A few thoughts:
[ul]
[li]Line up the top of the main content box with top of the the navigation box, it'll look neater.
[/li]
[li]The page title across the top doesn't really stand out. A brighter colour might help - yellow maybe? It's still going to be problematic in that position though, more on that story later...
[/li]
[li]I'd lose the thick green borders around the pictures. Consider using a left-floated <div> to hold each picture and its caption instead of a table, that way it will juggle them around to fit the available width. I find that giving photo images a 1px grey or light brown border can make it stand out better from the background.
[/li]
[li]If you're able to use scripts on your site, see if you can incorporate one that manages image galleries - it'd be good to be able to upload pics of steaming days etc. without having to hand-build the pages to display them.
[/li]
[li]The most prominent text on each page is the line which begins "Essex Steam - Real Steam Rollers - ..." (I'll call it a strapline). This it might (possibly) impress some search engines, but it doesn't appear to be of any use to
people at all. Consider moving it out of the way to the bottom of the screen, or getting rid of it altogther.
[/li]
[li]That strapline is the natural location for the page title - the eye latches on your site logo, drifts down looking for a page title, then further down looking for the content. With your current layout I have to zig-zag around the page. Consider moving (or repeating) the page title to under the logo. You wouldn't then need to start each page with "Welcome to the
whatever page".
[/li]
[li]Your markup contains some serious <h
n> tag abuse. Top marks for using a styled <h1> for the page title across the top, minus several million for using a single <h4> for all the menu items and a <h3> for the strapline. Minus a gazillion for putting all the content of each page into a single <h5>. Use heading tags for
headings. You might think you're going to get some SEO benefit from this trick, but you're more likely to get penalised for it in the long term. So don't do this:
Code:
<h5>Welcome to the Essex Steam site: Steaming Days page.<br />
You can take your choice from a variety of pastimes.
<br/><br/>
1. Spectators view<br/><br/>
You can watch and relax as we fire up in the morning then take a gentle tour of the local countryside, stopping at a local pub for lunch before returning home in time for a cuppa. You can ride on the footplate, or sit on the comfortable seat on the trailer. Morning tea, lunch and afternoon cuppa are all included. A very relaxing and uncomplicated day.
<br/><br/>
Do this:
Code:
<h1>Steaming Days page.</h1>
<p>You can take your choice from a variety of pastimes.</p>
<h2>1. Spectators view</h2>
<p>
You can watch and relax as we fire up in the morning then take a gentle tour of the local countryside, stopping at a local pub for lunch before returning home in time for a cuppa. You can ride on the footplate, or sit on the comfortable seat on the trailer. Morning tea, lunch and afternoon cuppa are all included. A very relaxing and uncomplicated day.
</p>
[/li]
[li]Adding sound is a great idea (smell would be more of a challenge!). Just make sure it's something visitors opt in to explicitly - don't have the sound play automatically when a page is loaded, but have the visitor click a link to "Hear the Wallis & Steevens in action" or whatever.
[/li]
[/ul]
Hope you find some of that helpful.
-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd
![[blush]](/data/assets/smilies/blush.gif "[blush] [blush]")
I've just found out what <p> is for and how to use it - OOPS!