Feedback Needed!

[50Cent]

Hey guys and people, i need some good feedback on my portfolio website. Please help me thanks!

Link: http://jovingraphics.wordpress.com/

[Fergal]

50Cent when someone first visits your website you only have a few short seconds to capture their interest, or they will move on to another site. The most obvious content on the first page of your site is;


Added New Designs
Done with the adding of the T-shirt designs of mine! Guys check them out!

There isn't much in that, which clearly explains what you do and that makes me want to know more about your site. You need to add a slogan or heading to your site that makes what you do very obvious. Perhaps a slogan that describes the design services you offer might help.

The heading / name of your site is a little difficult to read. Splitting up the two words, i.e. putting a space between them, would make it easier - Jovin Graphics.

It would also be good to see some of your designs on your home page, with a link below them, saying something like "Click Here for More" or even just "More".

Once you have done all that, it will be time to concentrate on your call to action - a statement that encourages your visitors to place an order or to contact you for a quotation. But you should probably concentrate on the other stuff first.

Good luck with it.

[50Cent]

The name is combined - Jovingraphics.

Can i also do SEO on a free wordpress blog?

[GekiDan]

Can i also do SEO on a free wordpress blog?
Yes. definitely, you can.

Here's my review on your portfolio:
TEMPLATE: The site seems to be plain. For me, it doesn't look like a design portfolio. It lacks all the aspects regarding graphic design since there's no design on the template and you can't clearly see any design at all at first glance.

HEADER/LOGO: I agree with Fergal on this. It needs a better header. Since you are a designer, you can showcase your designing skills on this part. Seeing that you created your own logo/header on your portfolio, it will surely make your visitors get interested to use your services.

BLOG: This one needs to be improved. But honestly, I don't think it's needed at all since this is a portfolio site, not a blog. :) Maybe you can just put here when is your portfolio last updated, or something similar to that.

ABOUT PAGE: I think this one also needs improvement. I really can't tell what's needed to be done. Try to visit some other portfolio sites and read their about page for some ideas.

OVERALL: I know you can improve this one so that you can get more future customers. You can try out some free eye-catching pre-made templates available and modify it according to your tastes. But remember, be sure to showcase your design on the first page so that visitors will browse more on your portfolio.

Hope these comments help you.

[50Cent]

Thanks Gekdan. For what you have said, i can really do on a free wordpress blog.
Unless, i get my free hosting for it.

[Fergal]

50Cent getting your own domain name and hosting would help a lot. Is that something you plan on doing?

[50Cent]

50Cent getting your own domain name and hosting would help a lot. Is that something you plan on doing?

Yeah. Now waiting for the person to give me my hosting. But i will have a lots of problems.

[WebWizard]

Looks like a nice portfolio and alot of good feedback here.

[50Cent]

Looks like a nice portfolio and alot of good feedback here.

Thanks! I have replied your Pm.

[krispykreme]

Nice portfolio.. soo neat!

[50Cent]

Thanks! Now getting my own host up.. will post the new link soon.

[ProfitClinic]

I agree with Fergal's comments. The front page doesn't sell what you do. It actually puts an added action into the process for visitors to access what they need to see... not a smart thing to do.

If your home page is going to promote new portfolio updates, then put that update right there on the home page with a link to your full portfolio entry. In other words, make it easier for visitors -- and potential clients -- to SEE what you do: fire your biggest guns first!

Getting your own domain name and cPanel hosting (with Fantastico scripts installer) will definitely give you more control -- including your own email addresses, your own blog, forum, ecommerce, etc.

Alarm bells start sounding loudly for most people when they see a business using a hotmail address. Even Google's g-mail would be better than any other free email addresses. Your email address lacks credibility when it's at a free service like hotmail or yahoo! mail.

I realize that hosting, even though the monthly fees can be very low, can be an obstacle for young entrepreneurs because you typically have to pay in advance for at least a year to get those low rates, but here's a suggestion: if you know other people or businesses who want hosting for their own sites, consider getting yourself a reseller account with someone like HostGator. For less than US$25 a month you can re-sell space on your own shared server, with full facilities, free scripts and installers, etc. You'd need very few clients to cover the full amount -- and your own hosting is then free!

I actually host more than 100 domains of my own on a reseller account, plus four or five small business sites for clients, whose sites I design and manage. So not only do I get all of my own sites hosted at no charge, I make a real profit every month on the client hosting.

The reason I recommend HostGator.com is because of these important factors:

1. They have the best customer service of any web hosting provider, no contest. Live chat (with DOZENS of tech support staff) is available around the clock, free of charge, and you can have transcripts emailed to you for future reference.

2. They have over 400 video tutorials, all branded with YOUR logo, name, etc, that you and your hosting clients can use at any time (example: http://tutorials.profitclinichosting.net).

