My website

[Mr.ViperBoa]

Hey all, I finally got my website up and running. It is still a work in progress so dont hammer me to bad lol. I would like your opinion on what you think and what I can do to make it better. Thanks all
http://www.texaschlsolutions.com/

[The Annoyed Man]

Take this as constructive criticism from someone who is self-employed as a website designer.....

Don't center align all of your text. It makes it harder to read because it causes line breaks where the eye does not expect to see them. Everything starting with "The State of Texas has adopted..." should be left aligned.

Next, your page has scads of empty <div></div> tags and unnecessary &nbsp; characters to force page formatting that aren't necessary to get the exactly same look that you have. All that extra crap in the HTML just maks for messy pages and makes it more difficult to further edit the page in the future. For example, beginning at line 103, you have the following code:

Code: Select all

<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; color: #4c4c4c; "><img alt=""  src="images/24475767.jpg"  />&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;&#160;<img alt=""  src="images/24476105_1qtb.jpg"  /></div> 
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; color: #4c4c4c; "><br /> 

You could achieve the exact same thing this way:

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<p><img src="images/24475767.jpeg" width="232" height="217" align="left"  /><img src="images/24476105_1qtb.jpg" align="right"  /></p> 
<p>&nbsp;</p>

PM me if you would like some professional assistance.

[Charles L. Cotton]

The Annoyed Man's work is excellent and he's also dedicated to the cause.

Chas.

[The Annoyed Man]

Thanks for the props, Charles.

[RoyGBiv]

Spell-check is your friend... "Renewal"
I agree with TAM about the formatting..

Good luck with the business.!

EDIT:
You do renewal and new CHL classes together?
Is that typical?
If not, you might want to spell out the different schedules or describe briefly how you handle the two classes.

[Lonest4r]

You may also want to take down the US Army and NRA graphics unless you have obtained permission to use them for this website. It could tick someone from these agencies off if they stumble upon the website and think that you are claiming that they "endorse" your class. Just a suggestion; I am not a lawyer, nor do I represent either of these two organizations.

[Mr.ViperBoa]

Thanks for the advice TAM. I have never done a website before and was just using the tools that GoDaddy provided. I will get better as time goes by.

[MasterOfNone]

Some notes:
DPS no longer has to certify the range.
The image of a uniformed officer doesn't fit CHL content.
Counters just waster space - nobody cares how many people have visited a website.
Scrolling text is annoying, especially when you have to wait for it to scroll to read it.
I suggest including range fees in your price to avoid appearing to have add-on costs.
If you know how much gun rentals cost, it will help students know what to expect.
Have someone read over it with you to ensure you are conveying the message you want (and to find missing words and typos).

Website tools that hosts provide are OK for personal pages, but they tend to fall short for business sites. Your site is your first impression, and it is worth the cost and effort to make it look professional. Either learning html and css or paying a pro to build it is a good investment.

[OldCannon]

Website tools that hosts provide are OK for personal pages, but they tend to fall short for business sites. Your site is your first impression, and it is worth the cost and effort to make it look professional. Either learning html and css or paying a pro to build it is a good investment.

Both TAM and MoN are giving excellent advice. I hate to say it, but your site looks like a Geocities page from the '90's.

Good web page design is hard, and good search engine optimization (SEO) is even harder. We are way beyond the "build it and they will come" stages of the internet.

One fun bit of advice I can give: Take the time to visit http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com. It's an amusing way to learn how NOT to design pages, and there's a lot to be said for that.

[PracticalTactical]

I'd recommend using Wordpress. Very versatile and easy to use.

[raptor]

When you force a page width using &#160; (NBSP) instead of using align right/left to position your pics like TAM suggested, you risk alienating people who have a different window size (or monitor size) than you're trying to force. Also consider that more and more people are accessing the web from mobile devices.

I second the suggestion to list the full price instead of hiding the additional charges ($20 range fee? really?) on a different page.

[The Annoyed Man]

When you force a page width using &#160; (NBSP) instead of using align right/left to position your pics like TAM suggested, you risk alienating people who have a different window size (or monitor size) than you're trying to force. Also consider that more and more people are accessing the web from mobile devices.

I second the suggestion to list the full price instead of hiding the additional charges ($20 range fee? really?) on a different page.

A lot of CMS software packages have mobile friendly "sub-templates" that reformat the pages into a mobile-friendly format whenever the website detects a mobile device OS/browser is looking at the page.