# Could someone please critique my website? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 15, 2008, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-please-critique-my-website/472849 "2008-11-15T12:35:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-please-critique-my-website/472849/41 "2008-11-16T20:43:55Z")
> [@Francesca](#): > > Unfortunately, it’s not online. It was in a magazine section. So scan it in and link to it as a pdf file. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-please-critique-my-website/472849/42 "2008-11-16T20:55:17Z")
Final suggestion: use underlines for links. Mixing bold for emphasis, and also for links, can be confusing. ---
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-please-critique-my-website/472849/43 "2008-11-16T20:58:34Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > So scan it in and link to it as a pdf file. I haven’t got a scanner! Also, it looks less impressive than it sounds, they just listed my website as one of the five best, no write up or anything. > [@jjimm](#): > > Final suggestion: use underlines for links. Mixing bold for emphasis, and also for links, can be confusing. Yeah, I’m working on that. My CSS-knowledgable friend is going to sort it tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-please-critique-my-website/472849/44 "2008-11-16T21:34:18Z")
I like your site - clean design, good photographs (if only placeholders at this stage), and, most important, _the copy has the factual information, in a straighforward way, on exactly what I as a customer would want to know about your business_. Congratulations on the writing - it makes a refreshing change from many business sites where you need to wade through a lot of verbiage to find out what the business actually _does_. The photographs I gather are placeholders but if your final ones are as good people are going to drool on their keyboards. The choice of raw materials shots as opposed to finished dishes is a good one IMO, you should stick to that. The one thing that sticks in my craw is a cultural one that a lot of your target audience won’t object to, but some may: I’d expect a business owner to _identify_ herself. (Giving your first name isn’t identifying yourself in my book) . Now your British professional-class target audience is quite probably less stuffy than me who is a member of the German counterpart, but if I sent you an e-mail or called the number given I would prefer to know your last name beforehand. (It isnt’ as if this actually keeps your last name (six letters) secret - it is available to anyone who looks up your domain name on whois). One other content nitpick: From your site it seems your business is an one-person operation (there is no role mentioned other than your own, “You get in touch with _me_”, etc.), but you say “_we_ come direct to where you live” on the home page. If you do in fact operate solo the “we” doesn’t fool anyone but rather detracts from the refreshingly forthright, honest tone of the whole site. If, on the other hand, there are other people working in your business it would be better to mention their roles. For search engine optimising purposes (i.e. to be more likely to be found in web searches) I’d recommend to host your domain under your domain name instead of just framing the pages hosted under another domain (by the way, the pages hosted under [thebigsky.co.uk](http://thebigsky.co.uk) lack a description metatag). ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-please-critique-my-website/472849/45 "2008-11-16T21:37:24Z")
> [@Francesca](#): > > More friendly? Huh. I was worried about being too friendly! Huh? how can you be too friendly? I know you Brits are more reserved and formal than us Yanks. But your business is not a formal professional service like a lawyer. You are being personal, and inviting yourself into other peoples homes, into their private space where they usually only invite friends. The site is nice and polite, but it seems a little too dry and lifeless for me. I would recommend adding some photos–not of food, but of people. Some suggestions: A picture of a nicely prepared dish, with the food in the center of the screen, but 2 smiling people alongside it. A photo of a kitchen, with you and a couple of your customers/students , all smiling and having fun. A pic of two people holding a ladle stirring the soup. Or a pic of you alongside a client with a spoon in her mouth, enjoying the results of your labors. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-please-critique-my-website/472849/46 "2008-11-16T23:34:53Z")
> [@Francesca](#): > > I haven’t got a scanner! Also, it looks less impressive than it sounds, they just listed my website as one of the five best, no write up or anything. Surely there are places with access to scanners? Library? Internet cafe? Over here we have places like Kinko’s, don’t know if you have them there. Do none of your friends have a scanner? I think that listing your website as one of the five best is quite worth putting on there as a pdf. It gives you clout. ---
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-please-critique-my-website/472849/47 "2008-11-26T17:55:19Z")
Okay. I’ve made it a bit more personal, stuck a picture of me on the front page (the pics on other pages are still just placeholders pending more photos), changed the “we” to “I”, put underlines on the links, and made a few other changes. What do you think? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-please-critique-my-website/472849/48 "2008-11-26T18:24:04Z")
You’ve got some formatting issues here: try and keep the size of the main box consistent. The footer with your contact details should always be in the same place. This can be largely resolved by shifting the photographs - particularly the ‘How it works’ one - upwards. And, at the risk of reprising an unfortunate earlier comment, you need a better photograph of yourself in the ‘How it works’ section. It’s probably a combination of perspective and the resizing, but the way you have your left hand looks just awful. ---
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-please-critique-my-website/472849/49 "2008-11-26T18:37:43Z")
Oh, you mean that time when you said it’s a shame I’m not telegenic or one of the beautiful people? Yeah. I just said that the photos other than the one on the front page are placeholders pending other photos. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-please-critique-my-website/472849/50 "2008-11-26T18:41:36Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > Do an [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) search on “Kitchen Scale”. There are quite a few right around $20. There are some as low as $5 - not digital - but still a kitchen scale. I can’t vouch for them working forever, but they do exist. I use a digital postal scale - works great, had it for years and it was under $40. And I can weigh letters and packages too! On topic: I think the site looks great. I hope you get lots of business! ---
**Author:** ![Campion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@Campion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Campion)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-please-critique-my-website/472849/51 "2008-11-26T18:47:32Z")
> [@Francesca](#): > > I just said that the photos other than the one on the front page are placeholders pending other photos. Well, that’s too bad, because I like the second photo as well. I thought you were going to tell a story – the photo on the front is you with some chopped up thingies, and then in the second photo, you’re putting the chopped up thingies in the bowl with some other stuff. (Why, yes, I probably could benefit from cooking lessons…) I clicked through the other pages to see if the photos continued to tell a story – you know, “From Stuff To Dinner In Five Easy Clicks.” Anyway, I liked the website. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-please-critique-my-website/472849/52 "2008-11-26T20:03:06Z")
Your site is lovely, but the pictures of yourself are huuuuge (no I’m not calling you fat! lol) I have high-speed Internet and I had to sit here while the pictures loaded. The pictures are about 10x the size (in kilobytes) than they need to be. You need to take those two pics and scale them down to the size they’re presented in on the site - 275x367. And also save at 72dpi. If you can, save it at a lower quality than it is now, too. I find that 50-60% is fine for the Web. If you can’t do this on your own, I’ll do it for you. Just PM me to let me know. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-please-critique-my-website/472849/53 "2008-11-26T20:24:22Z")
Your changes are for the better so far. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-please-critique-my-website/472849.md?page=2)