ive just read some one elses website review , and even though there was a few critical remarks its probably helped them redesign their website. So ive built my first site its only been published a few days so be as honest as you can please all criticism will be taken on board.
Thanks all

Have you done it yourself?

I have, can you tell?

well, put it this way, we wouldn't be impressed if you had paid someone to do it!

But I think it's impotant to know when a website has been done by a non-web design company and your own attempt then people can take that into account given your level of skills that you can achieve.

I mentioned on your other thread about web traffic about the design needing to be improved so a review is a good idea to get feedback on the visuals as well as the technical aspects of the website.

At the moment, the main section with the business name, telephone number, etc looks like an advert you might see in a local magazine.

I would be expecting to see a completely different design and layout to what you have, plus some correct optimisation on the pages after doing some keyword research (of which a basic type can be done for free). Plenty of info on things like how to optimise your website (http://www.indizine.co.uk/how-to-optimise-your-website) can be found on my website to help you make improvements.

You have a typo in your meta title tag by the way - Barnsley isn't spelt correctly.

It needs a lot of work to improve the design. The photographs of your work need to be bigger & clearer, for a start.

Thanks indizine & buildanysite I'm going to build a new one from scratch I think because the current layout won't allow me to display my photos how I want them. And as for the meta tag I copy and pasted somebody elses tags who was at the top of google but yet I still couldn't find my site why could this be?

it depends what they were at the top of google for. But anyway, there are other factors which stop you getting ranked and climbing high in Google. It's never an overnight thing for the best of keywords. Only easy keywords are easy to get to page one for. Easy as in useless, mind you.

Thankyou above for the post. I've now managed to get onto page 2 of google for the site which for a week old web designer I think is ok. I'd like to know more about these other factors too indizine but I also understand people pay a lot of money for that information. So il just keep researching until I find the answer. Thanks for the pointers though I'm going to design a new logo and try and sort out the photos and hopefully get myself further up google somehow! Not bad seeing as I've only spent about £20 so far and bt and yell wanted £300 to do the same thing probably a bit more proffesional though.

It depends what keyword you got to poage 2 for - what was it? Unless it has a good number of searches per day it means nothing other than knowing your page is indexed.

All the info on what to do if you DIY is on my website for the average learner to absorb and apply.

The large "business card" smack in the middle of the homepage assaulted me was soon as the page loaded. The first thing I saw was "Ring Terry, Ring Gary" but I don't know why yet. A call to action is good but this text

Just Decking are based in Rotherham but also we do decking in
Sheffield , Barnsley , Doncaster. We will take our decking further afield if needed . We buy all our Decking locally in Rotherham from a supplier whos always trying to source the best decking he can . Even though the names Just decking we actually do a little more including fence erecting and landscaping. We just figured Just decking is a good name for a great company. Just decking not only are deck fitters but we are also deck designers just check our photos 80% of our jobs have our design input in them , sometimes a little help goes a long way.

is just what I call clearing the throat text. It doesn't really say anything.

Talk to me - tell me how great it will be sat out on a summers evening drinking something cold.

Tell me how the wood is lovingly prepared and how much care you take when you are laying it. How you move the earth to get me the best deal.

Tell me about your designs and why I would be a fool to not ring you up. (but dont say that...)

I don't want to hear about some un named bloke in Rotherham.

Privacy policy & terms of use aren't clickable but I guess the site isn;t finished ?

Edit - and drop all the talk of 4 x 4's & 4 x2's etc. It makes you sound like a builder.

Up the descriptive words and tlc factor

This is great advice thanks. I'm on page 2 for the keywords " decking Rotherham " but I am looking into others. The text will now be changed to more descriptive one ty poster above never even thought of that, I will change it into something to provoke the customer into really needing a deck thanks

so if your not 100% sure on what you want , the pair can help you realise the deck you dreamed off.
A couple of spelling mistakes.
...if you're not 100% sure....the pair can create the deck of your dreams.

I'd also suggest consistency in your names; is it Terry and Gary or Gary and Terry. Choose one and stick with it (one day you might buy that Royce-Rolls)

I'm not sure about the code on line 100 of your source code. I think this would be better if covered in the main body content.
Contact page
Increase the text size in the table and replace the text with the following code
<table border=1>
<tr>
<th>Terry</th>
<th>Gary</th>
<tr><td><A href="mailto:terrydoran@justdecking.co.uk">Email Terry</a></td><td><A href="mailto:garywilson@justdecking.co.uk">Email Gary</a></td>
<tr><td>01709 378349</td><td>01709 851772</td>
<tr><td>07505 351 665</td><td>07989 421 354</td>
</table>

I'd also have a coloured background rather than plain white.