I did a website review for someone who created a website using Xsitepro. It was their first site and it took them only a week. I thought the site was pretty good so I left a few comments as you can see below.

The website is at http://www.creativeretouching.com/

Hi Terry

I thought I’d share some thoughts with you.

First of all, if that’s your first site….I think you did an outstanding job. To my eye it doesn’t look like any type of xsite website…and to me that’s a big plus.

The header graphic looks good and better than most. I would consider adding a background or background image to set off your page. Many people have large monitors and the way your site is now…..there’s a lot of white space staring back at you, consequently the webpage is indistinguishable from the background.

Your site is clean and functional, easy to navigate and shows your talents.

You might consider adding more descriptive information on exactly what a “retoucher” is, I’m not sure that same term is used in the US, however, if your market is limited to the UK I suppose that doesn’t make a difference. I know you handle this on one of the sites internal pages, but I’d consider putting a little more info on the first page.

In any case, your first website is good enough for you to start with and far better than many that I’ve seen. You could make improvements, however, I would leave it up until you get some ideas and hone your skills.

Your client probably had good intentions with “more classy”, and that could come from his/her perspective or their world. Many times simple is most effective, at the very least more effective. Although in your line of work, you wouldn’t want your site to look cheap I certainly wouldn’t gravitate toward anything in flash.

Most flash websites are poorly made, take a lot of time to build and most designers cannot build an seo effective flash website. I’m sure others might have a different opinion, but anythime I come to a website that says “click to enter” or I have to wait through a 30 second presentation to see any content I click away.

If you want to sell your work, obviously you need to display it…..and that you’ve done. Secondly folks need to know more about the service you provide. You touch on that, but I think I would add more articles about why people need retouching or exactly what retouching is. Do some keyword research and find markets similar to yours along with keywords that people might use to look for your service, devote a page to each keyword.

Also, I would compose a simple guide on something like “How to Pick a Professional Retoucher” or “Tips for Finding a Pro Retoucher”, invest in a service like Aweber or Getresponse and put an optin form on your website, ask people for their name and email address in exchange for your “Free Guide”…..you can start to build a list of prospective clients. Send them offers when you’re slow, you’ll be surprised how effective this is.

Tags: getresponse, aweber, xsitepro