3. They offer both cPanel and Plesk admin software, Fantastico script installer and more than 4,500 excellent web site templates for you and your customers to use, all included in your hosting fee.

There are more, but I think you probably get the idea by now.

Think entrepreneurially. You'll find better solutions that way, and enjoy better results. :)

John

[50Cent]

Ok guys.. now i have my website set-up, other than showing people me portfolio designs , any ideas what i can do in the homepage? like what should i post other than updates my website.

Help please. THanks!

[GekiDan]

Ok guys.. now i have my website set-up, other than showing people me portfolio designs , any ideas what i can do in the homepage? like what should i post other than updates my website.

Help please. THanks!
Is your site's link still the same as the one you posted above and in your sig?

[50Cent]

Is your site's link still the same as the one you posted above and in your sig?

Sorry i forgot to post the new link.

Here you go: http://jovingraphics.webrdy.com/
I have brought a .com domain still under changing.

Once you enter the website, i have the portfolio page as the homepage. But now i have a problem, if i have the home button appearing in the navigation bar it will show the portfolio page not the posts page so i removed it.

Now i need to have a idea on how to show my posts? I am thinking of using the recent comments on the sidebar to let visitors know it. Will it work?

More comments to come please thanks!

[GekiDan]

Great improvement there 50cent.
Here are some of my additional suggestions:

You need to change the permalink to your post to your post title:
From http://jovingraphics.webrdy.com/?page_id=2, make it http://jovingraphics.webrdy.com/about.
This could be easier for search engines to find your site and include yours on searches that includes those keywords.

Logo/Banner:
I would suggest you to change the tagline "Just another wordpress site" or just remove it.

Recent Post:
That widget is not giving you recent posts, but it's giving you Recent Comments, as far as I can see.

Other than that, it's good to go.:D

[hetal_387]

First of all Congo buddy for getting your own domain.. Which is really nice forward step.

Yes, You can do lot many things with your website now:
(1) Start with "On-Page SEO" to your site. That is Adding Title-Meta and keywords. It is very important to do.
(2) Yes, you can add comments in left navigation if you want
(3) Try to add few more pages like Gallery having more T-shirt designs, about us, contact us etc..
(4) Try to design professional attractive logo if possible.
(5) I think your home page that is just url should contain all your post and portfolio page should be just stand alone static page, that is what I believe.
(6) Try to get some attractive template which suits your site theme.

Hope This may help you.

[50Cent]

Need more to come!

[colton1237]

Thanks a lot for your great informative post.

[50Cent]

Thanks a lot for your great informative post.

Is it a comment?

[50Cent]

Now i have a new .com for my website. And you can visit it from www.jovingraphics.com
I will design a logo and put it up by next week and edit some content then the website can officially open. Meanwhile, i need some good feedback on the site.

[Fergal]

Well done on getting the domain and good luck with it 50Cent. Your site is currently opening very slowly for me - hopefully it's a temporary glitch.

[50Cent]

Well done on getting the domain and good luck with it 50Cent. Your site is currently opening very slowly for me - hopefully it's a temporary glitch.

Why it is slow for you? It is currently good for me. Anyone else have the problem?

[PaulPinnacle]

Why it is slow for you? It is currently good for me. Anyone else have the problem?It loaded fine for me, so I'd guess it might have been a small glitch the last time Fergal tried (just fyi, I'm in a relatively similar location to Fergal based in Ireland).

Having said that...
I'm not sure what options are available to you on your current hosting (if it's shared hosting, it can be restrictive on what you can do), but if you could enable compression (gzip) it would have very noticeable results due to the relatively heavy javascript used on the site (firebug estimates a 126.9kb reduction [from a total file size of 315kb], so noticeable benefits available there).

If you're looking into that, also worth checking if you can enable browser caching for the site too. This will allow repeat visitors save a local version of static files (like the images) on their local machine and save them load time when returning to the site.

On a first glance, I have no idea what your site actually does. Are you looking to sell me t-shirts? Do you design t's for me? (I didn't even notice a mention of the word 'logo' on the homepage)

This lack of 'content' on the home page will cause serious problems for both users (who decide within seconds if they wish to look further at a site, so you need to get your pitch front and centre with a clear call to action) and search engines (who will struggle to figure out what your site does, so won't return it for searches).

Title:
At the moment it's simply "JovinGraphics". Very few searchers (only those specifically looking for you) will be using this term, so you're missing out on the potential to rank higher for numerous organic searches. Do some keyword research, figure out which terms are relevant and you have an opportunity to rank for (there's no point in optimizing your entire site around a very competitive term that you won't be able to rank for, at least not for now. You can reassess the terms you're aiming for when you build up more content and have started work on your off page SEO) and then include these in the title. Remember that a title not only helps in terms of where you place on a SERP, but is included as the hyperlink so has serious implications on the click through rate (CTR) once you do rank, so put a lot of thought into what you put here.

