Need an opinion

[Joe Butler]

I am Adding pages galore. But I am wondering am I getting to far away from my home page. Please check my site. Should I add an activities page on my homepage or keep each the links on my Avalon NJ and StoneHarbor NJ pages. The golfing pages can get 4 deep. Is that a problem in anyone's eyes? Thanks

[webmaster]

The way I would set it up is, have your links to your main area pages from your homepage, as well as the main links that need to be there (MLS, about us, buyers, sellers etc) Then on your area pages have subnavigation to each of the pages specific to the area (Golf, accomodations, directions etc) 3 clicks deep to any subpage but very intuative. If you have links to all your pages from your main page, you just make a mess of the navigation.

Check out the way we have set it up at www.northcountyluxuryhomes.com for inspiriation. I click on "Carlsbad" and see subnavigation populate for quick facts, specific area mls search, home values, schools and accomodations. We will be adding more and more content pages as we write them and evaluate our keywords etc.

[Joe Butler]

I think I want one of your sites. How much?

[Bob Crain]

I think I want one of your sites. How much?

Hey do I get a referral fee?

I have had a LOT of positive feedback on this new site from the users!

[webmaster]

Referral fee? I think everyone that you refer to us should pay you a fee Bob

[Bob Crain]

Referral fee? I think everyone that you refer to us should pay you a fee Bob

I do have that real estate referral network page? Maybe we can get them all on there after the build outs.

[suzstephens@opendoor.com]

Joe, ditto to Webmaster's suggestion of minimizing the number of links on your home page. Unless the navigation is very intuitive and unless the content is super compelling, your stats will probably show that few people drill more than 3 pages deep.

For usability and legiblity you might re-think your white text on grey backgrounds. I'm speaking in particular of text such as "Avalon, NJ is a resort town with a rich and unique history..." Unless you can do something to make it more legible, such as adding line-height with CSS, people are going to find it very difficult to read, especially since it's tightly boxed in with rules. The small links to the right of this text are actually much easier to read and would be even more so if you made the column a little wider so the text links won't split up into multiple lines.

Hope that helps,
Suzanne

www.SuzStephens.com

[Joe Butler]

Unless you can do something to make it more legible, such as adding line-height with CSS, people are going to find it very difficult to read, especially since it's tightly boxed in with rules.

www.SuzStephens.com

I dont know much. What do you mean by line height with CSS. I have a lot of links I thought I needed those words on the home page?

[pcdoc]

What do you mean by line height with CSS

I looked at your code and don't see reference to a stylesheet.

If you are interested in CSS, do a google search, you will be overwhelmed with tutorial sites, here is a good start.

http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/

[suzstephens@opendoor.com]

What do you mean by line height with CSS. I have a lot of links I thought I needed those words on the home page?

CSS -- Cascading Style Sheets -- are a sophisticated means of styling type. They can actually do *much* more than style type, but styling type is a good place to start learning. The styles can be placed in the head section of a document, suitable for standalone pages such as a home page. Or the styles can be written on a separate page that is referenced by many or all the pages in a site. The second method is great because if, for example, you decide to change the color or size of headlines, all you have to do is change it once on the stylesheet, then the change applies automatically to all the pages that are linked to the stylesheet.

Line height: refers to the negative (empty) space between lines of type. In print design, it's called "leading" because strips of lead used to be placed between lines of type back in the dark ages when type was still set manually or with Linotype machines using "hot" metal type.

When deciding how much space to put between lines, there are more factors which must be considered, "x-height". X-height is the height of lower case letters such as "a" or the "hump" in an "h". Fonts which have a high x-height in relationship to the "cap" height, such as Helvetica (aka Arial) need more leading or more line-height than fonts with short x-heights.

Second, more line-height in body text can lend a more contemporary look.

Third, line height can be added to type in non-graphic link "buttons" to increase or decrease the space between the buttons.

Here's an example of a page with text styled with CSS as well as with a more complex use of CSS to style, position and create the functionality of the menu:
http://www.anticookiecuttersites.com/what.shtml

(Note, the page titles on these pages are graphics, which I used to save time cross-browser testing the site. I could have used CSS-styled type instead of graphics.)

Finally, about having a lot of words and a lot of links on the home page: presumably you are referred to search engine optimization? If so, having text that's relevant to the search terms used and to things such as the page's <title> tag is more important than simply putting a lot of type or links on the home page. It's good to have some type on the home page though, but only if it makes sense to have it there. (My home page on the site referenced above is a bit extreme in its lack of type; I'll add some before the site comes out from under Google's aging delay.)

Search engines drill down into sites, measuring page content for relevance to the keywords searched. So, if you have the keyword "price" on the home page and you have a page titled "price" that also has price-related text, then the search engine will see that page as being more relevant to the keyword "price" than the home page. In general, it's better to write and add text to pages with marketing your product or service in mind than simply for search engine optimization. There are numerous good resources on copywriting and SEO at highrankings.com and highrankings.com/forum/.

Another reason not to have a lot of text crammed onto any page is that people tend not to read crowded, poorly organized pages. Good design lends credibility to a site. Recent research has shown that people decide the credibility of a site within milliseconds of landing on the site. So if the first impression a user has of your site is not one of professionalism -- as lent by good design and thoughtful organization -- there's really not much reason to worry about SEO anyway -

Hope that helps!