Review:WWW.vastlance.com

[VastLance]

Hello,

I just finished the design of the homepage (almost, needs some modules on right hand menu and some edit on spacements and text on content part) and I would like to receive some reviews from you

Thank you

[funguru]

The design is very good.. is this done on WP? The header and footer are quite vibrant but the body is a little dull as its plain white.. over all its a good design.

[VastLance]

Thank you for the great review, The design has been done though Joomla, and for the content part I'm changing a little bit on it right now

[Bob Barr]

I really like the overall look of the site especially because it has such a 'clean' feel to it. You've got a lot of potential there for developing a really solid site.

Since I've just begun considering using Joomla for my own sites, I have to ask, are you using a particular theme or are you using the default? (Either way, the site looks terrific.)

[Xelos]

Nice design overall but i have some suggestions:
- logo - this blue background somehow don't fit to the rest of top design
- 3 boxes under search, they probably at progress but you need to make them as links and save in much better quality
- ohh and close buttons don't work

Good luck with changes.

[bigbear78]

I think that your site looks ok, but it seems a little bit sterile to me. I also think that you should work to include more content. All in all, however, I like what you have started. Good luck!

[drew68]

Originally Posted by VastLance

Hello,

I just finished the design of the homepage (almost, needs some modules on right hand menu and some edit on spacements and text on content part) and I would like to receive some reviews from you

Thank you

ok vastlance

here's some ideas for you...

make the body background color white. apply sidebar features thru your widgets and i would have an introductory of your company at the top...talk about what you represent. perhaps 1 or 2 paragraphs? right off the bat, i'm not sure what your site is about...so it might be good if you had that info and then lead into your blog articles.

[VastLance]

Do you suggest to replace the 3 tabs on top by an Intro for the site, for the services and for support ?

[drew68]

Originally Posted by VastLance

Do you suggest to replace the 3 tabs on top by an Intro for the site, for the services and for support ?

Well....i would leave your main navigation as is....and grow them out overtime.

but right off the bat, VastLance doesn't provide me enough information of what you are, who you represent and what you're doing. Remember, you need to capture the viewers attention right away. The moment they start fluttering with what the sites all about, they're gone before you know it.

So yes, leave the main navigation links as is...create a box at the top or change your theme to something like this...where you can have a 1 or 2 paragraph introductory content of your company and what you represent...and then have that lead into your blog....

like this theme...
http://www.paddsolutions.com/magasin/dos/

not so much the colors or all the layouts of that blog but the concept of having an introductory and then the articles below it.

[VastLance]

I'm thinking about what putting on there, for now I took the design darkness in consideration. Can you tell me if this is better (attached)

[drew68]

Originally Posted by VastLance

I'm thinking about what putting on there, for now I took the design darkness in consideration. Can you tell me if this is better (attached)

whats up bud...ok, i like this 10xs better. so much better. self explanatory thru the navigation at the top, the introductory as well. i love it. great job.

i'll definitely look into this site once it's up... i'm always hiring and looking for work as well on the side. awesome. please PM me when your done with the site or email me directly.

let me know if you have any other questions

[VastLance]

Too many thanks to you my friend about this great answer I'm going to add you as a friend from V7N network so that I can alert you once it's working (should be the 1st of 2011). You should also know that all users from V7N will be having a free featured accounts there for 6 months

[drew68]

Originally Posted by VastLance

Too many thanks to you my friend about this great answer I'm going to add you as a friend from V7N network so that I can alert you once it's working (should be the 1st of 2011). You should also know that all users from V7N will be having a free featured accounts there for 6 months

that's good news and great for us. appreciate that. looking forward to your final launch.

have a great rest of the year and here's to 2011. let's make our business' prosper and make LOTS of money!

friend accepted!

[csm]

Usability is low... When users have to scroll down too much they will leave.

The "main stuff" should be on top of everything.

[csm]

Ok, let me do my usual review:

First of all: doctype is XHTML Transitional.

Start page has 4 errors: http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=ht...vastlance.com/

The CSS section is just too heavy.

