www.pierced.ca

Thanks for checking out the site.

This page is for my band. I want to use it as a tool for people to learn about the band, hear the music, see pictures, contact us, talk about the band (blog to come), and find out when our shows are.

I clicked on the validator link, and I am not sure what a DocType is, or how I put one in my pages.

I have just started to explore PHP, and want to add that to my Contact page so that the forms work better.

Any constructive feedback is welcomed regarding layout, navigation, information transfer, general coolness...

I'd also like to get Google to find my page. I've been to www.google.com/addurl.html. I guess it may have something to do with my Keywords, and Description. Any suggestions?

http://www.pierced.ca

Brad

The intro is a little corny, maybe some music by your band during the intro will attract more attention to it, and it will right away give people an idea about what your band is about. I know not everyone likes to hear sounds here and there thrown around, so you might want to add a music player on the main page with off switch on it.


I like the flash menu, it has some cool effects in it.

Thanks for the comments.

It is the first Flash file I've ever made and want to make it better, but need to learn more right now. My friend made the tool bar.

I've tried to add music to the Flash file, but can't seem to get it to play. Still working on that too.

Brad

As for getting your site on google, I would think about getting rid of the flash intro. I'm not sure how google treats those things, but many people find them annoying.

I agree with the above post, the menu is nice, but may cause problems with search engines. I'm not sure of any search engine that understands flash, so it is a disadvantage to use flash for a menu. You have to weigh looks with accessibility. Take a look at this article: http://digital-web.com/articles/seo_and_non_html_sites/

As far as I can tell, the index1 page has little of no content. Other than a flashing text, I see no content. You may want to change that. Content is king when it comes to search engines.

Doctypes tell the browser how to render your page. You should always include one to prevent the browser from using "Quirks" mode. To understand Doctypes, take a look at this article: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/doctype/

Hope some of this helps. Good luck with the site!

Thank you for the tips. Those articles were great. I made some changes to my pages as a result. I'll think about the Opening Page being Flash or not.

Just one rookie question. I really don't know what doc type to use for my page.

which one, listed on this page (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/doctype/) should I choose?

Thanks again,

Brad
www.pierced.ca

I think this would be the best for you



you probably can't be arsed to delve into xhtml and its not all that important... yet.

I like the whole site but i can't agree more about the whole intro page.... good luck!

www.senseof16.tk

I personally don't think it matter which doctype you use, just as long as you use one. Personally, I would recommend the XHTML transitional one. There isn't much of a difference, other than XHTML requires more structure in the code. Because of that, I find it easier to catch mistakes. But in the end, it is just a personal preference.

for sure go xhtml on the doctype, i would go strict but Transitional will do.

i would get rid of all flash (i always think flash looks tacky unless REALLY well done)...or at least get rid of the sounds in the menu on the top (i was trying to listen to YOUR music while browsing the page and i had to hear the clicking sound from the menu)

but i think your images are pretty great, and i am surprised to say that i was impressed by your music (it seems like there are a ton of bands websites on here, usually they aren't good)

Thanks to everyone for their replies.

I guess I'll put in the XHTML Strict DOM.

Thanks so much,

And thanks for the suggestions on the Flash portions. I think I will take out the sounds, especially if it is interfeering with the music.

Brad

Has any1 actually noticed that xhtml is just too hard to live up to? I mean it's just crazy!! Even this very forum doesn't validate in xhtml and I think w3c are asking way too much

My own site is valid (apart from the stupid yahoo ad which isn't and yes im on geocities and am changing host asap!) and in xhtml it is so unvalid its unbelievable!!

I don't think XHTML is hard to live upto at all. Many sites (at&t, chevy) have all converted over to XHTML. There is a good change that the software this forum uses was originally developed prior to the XHTML standard. Not all sites use XHTML, but that doesn't mean they can't.

Most, if not all sites, can be converted to XHTML. It may not be easy, but it could be done. I just don't see how the W3C is asking too much.

no


it's really not.

Typing in little letters, and putting quotes around things. yeah, it's a complete bugger. It is a mystery to me why there are so many validation errors in devshed though (it's still awesome though!). I mean, it seems strange to have defined the site as XHTML, and then have this:

border=0

now thats wat i was talking about!

As someone who used to design independant musician/band websites - I repeat what I said about removing the flash intro. The only reason someone would ever put a flash intro, is if they are so popular (like eminem, kylie, christina ec..) that anyone coming to the site would click through 30 flash intros just to get to the content. You should definetely remove it; you want to get people straight to the heart of your site.

I also would say no to having music play on your site. Many famous people do this, but most people immediatly turn it off. Just let them quickly choose things they want to listen to. If the first song they hear is something they don't like, they will immediatly leave the site never to return.

And as I said over in the other thread, there's no logical reason your site should be high-up in google for any keywords other than:

1. band name
2. musicians name
3. local venue names
4. local towns

I think your inner design is great and you should definitely keep it.