• Registered: 2009-04-26
  • Posts: 24

Topic: New Site, lemme know

Well after a few days of trial and error and a few Video tutorials ive got a decent looking page up. Basically my wifes father in law asked me to build him a site on his business and wanted to keep it pretty simple, let people know what information they need to know. Hes not quite sure about the whole web business but left it up to me to build something and hed let me know what he wanted and what he didnt want. He wanted as little information on there as possible, fearing his competitors would see what hes like buisness wise, and basically wanted it to be more of a "Heres the surface, call me for more detail!" kinda of site.

w ww.grareb uilders.c om

He seemed pleased with the site layout and the amount of info that was given. I told him that its been a long time since ive done anything like this so anything fancy wasnt gonna be a problem anyways. He showed me a few things he wanted changed and asked me how people would be able to find this site. I looked at him puzzled and realized I didnt know the answer.

So basically im asking a few things here.
1. Hows the site look, any comments, additions, questions?
2. How do I make his site available to Yahoo, Google and other engines?
3. Any thing im missing?

Last edited by ciulmer (2009-06-01 07:24:24)

  • Gender: Female
  • From: Tenerife, Spain
  • Registered: 2008-12-29
  • Posts: 358

Re: New Site, lemme know

Your internet address link does not work.

  • Registered: 2009-04-26
  • Posts: 24

Re: New Site, lemme know

Fixed

Here it is again as well

w ww.grareb uilders.co m

Just a quick update as well, the "Current Jobs" link isnt up yet since I have no pictures or info on any current jobs hes doing.

Last edited by ciulmer (2009-06-01 07:24:46)

  • Registered: 2009-01-13
  • Posts: 486

Re: New Site, lemme know

Nice basic site. Good presentation of the information that is there.  The FIL  should be happy with it.

I am in a similar business (carpentry) and am curious about the Garage special, what price would a turnkey package cost? Just built one last summer for $25,000 CDN for a friend. Is that in the range of prices in your area? Using today's exchange rate, $20,000 USD. (approx)

Turnkey = garage c/w slab, 9ft walls, insulated, electrical, drywalled, painted interior.

Thanks.

Last edited by jlhaslip (2009-05-04 08:37:05)

  • Registered: 2009-04-26
  • Posts: 24

Re: New Site, lemme know

He was saying around 10.3 for that basic setup I posted.

Another Question I figured id ask while im here was, I noticed it comes up with some "pause" symbol for an icon (kinda like the Frogs head that comes up on killersites.com) Whats that all about and how can i change that?

  • Registered: 2009-01-13
  • Posts: 486

Re: New Site, lemme know

The little yellow and black Frog in the Tab of the Browser?

That is called a favicon. It is an image of the ".ico" format, and using one is as simmple as naming it favicon.ico and uploading it onto the account Root folder. There is a link tag to go with that. Google will help you there.

And thanks for the info.

7 Reply by lm

  • lm
  • Advanced Member
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  • From: The Netherlands
  • Registered: 2008-12-20
  • Posts: 2,770

Re: New Site, lemme know

He wanted as little information on there as possible, fearing his competitors would see what hes like buisness wise, and basically wanted it to be more of a "Heres the surface, call me for more detail!" kinda of site.

If this is the main website destination, put up the contact phone number (and when to call) in a header. Or may be even a little map with location. Or the best products pictires.

  • Registered: 2009-04-26
  • Posts: 24

Re: New Site, lemme know

All that information is contained in the top menu bar. This is a business ran from his home, so adding a map probably wouldnt be the best of ideas. Thanks though! smile

  • Registered: 2009-04-17
  • Posts: 97

Re: New Site, lemme know

I did notice that the main content doesnt start at the top of the page, it starts towards the middle. There is a big empty white space at the top of page...

This is in IE 6

Last edited by Cashster09 (2009-05-05 07:35:29)

10 Reply by lm

  • lm
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  • Registered: 2008-12-20
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Re: New Site, lemme know

All that information is contained in the top menu bar. This is a business ran from his home, so adding a map probably wouldnt be the best of ideas. Thanks though!

You wouldnt believe but it is true - less clicks to actual information = more clients. About the map - if it is home running business, mark the area of where it operates - I rather meant that one.

Last edited by lm (2009-05-05 08:56:13)

  • Registered: 2009-04-26
  • Posts: 24

Re: New Site, lemme know

Cashster09 wrote:

I did notice that the main content doesnt start at the top of the page, it starts towards the middle. There is a big empty white space at the top of page...

This is in IE 6

I noticed even the newest version of IE does this as well. Someone metioned some additional stuff for IE to work properly so im in the process of doing that.

  • Registered: 2009-04-26
  • Posts: 24

Re: New Site, lemme know

My above site is giving me troubles again. I revamped it a little with more stuff ive learned via web and these forums. If you look at the site theres a "space" above the container (the top of the browser and the upper portion of the webpage) I cant for the life of me figure out why its doing that. Any ideas?

