SearchBliss — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 22:35:10 +0000

diceventures wrote: The site is nice. If i were to make one suggestion though, it would be to move the navigation menu and other blocks to the left. it seems more natural to have the links and such on the left, since we read left to right.

I see your point, but I think I prefer the content to be seen before the links. Thank you for the advice and kind words.

diceventures — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 18:55:47 +0000

The site is nice. If i were to make one suggestion though, it would be to move the navigation menu and other blocks to the left. it seems more natural to have the links and such on the left, since we read left to right.

SearchBliss — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 12:59:17 +0000

Thank you for all of the advice. I have made some changes and I'm in the process of a few more, but nothing too major. If anyone remembers what SearchBliss used to look like, they will know that this is a major improvement. Thanks again.

robfenn — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 16:19:14 +0000

I lost my post when you merged the threads Megan, i own you a slap on the wrist for that one!

I think the site needs some photography or icongraphy because for visual people like the homepage is just too much for me eyes to digest. It seems to be like you are to keen to make money from advertising rather than creating a pleasant experience for your visitors. Which is a shame as your tools seem great and you are obviously very talented.

Your logo does nothing for me i'm afraid, it looks dated and a bit tacky. I would suggest taking a look round at popular sites on WWW and gain inspiration from their design achievements. A current favourite of mine (Megan will like me for this!) is Opera (http://www.opera.com/). It is clean, modern and intuitive. I wouldn't change a thing on it!

-Rob

Megan — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 16:11:05 +0000

Threads merged - sorry, I didn't realize there was already a thread about the same site.

demonhale — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 16:07:21 +0000

Commented on your new design on your old thread...

Megan — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 15:57:10 +0000

Do you have a copy of the old version somewhere just for comparison?

This feels rather clunky to me. Everything feels rather heavy. All the boxes with the dark graphic headers add weight to the page, as do the dark, bolded links. The header looks okay but I'm finding the font choices in the logo to be very odd. The very heavy block sans subtitle is contrasting way too much with the lighter handwritten main title.

I think this would be really good with a much lighter feeling design. The logo symbol and title are good concepts to start with. I think the logo text should be done in more of a smooth scripted font, with the subittle in a simple sans. Also get rid of that big shadow - it just conflicts with the main text and make it look a little muddled. Drop shadows should be subtle if used at all.

The overall design should be very lightweight - simple graphics, lighter colour scheme, and definitely lose those gradient header boxes. The orange is a good choice and it looks interesting with the teal as you have it in your avatar.

The overall layout should not be so boxy. Those boxes just cut the elements off from each other and makes the whole thing feel very choppy.

Even changing the outer background colour would be a big help here IMO.

Now, on to the actual page content. Looking at what is here on the page - why is there a phioto contest here??? it doesn't seem to relate to the site content at all. "Webmaster search" is confusing to me. What exactly am I searching for there? Does it search the site? Does it search through something else? I'm not sure. Supporters, Sponsors, and Patrons are a bunch of garbage as far as I'm concerned - just you trying to get more linkbacks, not trying to help your visitors. Looks like you've accepted link exchanges for everyone who asked.

Looking at the content - this doesn't seem too useful to someone like me but I think some newbie types would probably find it helpful. I think a lot of the pages could be formatted a little better. I'm finding things to be a little confusing. There's not enough spacing between paragraphs, for example, it makes things hard to read. Looking at your code - this is a complete mess. Full of outdated techniques and bad formatting. I mean, the reason why there isn't enough paragraph spacing (looking at some of the SEO tools) is because there are no paragraphs!

robfenn — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 08:47:19 +0000

I clicked on the link on the first page...

demonhale — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 01:42:33 +0000

That looks better than the old one, phpnuke look huh? Anyways I dislike the black BG however... Hey could you refine your backlinks finder tool?

SearchBliss — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 22:36:41 +0000

robfenn wrote: I don't think there is any point getting into a debate about your own personal rankings. Ultimately, if what you provide is good and you spread the gospel then your site will do well.

Now, your site. I am a very design orientated guy so it is hard to ignore the fact your website looks dated and unimaginative. However, the tools themselves are good and there is a nice range there. Some i haven't see before which is nice. Again, going back to the design i think there could be improvements to help intuitivness.

I guess the general SEO isn't that concerned with aesthetics so maybe you'll get away with it, but i strongly believe an interesting look will help you out.

Good luck,

-Rob

Have you had a look at SearchBliss lately. I have launched the new design yesterday. I beleive you are commenting on the old. Thanks.