Feedback on our site..

[sharp]

Good Afternoon Gentlemen,

It's been awhile. One of the things I've been working on (other than starting another company and the wife finishing ..June 5th.. graduate school) is one of our firms website. Wow. I didn't realize how fierce the engines and people could be to help search rankings.

So.. I've got the site up, to get the "sandbox" timer started, and will be adding new content at least every other week. We'll have a blog, and beef up the intra-site link count. What else should I be doing? If you could look at the site, and let me know SEO things to change, or design elements that you feel should be adjusted I would appreciate it.

**Taken care of** Thanks [H]

Cheers,

 

[CodeX]

"Welcome to CompleteIRA, and congratulations on exploring the possibilities of a retirement with virtually no limits. Wide open spaces always have felt better to us than confined ones"

That seems a little... hokey
I don't really like the menu drop-downs either, they are too big I think, I can't quite put my finger on it. Other than that it is a great looking site.

*edit*
"...What if you see a horse that is an outstanding value?..."
LOL, when I first read this I thought you meant betting on one at a race track

 

[tinysmall]

The text effects at the top in the very top black area are completely annoying to me. You should only have 1 line, like creativity set free, that comes out when the page first loads and then stops. THe animation over and over again got on my nerves within 30 seconds.

 

[doh]

Good Afternoon Gentlemen,

Not everyone here is male!

1) Invalid HTML 4.0
2) Unnecessary FLASH header
3) Your site fails without Javascript enabled. I guess you don't care about blind users?
4) No alt attributes on your images.
5) Your website is completely unusuable with a text browser or any browser without Javascript (e.g., a screenreader) see also #3.
6) Improper use of tables
7) From a semantic point of view generally one shouldn't mix case in their HTML tags and attributes.
8) Your (overly complex) javascript menus
9) On http://www.completeira.com/ira-401k-services.htm why have you enclosed the main list in a span? Why not put the styling on the list itself?
10) Why have you not implemented a simple suckerfish style menu which relies on crossbrowser CSS and gracefully degrades instead of relying on javascript?
11) The copy text is very corny.

There's a hell of a lot more but I'm not being paid to critique this POS so I'll just stop here and let you figure them out.

 

[Lethal]

I'll second what others have said.

"Join Us" - How? Give me more info. Don't make me have to call or email you. Tell me what I need to know or I'll move along to another site that does.

"IRS raises it's fees" - "It's" is a contraction meaning "it is". Sorry, but the grammar geek in me automatically discounts a site for little errors like that. If you can't take the time to proofread (or have someone else do it), you lost me as a potential customer/client.

Full-justified text is harder to read than flush left.

You have no privacy policy.

And I'm not a gentleman, either.

 

[maw]

spacer gif's are so 1998. use CSS to handle your spacing and indentation. Also consider using CSS for the layout as well. It allows you to build a far more accessible website, especially since it looks like your primary audience will be older people who are more prone to vision and mouse navigation problems.

use larger font sizes, again, consider the audience.

the Flash text is totally unnecessary, and actually gets pretty annoying after a while.

if javascript is disabled, your site loses most of it's navigation capabiliites. never depend on js as the sole source for site navigation.

i do like the clean layout and the logo images. the color scheme works very well.

 

[sharp]

Thanks all!
CodeX - I adjusted that line. Good call; hopefully it's a bit better now. Maybe if I just had links up top and no drop down? Would that be better? You know what's scary? I think the "betting on the horse with your IRA money" thing you thought might be legal. I'll ask the attny tommorow : )

tinysmall - I'll get that fixed. I don't have flash myself so I can only control what it says.. but I think your right. At least it should not cycle, and should only go through once.

doh - Are you the type that typically gets annoyed by terms like "mailman" instead of "mailperson"? Thank you for your points as well. Some of them will take a bit of work. I'll get to it, and though I'm glad you brought up the blind users, it'll take a bit of doing to make those changes as I don't know how to code (the site is a template).. thankfully though, you don't like what the text says, so no real loss right now anyways

I think you are the most "Gentoo" of all the Gentoo users I've met

Thank you again everybody, I'll be back after some adjustments.

 

[sharp]

lethal - I'll get on it in the morning.

maw - I can't do much about the JS right now, but I can take care of the fonts and such.

