Hi From Manchester

Web3

Free Member
Nov 9, 2007
33
0
Manchester, UK
Hi Everyone,

Im starting up a Web Design / Search Engine Optimisation / Web Marketing Business

Thought I'd join a forum like this to make some contacts / spread the word.

My website is http://www.web3graphics.co.uk

It has only been online less than two weeks and is already Page Rank 3 : )

It isn't quite finished yet - but is looking good! Any criticism, advice or work offers would be appreciated!

Cheers,
Colin
 
F

forlow-designs

Hi - welcome to the forums!

I wont comment too much... but,

Who's woodsandhillsplc ? Is that you? the links to the templates what have been bought are on that website as a directory...

also, - the home page... the top 3 sections all link to the same page. The other links are none functional.

This is just my opinion - but I don't the the home page is too attractive - the text buttons are way too big. hurts my eyes :( I also think you need some sort of introduction ?

Just my thoughts though..

Again - welcome to the forums!

lee
 
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Web3

Free Member
Nov 9, 2007
33
0
Manchester, UK
Hi,

Thank you all for comments.

Yes not all the links work yet as it is still under construction unfortunately - I want to make it the cream of the crop as websites go - so am going to spend about a month on it!

> ps. frames are the work of the devil


It doesnt use frames, nor tables - just xHTML Strict, CSS and Javascript

> Who's woodsandhillsplc ? Is that you? the links to the templates what have been bought are on that website as a directory...

Yes Woodsandhillsplc . co . uk is my site too - also Page rank 3 : )
It is where I host most of stuff - but you are right I will carry accross everything to the Web3 Server as soon as it is finished.

> This is just my opinion - but I don't the the home page is too attractive - the text buttons are way too big. hurts my eyes :( I also think you need some sort of introduction

Thankyou for your criticism, a couple of other people have said they arent sure about the design - and thats one of the reasons why I am beta testing it now before I spend x amount of time doing it that way. From a graphic designers perspective - I think it is beautiful and fashionable in a web 2 sense (if I say so myself :) ) but as you have said - the buttons are unconventionally large, and there is no intro/about text.

Its tricky to know what to do. For every inkling I have that I should be 100% conventional, as this is obviously what you must do to get on in the commerical world - and something i am fully prepared to do on client sites - there is a part of me that wants to push boundaries - be creative and unusal - as this is a good way to get noticed and linked to from the main design blogs.

> lack of intro text


This is something I am seriously thinking about. I guess my rational was that if someone searches for say "web design in manchester" - when they end up onthe site - they already know you a web design firm in manchester - so should I disrupt the design to tell them this?

Perhaps the answer is indeed yes I should! Or should rejigg the design so to be able to fit it in.

thank you all for comments they are greatly appreciated.

Any more would be most welcome!

And please be assured that I wouldnt normally spend so long to-ing and fro-ing on a client site - i guess its a little different when its your site - one is fully prepared to spend a month creating it if necessary.
 
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Okay thicky time, I know you techie types speak a different languge to me but I am confused.

You say you are ranked 3 but for what? I searched uk pages for web design, web graphics, seo and about 6 other combinations but you didn't show on any of the first pages. Obviously when I searched by UK + web3design you came up number one but how does that help you unless I know the name of your website????

Maybe you techie people need to stop reading lists of where you are ranked and get a non techie to search for your type of business and tell you where you really come in a search by someone looking for a design business? Just a thought.

:|
Sally
 
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Welcome to UKBF Colin. Your in good company, there are several other website gurus here - you've met some :)

I'm afraid I get lost with all this technospeak - frames, HTML, PHP, CSS.

I think I'll have to go and lie down
icon10.gif


Welcome !

