wwwbug — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 14:53:39 +0000

Can not open

Busy — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 11:34:02 +0000

Some suggestions (and this is all they are).
Seperate your content more, the picture of the church etc could be on a "where are we" or "how to find us" or whatever page showing the church and giving directions to it.

I know you want to give as much info as you can on one page and this is good sometimes, as well as pictures do tell a thousand words sadly search engine dont look at the pictures. The more descriptive pages you have on different subjects, the more keywords you are using for search engines to find and list you on. The golden rule here is to not spam keywords, use them honestly throughout site (dont abbrevate) but keep it all neat and tidy (easy to find).

Keep in mind the viewers and the search engines (who gets the people there), the two are totally opposite so you have to find the perfect balance between text and pictures (use alt tags and captions to describe the pictures). Make your index (welcome page) inviting with just enough information so people go to other pages BUT (always a but) remember search engines dont only list your index page so every page needs to be inviting, informative and rewarding so as to make people come back.

02bunced — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 06:08:32 +0000

I would just suggest that you ask the pastor what he wants from a website - if it is to attract newcomers to the church, he is going to fail with the picture of the church. Is he serious about using the web for God's will or is he too worked up with tradition to let God get a say. If the latter is the case, it is very sad.

David

mjgca — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 04:29:50 +0000

Hello, All these reviews are very helpful and I wish that I could do everything (well almost) that people are suggesting but I can't. For example, the welcome page has the church picture....well, this is what they want on the home page, so I had no choice. As for the other reviews and suggestions (Busy, Demonhale), I will be making the changes and will be uploading the site soon, after I have a meeting with the pastor. This is a voluntary project and I am just trying to give them what they wanted. But again, thanks a lot all of you. .

02bunced — Sun, 10 Jul 2005 18:17:56 +0000

OK, my review.

There is nothing to tell people about you or your church on the first page of the site. It is just a bible verse and a short sentence saying that CUMC welcomes you - well, sorry, but being lectured at by scripture really isn't very welcoming.

On your first page, you have a picture of the church building. Now, nice as Church buildings are, I seem to remember the idea of a church was about the people worshiping God, not the building. People visiting your site will connect to pictures of other people, not pictures of building. It is a human thing

I also suggest that you have something like a Visitor's page showing people what they can expect on a visit to the Church. Some things to consider include: What is the worship like, do you have a dress code, what can children do, will visitors feel welcomed? Thing like this can make a big difference in getting people over the door.

I am always worried on a Church website if they put Church history before the statement of beliefs. It makes me wonder whether the Church know where they are going on their spiritual journey or whether they are really so bogged down in tradition that they won't let God act in the way he wants to. If visitors wanted a history lesson, they'd have gone to a library

That's all I'm going to say and I wish you all the best for the future.

God Bless
David

demonhale — Sun, 10 Jul 2005 14:18:43 +0000

You should have taken Busy's advice; I was going to say the same thing but I didnt want to be redundant... I have revisited your site for countless times already at different days and you havent still heed the advice given the advice written above... Anyways thats your choics; all I could asy is that unless you speed up your page and fix the quirks, Visitors will leave without seeing the page...

angmi90 — Sun, 10 Jul 2005 12:44:21 +0000

The background music is not good. I do like the navigation links on the side. Besides the music, I think it's not too bad of a site.

sparkimarki — Sat, 09 Jul 2005 22:21:53 +0000

I think the site looks fine but I experienced quite slow load times for all pages.

mjgca — Sat, 09 Jul 2005 05:30:27 +0000

Thanks for the review. I will be putting th epreload code after the site is finalized. I like the idea about putting a console for the music becuase they really want music on their site. Thanks again.

CptAwesome — Fri, 08 Jul 2005 23:03:11 +0000

Oh man, no background music, NEVER EVER EVER use background music. That is a sure fire way to keep visitors from looking at even the first page.

The links on the left should be jutted together to look like a solid box,rather than having the small gap between each, and the gradient going from top to bottom of the left rather than just the links maybe.