Also got to thinking about the domain name and some better ideas for it. Is it bad practice (or something else) to use -'s in your domain name? I noticed a lot of the domains that would work well are pretty much taken, but something like www.gra-garagebuilders.com I think would look good and provide better hits to this site. It contains his companies name (GRA) and has garage builders in the domain name....lemme know thanks again for the much appreciated help!

  • Registered: 2009-04-17
  • Posts: 97

Re: New Site, lemme know

I have found using the name of the company and general words like "garage builders" is very beneficial for search engines.

for example,
if for an elegant hardware store you have eleganthardware.com would be good...

I told my recent client for a dry cleaner store to use the words dry cleaner in the name....so he decided on web drycleaners.com

  • Registered: 2009-04-26
  • Posts: 24

Re: New Site, lemme know

But would putting a (-) in the domain name hurt it any? or is it possible? ie www.gra-gargebuilders.com ?


The actual business name is GRA R.E. Builders

GRA (Garages, Remodeling and Addtions)
R.E. (His initials)

I found putting anything like : GRA, RE Builders, GRA RE Builders. Only gets me hits on "REBUILDERS" and stuff associated with "GRA" in the first title of the name. I want to keep with the GRA as much as possible but I wanna really drive home the "Garage Builders"......

Last edited by ciulmer (2009-05-14 22:14:30)

  • Registered: 2009-04-17
  • Posts: 97

Re: New Site, lemme know

well, i have used a "-", but try to avoid if necessary....
You can use GRA but drop the RE and use garage builders somehow..

  • Registered: 2009-04-26
  • Posts: 24

Re: New Site, lemme know

ciulmer wrote:

My above site is giving me troubles again. I revamped it a little with more stuff ive learned via web and these forums. If you look at the site theres a "space" above the container (the top of the browser and the upper portion of the webpage) I cant for the life of me figure out why its doing that. Any ideas?


Any thoughts on this?

  • Gender: Male
  • From: Chico/Sacramento, CA
  • Registered: 2008-12-19
  • Posts: 2,343

Re: New Site, lemme know

If you add "margin:0;" to ".mainbackground" that should fix the spacing.

  • Registered: 2009-04-26
  • Posts: 24

Re: New Site, lemme know

bah, thought I tried that, i must have done something wrong. thanks it worked

  • Registered: 2009-04-26
  • Posts: 24

Re: New Site, lemme know

lm wrote:

put up the contact phone number (and when to call) in a header

I went back and read a few posts and got back to this. Id like to do this but im running into some issues. Id like to have his phone numbers and times like stated above by Im in the top header. But im running into positioning problems both ways ive tried it. Maybe theres a way im not aware of?

Right now ive tried just putting the text into header div and attempted to move it to the top right or bottom right of the div.

Ive also tried making another div inside the header div and used margins to put it where I want. With this ive found that entering margins for this div somehow effects margins of other divs.....How do I avoid this and what would be the best route to puting this info in the header div?

20 Reply by lm

  • lm
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  • Registered: 2008-12-20
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Re: New Site, lemme know

It is common to have div header at the top where you can position logo, page title and other information you want to appear on all pages.

So you can add after tag <container>  in your HTML:

<div id="container">
<div id="header"
  <div id="logo"><img src="images/yellowgaragesmall.png" alt="Small Yellow Logo" width="304" height="169" longdesc="images/yellowgaragesmall.png" /></div>
<p class="tel">0611223355</p>

</div>

...your menu bar code...

Further you can float #logo to the left and .tel to the right and giving margins, position both blocks as you wish. If you float divs, Dont forget to clear floats afterwards, writing:
<div class="clearboth">&nbsp; </div> after floating elements.

  • Registered: 2009-04-26
  • Posts: 24

Re: New Site, lemme know

Updated my site, put a fancy background in I built myself (insert cheesy smile from overwhelming sense of accomplishment big_smile ) So easy but felt good to be able to figure something out with a little work behind it.

I started looking at the site and its layout. I feel like theres more I could do (or learn) but have hit a mental creative road block. Is there any suggestions as to what else I could possibly look into adding a little more flare to the site? By flare I dont mean anything to flashy just something to kinda give the site some eye catching material?

Ive done a few things here and there but ended up taking stuff out in the end. Im having troubles with the people im making the site for and getting them to understand what a webpage is all about. In the end it feels like I should just put up a big phone number that flashes instead of a site.

Information wise it seems like I have to leave people in the dark about certain aspects of the business. Not that this is a shady operation but the owner is all about the FACE TO FACE aspect of business and flinches when I mention setting up an email for him so people can contact him this way as well.

One thing I thought about was putting up some kind of visual aid of what people might want concerning the size of the garage. Maybe show some sizes and put different size cars/trucks/bikes/ect to give people a better idea of what they will need.

Again the help is very much appreciated!

Last edited by ciulmer (2009-06-07 22:56:53)