Hi Website Review Team!

http://www.assistingsynergy.com

Could I please receive a critique on my website. I started my virtual biz in February but haven't been able to dedicate myself till June. (you know...just on time for the summer slowdown-no clients yet)

I launched a new website (the old one was aweful!) using a template from Yahoo Sitebuilder (I have since been teaching myself html etc.) but ended up changing everything. There has been some comments about 'Your Virtual Office Team' -- I do have 2 long time professional associates and friends that are not the VA type but want to do some work for me. This allows me to expand the services I offer. The canned pics are mostly paid for so I hope they are not familiar to you.

Go ahead...please don't be shy....I know how important a good website is to my success!

Thanks,

Amy

Very nice. One suggestion though, you need a little more keyword enriched content on your very first page. You don't have a lot of verbage relevant to what you are providing for services. Search engines will find you better if you add a little more. Dawn

Amy- Your website has a very upbeat energy. I see the issue with the "Your Dynamic Virtual Office team" banner and also your footer...they need to be fixed.

Check out the SEO section for the points Dawn made and more, very important.

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Creative & Strategic Web Design Services
www.aivirtualsolutions.com

Thank you Dawn and Agnes!

I will work on the 'verbage' (love that word) and the SEO as suggested. In Yahoo Sitebuilder there is an actual metatag box that you can add keywords to....obviously it does not work very well. I'll read through the SEO threads and see if I can improve my 'hits'. So far (as you can imagine) they are pretty low! The banner...ah yes the banner....I would rather have a cool logo...I'm not very creative! But besides the fact it's rather boring, I was wondering what it is that you spotted, Agnes?

It's great to have some feedback. My family and friends think my site is 'great' and 'awesome'. Of course they do......gotta love them....... 'NO! That outfit looks amazing on you!!

Thanks again,

Amy

Hi!

I am having trouble loading the site - it;s taking too long for me to load (it could just be my connection... so if anyone could test out the 'speedability' then please do!!)

however, when it has loaded, the site looks very nicely presented, however, I recommend your "advertisments" (i.e. the ones that say "Get Your First Hour of Services Free" / "Productivity Failing? ...") being on the right-hand side of your page (i.e. to create a 3-column website) - I personally think it looks better presented that way.

Apart from that, I also think that you should put on your home page what your business is about - i.e. just a short paragraph / statement stating what a VA is.

If you have any problems, etc... please ask!

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Julia Neal ...because we ♥ admin!
http://julianeal.wordpress.com

I think the word is 'verbiage' and not 'verbage'.

I think the photos on this site are fun and make the point very well. I didn't have any problem loading the site. It opened quickly.

My only suggestion is to link the services that you offer to open in another page which has a more detailed description of those services. So if some one clicks on Customer Service, it opens up in another window what part of customer service you do...answer phones, take orders, checkout, etc.

Just curous, who's hosting your site? I might try the Yahoo Sitebuilder myself.

Thank you!

Eva

Thank you Eva!

Good advice about the pics...I was meaning to do just that but some how forgot to while finishing my site.

My site is hosted by Yahoo small biz and I am very happy with what is all included. Check it out There are lots of tools included.

Thanks,

Amy

Hi Amy,

I agree with the ladies that your SEO needs work. Your home page content does need more keywords that describe who you are targeting and how you're going to help them. Your meta description tag is good but you need to fix your title tags. (and don't stuff your keywords tag with more than 10 words) Read the SEO link provided by Agnes.

I like the placement of the newsletter opt-in box. It's easy to find.

If I might make a suggestion: I think there might be too many images. The eye isn't sure where to look next. But, that's just my opinion and not everyone will agree with me.

Also, does Yahoo site builder allow you to name your images? If so, you should use keyword phrases to name the photo for SEO purposes as well as from a usability standpoint. Visitors who are vision impaired or those who have images turned off will not know what the images are if they aren't properly named.

I love the colours you have chosen. They look nice

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Shari Sultana
Online Business Manager (marketing for retail ecommerce)

I just took a cursory view of the website and like it, for the most part, it is very eye-catching. The only concern I have is with the font size on the About Us, Our Services, and Contact Us pages, they seem a bit small.

Hi Amy,

I'm just seeing this post, I meant the banner that has the word:"Your Dynamic Office Team." The edges of the curved ends are not smooth and you have the same issue with the footer.

I apologize for not being specific, I thought that was what you were referring to in your original post.

Originally Posted by Assisting Syner

Thank you Dawn and Agnes! I was wondering what it is that you spotted, Agnes? Amy

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Creative & Strategic Web Design Services
www.aivirtualsolutions.com

I like the color scheme and the layout of the "Welcome" section. I agree with Shari about the banners positioned between the navigation area and the main body of your text. I would add a bar for the Cost Savings page and place it directly beneath the Why Go Virtual bar, deleting the original banner altogether.

Also, I would either delete the banner for the "Find out what Synergy can do for you" or put it where you have the laptop image at the bottom of the main text area.

Experiment with the placement of the "Get Your First Hour" banner. Maybe your clients will feel inclined to click on it if it's placed between the newsletter opt-in and the navigation bar. Or you can place it below the contact button as an extra incentive.

Another thing I noticed was the title on the top of my browser bar that said Home. I've overlooked this when I first started experimenting with my websites and blogs. Change this right away, so Google will index your site for what it is.

I've never used Yahoo SiteBuilder, so I don't know if you can change the title of your website within their interface. If not, and you have access to the index.html file, you can manually change the title there.

Change from "<title>Home</title>" to "<title>Your Dynamic Virtual Office Team</title>" or "<title>Assisting Synergy Business Solutions</title>."

Best wishes for your success.