart.  Very confusing - use one or the other but not both.Also, your product pages say "Free Ground Shipping", but your checkout doesn`t allow me to select any shipping options and there was a shipping charge on the checkout form.  You are definitely going to see some cart abandonment here."
    Thanks videography for your input - I`m working on the items you mentioned (shipping page), and my (buy now/shopping cart) buttons. I`m also working on trying to set up the shipping option so that it comes up $0 when being shipped by ground. And by the way I`m in Richmond, Viirginia , I never even noticed that I didn`t mention that on my site.
    I don`t have a storefront so I guess it doesn`t matter where I`m located. I`ll be re-wording things.
    Again, thanks for the input.
     
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  • ZaiZai subscriber Posts: 2
    To Roland
    Thanks for the info, I will work on that.
    Also, yes I have copied/pasted from a word doc.  
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  • WeblineWebline subscriber Posts: 13 Bronze Level Member
    Yahoo`s Sitebuilder will add tons of extra code that isn`t necessarily beneficial. I just got done redesigning the site for another member here who had used Sitebuilder, and the code size now is much smaller, as well as being cleaner and SEO friendly. Although these programs are ok for beginners, there are drawbacks that people new to web design won`t be aware of.One suggestion; if you`re going to stay with Sitebuilder, create a template, then use that template to create all of your other pages. As it is now, when you make a new page, you are trying to reproduce other pages ( i.e., get the same layout in every page ), and it is almost impossible to get them all exactly the same; this is obvious when browsing through the site, and some things seem to "jump" out of place a little bit. You also need a consistent menu that appears on all pages.I noticed that, in the list along the left side, some are links and some aren`t. I don`t see a benefit of having items listed there if they aren`t all links, as it may confuse viewers.For your background image, one thing you could do is to have a fixed width on your pages, and create a background that is sized for that width....just a thought.
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  • ZaiZai subscriber Posts: 2
    Thanks Webline for your comments
    I`m actually using pagebuilder - which is basically the same as Sitebuilder. I feel the drawbacks everytime I try to do something that these programs don`t offer.  I`m only a beginner.
    You are right, I am trying to reproduce other pages - I will take your advice and create a template to use for all my pages.
    Thanks again Webline
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  • vwebworldvwebworld subscriber Posts: 40
    Zai,Now that you`ve used PageBuilder, having a sense of what`s going on with HTML, you should take a look at Nvu. It`s a free download, very powerful, and there are a couple of nice tutorials on the web. It`s a whole lot easier to get into the code to see what`s going on. Plus, you can do something, see what happens, and learn that way.
    Because of her web hosting arrangement... she may be limited as to what html editor she can use.
    ~Roland
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  • ZaiZai subscriber Posts: 2
    Webworld is right, I can`t use any thing else. I will eventually go with another web hosting company, because Yahoo as too many restrictions.
    Thanks anyway CraigL for Nvu, I will try it though just to get some practice.
    Zai
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  • ZaiZai subscriber Posts: 2
    CraigL
    Thanks for the advice, I am going to give Nvu a try and see how it works. I`m the type of person that likes to try and see things as well.
    Zai
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