Your opinion on my new design and layout.

Hello!

So I actually stumbled across this forum while searching for a question about CJ (Commission Junction), and decided to sign up to reply to a users comment.

So technically this is my second post? Woohoo!

I can already tell this is an active community that I would like to be part in. I'm pretty excited, but not sure why yet (gold mine of information here?).

Anyhow, I am hoping to get some feedback about the layout of a project I have been working on for a short time. After fussing around with different layouts and designs, I think I finally decided on the one I want to go with. However, I would like to ask the fine folks here on your opinions/advice.

What do you like about it? What do you dislike about it? If this was your website, what would your change?

My website is located at http://silententrepreneur.com/

Thank you in advance!

 

Your site's load speed is very poor. You can look at the load speed of your main page's HTML here:

http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/#!/bI6kFQ/http://silententrepreneur.com/

(For whatever reason, Pingdom made some changes for the worse and results are no longer archived. The load speed of your main page's HTML was almost 8 seconds.)

I was not surprised to see you were hosting on GoDaddy. That slow speed is indicative of an overloaded server, which they have a reputation for. So that's a pretty bad start.

Then you have 79 file requests for what is essentially a pretty bland page with not a whole lot of content on it. I did not bother to count all the Javascript files you have included, but it is way too much.

Your colors are pretty bland. You may benefit from using a color picker. Search for one and maybe you can get some ideas. The layout is pretty bland, too. Nothing wrong with that necessarily (my layouts are bland, too, as I am not a graphic artist). Everything has square borders. Perhaps you could mix things up by incorporating some rounded borders somewhere?

Having the tagline "Make working from home easier" in your header and at the same size as your website's name--that should be changed. You have it duplicated in the header as well. So get rid of that in the site title.

Overall, it looks like a design created by a newbie. I'm not being mean. You asked for feedback and you were provided it.

 

Agree with billzo. Your site loads way to slow.

What are you using to for you site builder? You have way too many css files, 3 should be the most for fast load time.

I would opt for a fast wordpress theme.

As far as the design. It's fine. Make sure you have a hierarchy to your page. Meaning if you squint, do the important parts of your site stand out. Looking at the site upside down helps too!

Your About page. Talk more what you can do for the visitor vs. why you think your important. Use the words "you" and "your" more often than "I" and "me."

Lastly, focus on traffic. Get visitors and worry about the websites look second. Check this site out http://justinjackson.ca/words.html if you want to see what a site of words only does.

Keep it up!

 

@billzo

I really appreciate your feedback. I was aware of some of the slower aspect to the website, a lot of that being wordpress loading every plugin in the background that aren't necessarily needed. I think this will be lowered when I minify all the JavaScript files and use a cache plugin, but I agree hosting is a bigger portion of the problem.

I run off godaddy because we have an unlimited account, but I did have plans on going to something more independent. I will probably go to blue host, but if you have recommendations I am open to hearing them.

I just realized the tagline you are talking about. I apparently made the change in the wrong spot, It was meant to be a change to the page title, It appears I put it in the settings portion of the site title. FAIL!

One of the reasons I like the design was for it's simplicity. I do plan on making further changes to it at some point, but I have been more concerned about the content quality, and getting more content up. I currently have about 50 real visits per day, which is mainly from my social media work, but when that number grows I will definitely want it to be more appealing. Even though I design sites my self, Ill probably end up hiring someone to do it. I just don't have the time anymore these days, and paying people is just easier lol.

Like I said, I appreciate the feedback. If I wasn't expecting a harsh reality I would of asked. Thank you!

 

@alex_p

Also really good advice thank you.

I haven't spent nearly as much time on the about page as I probably should have. I will consider getting to it as the next step. I knew this site would be helpful!

I haven't dug down deep into the theme yet, but I did notice some other smaller issues that needed to be addressed. With the simple design I have, I will probably have it remade in Genesis or a similar, optimized theme.

Your example site with just text is intriguing. I hate online editors like WIX, but one thing I REALLY like about them is the separation of SEO pages and visible content. The seo pages get loaded way faster for bots thus creating a higher ranking. Wish there was a tool for this for wordpress.

Again thank you for your input.

 

The main HTML has to be returned before any CSS, JS, or image files are downloaded. When the HTML has a long wait time, as it did in your case, that's an indication of an overloaded server or network. That is something GD is known for. In fact, that is why I left them in 2007. So you can see that over 8 years nothing has changed!

I use A Small Orange and have for 8 years. They are great. If you are set on "unlimited" hosts, you could look at StableHost or WebHostingBuzz. Both of them are more aggressive at suspending the resource hogs and ensuring that server performance is not negatively impacted than most "unlimited" hosts. But, "unlimited" is really not unlimited. At the very least, you should be making enough revenue from your site to cover your hosting and domain registration expenses. As your hosting expense grows, your revenue should grow as well.

How much data transfer do you use now? Does your traffic come in spikes or is it pretty even throughout the day? As a rule of thumb, when I was looking for hosting (years ago) I took my existing disk space and data transfer usage and found a plan double that so I would have room to grow (which did not happen thanks to Google burying my main site).

Nothing wrong with that plan. The next site I will be working on after the one I am working on now will be a minimal, bare-bones design. But with just a little more visual effect, nicer colors, and maybe rounded borders and shadows where appropriate. If a site is too plain, it screams "AMATEUR!". It is easier to project a professional image with a professional-looking website. I have no artistic or graphic arts skills so I am by no means a creator of great designs. But a few simple CSS effects can go a long way and it adds almost no overhead.