Hey all,

It's taken a couple of weeks and I just got done completely redesigning our website. Our blog now matches the website (might I would like to add that wordpress is a lot of trial and error when trying to make it look like your website). And I even implemented PHP "includes" for the header and footer so that whenever we have an open house, I can create a graphic like the one in the top right corner, and it will automatically update to every corner, on every page of our website. PHP is awesome!

Anyway, I would love some thoughts and suggestions!

http:// www . longbeachsales . com

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Troy Steuwer
Office Manager / Webmaster

Panama City Beach Real Estate | Panama City Beach Condos For Sale | Panama City Beach Homes For Sale

Here's a quick thought for the site and blog -- what about a large icon "Search Panama City MLS" that links to MLS page? Perhaps you could place it where the photos are now (in both the blog and the site). Or just above the "Latest Listings" feature? I fear the current "Search MLS" links may get "hidden" for some users otherwise. Well done and hope that helps...
- Kevin

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Kevin Koitz, from The Koitz Group @ Long & Foster

Washington DC Real Estate | Bethesda Real Estate | Bethesda Real Estate News |

Serving the Washington DC Metropolitan area including Montgomery County MD, Washington DC, & Northern Virginia

Ok--- I am going to be authentic here. I think there is entirely too much text on the front page. All of the text being the same size and just way too much text on the same page.

The Miller and Associates Logo is nice but entirely too hard to read. You shouldnt have to squint to see the branding. The photo component is way too small.

Just nothing to really draw you in. I am overwhelmed by text. The most striking thing is the turn the corner page. And then when you do -- you turn to more text. Its almost like an article directory.

I would incorporate more photos and vary the styles of text and the size of text. What do you want the reader to know most? Then highlight that text.

Just my take on it.

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The Davis Company is a boutique real estate firm that serves the Austin Texas Real Estate. Austin Investment Property is another specialty of our firm. Dena Davis is a Broker, Partner and Aspiring Webmaster.

@ Kevin - I like the idea, your right about not being able to find the search button easily. My father went on the site and called me up saying the navigation menu had to small of a font.

@ Dena - Thanks for the input. I think your absolutely correct. I need to add some more pictures and interest. There is a lot of text. I'll work on that next

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Troy Steuwer
Office Manager / Webmaster

Panama City Beach Real Estate | Panama City Beach Condos For Sale | Panama City Beach Homes For Sale

Good colors, it gives a soothing appeal I think, on the front page and some others (at least on my screen) the blue line running up and down to the left is in the text? Seems miss-aligned?

I agree with Dena Davis the log looks good but cant really tell what it is, suggest make it bigger.

All in all after reading through you have a lot of great information but it does come off as a overwhelming "data base overload" to much text, maybe make a little larger or vary the styles etc.

I would also suggest the nav link buttons at the header to be larger, hard to see.

Hope that's helpful...Just an opinion

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Derrick Monroe
Realtor - Owner - 612-282-7653
The Derrick Monroe Group
Minneapolis Real Estate
Minnesota Real Estate
Rockford MN Real Estate

"True leaders are not those who strive to be first but those who are first to strive"

I don't really have a problem with all of the text. It appears most is from your blog. I think maybe add another paragraph under the map pertaining to the overall site, then a row of 3 small beach pictures, a hard rule (seperator line), then H1 text letting users know that the information below it is from your recent blog posts (keyword optimized of course). That would essentially push all the text "below the fold" and still leave you with a very word rich home page.

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Cal
Orange Beach Condos | Gulf Shores Condos | Keller Williams Gulf States

The Gulfshoreslife.com Team serves the Baldwin County Alabama Real Estate market from The Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay to the Southern Shores of the Alabama Gulf Coast: Orange Beach, Gulf Shores, Fort Morgan, Point Clear, Fairhope, Montrose, Daphne, Spanish Fort, AL. Referals are welcomed. For more information on AL Gulf Coast Real Estate, please contact me or visit our website.

Sarasota Association of Realtors

I would like to learn a little about using the .php "includes" if anyone with knowledge could start a thread on that subject.

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Cal
Orange Beach Condos | Gulf Shores Condos | Keller Williams Gulf States

The Gulfshoreslife.com Team serves the Baldwin County Alabama Real Estate market from The Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay to the Southern Shores of the Alabama Gulf Coast: Orange Beach, Gulf Shores, Fort Morgan, Point Clear, Fairhope, Montrose, Daphne, Spanish Fort, AL. Referals are welcomed. For more information on AL Gulf Coast Real Estate, please contact me or visit our website.

Sarasota Association of Realtors

great job with integrating web and blog.

I would tone words down a bit on front page, maybe by including 3 or 4 news summary feeds as opposed to 10

also, include link to search homes in main navigation and possibly top navigation, the more routes you have to direct people to number one reason they visit site in first place, the better!

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Wow, you all are great. Thanks for all the input, keep it coming!

Added "Panama City MLS" to main header.
Added pictures below the area map.
Spaced navigation lists a bit so there not all jumbled up.
Darkened the logo to make it stand out.
Added "Search the MLS" graphic at the top of the page.
Added an <h3> to the Panama City Real Estate News header.

I use MagpieRSS for the news feed on the very front page. I wouldn't even know where to begin on editing the code to only display 3-4 posts. I'll take a look at their website to see if there is any info on that.

Thanks again everyone. It's great having a full community backing you up to help your business grow.

// EDIT //

I'll start a thread about it tomorrow. It's super easy, you'll love it!

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Troy Steuwer
Office Manager / Webmaster

Panama City Beach Real Estate | Panama City Beach Condos For Sale | Panama City Beach Homes For Sale

If you are referencing this for your REW site, it's actually not needed, you have snippets which achieve the same result but you don't have to learn php

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