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LaSpina Salon and Spa
Original Web Site |
Re-Designed Web Site |
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This Web Site was initially completed by another Web Site design
company. Recognizing flaws in the design, navigation, and look
of the site, immediately after the site was launched, the salon
owner looked to us for a re-design.
Some of the problems with this site were as follows:
- The quality of the images was awful. The header logo was
scanned from a business card and the quality shows severe
graininess and the photos are blurry.
- The homepage lacks focus.
- The color selection does not match the logo.
- The font selection does not work well with the logo.
- The repetitive nature of the beginning of the page was done
in an attempt to optimize the page for search engine placement,
however, this objective could have been met in a better way,
without compromising the aesthetics of the page.
- The salon hours listed on the left of the page were difficult
to understand.
- The left side navigation left much of the page useless as
one scrolls down the page, resulting in the unevenness of
the page.
There were two other problems associated with the site that
bear mentioning. Unfortunately, these problems are not that
uncommon:
- The domain name of www.laspinasalonandspa.com which was
selected by the salon owner and paid for by the salon owner,
showed in the internet databases as belonging to the web design
firm, not the salon owner. This was obviously a big problem
for the "owner" of the Web Site The reason given
him for this was that it was done "so that nobody could
change the Web Site without their knowledge." After a
heated discussion, the registrant or "owner" of
the site was changed to the salon owner.
- Because the site was registered with the original designer
of the Web Site, control of access to the site remains in
their hands. Without the user name and password to the server
which the domain name is pointed, or the ability to redirect
the domain name, we could not make any changes to the current
site. Despite repeated attempts to have the original design
company hand over access or redirect the domain name to the
newly designed site, the company refused to do so. This resulted
in the necessity to purchase a new domain name. While not
the optimal scenario, it was the best we could do given the
circumstances. As such, the original site remains up, resulting
in people being able to view the old site potentially leading
to a less than professional image of the salon. And, since
the content is similar, it could result in issues with search
engine placement since some search engines penalize some sites
for "spamming." You can view the original site at
www.laspinasalonandspa.com
and the re-designed site at www.laspinasalonandspa.net.
The moral of the story? Don't trust your Web Site design and
especially your domain name registration to just anyone. Even
some supposed "professional" design firms have questionable
business ethics.
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