OK today I went live with my new website. The old one was a bit stale and old hat and I needed a major revamp to leap ahead of my local opposition. I think I have done that with the new look, but wouldn't mind a critical eye passed over it and would welcome constructive critisism.

There's a couple of glitches which will be sorted. the script isn't working yet on the PHP contacts form, so when a client fills in her details and presses send, it doesn't work. But it says there's a problem and to contact via email. i will have that sorted in the next day or so. Considering what was there before its better regardless of this glitch.

Secondly when a client views the samples, the background music continues to play over the music of the clips, causing a musical soup. I can't fathom out how to stop this and have put up a warning text at the bottom of the flash animation asking viewers to turn off the sound button.

Wessex Weddings (http://www.wessex-weddings.com/)

Overall thoughts?

I guess I'd completely remove the contact form for now. A big empty black box would look better than the text saying "don't use this contact form yet!" Just drag that form right off the stage in Flash, you can drag it back when you figure it out.

Some of your images are still showing up as links.

I'm also not a big fan of background music on a website. People are often listening to music/internet radio while they're browsing so the music on a site just makes everything sound bad. But if you're determined to keep it, you can stop it when the user opens the portfolio page. It's been a few years since I've worked on one of these flash templates, but it was only one line of code to stop the music playback.

I'd dump the equipment page and replace it with something more applicable to brides, such as an article about the benefits of video.

I had a quick look first thing when i click on the video gallery your website music should turn off or when someone clicks on a video the music should turn off it doesn't

Second your flash files are too big i checked one clip and i think it was 28mb you should bring that down to about 6mb you need instant play nothing worse than people waiting for a clip to load

Firefox browser back arrow button does not work with your website

Overall very nice

Couple of minor comments:

In my humble opinion the site looks a little cluttered with the background of blurred images and company logo where it is. I would move the company logo to the navigation bar at the top and centre the videos in the Video Works section. As it stands I'm trying to watch your demos and my eye is distracted by the different images in the background, at least three thumbnails, and the big orange company logo, when it should be focussed on the video.

Speaking of the videos, you are quite spirited in your explaining of how great your audio is but I can't find any realtime audio in the clips outside of a champagne bottle popping. I would suggest adding some of that good audio because we don't see enough of it on web demos.

Text is a bit small for my taste, especially when there is so much of it. For example, the page about your equipment is quite hard to read, especially with the entire block of text being in capital letters.

The images on the About page can be clicked but they don't lead anywhere, which seems a bit strange. I doubt any bride would notice or care, it's just me being picky.

There is still placeholder text on the equipment page, which you probably already know and plan to get rid off. And I would definitely get on the contact form and sound turning off. But again, you already know that.

I will say, though, that I very much enjoy reading your posts here because they are quite passionate, articulate and inspiring to read. Your wording on your website is just as strong and does a great job of selling your product. I haven't seen your old website but this one is certainly an improvement and attract a lot of clients. Great job.

I work in Web Design, so I'm probably going to be a lot more harsh than others - but here is my expert opinion. (I'm still a part-time wedding videographer)

100% Flash based websites may look nice, but:
- They take too long to load (it took a few seconds on my computer, enough where I thought about clicking off of the site).
- Horrible for Search Engine Optimization - Search Engines have a tough time indexing Flash sites and getting relative information. Even though Google now index's flash sites, Text-based sites do 10 times better in Search Engine Results.
- Overall "poor" user experience when compared to basic text based sites.

Your Sound button (at the bottom right hand corner) was a little bit hidden, I would put it in a better spot and make it bigger. I might also have the sound off by default (Although my page plays automatically too - something I might change soon!), and then allow the user to turn it on if they want. Usability Studies for web design list auto-playing music on a site as a turn off (mostly) but since we are in the world of video and audio - I can make the case that we should get a "pass" on this rule. . . .

The Flash itself is very well done, I just want you to know of the drawbacks behind it. If you haven't noticed, a lot of corporate sites now use Flash as "Filler" and not as main content, mainly due to the usability issues and Search Engine issue.

My site (Wedding Videography in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut by Lakota Den Productions (http://www.LakotaDenProductions.com)) uses a HTML/CSS page with a flash movie contained in it - that way - I can still use some Search Engine Optimization techniques (such as using Heading tags) to improve my site ranking. My Links are also completely text based, allowing users who don't have flash to navigate through my site. It's not as eye-catching as your site, but I was more concerned about Search Engine Placement since it's "free advertising".

Hope that helps, I do like the flash - but it has practical drawbacks.

Ryan

OK thanks a lot for the constructive critisism. Some of it I will certainly take onboard during the next 48 hours as I hone the site to iron out the errors.

First and foremost I didn't design the site myself. And hearin lies a bit of a problem.