Meta Description:
This won't have much impact on where you rank in search results (e.g. if it's google, the description has no impact on SERP results), but it will on your click through rate. The description is commonly (assuming that you have a description and the SE believe it's relevant) used as the 'snippet' shown on SERP's. You want to keep this as a short and snappy sales pitch that shows the searcher how they benefit from viewing your page. A good rule of thumb is to limit the description to around 150 characters (it depends on the SE how many characters they will show, google for example show 154 characters) and use it to put your best foot forward.

(Take care when copying pages. The meta description for your quote page is still there on the 'about' page.)

Header tags:
You currently have 3 separate h1 tags on the home page. This is far from ideal in terms of semantic mark up. Again, you want your h1 to be a clear description of what information is on the page (and include the terms you're hoping to rank for, without resorting to keyword stuffing).

There are a number of h2 and h3 tags on the page, but none of which contain a keyword that relates to your page/products/services. I'd consider revising some of the internal architecture to accommodate this (e.g. rather than 'Portfolio' link to 'T-Shirt Design Portfolio' and 'Logo Design Portfolio').

When you do add content to the page (again, you really need to if you hope to achieve SERP results and to make for a better user experience on the site), look at using semantic mark up to make the relevant terms stand out. A few simple bold or italic mark ups not only make it more obvious for a reader what to concentrate on (people don't read, they scan), it does the same for search engines.

Page content:
On the pages that do have content, make sure you're presenting yourself and the business in the best possible manner. Design work is a professional service, if someone sees your site as being poorly finished they'll lose confidence in how professional you'll be in your design work.

Simple things like running the text through a spell checker (and checking for grammatical errors) makes a big difference. Things like 'i' rather than 'I' and poorly formed sentences make a big difference in a competitive market.

Privacy Statement:
In some countries this is a legal requirement (e.g. EU rules relating to this), but I'm not sure there are any related to your location/target market. Having said that, it's still 'best practise' to have a privacy statement whenever you have a contact form on a site. If I'm going to consider providing you with my email address (or doing business with you), I want to have confidence that you're not going to sell my private information to unwanted 3rd parties/spammers. It's a strong confidence building tool, or at least a means of not 'losing confidence' in the eyes of potential customers.

Hope some of those comments help. Just a high level overview, not comprehensive by any means.

[50Cent]

There are a number of h2 and h3 tags on the page, but none of which contain a keyword that relates to your page/products/services.

How can i make the keyword related to the pages?

[Fergal]

50Cent, the site is opening fine for me now, it must have been a temporary issue.


How can i make the keyword related to the pages?

Do some of the following;

Make a list of the terms you believe your clients might use when searching for services.
Look at the keywords your competitors are using.
Use keyword selection tools such as Google's Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal)

You should also find some of these threads helpful;

Building Valuable Long-Tail Keywords (http://www.businessadviceforum.com/showthread.php?t=11544)
Keyword tool (http://www.businessadviceforum.com/showthread.php?t=12564)
Keyword Tool Research Google WW (http://www.businessadviceforum.com/showthread.php?t=5780)

Does that answer your question or were you looking for something else?

[Henry_Jakson]

Hi, 50Cent
I have visited your link they are very good. Don’t worries you get good feed back for your nice work effort. Good Luck.

[50Cent]

Thanks! I have changed to a better and nicer theme compared to the previous one. Need some feedback! Added twitter,facebook icons and email me icon.

[Fergal]

Looks smart and professional 50Cent. One comment I would make is that when I visit a graphic designer's site, I would normally expect them to have their own logo and not just text for their site name.

[50Cent]

Looks smart and professional 50Cent. One comment I would make is that when I visit a graphic designer's site, I would normally expect them to have their own logo and not just text for their site name.

I always have problem changing the logo, because i do not know which file is it in.

[PaulPinnacle]

because i do not know which file is it in.
I'd spend a little time to find which file it is located in and make a few tweaks to it.

You're already being hurt by having a 'default' h1 tag on every page, but it's even worse when the <span> holding the tag line is so irrelevant. I'd personally remove the h1 tag from the header like that so you can at least control what your heading tags say.

I tried to download a copy of the theme to let you know where it was in the file structure, but no such luck..

Forbidden - Users from your country are not permitted to browse this site.

[50Cent]

I know HTML i know how to edit, but i do not know how what to edit but mostly the codes are on PHP. Any luck to tell me what to edit to make my site better?

[PaulPinnacle]

Any luck to tell me what to edit to make my site better?
I can't get a copy of the theme to give you specific names of files, but if you pull up the individual files you shouldn't have much trouble finding where the relevant code is located.

