Site Review - In Devlopment

I wanted to see what kind of feedback I got on this site - Its still in devlopment but - just moved to one of Boston Jim's great servers and the blog and forum are not live yet but what do ya'll think ....yup I said ya'll - cause that's how we say it down here in da swamps

 

Two sets of adsense (one on each side) is a bit too much, especially for a new site.

 

Actually, there seem to be three sets of Google ads; they go across the middle too.

Personally, I like to keep my home pages ad free on the theory visitors should have a chance to see what my site is all about without distractions. I also prefer my navigation to be on the top left.

That said, its always interesting to see how pretty graphics people can make things

 

I have to agree with mhdoc, having three sets of Google ads on the page is a bit much. This is especially true considering it's the home page of a new site.

Also, I notice there are no meta tags for Description or Keywords. MSN has started making use of one and there are several smaller directories and search engines that use either or both. I would recommend having them in the coding to "cover the bases".

I believe I also saw the opening <h1> tag without a closing tag. You may want to review the site to ensure there are closing tags where needed.

I'm personally not into all the red as it gets distracting but, I'm sure there are plenty that prefer red. <grin>

Overall, the site looks nice. I wish you the best of luck!

 

Well you know I was thinking that two but do you know how many lay people really though that those links were part of my site so from an Adsense point of view ..... I put the navigation on the right side because the left side and the center above the fold is the adsense sweet spot

 

Thanks I do try to make things pretty ..........

 

Have you thought of centering your site?

 

The adsense is overpowering - I think it makes the first impression look too spammy. Using a firefox extension, I can remove the ads and while I like overall design and graphics, I think the center white space looks a little thin against the red. I might suggest playing with the header to make it look wider - perhaps by removing the top left red. As suggested, you might try centering the site and making the whole background the same color as the outer columns- this would give you the same look at resolutions higher than 800x600. At 1024x768, the white space on the right makes the design look even narrower imo.

 

i agree.. that was my first observation a bit too much of adsense.. i also think it would be better you center it to avoid looking empty..

 

I would make the adsense borders red, would look a bit better imo.

 

Yeah I agree with centering the design and removing the borders from the adsense ads. I also agree that it's a little too red.

But my major concern is the navigation area. Me thinks it should only be as wide as the adsense ad, and get some high-lighting when you hover. Not being on the left side it does need some visual clues to be seen as navigation, maybe some bullets?