Regards
 
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maria102

Free Member
Oct 25, 2005
3,614
465
Manchester
I quite like the pastel colours and retroish font - I'm no expert as I've only designed a couple of intranet sites in the past, but I thought there was some sort of protocol about having to scroll down too far for things? Also its great the fact that someone can get a website for £199, but not sure this is the best way to present that, it appears to be in much bigger font than anything else on the page, the price is not always the most important thing to the customer...Just a few thoughts...hope you dont think everyone is being overly critical
 
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Web3

Free Member
Nov 9, 2007
33
0
Manchester, UK
Hi apologies - it slipped my mind - it does use a 100% master frame - but not for long - just until the hosting is sorted out fully. after that it will be frames. apologies sabian - and yes i do agree frames are the work of the devil haha. but they are a good way of plugging the gap whilst you are waiting for your DNS to be sorted out fully.

Hi sarah. Google Page Rank is basically a graphical indicator of how "well ranked" your site is by Google. You can download the google toolbar or use a firefox plugin to find out how your pages rank. It is debateable how effective it is, but one way of thinking is that if you imagine two identical sites - one of which is Page Rank 2, and one is Page rank 3 - if you search for them using the same phrase - the winner (in Google listings) will be the higher Page Rank site every time - ie the Page Rank 3 site.

It is also a good measure of how good an SEO company is. If you come accross an SEO site with less than Page Rank 3 send them packing! My site has been on the web for less than two weeks and is already Page Rank 3. Getting to Page Rank 4 will probably take me at least another few weeks - and then I will be able to compete with all the b*starts that are stopping get on the front page for "web design in manchester" searches :)

Thanks George! I hope I havent lowered the tone of the site too much with this technogarble! :)
 
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Web3

Free Member
Nov 9, 2007
33
0
Manchester, UK
Hi maria,

No criticism is useful (though I may go and have a little cry soon - only joking heehee)

You are right - I love that £199.99 advert but again its quite big isnt it. the trouble is the pages look a lot better with it on than with it not on , i ve tried both. Again its a case of do I comprimise the aesthetics of the design, for in this case useability.

Again perhaps the answer should be yes.
 
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sabian1982

Free Member
Business Listing
Jun 14, 2007
2,843
143
Nottingham
www.regionweb.co.uk
Google Page Rank is basically a graphical indicator of how "well ranked" your site is by Google. It is debateable how effective it is. If you come accross an SEO site with less than Page Rank 3 send them packing! My site has been on the web for less than two weeks and is already Page Rank 3. Getting to Page Rank 4 will probably take me at least another few weeks - and then I will be able to compete with all the b*starts that are stopping get on the front page for "web design in manchester" searches :)

Right... firstly PR is a snap shot that google takes at one point in time during a 3 month period (roughly). This information is exported to Googles toolbar. Page rank is a constantly changing - rating how important Google feels your website is at that choosen point in time. In reality PR is changing (although we can't see it) ever few days! PR is more about importance than rank! SERPs is a totally different issue!

Secondly identical site would get penalised for duplicate content - a website that has a lower PR than another, but targets the same keywords/phrases can still have a better rank!

You say you have a pagerank 3 which has taken you less than 3 weeks - yet you say you will have a PR4 within at least a couple of weeks - you obviously have no idea what you are talking about (or you just haven't explained yourself at all well).

Finally just because a SEO company site has a PR3 or maybe even lower doesn't mean they are crap. They might have excellent serps, or be providing their customers with excellent results; in the majority of cases smaller SEO companies don't have that much time to work on their own sites because they are too busy working for their clients!

My reply is a little brief as i am on a dialup (awaiting broadband reconnection) - in terms of your website design you seriously need to read up on the online disability discrimintion act and most definately need some physical content; the site is totally overloaded with images. In terms of onsite seo, your shooting yourself in the foot!

Im looking forward to your comments RedEvo ;)
 
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Web3

Free Member
Nov 9, 2007
33
0
Manchester, UK
Hi Sabian, I over simiplified that bit about page rank as i was addressing a non techie, so please dont take it too literally. By identical site I meant - two different business with a pretty much identical site - not a mirror or similar.

Im sorry but I do think an SEO site with less than PR2 is pretty poor.