I can't find out where that bloody music is to turn it off, and secondly I can't again find a switch to turn the music to off as a default!

There just doesn't seem to be a sound file in the whole folder, so even renaming the file to stop it is not possible. Its embedded somewhere and damned if I can work it out. If someone could give me a pointer it would be appreciated because I would rather have it off than on.

As for the size of the sample clips, they vary from 20-27 meg in size. Large but when you drop the bit rate the quality falls away and its a video site so high quality is extremely important. Perhaps I will go back and tweak that a bit.

I have great Google ranking, on the first page or near the top of all searches in my area. As the site runs off only one HTML page, I have just copied all my titles, meta tags etc straight over.Idon't think it will have an affect to be honest as on my last site all the text was images.

The clips shown are just a taster. Brides get sent a proper sample DVD which has a lot more on it including a 2 hour wedding concentrated down to 20 minutes.

I do agree about the equipment page and it should go as Chris says in place of the benefits of video.

Thanks for the feedback so far.

I can't find out where that bloody music is to turn it off, .

Bottom right, sound [off] or on.
Nice site, i like it.

Paul.

I have great Google ranking, on the first page or near the top of all searches in my area. As the site runs off only one HTML page, I have just copied all my titles, meta tags etc straight over.Idon't think it will have an affect to be honest as on my last site all the text was images.



I'm very surprised, how long has your new site been up? Flash sites (as a whole) do not do well with Google because the only place you can really put your keywords is in the META tags, and not in the page itself.

I would be interested (for my own insight) to hear if you continue to be near the top of your keyword list in the next couple of weeks or so.

Maybe Google has improved in the way it handles Flash . . . .

Bottom right, sound [off] or on.
Nice site, i like it.

Paul.

HI Paul, no I don't mean that. I mean to turn it off at source. I have the flash file open in flash and still can't fathom where this bloody sound file is hidden. There are no mp3, wav or whatever files in the folder. I just can't find it to turn it off as default.

Glad you like it thanks.

I'm very surprised, how long has your new site been up? Flash sites (as a whole) do not do well with Google because the only place you can really put your keywords is in the META tags, and not in the page itself.

I would be interested (for my own insight) to hear if you continue to be near the top of your keyword list in the next couple of weeks or so.

Maybe Google has improved in the way it handles Flash . . . .

Take a look at the source code of the index.html page the flash is on. All my meta tags are there.

Take a look at the source code of the index.html page the flash is on. All my meta tags are there.

No - you misunderstood. Most search engines "Read" the page and look for keywords, independently of your META tags. Things like H1 and H2 tags get more weight put on them than regular paragraph text.

The traditional issue with Flash pages is that the search engines can't read the text in flash because it's embedded in the SWF (Flash) file.

META can usually only take you so far. In fact, a lot of search engines totally ignore the keywords and description meta tags now. That's why I am surprised that you are still ranked high. . . unless this is a brand new site and Google hasn't re-crawled the page yet (typically it takes a week or two for Google to pick up on website changes).

Ryan

I understand. Yes if my rankings plummet I will change things pretty quickly. I have a HTML version of this site which I will configure in the next few days.

OK got rid of the music background. Much better. Music was hidden in the flash source file. got rid and it works much better now. I will change the equipment page so it is more the reasons why a videographer is so important, harping on about old grannies dying and your childrens children will see their great great grannie who died before they were born family social history etc etc etc. very good at that works a treat at fairs.

Matthew Caggs, thanks for the compliment. People who know me think I should get involved in motivational speeches. I am a passionate person and when I find a market to exploit which in under developed I will move into it to make some money. There's always opportunities out there.

Wedding videography has been the poor relation to photography but that shouldn't be the case, especially today with much better quality cameras. Trouble is there are a lot of old boys still in the game with their heart shaped balloons and mushy transitions! When a bride sees " filming weddings since 1983" they should run a mile!

No - you misunderstood. Most search engines "Read" the page and look for keywords, independently of your META tags. Things like H1 and H2 tags get more weight put on them than regular paragraph text.

All you need to do to trick the system is to type black on black all the keywords, sop they'll be there as text but not visible to human eye.

My opinion...

As cool as all that "jazzy" stuff is, I thought simply viewing the site was a pain.

All the photos were cool on the front page but I had to wait and wait for the flash file to load.

The text was too small and difficult to read. I had to use a magnifying glass. But the magnifying glass did help me to see you had some mispelled words and some repeat words.

Examples:

FILMING THE BRIDES PERPERATIONS. (Should be PREPARATIONS)

YOU KNOW THAT WE LIKE TO BLOW OWN OWN TRUMPET (Should be OUR OWN )


And, I'm not knocking you specifically, but what is the importance of listing the gear you own? I don't get it. Seems as pointless to me as listing all the software you have at your disposal.

