Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (Full Version)

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DavidBeard -> Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (1/11/2007 19:33:57)

I'm a British Composer and Sound Designer - I've created my own site - could you please review - all constructive criticism will be acted upon. Many, many thanks - here's the website: David Beard Music Production

http://www.davidbeardmusic.com



jaybee -> RE: Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (1/12/2007 6:01:58)

Hello David, welcome to Outfront. Is there a reason why you've used that font in the graphic links and in the header? It's not very clear.



DavidBeard -> RE: Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (1/12/2007 6:25:25)

Hi Jaybee,
Only reason I used that font 'Copper Plate Bold' - (I think) was for it to be the same as business cards and letter heads, etc.
Those 'buttons' were created in photoshop and then saved as jpegs.........is there another way, what font do you suggest?
I'm using page-builder to create the site.
David.



jaybee -> RE: Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (1/12/2007 7:26:40)

I have no idea how page builder works but you need to do something about those buttons. Each one is nearly 30Kb in size and it's normally recommended that you should try and keep the entire page around 30kb.

When you save images in Photoshop you have the option Save for Web. Try making the text on the buttons bold and then save them as gifs or PNG-8 or jpegs. Check the size it shows under the image before saving as each format will produce a different size.

You ought to be able to get them down to around 6 or 7kb. I just took the Music Examples button, pulled it into Photoshop, Save for web, reduced the colours to 32 insstead of 256 and tried various format saves. I got it to 4.7kb as a jpeg at high quality.

As for the font, if you can't get it clearer then I'd use arial or Verdana which renders well on screens. Fonts that look good in print don't always work for the web and yours is one of them. As long as you have it in the heading then it ties in with your paperwork. The menu just needs to be easily read.

You should also look at the alternate text you have. The first button has

quote:

alt="Music Examples Directory TV and Film Music Composer David Beard Music Production. Sound Design, Music for film, TV, Music for Children, Dance School and Theatre Productions, Horror Film Score and Games"
which is far too long. It should just say Home page or Contact page, nobody wants to read through that lot if thay have images off.



DavidBeard -> RE: Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (1/13/2007 8:21:40)

Thanks Jaybee,
All buttons and images on the 'homepage' have now been replaced by smaller-sized web-friendly formats - I'll get the rest of the site done in the next few days.
As for the 'Alternate text' I did that after a few days on a 'Search Engine Optimization' course. The 'keywords' had to be repeated so many times in the page to help search engines pick up my site. Have I done it wrong? Is there another way to maximise search engine results.
Thanks.
www.davidbeardmusic.com



jaybee -> RE: Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (1/13/2007 8:54:38)

You're right about the keywords but it really needs to be as part of the page content. It needs to have natural flow. Putting them like you have in the alt text could lead the SEs to assume you're keyword stuffing and therefore reduce your ranking.

As this is a business site you should also have a Privacy Policy, your registered company number and location and your VAT number if applicable. You can put the numbers on the contact page.

If you're not sure what to stick in your PP then you can swipe the content of the one I use on my site and edit out bits you don't need. http://www.jbvisions.co.uk/help/privacy.htm



jaybee -> RE: Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (1/13/2007 9:07:06)

quote:

Is there another way to maximise search engine results.
Backlinks, backlinks, backlinks.

But natural links. Don't be tempted to use one of the automated tools. Contact like-minded sites and ask to swap links. Let them set the link text or image so most of them will be slightly different. 200 identically formatted links can be considered spam.



womble -> RE: Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (1/13/2007 9:23:22)

Hi David,

Your keywords should not be in your alt attributes (tags). That's actually frowned upon by the search engines and can actually get you penalised in the search engine rankings if it appears that you're stuffing your alt attributes with keywords. Yes, your keywords need to figure prominently in the page, but in a natural way (i.e. just in the normal text). The only valid place to put a long list of keywords is in the keywords meta tag in the <head> section of the page. Keywords are imporant, but in the visible text on your page, not in any code that's either not displayed or hidden.

Alt attributes (commonly but incorrectly referred to as tags) are there to describe the image, it's context and purpose. Screen-readers read out the text in alt attributes, and therefore it needs to be an accurate and consise description of the image. It's also displayed if the image doesn't load for any reason, or if the user has images turned off. Try turning the images off on your website (if you have the Firefox Web Developer toolbar, there's an option to do that very easily. Ask yourself, if you couldn't see the image, would the text inform you sufficiently as to the image's meaning? As Jaybee says, on that first button all you need is basically the text on the button that tells you where you're gonna go if you hit that button. I've just tried your home page with images off, and confusing is an understatement.