I do have a PR3 site within a couple of weeks of the beta site going up, and I do know what im talking about.

Thanks Games4Business! Wish you all a good weekend, Im off out now :)
 
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F

forlow-designs

web3 said:
Im sorry but I do think an SEO site with less than PR2 is pretty poor....

I really really disagree with that. Just because a SEO website is below PR3, It doesn't mean they are 'poor'.

Most seo companies have very little time to work on there own site.. as they are working on clients.

Also, another thing to consider is... PR on that particular site maybe low... but result's in other area's might be fantastic?


:edit: aahha - Sabian already said this :(
 
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Web3

Free Member
Nov 9, 2007
33
0
Manchester, UK
You definately arent wrong at Mr Forlow

I was talking about purely SEO companies not general web design I guess

But its not hard to get to PR3 so it would be a good idea to do that if you are going to claim SEO greatness. I know its a worthless invisible badge of honour, but all the same - I remember a boss I had a couple of years ago on the phone talking to a marketing company who had cold called trying to sell him a link or similar. He was like "hold on a minute your site is Page Rank 0! Mine is page rank 3! You should be buying a link off me you idiot!" and hung up. Was one of the funniest things I ve ever heard.

Cheers Steve, same to you mate.
 
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sabian1982

Free Member
Business Listing
Jun 14, 2007
2,843
143
Nottingham
www.regionweb.co.uk
I'm still some what confused over your ideas that PR is exported as regularly as every couple of weeks though web3. Visual pagerank is updated every 3ish months; other than that we can not see it. Sure you're site must have caught the most recent update (that happened in the last 3 weeksish) hence resulting in you achieveing a PR3 however it is purely misunderstanding of SEO if you really believe that your PR will increase to PR4 in the next couple of weeks!

And finally, before i call it a night, your associated domain couldn't be more spammy!

http://whois.domaintools.com/woodsandhillsplc.co.uk

I was under the impression you lived in Manchester, not Fakeville of Fakeland? Your design and apparent seo knowledge appears quite poor - twinned by the fact that you are reluctant to disclose your address details in your root domain (although you have included this info on your web3graphics.co.uk) does not install any confidence in you or your proposed company; i'd go so far as to say your actions were that of an inexperienced teenager!

I suggest you go back to the drawing board although feel free to prove me wrong...
 
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ken_uk

Free Member
Jul 27, 2007
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Hi apologies - it slipped my mind - it does use a 100% master frame - but not for long - just until the hosting is sorted out fully. after that it will be frames. apologies sabian - and yes i do agree frames are the work of the devil haha. but they are a good way of plugging the gap whilst you are waiting for your DNS to be sorted out fully.

DNS does not take long to propagate these days, and having to wait a while for it to propagate is not an issue if the site is not completed or live yet.

Hi sarah. Google Page Rank is basically a graphical indicator of how "well ranked" your site is by Google. You can download the google toolbar or use a firefox plugin to find out how your pages rank. It is debateable how effective it is, but one way of thinking is that if you imagine two identical sites - one of which is Page Rank 2, and one is Page rank 3 - if you search for them using the same phrase - the winner (in Google listings) will be the higher Page Rank site every time - ie the Page Rank 3 site.

Nope, totally untrue. It is part of the ranking algo, as far as people are aware (the only people who know for sure work for google, or are extremely friendly with someone who does....) but in no way does a higher PR site ALWAYS outrank a lower PR site.

It is also a good measure of how good an SEO company is. If you come accross an SEO site with less than Page Rank 3 send them packing! My site has been on the web for less than two weeks and is already Page Rank 3. Getting to Page Rank 4 will probably take me at least another few weeks - and then I will be able to compete with all the b*starts that are stopping get on the front page for "web design in manchester" searches :)

The speed at which public PR values are released has already been answered, but even if you got a PR 10 site (by going out and buying one, or getting a real SEO to do it for you), you would have to learn some SEO before you stood a chance of staying in business and competing long term against those that are good at what they do.
 