Thank you both. This is why these forums are home.

 

[sharp]

Everybody - logo fixed. .. though I've had two clients comment on how much they liked it.. maybe it's an audience thing..

maw - font enlarged, and text area as well.

Lethal -
You rock. I had someone spell / grammer check the site before it went up.. that someone is an author with one than one book, and she edits for FIVE magazines, and is a regular columnist in 2 major metros... and YOU and you alone found the "its" error. Thank you.. just wanted you to know we DO care and DID check... it's all about lots of eyes

Added the Privacy Policy.

I like full justification... readability can't be #1 all the time

... on the "I don't want to call or email" ... so you'd like an application pdf to download? powerpoints to look at? a FAQ? .. we're working on all those; if you mean something else I'd like to know so we can consider adding it as well.

Everybody again -
Adding "alt tags" next week(ish)..
??? on CSS instead of JS... I'll have to hire that out.
??? on broken HTML / Tables etc... I'll have to hire that out too.

Thank you guys,

Hopefully in a couple months even Doh will like (or at least approve of the site)

joshua

 

[BBowermaster]

I'd just hire someone to make a unique design for the site, its using a template. I've seen it on other sites before.

 

[Teen-Pound]

"Free From Worry
Invest in what you know. Safely use leverage to build assests more quickly. Trust CompleteIRA to give you the understanding you need to be confident.

Enjoy life fully. "

----

"Nothing on this site is intended to taken as investment advice. CompleteIRA does not make investment recommendations."

 

[sharp]

BBowermaster -
we have another two sites.. both still in development.. both started MONTHS before this one.. The issue is "everyone and their dog" is a "developer" ... finding a good one, with rates that provide a site we can use for sub $1,000 seems to be annoying. Everybody cheap I've seen (and even some expensive folks) their work sucked. .. and some "custom sites" look an awful lot like a template... sigh...

we decided to use a template and "see what happened" .. in less than 8 hours we have the site you see now. total cost? 8 hours of my time, plus $120ish for the template. .. excellent ROI for its purpose.

I like the developer we're using, but we only get his "spare" time (thus the lower rate).. being UP and creating content has to rank above the site being custom. As we have lots of cash, more will be thrown to all the websites.

Teen-Pound - I know. Thank the NASD.
We provide knowledge, examples, guidance, and ongoing support as to HOW to do different investments, and WHAT can be done. We do not recommend which investment to choose. -- make more sense now?

 

[Lethal]

Lethal -
You rock. I had someone spell / grammer check the site before it went up.. that someone is an author with one than one book, and she edits for FIVE magazines, and is a regular columnist in 2 major metros... and YOU and you alone found the "its" error. Thank you.. just wanted you to know we DO care and DID check... it's all about lots of eyes

Added the Privacy Policy.

... on the "I don't want to call or email" ... so you'd like an application pdf to download? powerpoints to look at? a FAQ? .. we're working on all those; if you mean something else I'd like to know so we can consider adding it as well.

LOL. I just seem to have a way of noticing nitpicky little things.

Privacy Policy - A bit humorous, at least it's not the standard cookie cutter legalese. Speaking of cookies, did you give me one? I'm too lazy to go look, but since most sites these days do use cookies, that is generally covered in the privacy policy.

No, I don't want an application. Well, maybe if I were interested. What I want to know is how much do your services cost, and what exactly do I get for them.

 

[sharp]

No, I don't want an application. Well, maybe if I were interested. What I want to know is how much do your services cost, and what exactly do I get for them.

Sorry.. no pressure I understood what you meant.. what I meant was "As a person viewing our site who didn't want to call or email; what is it that such a person DOES want."

We all tend to leave the price off... research says this industry does better that way. That said, our next site will have the price... and we'll compare the results. "What you get" will be in the other stuff we're adding (the FAQ etc..)

Thanks all, it'll be a week or more before any noticable changes take place.

Cheers,

 

[BBowermaster]

BBowermaster -
we decided to use a template and "see what happened" .. in less than 8 hours we have the site you see now. total cost? 8 hours of my time, plus $120ish for the template. .. excellent ROI for its purpose.

Ah, okay, I misunderstood. I thought this was a site you took over management of.