If you pull up your 'index.php' file and then check which files are being referenced, chances are you'll have a 'header.php' or 'top.php' (or something similar) being called where you'll find the code to edit...

<div id="logo">
<h1><a href="http://jovingraphics.com">JovinGraphics</a></h1>
<span>Just another WordPress site</span>
</div>

[50Cent]

I can't get a copy of the theme to give you specific names of files, but if you pull up the individual files you shouldn't have much trouble finding where the relevant code is located.

If you pull up your 'index.php' file and then check which files are being referenced, chances are you'll have a 'header.php' or 'top.php' (or something similar) being called where you'll find the code to edit...

Yeah i have changed.

[GekiDan]

I just visited your portfolio and saw a big change. Yeah, a really big one.
Your current theme is similar to one of my partner sites (http://orendsrange.blogspot.com/).
But when I visited your site, the logo you currently have is BAF's. Why is it?

[50Cent]

I just visited your portfolio and saw a big change. Yeah, a really big one.
Your current theme is similar to one of my partner sites (http://orendsrange.blogspot.com/).
But when I visited your site, the logo you currently have is BAF's. Why is it?

Yeah the theme is similar. I use BAF's logo to test for the header. Because i do not have any logo for sample.

[Fergal]

...I use BAF's logo to test for the header. Because i do not have any logo for sample.

That's a nice bit of free advertising for us. All you need do now, is design a logo for your own logo design portfolio :)

[50Cent]

That's a nice bit of free advertising for us. All you need do now, is design a logo for your own logo design portfolio :)

Yeah. I am fine with it to help you advertise awhile, while i get my logo done. :D

[GekiDan]

Yeah. I am fine with it to help you advertise awhile, while i get my logo done. :D
I wonder what it's like to have a logo design portfolio site without heir very own logo. :P

[50Cent]

I have made everything ready.. Please check them out and give me comments.

[GekiDan]

I have made everything ready.. Please check them out and give me comments.
Is this Joomla? Why did you changed the layout? The previous one is much better since this one is quite plain.
What I see that made an improvement is your logo. But still, I see that the "g" is far bigger and more noticeable than "J". It would look more awesome if you make the "g" a little smaller.

[50Cent]

This is still wordpress.. The previous one i don't really like it, it looks very crowd on the site. This one is plain i know. I just wait for me comments

[Fergal]

50Cent what is the purpose of the "i" flash button next to your main image, when I click on it, it turns the background colour of the image to black?

I'd agree with GekiDan about the design looking very basic. Would it be possible to add more images to the main portfolio area of your site. The addition of a little bit of text that introduces the site and explains what it is about, would also be helpful for your visitors.

[50Cent]

When you click the "I" it turns black to show the description of the image.

If this is to basic, i will find another theme. Just need time.

[GekiDan]

I see that you changed again your layout. But thsi one looks better than the previous one I saw yesterday.
Maybe you could add some samples, at least 2 or 3, on your homepage and put a link to your portfolio static page.:thumbsup:

[50Cent]

What do you mean by sample?

[50Cent]

Need feedback again.. i feel that the website is like short of something..

[GekiDan]

What do you mean by sample?
Samples, like a few of your designs.
Anyways, I saw that you changed again your layout. Right?
It's looks better but your logo on the right side is kinda distracting when I look at your designs on the content column.

[50Cent]

How about now?

[GekiDan]

How about now?
It's looking better now. :thumbsup
How about putting your "About Me" section on the right sidebar? Maybe above the "Recent Posts".

[50Cent]

DOne.. but can't remove the bottom about me.

[DavidL]

Not sure if it has been mentioned, but how about a custom banner? It would definitely go hand in hand with a "graphics" "portfolio" blog.

Personally, I dislike the theme due to its lack of originality and design. However, that's just me, so if you wanted my to stay, I'd add something to make it interactive, or more interactive. Maybe some tag cloud or a contact form at the footer. Maybe some "random design" widget that users can see a range of your designs.

[50Cent]

I have changed the About page to the latest Design. So whenever i have a new design i will post it there with a link to the post. I will consider about your idea david. Need go find the plugin Thanks anyway,

[50Cent]

I have added a plugin at the sidebar like what David said. Comments still needed.

[Fergal]

The site looks great 50Cent, I'd still like to see a logo in your header. Is the plug-in you are referring to, displaying the image in the "Design Cycle" area? When I refresh the page, the image there changes and I see a new one. Would it be possible for you to add an arrow there, so that visitors can flick through the images, without refreshing the page?

[50Cent]

I am still thinking for the logo..

I think i can't add a arrow there. But it would not be a problem if the visitors want to flick through the images because my portfolio is just at the side. The visitors does not need to refresh the page just to change the images, when it clicks a different section the images will eventually changed.