Nice blog, like the strong title image. I would think about your title at the top of the page though: “haroldemccray.com”. This isn’t very descriptive, in fact its not at all obvious who your pronounce it! Ha-rold dem-cray, Har-old Emc-cray, errr. Its only looking at the footer do I see its really Harold E McCray…
If your blog is called ‘Artist in the Kitchen’, then make that the title. It’ll give readers a better clue as to what the site is about and help Google listings.
Also your subtitle: “Gardening, cooking, photographing and writing”. Swap photographing => photography. Will read much better. Even if its loses the consistency of the ‘ing of each word – I presume that’s why your chose photographing, yeah?
Your categories widget, its currently a drop down menu with 2 options hidden inside. Would be much better to just swap it to two links. Visitors don’t need to click on it, to see what categories you have then.
Why is each recipe a huge jpg? None of the text inside will be indexed by Google, or searchable with your search box. Could be good to find all recipes using artichokes. Also, the jpg compression has done no favours to the simple black/white text, making it quite blurry. You’d be better off making this separate posts/pages you link to. Definitely find a nice ‘print page’ plugin though, I don’t have a computer screen handy in the kitchen!
Thanks for taking the time to look at my blog, and I have made the changes as you suggested. Yes, you’re right, I am trying to maintain parallel construction with the “ing.” Agreed: it is an added step for my visitors to click on the drop down to see categories–again, thank you.
I will need to explore “making separate posts/pages” that I link to using a “print page plugin.” I have located a WP Print Friendly, I believe is what you mean, yes? This extends WordPress’ template system to support printer-friendly templates. Erick Hitter (Oomph, Inc.) is the creator. Am I on the right track?
Now, I need to figure out how to put this all together (smile). Any suggestions where I could go to find guidelines?
> I will need to explore “making separate posts/pages” that I link to using a “print page plugin.”
Almost got it. I’d put your recipes on a separate post or page. On each blog post, put a link to it. The print plug (like the one you found) will then add a button to all/some pages/posts, to pop the page up in a new window, all formatting nicely for printing (without widgets down side etc).
All your recipe pages will be tagged/categorised in their own right, will be searchable themselves. Perhaps pop a link on each recipe page with the link back to the original blog post.
Arfa, again thanks for the information. I will work on your suggestions and get back to you once I complete. I thoroughly appreciate your help here.