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Web3

Free Member
Nov 9, 2007
33
0
Manchester, UK
Wow its boring listen to you lot whine.

Google Page Rank updates = infinity fast - ie it is constantly crawling the web - each data center is constantly making decisions - constantly adjusting the web based how the web changes - it may only get to your page every x amount of time - but to say it only updates every three months! thats like saying a clock only ticks once an hour!

Read this forum post:

forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=346789

For every few people that think it is every 3 months, there is someone that says - well actually no - Google updates its PR constantly, it is just the actual physical value sent to the graphical version of the PR that updates every months.

"..Toolbar PR change is just an export of that updated value.."

seocompany.ca/pagerank/page-rank-update-list.html

Re: My domain - when I bought that domain a few years ago it I didnt want to publish my details because of my privacy - to stop idiots like you looking it up and knowing who i am / spamming me / stalking me. I think thats fair enough. In case you didnt know the Whois info is used to send out spam.

Re: DNS - The beta website is stored on a directory. You cant create a DNS A record that points to a directory - it has to be a subdomain or a domain. So I am waiting til I move it accross to my proper hosting to set up the DNS. Whilst the website is in testing/unfinished I have no problem with that. Next you ll be telling me Im using latin instead of english.
 
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Web3

Free Member
Nov 9, 2007
33
0
Manchester, UK
it amuses me that you would have checked my whois for web3graphics:

http://whois.domaintools.com/web3graphics.co.uk

and not noticed that yes my website was registered exactly one month ago - and yet not think - this website is page rank 3 already - this guy must have some skills. No, you think lets try and dig some dirt up on him. Oh look his first domain registered yeears ago - look he registered it with no name - oh look i got some dirt - great lets go tell everyone.
 
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D

Delta-Computers

hey,

well i am phill i own delta computers, in liverpool and birkenhead. well welcome to UKBF and all i can say is you will make alot of friends and also made to feel welcome. i can probbly ensure that u will make some clients and contacts here.

Regards


Phillip Booker
Delta Computer's
 
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Hi, welcome aboard.

Forget PR it's just part of the big picture. As stated before a well optimised page with graphical 0 PR can possibly appear at the top of the SERPS. If you are to offer SEO services then you need to focus purely on working with your clients to get their site high in the rankings with the right keyword phrases as that is all that matters.

PR is just a small part of a much bigger picture; and just because there is a graphical interpretation it is easier for someone to get a handle on. It is also easy to mislead people with that tool.

Mick
 
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sabian1982

Free Member
Business Listing
Jun 14, 2007
2,843
143
Nottingham
www.regionweb.co.uk
Wow its boring listen to you lot whine.

Whine? All we are doing is simply pointing out the inaccuracy of what you are saying. This forum is a place for people to learn and discuss issues. Quite a lot of members here don't have an indepth knowledge of SEO; hence providing false and incorrect information will only cause confusion to those who do not know any better!

Google Page Rank updates = infinity fast - ie it is constantly crawling the web - each data center is constantly making decisions - constantly adjusting the web based how the web changes - it may only get to your page every x amount of time - but to say it only updates every three months! thats like saying a clock only ticks once an hour!

For every few people that think it is every 3 months, there is someone that says - well actually no - Google updates its PR constantly, it is just the actual physical value sent to the graphical version of the PR that updates every months.

Unfortunately in this case you appear to have completely missed the point; visual pagerank is updated every 3ish months; sure pagerank is constantly changing in the background however it is only when the visual page rank is updated do we know what the PR of a page or site actually is! I'm not disputing the fact that you have achieved a PR3 in the last update but to think you will achieve a PR4 in the next few weeks is purely speculation - you won't find this out until the next update which will occur in roughly 3 months time. To simplify: Google does update its PR constantly, however we can only see the new PR when the visual pagerank is updated (via the Google toolbar or similar).