  <link rel="stylesheet" href="/plugins/system/rokbox/themes/light/rokbox-style.css" type="text/css" /> 
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="/components/com_gantry/css/gantry.css" type="text/css" /> 
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="/components/com_gantry/css/grid-12.css" type="text/css" /> 
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="/components/com_gantry/css/joomla.css" type="text/css" /> 
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="/templates/rt_hybrid_j15/css/joomla.css" type="text/css" /> 
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="/templates/rt_hybrid_j15/css/header4.css" type="text/css" /> 
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="/templates/rt_hybrid_j15/css/body2.css" type="text/css" /> 
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="/templates/rt_hybrid_j15/css/body2-accents.css" type="text/css" /> 
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="/templates/rt_hybrid_j15/css/footer4.css" type="text/css" /> 
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="/templates/rt_hybrid_j15/css/extended.css" type="text/css" /> 
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="/templates/rt_hybrid_j15/css/demo-styles.css" type="text/css" /> 
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="/templates/rt_hybrid_j15/css/template.css" type="text/css" /> 
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="/templates/rt_hybrid_j15/css/template-webkit.css" type="text/css" /> 
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="/templates/rt_hybrid_j15/css/typography.css" type="text/css" /> 
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="/templates/rt_hybrid_j15/css/fusionmenu.css" type="text/css" /> 
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="/modules/mod_rokstories/tmpl/css/rokstories.css" type="text/css" /> 
  <style type="text/css"> 
    <!--
.rt-pagination {display: none;}
body #rt-logo {width:154px;height:68px;}

    -->
  </style>

I would recommend to combine all CSS files to one file.

JS files do not belong in head, move them before </body> tag.

I would recommend to combine all JS files to one file, too.

  <script type="text/javascript" src="/media/system/js/mootools.js"></script> 
  <script type="text/javascript" src="/media/system/js/caption.js"></script> 
  <script type="text/javascript" src="/plugins/system/rokbox/rokbox.js"></script> 
  <script type="text/javascript" src="/plugins/system/rokbox/themes/light/rokbox-config.js"></script> 
  <script type="text/javascript" src="/components/com_gantry/js/gantry-totop.js"></script> 
  <script type="text/javascript" src="/components/com_gantry/js/gantry-buildspans.js"></script> 
  <script type="text/javascript" src="/components/com_gantry/js/gantry-inputs.js"></script> 
  <script type="text/javascript" src="/components/com_gantry/js/gantry-smartload.js"></script> 
  <script type="text/javascript" src="/components/com_gantry/js/gantry-morearticles.js"></script> 
  <script type="text/javascript" src="/templates/rt_hybrid_j15/js/gantry-slidingpanel.js"></script> 
  <script type="text/javascript" src="/modules/mod_roknavmenu/themes/fusion/js/fusion.js"></script> 
  <script type="text/javascript" src="/modules/mod_rokstories/tmpl/js/rokstories.js"></script> 
  <script type="text/javascript"> 
var rokboxPath = '/plugins/system/rokbox/';

			window.addEvent('domready', function(){
				var storiesList = $$('.vertical-list-wrapper');
				storiesList.each(function(storyList){
					new Scroller(storyList.setStyle('overflow', 'hidden')).start();
				});
			});
		
  var _gaq = _gaq || [];
  _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-19922454-1']);
  _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
 
  (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
    ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
    var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
  })();
		

			window.addEvent('domready', function() {
				var modules = ['rt-block'];
				var header = ['h3','h2','h1'];
				GantryBuildSpans(modules, header);
			});
		
