Please could you critique my webpage.

Hi,

Thanks for that!

Fancy a writer having typo... thanks for pointing it out.

I actually do Animal Acupuncture - so there was not much research done on that one!

Again, thank you for taking the time to comment - it is much appreciated.

Regards

Karen

Hi Karen,

I feel that when I go to your webpage it's missing something.

It doesn't really get my attention right away. And I think that is because you don't really have a headline that is grabbing your customers by the lapels and bringing them in to keep reading.

Try this structure.



Need quality articles?...

Hi Bill,

Thank you for that!

I see what you mean - now you've pointed it out.

Do you mind if I use the headline you suggested? It couldn't be better for my purpose.

Brilliant stuff - thank you again!

Karen

Hi Karen!

A few things.

First of all, the space at the very top of your website, the part you can see without scrolling down (or 'above the fold' in designer jargon) is very precious. That's becase most folks will never scroll down. Unless you grab them with whatever you've got going up top, that is.

From that standpoint, that cute little quill pen and inkwell is taking up inches of your most valuable real estate and drastically limiting your chances of getting people to download your articles. One way of putting it might be 'Only put things on your page that bring something to the party.'

I'd agree with Bill, above, that a headline/subhead structure for the top of the page is a good idea, especially as people coming to your page are likely to be interested in using your articles for marketing and SEO purposes and that's what that market likes and expects.

And, of course as a writer you know that people find stories compelling. Tell your story in a way that's relevant to your target audience and emphasizes what you can do for them and justifies why you're the one to do it by telling them how you learned how to do it and what proof you have that what you do works, for yourself or somebody else.

Be essentially honest, but shape the narrative to bring out the right points given the criteria I set out above

And definitely put a link to whatever you want your audience to click on above the fold, with your first call to action.

One other little design detail. The 'MS Comic Sans' typeface you're using in the body looks cute but tends to make a site not convert, for whatever reason. I'd go with a simple 12 pt. Tacoma or Ariel for your body font.

I hope that's helpful, Karen! Much luck with your site!

Be Well,

Michael Perez

Hi Guys,

I have changed the page to include the headline so kindly suggested, removed the picture, changed the typeface and moved the download link above the fold.

I'm still working on the copy and will change that when I'm happy with it.

Thank you both for your very helpful and constructive advice.

I just love this forum!

Regards

Karen

Hi Karen,

So much better! It's really shaping up!

A couple more more quick suggestions? See if you can get the site title 'Swift Articles by Karen Connell' on one line. That will pull more of your content above the fold.

I'd also change the body text to either an-even-darker blue or black (except for the coloured text, that's fine) and left-justify the body text.

So...

Like so

..or...

Like So

...rather than


Why?

People expect to see what they're used to. In newspapers and books, Headlines, subheads and chapter titles are usually centred. Body text is either left justified (most books, letters and internet text) or fully justified (newspapers)

So, it's more familiar, therefore more comfortable and comfortable, in the context of formatting and layout is good (with exceptions. More on that in a minute).

You want to make reading the text as easy and as transparent as possible. You only want to (sparingly) figuratively 'jostle their elbow' as they read to draw their eye to some key words and phrases by making them stand out a bit (bold, italics, underline, colours), which gives the reader an immediate and often unconscious sense of what's on the page.

Make sense?

Anyway, once more, you're quite welcome and it's great to see the improvements you've made!

Be Well,

Michael Perez

Hi Micheal,

You really are a star - thank you so much.

I'm off to make some more changes - right now!

Regards

Karen

Update: Done it! Off to work on better copy now.