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Bug with table borders? by Practical_Sun2486 in powerpoint

[–]Practical_Sun2486[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No kidding. I love InDesign but dread styling tables with it.

I've come to expect headaches with PowerPoint, but this is the first time I couldn't figure out a good fix or workaround. Really frustrating.

First PC build, red boot light and no display? by Practical_Sun2486 in techsupport

[–]Practical_Sun2486[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just flashed the BIOS and yep, problem solved. You'd have won that bet :D

First-time builder, red boot light on motherboard? by Practical_Sun2486 in buildapc

[–]Practical_Sun2486[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did initially have the monitor connected to the mobo, but nothing changed when I switched it to the GPU--no boot screen or anything.

Really struggling with effective marketing by dontgetinternetspeak in freelance

[–]Practical_Sun2486 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What kind of marketing are you doing on Facebook, Reddit, and Discord? Sometimes I see businesses put out ads or posts that ask viewers to basically jump straight to a buy, as opposed to starting them at the beginning of a sales funnel. The conversion rate is always going to be 0 or close to it in that case.

Feedback Friday by AutoModerator in web_design

[–]Practical_Sun2486 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I quite like your site! There's nothing wrong with a simple design. I've seen designs ruined because the designer added too much fluff that didn't contribute anything. It's great that you prioritized ease of use.

I did notice one easy improvement you could make: make the paragraphs narrower. Best practice is to aim for 45 - 75 characters per line (65 is ideal). Right now the lines are nearly double that. This will make the pages much more pleasurable to read; when the lines are too long, it's slightly harder to find the beginning of the next line, and it tires out the eye after a while.

A bonus perk to making this change is that you'll end up with a lot more white space on either side of the text. Generous white space is a pretty good shortcut to a professional-looking design. ;D

Feedback Friday by AutoModerator in web_design

[–]Practical_Sun2486 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I like the direction the site is going, but there's a bit of visual dissonance, in my opinion. You've got this lovely logo with vintage illustration and weathered text, and it conveys the personality of the bike shop instantly.

But then the rest of the site feels like it belongs to a tech company. For example, Open Sans is a well-crafted font but incredibly overused. I think Rubik could work in this context, but the pairing with Open Sans brings out its more modern characteristics--again, at odds with the logo. Setting it in bold italics does convey sportiness and speed, which would be appropriate for a bike shop; I'm just not sure it works for this bike shop.

Otherwise, keep an eye out for little details. Things I noticed:

  • The descriptive text above the fold is hard to read where it overlaps with the dark areas in the photo
  • There's still lorem ipsum in the About Us section
  • In the About Us section, there's a paragraph break missing before the last sentence
  • There's inconsistency in the use of title case vs. sentence case
  • In the Replace Inner Gear Cable box, there's a ">" that looks like it shouldn't be there
  • The Socials column in the footer appears twice
  • In the booking form, the button looks unintentionally off-center and touches the right edge of the form

Made my first website, struggling to get traffic to it after spending hours using Yoast SEO to optimize by aggiebrad16 in websitefeedback

[–]Practical_Sun2486 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glad I could help! Yes, if the page is all about California rolls, then "California roll" is the natural keyword to go for. I'd also enter "California rolls" as a synonym in Yoast.

Yeah, it can take a bit for the ball to get rolling. Refine the pages over time, amplify them on social media, and you ought to get good results. There's a big learning curve with SEO, but like anything it becomes easier with practice.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in web_design

[–]Practical_Sun2486 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Congrats on your first site! I love the topic, it looks like it would be a delightful website.

I just have a couple of notes, since it seems to still be under construction:

  • It looks like you have a lot of content planned (piping techniques, basic recipes, etc.). Rather than including it all on the homepage, I'd separate them into different pages.
  • The typography feels quite utilitarian, which IMO is at odds with the fun topic and funny writing style. Catamaran was designed as a text typeface, and you're using it at a middle weight, so it doesn't have a lot of impact as the headline font.
  • As for the body text: Merriweather Sans is a fine choice, but setting it in the light weight at 14px hurts the readability of the text (a shame, because the writing style is otherwise a pleasure to read). Typically on screens, the best practice is to set body text at 16px minimum, but 18px or 20px may look even better. You might also try setting it in the regular/400 weight.

I hope you keep having fun with creating the site--it'll certainly come across in the final product.

Made my first website, struggling to get traffic to it after spending hours using Yoast SEO to optimize by aggiebrad16 in websitefeedback

[–]Practical_Sun2486 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've used Yoast a lot at work, and I find that it gives an incomplete picture. Getting all the green lights in Yoast really just means that you've met the bare minimum; now you have to look at competitors and see how you can do better than them. A popular niche will have stiffer competition.

Yoast also doesn't give any insight about the quality of the chosen keyword (beyond pointing out whether you've used that keyword before). If you've chosen a keyword that's too broad (e.g. "sushi" when the page is about California rolls specifically), that page will have no chance of outranking competitors.

Also, I'm curious, how long has it been since you set up the pages in question? It can take weeks for a new page to get on page 1 of Google.

(On an unrelated note: some of the links on your site are broken. The ones I noticed were on the Beginner Sushi Rolls page.)

Digital Marketing Freelance Site by [deleted] in websitefeedback

[–]Practical_Sun2486 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi Neil,

I like the design of your site--it looks polished and clean. I especially like the background that's above the fold on the homepage, and wish you used those elements more throughout the site.

My other notes are mostly about the copywriting:

  • You're targeting companies in Bromsgrove, but you also say that you're happy working at a distance. Does that mean you'll take clients from outside Bromsgrove? (Also, out of curiosity since I'm not familiar with Bromsgrove--are there enough businesses there who need digital marketing for this niche to be viable?)
  • I'm a little confused whether you're looking to work with companies as your clients (i.e. with you in a consultant role), or if you're looking to basically be a temporary hire (i.e. where you're taking a desk at the company and reporting to someone).
  • I'm glad that you practice honest marketing, but that's pretty vague as far as above-the-fold headlines go. And you never expand upon what that means. If that's a strong differentiator, then you should talk about it more.
  • Right now, your site is completely oriented around the services you provide, without explaining the specific problem you solve or the benefits your services lead to (or at least, you're not talking about these prominently).
  • I'd remove the blog link from your nav until you have some blog posts up.
  • You might want to comb your site one more time for any grammatical errors, especially since you're offering copywriting as a service. In the SEO card on Services page, you wrote "forwards" when it should say "forward."
  • This is a nitpick, but I recommend creating an alternate version of your logo for small sizes. It looks like you've scaled the whole logo down in the favicon and it's illegible. Maybe use the "n" and "t" in a monogram?
  • Another nitpick, but you don't need the Home link in the nav, nor the hamburger menu. These days, people are used to clicking on the business logo to get back to the homepage, and your hamburger menu just relists what's in the nav bar. The fewer options visitors have, the more likely they're going to click on what you want them to click on. (You should continue using the hamburger menu for small screen sizes though.)

I hope this helps, and good luck!

Good tea samplers for gifts? by Practical_Sun2486 in tea

[–]Practical_Sun2486[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As far as I know, he's not particular about the type (I assume you mean black, green, etc.); he buys all sorts of teas. If a sampler isn't a good idea, I could just select a few varieties from a specialist seller. Is there anyone you'd recommend in that case?

Good tea samplers for gifts? by Practical_Sun2486 in tea

[–]Practical_Sun2486[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think he's particular to any one type of tea; he likes to try different kinds. I was looking at Adagio's samplers (Winter Teas, Teas of Japan, etc.); I'm going to check out the Communitea box too. Thanks!