New Website for my business

[bob carnie]

Hi All

We are just about to launch our new website live and I would appreciate any constructive criticism or praise for that matter.

http://www.alternativephotoservices.com/

thanks

Bob

[seezee]

I'd like to see more detail on the services page. For instance, what brand & make of matte board & foamcore are you using?

The front page needs actual copy if you want good SEO. Right now the only content is an image, which is invisible to search engines, especially with a useless ALT tag that simply says, "Picture." It's also inaccessible to screen readers since it's being used to present text. Believe it or not, there are sight-impaired and blind photographers out there; every one is a potential client.

Why is the blog on an external wordpress.com website? There's no need for that; just add it to the site. Your CMS supports blogging.

Overall looks good, but keep refining, e.g., do A/B testing of different copy to measure effectiveness. Sit actual users in front of the site on different devices and see how they use the site.

[Tin Can]

Ok, you know I support you.

Your content is good, but the Home page banner is dark and boring. The Pink page is too much. That's on a 24" monitor. Later I will check an iPhone and Chromebook.

[bob carnie]

I'd like to see more detail on the services page. For instance, what brand & make of matte board & foamcore are you using?

The front page needs actual copy if you want good SEO. Right now the only content is an image, which is invisible to search engines, especially with a useless ALT tag that simply says, "Picture." It's also inaccessible to screen readers since it's being used to present text. Believe it or not, there are sight-impaired and blind photographers out there; every one is a potential client.

Why is the blog on an external wordpress.com website? There's no need for that; just add it to the site. Your CMS supports blogging.

Overall looks good, but keep refining, e.g., do A/B testing of different copy to measure effectiveness. Sit actual users in front of the site on different devices and see how they use the site.

Thanks I am sending all info like this to the person doing the site, much appreciated.

[Tin Can]

It looks better on a phone. Even the pink.

Phone site navigation needs help.

Hi All

We are just about to launch our new website live and I would appreciate any constructive criticism or praise for that matter.

http://www.alternativephotoservices.com/

thanks

Bob

[Pere Casals]

Bob, this are amazingly good news !!!! I hope you ship overseas...



Some suggestions I don't know if I'm right...


Here http://www.alternativephotoservices....s-gallery.html

I think "dylan ellis gallery" can be separated better form backgound, perhaps backgroung can be a bit colder and wording warmer, or the reverse.

You need a logotype, with a strong message here https://www.flickr.com/groups/1260179@N20/ says "Upgrade to Film" so you can say G2A "Go to alternative" , perhaps BA "Be Alternative" BA in red over a black triangle, pointing up...


The front page... http://www.alternativephotoservices.com/ IMHO it has to explain what you are doing. The most impacting image has to be there.

I'd place a something inspired in this: https://www.google.es/imgres?imgurl=...act=mrc&uact=8


Or if printing digitally shot images is a commercial target... perhaps something has to tell that Fine Print quality is also for digital captures. You can talk about generating big negatives for alternative process... this is very interesting information. SCIM, SCR ???? show pictrures of that... Get focus on your target customer.


Here there is this web (French) http://www.dominique-granier.book.fr/ here it offers a concrete different service, this is printing a digital file over Delta 100 to later making optical enlargements, I like the underlying message... just talking about uncommon capabilities.


Credits... Something in the front page should talk about jobs done... and a link should drive to a page with important jobs.

Here http://www.dominique-granier.book.fr/negatif-10x12 granier speaks about his role as Salgado's printer, he use capitals and bold wording to put viewer's eyes over GENESIS and Salgado.

Sure you have impresive jobs done, tell that, just ask permission to artists or corporations. Reference customers are very important.


The big banners: Good for first time visitors... but a bit agressive, I like the freshness of that design, but it may be combined a bit with the serious look of Granier.

Perhaps the big banner can be diplayed big and later it can decrease its size, or it can be dimmed to display text information on it.


If you would offer some masters class formation (like Granier...) it could be good to say it, even little people may use it depicts an spirit of service, close to customers.


One useful strategy is something like that http://www.microchip.com/ the banners move automatic while one is reading the rest, and one can select any slide. Those slides can show your different services, Pt/Pd, Lambda. It is important to retain viewer in the front page while you throw slides of what you want to say.


Also... design should focus in playing with black and white, pink is nice but we are talking about BW fine art. Color should be used to focus on BW message.




Well, I wrote all that without filters, just brainstorming, for the case something can be useful.

Best wishes!

[Chance2]

This is probably not very constructive, but the page you've linked to appears to be a bit of a wreck. Where is this festival being held? Day 3 - Feb 4? Matthew Plexman [plexman]? These things might make perfect sense to your existing clientèle, but for the layperson, and I include myself in that category, I suggest spelling out the benefits of attending a little more clearly or providing a link to a page that does (I see you have more info on your blog page. Perhaps you can provide a link to that post.) I'm not sure the content is appropriate or enough to sustain a homepage either, as Pere has detailed

The rest of the site, however, looks pretty solid though. It just needs a little ironing...

[bob carnie]

thank you all I really appreciate ALL comments, we are still ironing out all the bugs and determining how we want things to look.

BTW we do a lot of colour work here so the balance between being a historical black and white printer and a contemporary colour printer is being addressed.

Also at some point this old fart me will fade into Bob Carnie Printmaking only and my young assistants will take over the other aspects of this location. We do a very brisk business in gallery and pop up shows
which Carissa handles for me like a pro.

[koraks]

Just checked your website and had a great time clicking through the pages and links. I liked your short biography video; I think it's a great personal touch that creates intimacy insofar as an anonymous medium allows it.

I second the suggestion of migrating the blog from Wordpress to your own domain, allowing better integration with the rest of the content.

In terms of the website's contents, I personally would like to see more information on the awesome alt. process stuff that you do. You have a couple of nice youtube videos, but some textual/pictorial information on the website itself would be nice as well. There's a few snips occurring throughout the website's current contents, but given that you really distinguish yourself from the pack through your work with gum, pt/pd and Lambda negatives silver gelatin contact printing, I think it would make sense to share some more details with your visitors. Demonstrating the craft on your website will help to garnish appreciation with your audience for the quality of your prints without online visitors being actually able to view and touch the prints in person.

[David Lobato]

I agree with the response posts. And I'll add what services you do there - in Toronto - needs immediate visibility on the home page. Especially at the top where we first see it. The title box is much too large. It requires one to scroll down before seeing any information on your business activity. Each of the main pages needs to quickly grab a readers attention. It took me a little while to realize the idea of your business and what you do.