Jeff

All you need to do to trick the system is to type black on black all the keywords, sop they'll be there as text but not visible to human eye.That may have worked back in 1997, but Google (and all other search engines) are hip to that trick. Google will even remove you from their index for deceptive practices like that.

I wouldn't drop the video quality. people that are goign to have a pro do their wedding are goign to have a hi speed internet connection. I rarely have found a client that doesn't. And even if they didnt' have a hi-speed connection, how are you goign to show them great video with tiny preview window sizes? I say keep the videso big and nice.

I'm not a fan of the "it makes noise when the mouse rolls over it" thing and especially when clickign on the pictures does nothing. I clicked on all the pictures to try and find out what they did since the pictures were more obviously interactive than the text menus, even though it was the text menus that did all the navigation.

All you need to do to trick the system is to type black on black all the keywords, sop they'll be there as text but not visible to human eye.

baaaaad MoJo if you do that. Google ban will be immanent....

My opinion...

As cool as all that "jazzy" stuff is, I thought simply viewing the site was a pain.

All the photos were cool on the front page but I had to wait and wait for the flash file to load.

The text was too small and difficult to read. I had to use a magnifying glass. But the magnifying glass did help me to see you had some mispelled words and some repeat words.

Examples:

FILMING THE BRIDES PERPERATIONS. (Should be PREPARATIONS)

YOU KNOW THAT WE LIKE TO BLOW OWN OWN TRUMPET (Should be OUR OWN )


And, I'm not knocking you specifically, but what is the importance of listing the gear you own? I don't get it. Seems as pointless to me as listing all the software you have at your disposal.

Jeff


Hi Jeff, thanks for picking up the typos. I went through it three times and still missed them. Brain not seeing it as I wrote it myself!

You are right the gear section is going today to be replaced with a "Why have a videographer" section.

I wouldn't drop the video quality. people that are goign to have a pro do their wedding are goign to have a hi speed internet connection. I rarely have found a client that doesn't. And even if they didnt' have a hi-speed connection, how are you goign to show them great video with tiny preview window sizes? I say keep the videso big and nice.

I'm not a fan of the "it makes noise when the mouse rolls over it" thing and especially when clickign on the pictures does nothing. I clicked on all the pictures to try and find out what they did since the pictures were more obviously interactive than the text menus, even though it was the text menus that did all the navigation.

I won't drop the video quality. Like you say I am selling video so no point in having a low res movie. I would have gone even larger but decided this was probably as large as I would go without too much buffering.

As for the sound when I mouse over an image, I agree that is confusing so I will change that in a minute.

baaaaad MoJo if you do that. Google ban will be immanent....

really? I didn't know. Sorry :-)

That may have worked back in 1997, but Google (and all other search engines) are hip to that trick. Google will even remove you from their index for deceptive practices like that.

I thought they only flagged it if you made it invisible. If i place black text over a portion of the background image that is black will they flag that too? Even though all the rest of my text is black too?

I thought they only flagged it if you made it invisible. If i place black text over a portion of the background image that is black will they flag that too? Even though all the rest of my text is black too?

I have done some work for a large company on SEO for their clients and what I have learned is that as a good rule of thumb.... if it looks like you are trying to get around something.... then Google will punish you for that. Plain and simple.

It is not worth the google ban to screw with text matching the color of a background, etc.

Just make good content and if it is flash, use the methods available in flash ot embed the site content in plain text.

I thought they only flagged it if you made it invisible. If i place black text over a portion of the background image that is black will they flag that too? Even though all the rest of my text is black too?

Google says "If your site is perceived to contain hidden text and links that are deceptive in intent, your site may be removed from the Google index." Why would you put black text over a black image? If the reason is to cause search engines to index information that is not supposed to be available to your website visitors, then you may be banned. Google freely publishes their standards. You can start reading on the subject here: Hidden text and links - Webmasters/Site owners Help (http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66353)

Thanks for the info. I guess i got some bad intel on that one. I was told that was a good way to make sure your body text matched all of your keywords. Granted those keywords exist in other parts of my site I just had that box on the front to localize all of them for indexing. I will tear that down immediately! Thanks. I will also spend some time looking over that link you posted, thanks!

Brian,

Search Engines tend to change their algorithms and methods constantly, it's usually a good idea to check the help guides for Google (and any other major search engine that you want to do well on) once a year or every 6 months to make sure your not doing something that is now "illegal" in they eyes of the search engine. It's also a good time to go over your keywords to make sure they are still relevant and/or helping your site.