Re: My domain - when I bought that domain a few years ago it I didnt want to publish my details because of my privacy - to stop idiots like you looking it up and knowing who i am / spamming me / stalking me. I think thats fair enough. In case you didnt know the Whois info is used to send out spam.

Then if that is how you feel, why did you give your correct contact information on the web3 domain registration? Now you're simply contradicting yourself!!! Not putting your details on your whois, and blatently providing false information gives the strong impression that you have something to hide; you're simply making yourself look untrustworthy!

As for getting PR3, that really doesn't take that much skill. Perhaps you'd now like to take the opportunity to enlighten all us whiners on your views and ideas regarding SERPs!
 
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Hi there,

Welcome to the UKBF.

Right I am not going to pipe on about SEO as to be honest I do not have a clue about SEO.

But design wise you really do need to step back from your screen and take a poper look at your colour schemes and design. Im not picking on you I am just offering some friendly advice before you start plugin your site to customers cause if I saw your site, i have to say I would look else where.

Tom
 
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ken_uk

Free Member
Jul 27, 2007
2,213
240
56
Re: DNS - The beta website is stored on a directory. You cant create a DNS A record that points to a directory - it has to be a subdomain or a domain. So I am waiting til I move it accross to my proper hosting to set up the DNS. Whilst the website is in testing/unfinished I have no problem with that. Next you ll be telling me Im using latin instead of english.

I take it you dont know much about setting up servers, configuring domains, apache etc? Having a test site in a folder of a existing domain, and having that folder serve up to a new domain name is quite easy if you know how to do it. You seem to be missing the point that a DNS record just points at the server, your in control after that..... Unless your using crippled shared hosting, in which case you usually still have options available to do a similar thing.

Takes me about 20 seconds to log in and make a test folder in one existing domain and have that folder serve as the root for another existing domain (that was already on that server but elsewhere).

A professional SEO would know how to do things like this, in case they needed to, or would at the least, know what is possible, even if they had to get someone to do it for them.
 
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Web3

Free Member
Nov 9, 2007
33
0
Manchester, UK
Hi Ken,

Yes I know this - but I tend to do my beta testing on my development space, and then when its finished ftp it over to the final hosting after my apache man has done the virtual hosting. I was just showing everyone a beta not the finished product. Anyway! Arguements aside: spent saturday having a bit of a redesign based on the comments and criticisms, and have changed the front end somewhat. Its looking good. Will give everyone an update when its finished - have learnt my lesson in letting people see something before it is finished!
 
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Wow its boring listen to you lot whine.

Re: My domain - when I bought that domain a few years ago it I didnt want to publish my details because of my privacy - to stop idiots like you looking it up and knowing who i am / spamming me / stalking me. I think thats fair enough.

"How to make friends and influence people" Published by Web3 Nov 07
 
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Web3

Free Member
Nov 9, 2007
33
0
Manchester, UK
Hi Gill, glad to have kept you amused :)

Thanks for the positive comments Maria, have been working on it for a portion of the weekend so im glad you like it. You are right about the drop down - perhaps if i can eventually stuff the drop down full of more content - like a mini sitemap - it would be worth it. I like the idea of a quickfind - being able to jump to anywhere important on the site within two clicks.

Good news Ive just been contracted to do 4 websites. Should keep me busy for a couple of weeks :)
 
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REFRESHer

Free Member
Jul 11, 2006
48
0
Manchester
Hi there.. welcome to the forums hope you enjoy it.
I won't get involved with the PR debate.. (maybe another time)
I will if I may convey my thoughts on the design.
It is a typical design of a web design. This means you have designed a ‘website’ to look like a website especially with your views on it looking web 2.0 (!?), there is no branding/corporate identity (not just talking a logo here), the website as it is or the road it is going down will ever contain with it a distinguishing factor, I can tell this because your portfolio of work is all pretty much the same but with different colours.
However this is a place to start and hone your coding skills while always bettering your design skills to match.
Again welcome to the forums

PS What is web 2.0 graphic design?
 
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