SITE REVIEW: www.lease2u.co.uk

Hi guys,

I would really appreciate your input into how my sites looks, first impressions, ease of navigation, quality of information on the about us and funding options pages. For you guys that are into keywords and meta tags, have I got too many/too little or just the right balance? http://www.lease2u.co.uk


Many thanks,


Peter

At first glance it seems a little confusing ... I'm not a fan of the aqua colours in the header.

Instead of just images and the title, you should write a paragraph or two explaining exactly what the website it for.

In regards to those images, try to use a different colour than those default blue and red colours for the text, because they are quite out-dated and shabby.

The title of your page has a 'strong' tag in it, and so too does the description and keywords in the metadata.

There's several bits that are out-of-place. Down the bottom, the 'seach by brand' section on the left overlaps the blue of the footer. There's also a bit of grey and blue at the top ...

The white background comes into the design ... this in my opinion is very distracting to the viewer ... try a grey colour ...

You should increse the size of the links at the top ...

Your website has 58 xhtml 1.0 strict mistakes, so say's the validator. You can see them here. It also says that there are two css errors. It's best to have your website as valid as possible.

I don't know if you did or didn't, but it looks like you've got some cumbersome program to do the coding for you ... It'd be better if you learnt the code and manualled typed it yourself.

I'd also work on the language ... very haphazard and hard-to-read (for example, you spelt 'finance' wrong on this page).

The contact us page is just plain weird. Try adding an e-mail so customers can contact you directly. Most might not have a preferrence for a make or model (also, they may know absolutely nothing about cars, so try having a service where they tell you what they need the cars for and a program generates the best matches).

Some of the images of the cars you lease are squashed. I randomly clicked on 'Seat' in the search-by-brand section, and it looked as if a giant had sat on the cars.

Most things have been picked up on by the above post. But here are the main ones.

1. Spelling: Iff people see a spelling error on the site, They will more than likely just leave the site.

2. Main page: To many images, add some more text.

Hi Breeze and Penguin,

I really do appreciate your observations. I did not design the site. I had a guy do it for me as I know very very little about web design. This same guy does not now work for me as he backlinked to over a thousand sites in Poland, most of them porn.

I should be able to sort most of the wee things you have spotted Breeze. As for the overlaps etc I wouldn't know where to start with them. The website was written by a polish guy by hand. Even in the code there are Polish words ( I don't speak Polish!)

any advice would be a major welcome breeze

Only thing I noticed that breeze hasn't mentioned is the "add to" thing that jumps around from browser to browser ... in IE7 it's at the bottom left, but in FF it's in the right hand side in the middle of the page ...

And also you could maybe disable the link of the page that a user is on, for example, if a user is on the "home" page, you could disable the "home" link and make it another colour (or rollover state), that way users will know which page they are on and they won't redirect to the page that they are already on ...

Nice effort. A few comments on what could be changed, however. Your icon in the top right seems to be a little pixely on the outside borders. Try adding a drop shadow or and outer glow to mask the pixely border. Try changing the menu color to something other then blue. Other then that, keep up the good work.

Hi guys, thanks for all your advice. I now know why I am not a web designer! I'll stick to leasing vehicles. Imagine this that 4 weeks ago I had no idea about designing websites etc and i have had to find out the hard way how to edit the site. A lot of the things that have been suggested I haven't a clue how to make the changes but I am working on it. It takes a lot of reading to learn even the basics. Once again thanks for all the help and opinions. I have managed some of the changes but I bet it still looks like pants to pros like you lot.

Hi,
Here is some help with your validation codes. Maybe someone has an easier way, but this is the way that I do mine.

I did check again on your validation again and it is showing more. (85)

The easiest way I found to correct the errors is to go into my source code in my software program and hit the Ctrl (Control) and F key. it should bring up a search box.

Open another window and run the validator again, once you get the information back, start at the first one and find it in your source code using the "search box". Many times it tells you what is is missing in the validator.

If I find many errors I do them slowly, only take about 3 or 4 to start with, change the code (hopefully correctly) then I publish to the net. I wait for a few minutes and run the validator again to see if more came up or what it is finding.

I found once I upload to the net, my changes on my website has taken from 2 - 10 mintues...it take patience.


When I first viewed the site I was kinda confused on what you did. I see the information is below the pictures, if you could move that up towards the top so when someone stops at your site, they see this information first. Right now you have to scroll down to see the information.

I do like the layout of the site. It was easy to navigate around.

Thx for all your help guys, I was up at 3am this morning. Reading forums trying to learn what a bloody css file was! I think I have managed it as I now have the site W3 validated woohoo. Smoke me a kipper I'll be back in time for breakfast.

see, web design is easy!
seriously though, I admire what you're doing. if you get stuck with any particular bit post it in the 'website design' forum and someone will work it out for you guaranteed.

another word of advice you've probably figured out for yourself now - when you're getting someone to do you a site, find somebody you can trust. it's best if they live where you live, and you can meet face to face. look at their work, contact their previous clients - make sure you know what you'll get. it's too easy to present yourself as a web designer on line these days and then just deliver a sub-par product and run.............

anyhow good luck!

Great advice, don't just go for the best price, cos most of the time it will bite you on the ass.

Here are a few things that I don't really like ( in no particular order - and I not being rude, just a little blunt. Plus I'm at work so I don't want to get long winded. So I should get to it )

1. the upper nav (with the images) is doing something goofy. It's wrapping around itself
2. the nav in the banner needs to pop out a little more. there is text directly next to it the same size. even though the color is different i would change the size or font or color to make it really stand out.
3. I think you overused the page curl effect. I would have only used it vertically or horizontally, not both. looks nice but you overdid IMO.
4. the footer looks weird, items too close together and the footer is too tall
5. i like the car images, but i think i would have used a variety of colors for the cars. not just red.
6. "L2U" looks jagged. also i would incorporate the tag line into the logo
7. about us page - something about that color font on white is messing with my eyes. or it could be that i've been up all night with no coffee also the font is too small. and i would do more with the subheadings to make them stand out. make it easier for someone that doesn't want to read the entire page.
8.Funding options - same thing about text. maybe add an image. also whats up with the grey box above the footer that seems to be intersecting the nav's background. it's like the page curl is being overlapped.

That's about it. Now let me say that I think the site is actually really nice. Very clean and to the point. Everything is spelled out. No hunting around needed. I just think it could be better with a few small changes. Hope this helps. PS I didnt read any of the other reviews, so I apologize if anything is repeated. GOOD LUCK!

Hi all and thx for your reply Zaiah,

I am not a web designer bro so a lot of what you have said hs lost me to be honest. Whilst i am not stupid and I have honestly tried to understand what you have said, i just don't get it. Is there any way that you could explain in plain English and not developer jargon. Sorry if this sound like an amateur, but I am one!

Hi Guys,

Could you do me a favour and revisit the site http://www.lease2u.co.uk? I have updated it with a lot of the suggestion already made. I would especially like your thoughts good or bad on the main header and the drop down menus to brochures on the cars and van pages.

Thanks,

Pete