I also recommend that people use google analytics on their sites to track how many people are getting to your site and how they are getting there. If you get good at it, you can set up filters and goals in the tool that will give you some data on how people use your site and if a large chunk of them leave on a certain page (i.e, if 90% of your visitors leave on your pricing page, that might give you a hint that your prices are too high or too low).

Ryan

Generally speaking I find flash pages to be a pain in the backside but this one was worth waiting for.

I like the way that the page is interactive.

Many people don't like mouseover noises. I think that these work well.

The text is too small. This is a serious issue that needs fixing soon. And White on black is always difficult to read but you can't do much about that without changing the whole site.

The one video example that I played started to hiccup after ten seconds or so. Whoever is handling your streaming, I think I would change them.

I'd try to find a more glamorous example. A group of wedding guests walking along a nondescript roadside taken with a handheld camera wouldn't excite me if I was looking for a wedding video. The grading seemed to be variable too. Not exactly a dream wedding.

Overall I really liked the site. It felt interactive, lively and not stuffy. It would reassure me that you are the kind of person who would take my views on board and work with me if I commissioned you to do a wedding video.

Nice looking site overall. BTW, not if your site loses it's search engine ranking but when.

Type is too small as had been observed and I think font not great choice either.

Well the site has been live now for a week. I have made a few changes like getting rid of the music and mouse over sounds on some of the pictures. i decided to keep the bit rate high on the movie clips.

And it really has paid off. Sure the font size is too small, but its almost impossoble to increase in size without messing up the design.

But I have now got two confirmed bookings in the last three days, all generated by the site itself. Both from London, out of my area. Both had never met me or heard of me before. Both went online and looked at quite a few videographes. And both chose me because they thought my site looked fantastic, my style was what they wanted and I was head and shoulders over other videographers they had looked at.

I now feel very comfortable with the look of the site. I will play arund with it a little bit more and add a further option after doing a deal ( see new thread)with a local cinema.

Thank you all for the feedback. It has been much appreciated. Now get out there and make your new site to drag in those clients!

It's good to hear that it's working for you.

I'd still do something about your video if I were you.

For instance my connection lets me stream Vimeo full screen without faltering but when I try to play your video in a much smaller window it hiccups and hiccups and hiccups. I got as far as the cable car this time before giving up.

I am sure that there are better ways to stream your video than the way you are doing it.

One thing you should change is on your first page. You should never underline ANYthing on a webpage that is not a link.

I couldn't even view the site.

My browser picked up sex in the name and blocked it.

I couldn't even view the site.

My browser picked up sex in the name and blocked it.

Hahaha!!!!!.

Funny you should say that, as my brochure is an A4 sheet folded down to A5, with WESSEX down one side, and it folds to say "SEX" across the top. When the printer called up he said he hadn't done the job because there was a terrible error. I knew straight away what he was on aboout and told him to go ahead and print. Needless to say it gets mentioned about every 5 minutes at a show as some girls hed straight for it to see what its about, while others are a bit more coy. Had one girl say to me, in front of her parents, "what's sex got to do with getting married?" I could hardly keep a straight face. Her mother said, "everything, dear".

One thing you should change is on your first page. You should never underline ANYthing on a webpage that is not a link.

Good point. Fixed.

Steve- Quick question about your website, do you really replace all your cameras every year? What do you do with your used cams if you don't mind my asking?

Steve- Quick question about your website, do you really replace all your cameras every year? What do you do with your used cams if you don't mind my asking?

Yes I do. I sell them on ebay and get about 80% of my money back. So although I buy them its a sort of hire. However, I might change every 18 months from now on. I have now got myself up the camera ladder to EX3's and they seems extremely reliable and rock solid. Last thing we ever want is a camera to die on us at a crucial time. Touch wood, and with a spare camera for backup, I am covered from this ever happening.

Just thought I would give some feedback on the website since its launch three weeks ago.

I took on board some of your thoughts/recommendations and changed a few things. I also added a blog, which has been live for a few days and is already on the first page of Google when a search is done for videographers in this area. I have been updating it daily and from zero traffic it got 65 page visits yeasterday. Consideringits a wedding video blog for a certain area, its a "must have".

I can also report that I have picked up 5 confirmed ( deposits with me in the bank) bookings since the new site went up three weeks ago. These are people who have not met me, and just found me online, liked the site and called me up. Three of the five are out of the area but asked if I would travel. Of course I will provided they pay for a hotel overnight plus fuel, and the deal was done.

I know there's a couple of "niggles" with my site. The font is too small and I couldn't get the form to email me the message so removed it for now) buut I changed font size and the site looked like crap.

I am having a record year. I got two bookings today from a wedding fair and turned down three who wanted days already booked. Things are looking good and while my rivals have cut back on advertising and hide in their shell, I am reaping the rewards. Don't bury you heads in the sand. I will start a new thread with a few thoughts.