Hi,
My new theme is up at UpMarket SEO
1. What do you think?
2. Does this qualify as a 3-column theme?
3. Any CSS-genius know how I can position the middle advertisement column, the one that says "high-end SEO support services," without having to place the div above the post's div in the index.php? I am concerned about this for SEO purposes. I want the post content to be higher than any of the sidebar columns' content since it's most important.
Posted 6 years ago #
Looks professional, but seems to be messed up in Opera 8.5...
Posted 6 years ago #
I'm running Firefox 1.5 under Linux, and the CSS is a little quirky on my end.
Here's a snapshot image of how it looks for me.
You might want to consider highlighting the words:
SEO content
Keyword research
They seem to be lost in the plain text although you have them italic
Also, is this deliberate?
"-->For professional SEOs, web developers & marketing departments only. "
If so, you might want to consider inserting a 'space' directly after the arrow, so its not butting right next to the FOR
I had to refresh my browser to get your third column to display correctly.
And my opinion, for what its worth: I'm not fond of your font choice - it makes your overall look very generic and very newsletterish. From what I've seen, most newsletter sites seem to carry the same font and minimalistic color range.
Without being incredibly rude, which it NOT what I wish to convey, your site is a little, well, boring visually.
But that's just my opinion.
Well done on designing your site though and there's nothing boring in that :)
actually, columcille, that's how it looks in firefox on windows xp...
I'm guessing you're referring to the columns intertwining at the bottom of the page? you think it looks bad? Of course, if there is enough content in the post column, that won't happen since they'll all get pushed down the page. I'm assuming that once the site gets ready to roll there will be plenty of content in the post column. But in any event, as long as not content is obscured I don't think it's a problem in that sense, and aesthetically, I rather like it.
But my aesthetic sense is not very strong. What do you think? Not good?
Hi Katie--
Good eye: the middle column's content is not that good but it's not a permanent part of the design. The idea is that an advertisement will be there, such as an image or Google adsense. Of course, there is default styling for that column in case text is used. Any thoughts on improving the default styling?
What would you recommend to liven it up?
It all depends in what you mean by boring. From a usability standpoint and a conversion rate standpoint I find the design very exciting because it manages to combine an article, a lead capture form, and an advertisement, each in prominent positions, without the whole thing being busy.
But yes, it is boring in terms of the color scheme, fonts (really, fonts have to be boring, since you if don't go with the 6 or so browser-standard fonts I think you're just making more trouble than it's worth), and general layout. The idea is that people go to a site for the content, not the color scheme (well, if they're non-designers...)
If you know of a theme that is more interesting visually, combines an article, advertisement, and lead capture form (or some other 3 slightly disparate elements) without any of them unduly distracting from anything else, let me know. I'm sure such a theme exists but it's not easy to search through WP themes right now; you're better off just designing your own, time-wise.
The new semiologic 3-column theme comes somewhat close and is very attractive, but still a little too busy for my tastes.
OK, I'm checking the site in different browsers and platforms. You can have a look at the results here:
http://www.browsercam.com/public.aspx?proj_id=215299
{{fingers crossed}}
Hi, Null
I just looked at the browsercam of Opera 8.5 and at least the top seems to be OK. Were you referring to the bottom of the page?
Here is the browsercam image:
@ joelwalsh - I so agree with you. People, for the most part, surf the web for content. Damn fine content. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t surf the web for damn fine content. But here's the clinker, in my opinion.
The Web is a wholly visual experience and consequently, we are 99.9% of the time, tempted and guided by all things visual. Finding damn fine content is an added bonus, and for the most part it does its job right: Good content draws us, captures us and eventually keeps us so we return for more. A bit like the WordPress forums, really ;)
Font choice is critical, in terms of readability, comprehension and kindest to our retinas. I am a writer by nature, so font choice is critical to me. But in the same breath, I’m a voracious reader too (I read about 8-11 books a week) as well as proof-read.
When we buy a book from a bookstore we do so for the content, not the font. But paper books and the standard font they support are purposefully designed for ease of readability. We both know we wouldn't sit and read a 400 page book if the font choice deliberately hurt your eyes and made the impact on our senses, particularly our emotions less than powerful.
In fact, you couldn't read your book of choice if your eyes continually watered and you ended up squinting more often than reaching for a Kleenex.
The web is the exact same thing, only visibility times 1000. I don’t normally wear reading glasses, but after an hour on the web I have to otherwise my eyesight begins to blur and a headache looms ever closer between my brows. It’s the beast of nature I guess.
There seems to be a running debate about content versus visual aspect. People are ready to debate and defend the topic at a drop of a hat, with most falling on the content side as opposed to the visual aesthetical impact.
One thing I’ve learned is whilst content does draw me, if my viewing and reading experience is hampered in any way, I tend to avoid the site and hunt for another site that makes my reading/viewing pleasure pleasurable. Jacob.N is a prime example - his site and font choice gives me thundering migranes, so I go elsewhere.
But again, that's just my opinion.
Posted 6 years ago #
hi,
-I would make the categories block as wide as the block above it, in Opera it is a bit smaller
-This font is way better
- At the bottom you have 2 "bars" with content like: Original design by UpMarket SEO. Powered by WordPress
I would stretch these two bars. Make them wider so they also overlap the 2 boxes mentioned above. Like Code is poetry. Valid XHTML and CSS. on the bottom of this page. This bar also overlaps the horizontal bar with our names in it.
-The li tags are messed up in Opera (too much to the left) and FF (too much to the right), but I understand these go away and some advertisement is comming there. Hmm wondering if this is the right place to put some add bar.....
Null, which font is way better?
Yeah, I know this would be a somewhat obnoxious place to put an advertisement, very in-your-face, but that's the idea, to make it noticeable, without actually interrupting the content.
Katie, if there's any part of the site that is actually making it hard for you to read or to figure out what goes where, do let me know. The whole idea was to make it easy to read and to find what you're looking for, but of course your eyes always glaze over when you're looking at your own work.
Thank you for the thoughts, null. Can we see your site soon? Not in your profile.
The boxes on the right side have been fixed.
I had done the thing with the boxes on the bottom, the footer boxes, deliberately. Just a thought: everyone has footers that extend the width of the page, though maybe there's a reason for that...once there's much in there the boxes won't resemble footers anymore. I guess I'll change at least the bottom-most footer box.
OK, I still need to know: does it qualify as three columns?
Posted 6 years ago #
? It has 3 cols, right? Why wouldn't it?
I was just concerned because the middle column is so small.
Posted 6 years ago #
"parts is parts"....
It may be small, but it's still a distinct column. Unless part of your "marketing strategy" with this is producing a 3 column theme, it's not going to make a huge difference in the way people view your site (people other than those who use wp, that is....)
Thing is, you need to produce a site which will be what it needs to be for the USERS thereof, not for those of us who spend a lot of time critiquing wp themes.... we tend to be a "tunnel-visioned" lot, y'know?
Well, the third column is intended to be used to show advertising, so unless the end-user likes advertising, it isn't really intended for them so much as the site owner :)
The reason I asked about the three-column thing is for categorizing it in the lists of themes. I think true three-column themes (such as slashdot-style sites) tend to be too confusing, since they don't guide the eye to anything in particular. So my theme is really just a two column theme with an extra advertising column thrown in the help the other two columns make money :) It's obvious the other two columns are what's important. That's what I was concerned with, I guess: the theme has a philosophical difference with other 3-column themes.
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