From an aesthetic point of view, personally I'd centre the whole page. You've got strong visual lines with the film strip down both side of the page framing it nicely (although on the buttons, I wouldn't use 'click here for...', I'd use some sort of hover effect to show they were clickable), but the structure kind of breaks down in the centre section of the page. It all just feels rather squashed, with the somewhat small images crammed in between the text. Probably if you make more use of white space on the page and put some padding around the images it'll open up the page a lot more and break up the paragraphs a bit more, and make it easier to read. It's probably also unnecessary to both bold and underline links in the text (usually just underlining is sufficient) and I don't think that's helping with the slightly cluttered feel of the page.

You've got a very good starting point there though and I think with a little tidying up that's going to be a damned good site.



DavidBeard -> RE: Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (1/13/2007 10:29:11)

Do you know,
Discovering this 'OutFront' site may be the best thing on the Net I've discovered so far!!!
Many thanks for all the comments.
I think I'm going to be very busy in the next few days!!

www.davidbeardmusic.com



jaybee -> RE: Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (1/13/2007 10:31:57)

[sm=lol.gif]Oh stick with us, we can keep you busy for much longer than that!

Oh and just a tip off, your web site needs to go in your signature which you can change in your profile. If you keep putting it at the bottom of your posts I'll have to slap you with a wet keyboard. [:D]



womble -> RE: Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (1/13/2007 10:39:58)

She will as well you know! [;)][:D]

Seriously though, this really is a great place for learning stuff, and as Jaybee says, we'll keep you busier for much longer than that....and has Tailslide mentioned doctypes yet? (if she hasn't, she will soon [;)])



jaybee -> RE: Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (1/13/2007 10:56:40)

Oooh and the sound files, I never get more than two notes. They're very good notes but I'm not sure anyone would want to book you based on them.

I'm fairly sure those two notes have been used before as well. [;)]



DavidBeard -> RE: Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (1/13/2007 21:11:36)

What two notes are you to referring to Jaybee?



jaybee -> RE: Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (1/14/2007 7:15:09)

Each time I try to listen to one of the sound files, Quick Time loads, sits there for a while, then says it's fully loaded, plays about two notes and then stops. I was kind of expecting a chunk of a tune or sounds. Perhaps some of the others can check and see what they get or is it only supposed to play about half a second's worth?

[edit] Ahhhh Ok, I'm getting the whole thing this morning, that's better. I thought it was a bit odd to have a showreel with 2 notes. [sm=lol.gif].

That's pretty good although I'm not sure about Tinkle, Winkle, Bobble and Pip. [&:]



DavidBeard -> RE: Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (1/14/2007 12:07:11)

Tinkle, Winkle, Pobble and Bip - Children's program, not everyone's cup of tea but I like to be versatile.
Try listening to some of the Darker stuff!!!!!
Not heard of anyone else having music download problems (you are the first) Almost CD quality MP3s, could format the music into smaller files but quality would be lost.
Still sorting out 'buttons' and stuff on other pages.
x



jaybee -> RE: Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (1/14/2007 13:57:42)

quote:

Try listening to some of the Darker stuff!!!!!
I'm into Soul music. Are you sure you want a review? [:D]

I kind of like the funk set on showreel 2



DavidBeard -> RE: Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (1/19/2007 10:50:50)

If you're into 'Soul Music' then I should keep well away from the 'Darker Side' page.
Would like the site reviewing not the music files (unless your're in a position to review this type of music!)
All JPEGs are now saved at the smaller file type, All buttons on every page 'more-clear' and of the smaller file type,
What next?
David.



jaybee -> RE: Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (1/19/2007 11:48:58)

On your contact page, remove your emails and replace them with a contact form unless you want to be innundated with spam.

If you're on a Unix host use the secure form from Mike Cherim.



DavidBeard -> RE: Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (1/19/2007 12:25:31)

Hi jaybee,
I can't find any 'contact form' on PageBuilder.
I could replace the email with the jpeg linked to my email address though as on other pages.
Would that be OK?



jaybee -> RE: Composer, Music Production Site - Could you please review? (1/19/2007 13:28:04)

If you bring your page up in your browser, go to view on the toolbar and choose Source or Page source, it'll show you the code behind the page. As long as there is no sign of an email address in there then you'll be fine but the instant the spiders find one they log it and use it.

There are ways round it by using code, javascript etc but some of the spiders have got wise to those as well. Images should be fine for a while although some of the spam bots can now read the captcha images designed to stop them getting in to fora and the like.

Ideally you need a form.



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