on a scale of 1 to 10 ten being high. I have a number of issues to take care of i'm sure but i feel the need for public feedback . If you could help by giving me some heads up pointers and grade my site that would be just great.

How simple is it to use? do the images and flash graphics load slow? how do you feel, your first impression when you enter the site? All of these and more. should i tone it down? should i turn it up?It will only help me to know the truth.


You deside
http://www.broadbandhosting.biz

Thanks alot
Peace.............
codehawk

First impression... Moving text is ucky. I think you went a little overboard with the flash up top.
What's a "mg"?
"Super Great Features?"
The layout looks good to me, but I think you've put too much info on the main page. I'd sacrifice "Navigate Site Map" "News" "Latest News" "Links and support" and "Links" to remove clutter from the main page.
Good start tho. Right now I'd give it a 5. With a little refinement you could really push that up.

UD.

The flash has to go. The "Advanced", "Popular" and "Power" infoboxes - give them more substance and forget marketese blurbs (Super Great Hosting) or "Bonus". List the actual features. When you're talking about megabytes, use Mb not "mg". Make the boxes itself "clickable", not just to "Go" button.

"What is web Hosting" box - replace with something that talks about YOUR services - chances are your audience knows what it is already. A good place to let your visitors know what sets you apart from other hosting companies. If you give out 5000 templates, set up auction scripts etc, let them know. Use bulletted lists and <b> tags to highlight the important stuff. This is where the eye has a natural tendency to rest - use it to your advantage.

Stay on topic - tell me why I should host with you. Most people look for service and uptime. Some feel comfortable with hand-holding. Who hosts with you? Got testimonials? Let me see 'em. Comparison chart of all plans would let me see which one is right for me. Money back gurantee? How about free setup? Pay for x months, get $x off? If you're givingaway attractive deals - say so. Can you gurantee I will be satisfied with your service? That, imho, is front page material.


Don't make me CLICK HERE for server features - list them quickly and follow with More... - you only have about 20 seconds of my attention (including load time) - don't waste it. I'm an impatient Joe surfer. I came here to look for my content, not yours. Think Joe Surfer at all times when you post things. features.html - look at it. I mean really look at it.

Virus info, Outbound Links anything and everything that does not have to do with what you can do for me has no place on the front page (News, Links and Support... real player link??)

I could not find your TOS - a serious buyer would want to see it. Live support buttons that show offline most of the time are not a good idea.

If you plan to depend on search engines for visitors (I think you do, because of all the "link to us" prompts and a big links page) - give your code a once-over.

1. Dump all the useless meta tags - they serve no purpose whatsoever, other than to push your "real" content down the page. All you need for meta is title, description, keywords (I normally don't even use the keywords tags). Tip: For titles use keywords people would use while looking for a hosting service. "Broadband Hosting High End Reseller Business Professional Hosting" is not what most people would use to find a host.

2. Put your css into external files.
3. Use <hx> family tags.
4. Don't use too many tables, don't nest more than 2 deep - move everything into css wherever possible - the top of the page and your 3 boxes at the top occupy 200+ lines of code.

All in all - I think you need to organize your stuff a bit better. Give me information, not marketese with exclamation points and funky colors.


You asked

You've got alot of JPEG artifacts in your corporate logo. The blue/green scheme works at the top, but looks too bold around the bottom of the page.

It also looks like you're using alot of default photoshop filters (like bevel and emboss and such). Don't rely too much on those.

I don't like the green nore the flash, everything else looks fine to me 7/10

uberduper - I didn't really like the flash word tweens anyway so there gone for good.

matt - i don't really know what you mean by green (background?), but the flash is gone, thanks for your feedback.

Thanks kluade i'll make a note of those filters. and try to lay off the green at the bottom.

Bartek, wow lots to think about here i really appreciate your feedback.I'm going to try and change the text layout to better show more features and what i can do for joe. also the css in external bins, and nested tables i'll break them down some. i have 17 or so clients i can list. I'll keep everything you said on my notepad Thanks alot.

I'll print this and make a work flow list from it thanks alot for all your help.

peace.....
codehawk

Is that a hawk sitting on top of your server ?

I'm not sure how happy the Servermatrix people are going to be about that - I'm pretty sure keeping animals in the data centre violates some term or condition :-)

Jony

I think you're asking the wrong people. There's no problem with the flash, and the only reason people would complain would be they don't have a flash top themselves.

Well designed, but my only thing is the http://www.broadbandhosting.biz/features.html page.. it's got WAAAY too many colors and I got overloaded by looking at it.

Good layout!

hey, JonyEpsilon i about fell out of my seat and spilt mi ber lol

Escaped, thanks man, I'll break down the color a bit.

peace ..............
codehawk

Yeah the green background, it looks better now still needs something but I can't put my finger on it

Excuse me, but I know what I am talking about. *check my website* There is flash I am part time hosting and part time webdesign even though I rather just work hosting.

Edit: Also after looking at it more, the text in the banner is hard to read, not sure what you could do with it though. Also sorry about the double post

Flash: I've never been a big fan of Flash used that way. Anytime I use flash, it's non-loop, or an intro that has a clearly labeled "Skip" link.

The "Contact Us" button is rather harsh. Looks like it needs a bit of work.

I would have to agree with maybe having too much info on the page, kinda maes finding certian information a headache.

Other than that, looks good.

Just my 2 pennies.......

The Flash buttons "3" above the Hawk are fuzy and out of place.
Banner takes to long to load even on DSL.

Some of your linked pages have too much color...that do not match/blend/gel together.

The rest of the site looks OK.

I havent read any other replies, but im gonna cut your site to shreds (my opinion, im very fussy. Dont get upset plz)

- Text at the top is almost impossible to read
- The "buttons" under the text and the server pic under it has WAY too much compression on the jpeg quality, dont go below 50% - that looks horrid what youve got there
- Menu Options: See above. Also that gradient that goes flying over it is rather distracting.
- You need a border around the content of the page (between the middle of the page and the blue area off to either side), looks rather imcomplete without it.
- Headings "Simply the best", "#1 High end Quality Hosting" etc are almost impossible to read in that grey, and the curved box/gradient behind is WAY too big, 50% of the size would be good.
- "Contact Us" button: use more colours in your gif
- There is way too much stuff on the main page.. try to condense it a little
- When i see the "Features" page i see oh so many colours, try to keep it to 3 colours.
- Flashing stars on the "Features" page doesnt impress me much.
- "Latest News" is a menu.. not news. Also remove the space between your menu options - you should need to scroll.
- the "server" in the "Services" has a white background - the area behind it doesnt. Change one or the other...
- The "server" in "services" doesnt look like much of a server
- White background on the "Support" page behind the people
- Order asks me to verify the SSL cert
- In the box on the left of the order content, your gaps between items are massive... reduce them a little

farcry I dont anger easily in this business you need lots of patience and keep a very open mind without that you lose. I need this feedback, I work with techs, not designers, So any truth to the design helps. I realize the images are somewhat fuzzy, in trying to break them down exporting from photoshop and flash i always worry about load time. So I think i may have a fix for that.

I have started a static page (known as cloaking) that will allow users to choose flash or text browsing, humm i wonder if the seach engine bots will rate this as spaming?

Its not easy to capture a great design, top ranking with seach engines and please everyone at the same time but its not imposible either.

P.s about the cert i'll buy one i guess the one i'm using i made.

making my list checking it twice

Thanks for all your input FarCry,tp, lunchbox and matt i take you serious and will continue to try to make this site better. really thanks to all.

peace.....
codehawk

codehawk, export them as PNG files not jpgs - png's will use almost no space in a fla file!