zaiko2000 — Sun, 14 Mar 2004 00:01:58 +0000

I must say for a surfingboard website it looks very dark. It would suit better for a funeral!

Also it looks very busy and the contrast between black background and right white frame hurts my eyes! I do not find the sea , it should be light and blue!

JeevesBond — Fri, 12 Mar 2004 11:07:47 +0000

It is advisable that you learn HTML and CSS yourself. Although I use Dreamweaver it's only because it does nice syntax highlighting, no WYSIWYG app can possibly know how to code better than a human, and with most web designers now using XHTML/CSS this is particularly true.

My recommendations: http://www.alistapart.com, http://www.csszengarden.com, http://www.zeldman.com these sites also have links to many other very good sites that teach you how to code properly

Good luck, and remember we are always here to help - don't feel overwhelmed, if you are unsure of anything come back and post it on the forums!

Britton — Fri, 12 Mar 2004 03:36:44 +0000

If you're going to keep the site up, I'd find a nice free template at freewebtemplates.com and edit it for your needs. That way your site looks presentable while you're still learning.

I use Micrografx Picture Publisher ( Sold Out To Corel ), Photoshop 7, and Adobe GoLive.

spiderx — Fri, 12 Mar 2004 01:21:22 +0000

I would use photoshop and spice up the graphics a little:)

tenchi_63 — Thu, 11 Mar 2004 19:26:51 +0000

Dreamweaver

surfwaterford — Thu, 11 Mar 2004 19:24:40 +0000

Thanks guys, everything you told me was of great help, in the next week or two i will start to rearranging the layout (im in the middle of school examinations at the moment). I hope to teach my self http but with it being the last few months of school i think it will have to wait till the summer, for now though is there a programme that you can advise me to use for better webdesigning?

tenchi_63 — Thu, 11 Mar 2004 17:37:17 +0000

I completely agree that has already been mentioned. EVERYTHING. Now, you say you want to get ranked on a SE but it doesn't look as though you've done your studying. Optimizing a site for SEs is something completely different from building a typical graphics-based site. There are a lot of factors that go into building the infrastructure so that spiders are actually able to navigate your site.

Now, about the aesthetic look of your site. I'm sorry to say this, but it's really an eyesore, HOWEVER, I think we are all willing to blame that on Frontpage As mentioned before, look at what other people are doing, read up on HTML and CSS (it better than regular html for SE purposes), and definitely look for information on SE optimization.

One last thing...for the love of all that is good PPLLLLEEEAASSEEEE resize your images on an image editor. Don't resize them using the html editor. That banner..holy eyesore Batman!!...do something about that.

Here are a few sites that I like which may help you get started:

Web Page Design for Designers: http://www.wpdfd.com
Search Engine Optimization Basics: http://www.webworkshop.net/search_engine_optimization_basics.html

HOPE THESE HELP!!

OH, I almost forgot, optimizing for google is different from optimizing for most other SEs cause of their EVER CHANGING algorithms.. :\ Good Luck.

The Webmistress — Thu, 11 Mar 2004 09:41:07 +0000

I'm sorry to say this but I totally agree with Busy. It may be your first site, so well done if it is, but learn from what he said and get on with building a much better site.

Learn html, don't ever use FrontPage again, get a better graphics program and learn about anti-aliasing which will give you much smoother finishes to your strokes. Also now would be a very good time to learn CSS.

Are you using a frame because you are using free space? If you are serious about the domain pay for proper hosting, it will be much better for you in the long run. I would also expect it to have a .ie domain.

Colour scheme - unfortunately black & red just looks tacky/seedy IMO and doesn't go with the subject matter at all. With it being about surfing I would expect a nice fresh looking site with a white background and colours being blue with accents of orange/yellow & green.

Have a look at other sites, not just surfing sites, and see what it is you like about them and then try to emulate that for your own site. Get a nice logo (don't include the www & .tk) which can be done in a nice funky font to give your site its own unique identity.

To get found on the SEs well you need to first have a well coded site that isn't in frames and ideally has its own webspace (although not imperitive) then you need to have good content and easy to navigate. Ensure that each page has a different title including the main keywords for that page, but not just a list of them it has to make sense to read. A H1 on each page helps, again describing the page content.

You also need to work on getting other sites to link to you, plus you also need to link to other sites relevant to your content as this can help especially Google to view your site as an authority site on the subject of surfing. But linking will only work once you have sorted the domain and webspace.

Good luck with the site and remember that we are here to help you

Busy — Thu, 11 Mar 2004 05:10:04 +0000

First up frontpage is probably one of the worst programs you could make a web page with.
Hiding your site in frames isn't a good idea either, I have pop ups blocked so never saw it but your code shows the other frame cell is just for the pop up (yeah no right click scripts are useless).
You have a few errors in your code, about line 19 you have I wont even mention, use a sans serief font like arial or verdana, they look so much better and easier on the eye.
I hate to say it but you have all the hallmarks of a first time web site building, frames, iframes, background music with no console (to be able to turn it off) using frontpage, marquee (scrolling text), and resizing the images with width and height tags

One thing I am confused about, where is this place, from your opening line it's in Ireland but which coast? where are the photos from? the 'surf spot' shows a partial map but could be anywhere.
Describe everything as if you were talking to someone on the other side of the world, this will not only help your readers but will also give you many keywords for search engines to pick up.
Some of your images (your board for sale among others) are very dark, if you dont have an image program like photo shop or paint shop pro, download a free image veiwer (irfanview.com) and make use of the 'enhance colors' option (shift g) then just use the gamma correction to lighten and contrast to fine tune, apply,ok and save, you can also resize the images while your there (ctrl r)