Does this web site have a professional image? Options

[whistler]

We would like to share our enthusiasm for a historic town in Mexico with this web site as well as find people to rent our house in the town.

I am relatively new to html and have tried to keep the design simple as I move up the learning curve. I understand that technically there are numerous things to fix, but...

Could someone with design experience advise if they think the site design appears professional, interesting, and appealing? I would really appreciate any feedback and ideas.

Webpage

This post has been edited by whistler: Feb 1 2011, 10:18 PM

[Darin McGrew]

I'm moving this to the review forum.

[Darin McGrew]

wheretostay.html returns 404 Not Found
Transportation.html returns 404 Not Found

The layout is fixed-width, instead of being liquid to adjust to the visitor's browser.

You have no doctype, which puts browsers into quirks mode:
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/doctype/

Our online validator reports markup errors, including some basic structural errors:
http://htmlhelp.com/cgi-bin/validate.cgi?u...&spider=yes

Visited links turn the same color as your body text. And you use <font> to color your body text.

Your main pages include links back to themselves in the navbar at the top of the page.

It looks like you're copy-pasting the common content (like the navbar), but there is variation in the page structure from one page to another. It would be a good idea to use some sort of automated system to handle the basic page template for your entire site.

[whistler]

wheretostay.html returns 404 Not Found
Transportation.html returns 404 Not Found

The layout is fixed-width, instead of being liquid to adjust to the visitor's browser.

You have no doctype, which puts browsers into quirks mode:
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/doctype/

Our online validator reports markup errors, including some basic structural errors:
http://htmlhelp.com/cgi-bin/validate.cgi?u...&spider=yes

Visited links turn the same color as your body text. And you use <font> to color your body text.

Your main pages include links back to themselves in the navbar at the top of the page.

It looks like you're copy-pasting the common content (like the navbar), but there is variation in the page structure from one page to another. It would be a good idea to use some sort of automated system to handle the basic page template for your entire site.

Thanks Darin, Im going to try to fix everything you pointed out - except the pages not found are because the site is not finished... These are important technical issues and I keep learning how to write better code and fix these.

Meanwhile, what I was originally asking, is how does the site look to the visitor? It is very simple and static. No flash, no image swaps, no moving icons. I will improve all the copy and add better photos. Some photos and links are missing, Ill fix that. But do I have a lot to do in terms of design to make this an appealing professional site, and if so, what would be one or two examples/suggestions?

[pandy]

I'd like the images to be clickable and linked to larger versions so I can see more detail in those I'm interested in.

[Darin McGrew]

A couple other things I notice that make it seem less professional:

The textured background image appears behind the text, making it harder to read. It's easier to read if you put white (or another pale color) behind the text, and reserve the textured background image for the margins outside the content areas.

The HR between the navmenu and the content is narrower than the navmenu, and depending on the page, it's either wider or narrower than the content.

There is no "who we are" statement on the page. Yes, there's a separate page, but it would be good to have some info on each page.

Related to that, there is no indication of how current the page is either.

[Ephraim F. Moya]

1) I think there should be MANY more photographs.

2) There should be a map.

3) To be professional, the site should be finished before its published.

4) The site should be centered and adapt better to different windows sizes.

5) Costs, if any, should be clearly spelled out.

6) Explain how the history before 1500 was arrived at.

This post has been edited by Ephraim F. Moya: Feb 9 2011, 03:22 PM