InputsExclusion.push('.content_vote','#rt-popup','#rt-popuplogin','#vmMainPage','#community-wrap')
window.addEvent('domready', function() {new GantrySmartLoad({'offset': {'x': 200, 'y': 200}, 'placeholder': '/templates/rt_hybrid_j15/images/blank.gif', 'exclusion': ['ul.menutop,div.roktabs-wrapper,span.image,div.fusion-submenu-wrapper,.module-content ul.menu .image,.roknewspager-div a,#rokintroscroller,.feature-block .image-full,.rt-bottom-icons']}); });
window.addEvent('domready', function() { new GantryMoreArticles({'leadings': 1, 'moreText': 'Load More Articles', 'url': '/?tmpl=component&amp;type=raw'}); })
window.addEvent('domready', function() { new GantrySlidingPanel('rt-feature', {delay: 250, state: 'show', 'transition': Fx.Transitions.Expo.easeInOut, cookie: 'rt-feature-hybrid', text: ['Open', 'Close'], 'flipped': 0}); });
window.addEvent('domready', function() { new GantrySlidingPanel('rt-lowerpanel', {delay: 250, state: 'show', 'transition': Fx.Transitions.Expo.easeInOut, cookie: 'rt-lowerpanel-hybrid', text: ['Open', 'Close']}); });
            window.addEvent('domready', function() {
                new Fusion('ul.menutop', {
                    pill: 0,
                    effect: 'slide and fade',
                    opacity:  1,
                    hideDelay:  500,
                    centered:  0,
                    tweakInitial: {'x': -10, 'y': -13},
                    tweakSubsequent: {'x':  0, 'y':  0},
                    tweakSizes: {'width': 20, 'height': 20},
                    menuFx: {duration:  300, transition: Fx.Transitions.Circ.easeOut},
                    pillFx: {duration:  400, transition: Fx.Transitions.Back.easeOut}
                });
            });
            
var RokStoriesImage = {}, RokStoriesLinks = {};

		RokStoriesImage['rokstories-109'] = [];
		RokStoriesLinks['rokstories-109'] = [];
		window.addEvent('domready', function() {
			new RokStories('rokstories-109', {
				'id': 109,
				'startElement': 0,
				'thumbsOpacity': 0.3,
				'mousetype': 'mouseenter',
				'autorun': 0,
				'delay': 5000,
				'scrollerDuration': 1000,
				'scrollerTransition': Fx.Transitions.Expo.easeInOut,
				'startWidth': 'auto',
				'layout': 'layout5',
				'linkedImgs': 0,
				'showThumbs': 0,
				'fixedThumb': 1,
				'mask': 0,
				'descsAnim': 'topdown',
				'imgsAnim': 'bottomup',
				'thumbLeftOffsets': {x: -40, y: -100},
				'thumbRightOffsets': {x: -30, y: -100}
			});
		});
  </script>

JS in head is blocking parallel downloads of the images used in HTML and CSS files.

The loading speed of your site is very slow for me.

I would recommend using a favicon.

Your start page has 93 HTTP requests and is 909.2 KByte, took 8.88s to load.

Google Page Speed score is only 67.

Google recommends:

Combine external CSS
Combine external JavaScript
Enable compression
Leverage browser caching
Parallelize downloads across hostnames
Serve static content from a cookieless domain
Combine images into CSS sprites
Minify CSS
Optimize images
Specify a Vary: Accept-Encoding header
Minify JavaScript
Optimize the order of styles and scripts
Serve resources from a consistent URL
Specify image dimensions

meta name="description" is too long (I recommend max. 150 chars).
meta name="keywords" is too short (I recommend 10 keywords, no more no less).

There is a lot of optimization potential to make your site loading better and faster.

Just with optimizing images you could save 59.9KByte, with server-side compression you can save another 225.9Kbyte!

With minifying CSS another 11.8KByte...

As you can see, lot's of work to do.

[arsenalfun]

You should accurate your title and description..

[VastLance]

Accurate the ttitle and description ? Any Meaning ?

[csm]

  <meta name="title" content="VastLance.com | Freelance Network - VastLance" /> 
  <meta name="description" content="VastLance.com is the solution of professionals working from home. Millions of projects available daily for freelancers and posted by buyers. VastLance.com is the securer guaranteed payment freelance website online." />

Your main keyword should come first in title ... e.g. Freelance.

Description should fit to keywords

[VastLance]

the freelance word has been used twice on the description .. ?

[csm]

But not in first place. And read my other post about your site, too!