# My website - Suggestions Please?



## r3drock3t88 (Jan 13, 2007)

Hey all, I decided to get a little more into web developing and decided to develop a website for my sister. She makes a lot of jewelry and what not as a hobbie, and it all just sits around. This website is dedicated as an online store to sell the stuff she makes.

The online store section of the website is built thanks to osCommerce. If you don't know what that is feel free to google it . I like it a lot!

Any suggestions or ideas for the website is MUCH appreciated, keep in mind I am a beginner so don't be too harsh on me =Þ Thank you all very much!

<----The Site---->
www.christinascreation.com

Thank's again!


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## harmor (Mar 15, 2007)

The front page is well done and appealing. As for the store the brown categories and green need to be changed.

offtopic. How heavy are these earrings http://christinascreation.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=56 ? Heavy earrings will stretch the hole in the ear lobe.


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## r3drock3t88 (Jan 13, 2007)

lol, the colors are like that because my sister is hippiesh and well, she loves the colors . I don't think they're all that bad... not the best combination but not too bad!

The earrings aren't heavy at all and stretching of the lobe wont be a problem in this case. All of the earrings on here are a reasonable weight, there aren't any that would cause said stretching. Thanks for the comments and suggestions! If I get the time maybe I will weigh the earrings and post their weight. 

Thanks again! More comments are much appreciated


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

Great site. :up: Some suggestions........

The color scheme on the store pages is bad.

I don't really like the christina7 image (the header) too much.

Take pictures of the products on something white, then remove the background and make it transparent.


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

ferrija1 said:


> I don't really like the christina7 image (the header) too much.
> 
> Take pictures of the products on something white, then remove the background and make it transparent.


Yeah, I don't like the header either. I think the head is OK but the text is just a bit distracting. And you definitely need to change the colors on the store.

And ferrija's idea on removing the background is a great one, you could even add a nice complementary drop shadow with Photoshop or the GIMP. 

Also, just a heads up on the AdSense ads - I know you can make money off them but we aware that you are essentially providing links to "competitors" so anyone who clicks on the links thus giving you money is being lead away from your store and to another jewelry store. Just a thought.


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## Sequal7 (Apr 15, 2001)

I have to agree with the others here. The text in your header is really...well...distracting (to put it nicely) I don't agree with the pastelized face, it creeps me out to be honest!

The page title should also be enhanced to show the properties of the site, something like "Christina's custom handmade jewelery" instead of just "Christina" As a bonus of changing it, you also get you better ranking in the search engines after time.

The brown and green in the osCommerce isn't bad, but with the pink background it's just plain *ugly*, you should think about changing either the pink or the other two colors to suite the site overall.

Hope it works out for you (and your sister)


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## WendyM (Jun 28, 2003)

Nice work, it's a very functional site. :up:

I agree with the comments on the color scheme of the store. It's distracting and makes me not want to stay on the page. Especially if I click something like necklaces, which brings up a blue table in the middle of the page. There are a lot of competing colors. You might want to take a look at Kuler. They have lots of examples of palettes of five complementary colors.

There's a contact link on the homepage, but I didn't see one on the subpages, which is where I'm more likely to need one. There's no obvious way to get back to the homepage other than the breadcrumbs, which should probably say "Home" instead of "Top". Many times clicking the header of a page returns you to the homepage, but yours returns to the store index. I think that's fine, but it just makes it that much harder to get back to the very beginning. Also, you might consider changing "catalog" in the breadcrumbs to "store". It gets confusing when the same page uses different titles.

On a technical side, your page does not validate with the W3C. That's not a huge deal for display purposes, but going through and fixing the errors will help you with future web development efforts. Since you note in your footer that you're using XHTML 1.0 Strict, you should probably make sure it's truly strict.


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## doctoremote (May 12, 2007)

You need some serious SEO work doing after the pretty stuff.
If you do not sort this the website will go no where. At this time you score is very low.


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## r3drock3t88 (Jan 13, 2007)

thank you all for the help! My sister likes the colors because she claims it hippiesh but I definitely see where you're coming from. All this is helping a lot! I am a beginner so I really do appreciate it.

doctoremote - can you elaborate a bit on that? Because I, along with everyone else, clearly would like their website to be a pretty good rank! Would you mind explaining to me how to maybe get started at optimizing it? I have no clue how search engines work and how to make it more search engine friendly.

Thanks again everyone!


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## doctoremote (May 12, 2007)

This is a very big subject which covers not only rules for Google MSN and other but older sites too. The best thing to do is start at this site and you can read on.
http://ezinearticles.com/?SEO-Explained---How-to-Improve-SEO-and-Gain-High-Search-Rankings&id=545173


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## r3drock3t88 (Jan 13, 2007)

Awesome, sounds good! I'll be sure to check it out. Thank you all again! Looks like the main suggestion is to change the color scheme. I'll talk it over with my sister  Thanks all!


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

doctoremote said:


> This is a very big subject which covers not only rules for Google MSN and other but older sites too. The best thing to do is start at this site and you can read on.
> http://ezinearticles.com/?SEO-Explained---How-to-Improve-SEO-and-Gain-High-Search-Rankings&id=545173


Just don't over do it or they will block you.


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## doctoremote (May 12, 2007)

ferrija1 said:


> Just don't over do it or they will block you.


I agree with you, however I do this sort of thing for a living and I have had great success with SEO with all the sites I have produced and optomized. Try finding say my site doctoremote in google. In world wide type 'computer help line' then search for it .. I am on page one of 176,000,000 entries. I think this proves the point.
Regards


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

Yes, though I would search for computer help, but still.......


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## pcpro17 (Oct 9, 2006)

r3drock3t88 said:


> lol, the colors are like that because my sister is hippiesh and well, she loves the colors . I don't think they're all that bad... not the best combination but not too bad!


Check out this site:

http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html

Your sister can decide on a base color for the site, and then the tool will give you a bunch of complimentary colors. That way everyone wins. Your sister gets the colors she likes, the site looks more professional, and you reduce the probability of epilepic seisures.


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## r3drock3t88 (Jan 13, 2007)

Looks good to me, thanks for the information all!


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

pcpro17 said:


> Check out this site:
> 
> http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html
> 
> Your sister can decide on a base color for the site, and then the tool will give you a bunch of complimentary colors. That way everyone wins. Your sister gets the colors she likes, the site looks more professional, and you reduce the probability of epilepic seisures.


I prefer Adobe's Kuler.
http://kuler.adobe.com/


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## sticker (Sep 27, 2002)

r3drock3t88 said:


> thank you all for the help! My sister likes the colors because she claims it hippiesh but I definitely see where you're coming from. All this is helping a lot! I am a beginner so I really do appreciate it.


I'd agree with the sentiments already mentioned... the banner is a little scary and too elaborate, and the colour scheme in the shop is off putting.

Whereas your sister may 'like' this for a certain feel, it's important to note that a pleasing colour scheme (even if it's safe) will be more appreciated by prospective customers than something your sister likes herself.

Nice job otherwise -


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

The images on the page (especially the ones at the bottom) will load faster if they are smaller.


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## harmor (Mar 15, 2007)

How do you like this logo?


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

It looks a little out of place, but pretty good. :up:


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## harmor (Mar 15, 2007)

I kind of like this one.


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

Looks great. :up:


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## harmor (Mar 15, 2007)

I'm just making these to get some practice in.


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## harmor (Mar 15, 2007)

ferrija1 said:


> Looks great. :up:


I thought it looked decent at first but after looking at it after making my newest image it looks ugly.


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