just updated my website,care to take a peek and leave feedback!

Like it; I'd send a child to you.

I know what people mean about the butterflies, but I quite like them.

On longer pages I wanted a 'back to top' button or the navigation repeated at the bottom.

The last line on your menu page is in a smaller font.

Some punctuation on your About Me page could perhaps do with a bit of revision.

Page titles need standardisation of capitalisation.

Gallery I would start off with the one in the garden - seeing your place is more relevant than zoos etc.

Nice to look at, easy to read, easy to understand, pages set out logically. Well done.

I think your site looks really nice, well done!

However

I think your font is too big and make it look a bit amateurish.

I don't like the butterflies. At all. (sorry!)

And I think a photo of you is essential.

Haven't read all responses on here so might say something someone else has mentioned!

I love the site, it's really cute and warm feeling gives a good homely vibe I think.

The only things I'm not so keen on are:

**Counter at bottom of home screen
**Number of menus at top, could they not be condensed - this is personal preference though really
**the text is a bit disjointed and could flow better; rather than short factual sentences could you turn it into a "story" with beginning, middle & end. I am Nik, my children are k & S. Used to work in ... now work as CM and have ... qualifications
**some minor formatting errors,like underline wrong colour etc

Have you thought about getting your own domain and ditching the freewebs stuff in the url?

It's quite easy to do (I can help if you like); so your domain could be www.twinkletoescare.co.uk should be fairly cheap to do too.

It's lovely though and you do comes accross really well x

seriously From the spelling guru!

seriously From the spelling guru!

Can I steal the op's idea and ask you all to look at mine if you have some spare time please? www.hayleyevans.co.uk I'm not sure about it - is it too talky!? Leave feedback on this thread pls,

Thanks xx

considering youve done it all by yourself i think its great. i certainly couldnt have done it, i got someone to do mine for me (mind you they did do it really well)

child protection is now safeguarding children.

hence i didn't choose childminders.

Lovely website though, very nice vibe coming through. Your menu is great. I would seriosly consider you if I were living there.

No they are both ies at the end.

I thought nurserys was spelt nurseries?

i would want to see more photos of you and of your home.

i appreciate it's part and parcel of childminding but jeeez all the pick ups and drop offs make me think my child would be in the car all day.

The big number at the bottom of the Home Page... what is it for? Tracking visitors I expect, thus how you can see how they find your website, including search phrases. Can you make the number a lot smaller? Perhaps say 48 pixels x 8 pixels?

Good to see that your have your website link on your CIS online profile. I would expect that a lot of enquiries would come via that link, so the first page people see is HOME, so make that page as informative as possible giving all the key points, as not all visitors will go on to click links to other pages.

I would include your Ofsted rating from your last inspection on your home page, with link to the inspection report (use target=_new so it opens in a new window) Note: Ofsted's website changes quite often, so check the link every month to check that it still works.

Ok, my opinion (not as a child minder, but looking as someone who might be trying to find one):

Background is nice. Butterflies are distracting. I would say you need to choose between keeping them, with a plain background, or losing them. They give an amateur look to the site, which it needn't be.

I don't know whether your punctuation issues are because it isn't your strength, or if you were just in a hurry, but you need someone to go through with a fine tooth comb and sort it out. It is sloppy, and would put me off. There are just too many errors to do it on this thread. You need someone to go through it with you so you can change it bit at a time.

Your sample menu page has some serious underlining issues, and spacing issues. You need to change your spacing. Your underlining is the wrong weight given your font size, and the colour is all wrong. They need to tie in with each other. I would stick to the three main colours of your background, so that it is easy on the eye, and gives a 'corporate' feel. You are asking people for their money. You also have discrepancies in your font size, and some of your underlining is black, some purple, and others blue.

You need to make it clear that your 2nd child reduction is only in the event that the first child is full-time, as it can read that the first child can be part-time, but the second child must be full time. So someone could think that they can put their older child in for 1 hour per week, and then have their younger child full-time at the lower rate. It just needs to be clear & concise.

It's a bit pedantic, but I would switch the order of after school snack and breakfast to reflect when they occur in the day.

Your parental reference needs to be spaced so that it reads as a letter, with proper paragraphs. At the moment it looks like either a list of unrelated statements or a poem.

I think you either need to give your ofsted unique number, so that a prospective client could read your ofsted report, or put a link to it on your ofsted page. Neither would identify your address.

I hope you don't think I am mindlessly picking, but this is your business, and nice comments don't get you clients

My name is Nik, I am a 36 yr old mum of 2 teenage boys. Kane is 18 and currently working for Halsey builders, a local construction firm in Redbourn. Sam is 16 and is training at Toni & Guy Hemel Hempstead.

I have worked in childcare for 6 years, 3 of these at local private nurseries.

I became a childminder in May 2005 and have never looked back!

I hold current first aid,child protection and food hygiene awards and am currently working towards my Herts quality standard award.

I am fully insured and am a member of the National Childminding Association.

I have an active role as a founder member of the "Redbourn rascals" childminding group.

I am also a fundraiser for the NSPCC and hold an annual event to raise funds,the latest being a Christmas fayre at Redbourn village hall in Dec 2007 where I raised over £338!

I was graded as "good" at my last Ofsted inspection.

I strive to offer excellent quality childcare in a home from home family environment where your child will feel safe,happy and part of my family.

I feel you need to add more to the Home page. Give it some content that the search engines can index.

I would expect you to be on the first page on google for a search like:
childminder redbourn

Try adding a few paragraphs of text which talk about being a childminder in redbourn, which schools you pickup from, that kind of thing so you mention the words 'childminder' 'childminding' 'redbourn' 'hertfordshire' and local school names.

If you have webstats enabled, then look at those to see what phases people who find your site have typed in the past, so you get a feel for the sort of thing that gets entered into a search engine.

Punctuation