Suggest design ideas for my site please?

12 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
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Warriors, I have a fishing website that I built, using Wordpress and the Mandigo theme, from a crappy cookie-cutter site I bought on Ebay back in March for 40 bucks. I know nothing at all about web design, and know only very basic HTML. Everything on my site I did myself, putting in literally hundreds of hours and reading tons of material on building and running a website, as well as SEO, linking, social media, marketing, etc.
Even though my Alexa ranking has dropped from 8 million + to around 1.2 million, I have come to the conclusion that unless I make some drastic changes to my design, no matter how much great content I put on my site, I'm not going to keep a visitor on it - most visitors probably leave instantly when they see how unprofessional it looks.
That being said, I am now reaching out to you web design professionals for advice. Should I keep the current theme and save up for months to pay a semi-pro designer? Or maybe go with a new theme, and then get a designer? My host has agreed to install a new theme and upgrade my wordpress from 2.7 to 3.0, (for an undisclosed fee), but I'm afraid they will screw everything up (worse than it is now). Whatever I do, my funds are massively limited. What simple changes could I make (that a newbie can do) to make a big difference?
Help me Obi-Wan!!
Scott Rogers
www.bigfishingshop.com
#design #ideas #site #suggest #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author RaulK
    I've been working with web pages for years and I think your site needs a lot of work. It's too cluttered, also the logo and menu don't look very professional. Cause there is so much info, the loading time is also long. Which is bad for the Google magnifier.

    The easiest thing to do is to create a new header. Something simple and clean. Make the menu font smaller, so it's all on the same line. I would also change the font overall.

    If you do those simple changes, I think it will already look much much better
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    • Profile picture of the author bigfishingshop
      Thank you RaulK for your reply. I made a new header, tried it and changed back to 800 pixel default theme, results were disastrous. My Amazon aStore is just not compatable with a narrow theme, unless I drop the sidebar. I did however clean up the homepage a bit - maybe not so cluttered now. Thanks for your help. Anyone know a good logo designer?
      Scott Rogers
      www.bigfishingshop.com
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  • Profile picture of the author juanseo
    The first thing to do is to optimize websites for search engine optimization.
    Includes a competitive keys, title, metakeywords, metadescription.

    Sets the body of the page with the background, and put a few quality links to your site
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    • Profile picture of the author juanseo
      Sorry I forgot to tell you before
      this text:
      Sport Fishing

      Sport Fishing magazine, the ultimate .....
      is above the marine electronics text ...
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      • Profile picture of the author bigfishingshop
        Originally Posted by juanseo View Post

        Sorry I forgot to tell you before
        this text:
        Sport Fishing

        Sport Fishing magazine, the ultimate .....
        is above the marine electronics text ...
        What page are you referring to - Saltwater Fishing?
        I went back to the 1100 pixel theme because of too many problems with the 800 px one. So hopefully that fixed the issue you are referring to.
        Thanks.
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    • Profile picture of the author bigfishingshop
      Originally Posted by juanseo View Post

      The first thing to do is to optimize websites for search engine optimization.
      Includes a competitive keys, title, metakeywords, metadescription.

      Sets the body of the page with the background, and put a few quality links to your site
      I have done all of the above a long time ago...except "sets the body of the page with the background", I'm not sure what you are talking about.
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  • Profile picture of the author flowerwedding
    First you use a different template your site template so simple that make your site
    unattractive.
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  • Profile picture of the author .warrior
    The website and theme are ok. All you need to do is to change the images and make sure the content is relevent and impressive.
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  • Profile picture of the author juanseo
    Your website looks different in Internet Explorer and Google Chrome that Mozilla Firefox.
    In Mozilla Firefox is not entirely correct.

    Please apologize for my difficulties with English
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    • Profile picture of the author bigfishingshop
      Originally Posted by juanseo View Post

      Your website looks different in Internet Explorer and Google Chrome that Mozilla Firefox.
      In Mozilla Firefox is not entirely correct.

      Please apologize for my difficulties with English
      Juanseo, I was able to view my site on Firefox and you were correct - I fixed the text-over-banner problem on that particular page. Then I looked at another page and WOW! it was a mess! I "refreshed" the page and it all came out o.k. (the browser loads the page all jumbled up the first time, but you refresh it and everything falls into place.) IE7 shows the pages fine the first time. What could cause this? :confused:

      Scott Rogers
      www.bigfishingshop.com

      No problem with the English - I have difficulties with it myself and have been speaking it for over 45 years! LOL! :p
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  • Profile picture of the author bigfishingshop
    I believe that I will get my host to upgrade me to the latest version of Wordpress, and install a new theme that is easier for a newbie like me to work with. The Mandigo theme is nice, but is geared more towards people with alot more web design knowledge than me. I could do alot with the current theme if I just knew some basic CSS - but I am like a newborn trying to write a novel when it comes to CSS. I need a theme that is more rookie -friendly.
    Question: do any of you have to scroll right and left to see all of the content on my pages? I'm trying hard to eliminate that problem, is there a way to create a "margin" in my CSS rules?
    Scott Rogers
    www.bigfishingshop.com
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  • Profile picture of the author Cozzy
    Why dont you head over to themeforest and buy a new theme for your wordpress site. they have hundreds of professional looking themes from $10 to $35.

    Most themes come with slideshows so you will just upload your images.
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