# Looking for feedback on Website



## kolwdwrkr (Jul 27, 2008)

Well I finally got around to getting a website back up and running. Things have been extremely slow at work so I have decided to start advertising my own company again, while maintaining a good relationship with my current employer. I designed and built the website myself using Intuit web services. Let me know what I can do different and/or better. 
www.kolwoodworks.com


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## SCR0LL3R (May 28, 2010)

You do some beautiful work!

A couple things I noticed at a glance… I believe the word "copywrite" should be written "copyright" at the bottom of the home page. Also, I notice your furniture button has a shadow under the lettering whereas the other buttons don't.


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## MrsN (Sep 29, 2008)

On the main page your logo looks blury. The edges of KOL Woodworking are a bit blurry and Completly Custom Completly Beautiful is really hard to read.

The pictures of your work are really good. On my screen I had to scroll down and look for the "Next" button to see more examples. It may be helpful to re-size the photos just a bit so someone doesn't have to look so hard. You may also want to consider letting the viewer know how many pages of kitchen pictures you have. Also on some pages of pictures you have thumbnails of different views that can be clicked to enlarge, and othe pages you have several large photos. Personally I like a more consistant look.

Overall a really nice site. 
MrsN


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## CharlieM1958 (Nov 7, 2006)

It looks very good, Keith. Off the top of my head, I can't find anything to criticize about it.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

I like it Keth ,like all of your work top notch.


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## helluvawreck (Jul 21, 2010)

I think it's a nice website. Congratulations.


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## mafe (Dec 10, 2009)

Nice website - congrat.
I think also the logo needs to be made sharp.
The picture on who are we page could be better, and I think the sideways frame not fit your layout.
The two icons on the lat page with write us, are to 'funny' find something simple (gif89 are a history).
Hope you can use the critics it's meant from a good heart.
Best thoughts,
Mads


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## Grumpy (Nov 9, 2007)

Nice job on the www Keith. It looks like a winner to me.


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## wchips (Dec 11, 2009)

nice work Keith


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## huff (May 28, 2009)

Keith, 
I like your overall web-site and your work is awesome. I found the site loads slowly and your graphic logo is blurry. A couple common errors is you should have your navigation bar on each page for web bots and users. The most important thing you need to do is optimize your pictures (optimized pictures load faster) and resize them so you don't have to scroll down the page to find the next button. I see you are using an Intuit template by Homestead, which is generating a little traffic for your site, but for you to have a real on line presence you should have your site optimized by a certified web designer to get recognized by all search engines. 
The World Wide Web Consortium has developed guide lines that web designers follow to insure long term growth for the web and although validation is not mandatory on the web, it is useful for having greater visibility in all web searches.
Glad to see you're promoting your business again. Hope things are picking up in your area and good luck.


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## LeeJ (Jul 4, 2007)

Hi Keith;

It looks very good.

As mentioned by Huff, a website needs to go beyond just the look of the site. The site as it is won't help you as much as it could, or should.

Search engines won't pick up this site, and in doing so, promote it for you. If you check out the source code on the site, there are no keywords or key phrases, no real meta tags, which are what google and the other search engines rank all websites with.

The idea of creating a website is to have it show up on page one of google, so when someone searches for custom kitchen cabinets, or fine crafted furniture, your site is listed. People won't go too far beyond the first or second page.

So what ends up happening is this site will only serve to confirm you have a business to people you send to it. It won't generate new leads for you.

If you want more information on this, pm me.

Lee


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## CanadianWoodWorks (Dec 29, 2009)

Too add to what Lee is saying…..

Example of a change is that your home page is actually called HOME.

Your main page title should include the key words you want to be found under when people search on google. If it's custom kitchen cabinets that should be your title, if it's to hard to get on the first page with those key words add your city.

You also want text, information making your site relevant to other people, thus making google think this page has information I should show people this site, causing your site to show up higher ranked when searched.

Meta tags, and descriptions of course.

Those are some easy to do changes that will greatly help your site show up when searched with the keywords you want to show up under.


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## Camper (Jul 31, 2010)

since I am not experienced enough to give advice on woodworking, I might as well chime in on what I know a bit about. Couple of other suggestions in addition to the above excellent ones

1. I find that the font on the buttons in the first page is difficult to read. The rest of the fonts are excellent.
2. I would include phone and e-mail info on the first page..does not have to be big but should be there I think.

Very nice work by the way.


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## GlenGuarino (Feb 23, 2010)

First we would like to congratulate you, a website is a huge undertaking. We found your site to load quickly and navigate easily. Your statement is friendly and professional. We do a lot of cooking & loved the kitchens with all the counter space. Glen saw the site before he left to teach at WPU.

It is good that you show a variety of styles for a client to consider.

You may want to add a brief list of materials & dimensions of each piece of furniture. Do you title your furniture piece? If you do name furniture it may make it easier for someone visiting your site to order a piece. If you use rescued materials it is good to say so, people are into the green concept.

Your work is beautiful. That was a good idea to put your license number on the site. Do you have a fax number, you may want to add that.

Many people ask where our furniture is manufactured, and are always shocked when we say that Glen is the designer and maker. It is sad that many Americans do not think American craftsmen are designing and making things in the US. People are starting to want to support businesses in their own country. You may want to add a statement about where your furniture, kitchens… are made, this can be done at any time.

Later when you have time you may want to add a page showing a piece being made. This is something we have been thinking about. Some artists do this as a blog page. Others add a page that only the client can access showing a piece in progress. Now we do photographs to record the progress of a piece and are considering doing a video of some pieces. Of course its impossible to do for all pieces. This is all time consuming, but people love You Tube, Facebook…

I use PRLog.org to do press releases, it is easy to set up an account, press release has good visibility on internet & it is totally free. The site offers the ability to track a press release. Once it is written, this can be used to send out. Connect with a newspapers, local TV for coverage is good. I was surprised how willing news media were to print articles and do radio & TV interviews. I set up a spread sheet on Excel to record when I send out a release, to who & result.

All the best,
Glen & Marie


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## nailbanger2 (Oct 17, 2009)

That site looks awsome, you should get some good business out of it. Now, how do you get people to look at it? Once they go there, they're hooked, tho.


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## Brad_Nailor (Jul 26, 2007)

The site is clean and straightforward, which considering the amount of flash and other distracting stuff you get bombarded by on most websites, yours is refreshing. I think your photography is good, and the variety of pieces and projects speaks well to your flexibility and range. I agree with a comment someone else made about maybe including some basic info on the pieces/project shown..like materiel used, size, etc…maybe point out a special feature or defining element. I personally would love to see a few in process pictures but that is just my preference. Your work is amazing, and that alone should generate some business for you. I think maybe you should look into what Lee was saying about the search engine thing..I mean, if you made the site to direct customers to it will certainly do the job, but the added bonus of a potential customer getting hooked in once they see your work goes up a lot if your site is popping up in web searches.


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