Guess no one wants to review the site...

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Here's the URL one more time: BridgeWay Website for Review

Hi Lostgorilla. Welcome.
Just give the community some time. We'll catch up.

First run thru. looks very SEO driven, but also centered around solid points. I like it. But what's with the ad on top?

Aside from that, I think you have utilized WP to its full potential for what you needed it for. Good job.

Hey thanks Polvero. I worked long and hard on this and it seemed to be the best way to get them to update on their own. I volunteer my time to handle the site for them and they dont have a staffer than can do HTML etc... so I needed a solution that would simplify things for them.

Oh, its not an ad.

Meijer, a large department store / grocery place has a program that when you make a purchase you can have a portion of that be donated to a charity of your choice. The church encourages its members to select BridgeWay as their charity. Its of course all voluntary. You can choose a school, charity or a college/education fund etc...

Its a real nice program.

Maybe I can implement it differently. I did however plan to implement an install of PHPAdsNew to manage upcoming events banners and wanted to place this one in the mix as well. Basically to allow the staff to create and upload a banner for lets say the next outdoor baptism ceremony and have it appear in a banner form throughout the site, all managed by an ad server. No outside ads would appear, just this meijer rewards program and internal ads.

Has anyone tried this? Has it been effective in getting the word out on upcoming events?

thanks!

Welcome, LostGorilla!

Looks like a clean, energetic site. Design is consistent among, at least, Firefox and IE. Good use of CSS and implementation of WP.

Suggestions:
On the main page, the photos to the right of Experience, Growth, and Community give the impression of buttons associated with your links. Consider linking them for usability. For that matter, consider linking the entire block (dd#experience, dd#growth, dd#community)

Remove the counter. Is it really necessary to show it?

Move the ad. I realize this is a way to support the church, but it should probably be less intrusive throughout your site. There are ways to have it prominent without being intrusive. Consider moving it to a "support us" page or a better formatted button that's integrated into the rest of your design. IMHO, most people will bypass the ad and assume it's just an ad. This is especially true because of your selected ad positioning.

It's always great to see nice church sites. I think it shows how a church is trying to reach out. Nice work!

I like the site. It is clean, modern and does what it needs to do.

Can I make a suggestion, please. On the page "Our Beliefs", it seems to just be a list of things you believe. I suggest you could make this a bit more chatty and flowing, as people will become more engrossed. It is easier to relate to an informal style than to a list of facts.

Other than that - I like it. Well done!

David

Thanks for all the input so far guys!

Bob, great idea on the support page, I will see what I can do to add that in and remove the ad from the main page. Thanks!!

The church requested the counter, but i think I can work around that and make one in that matches the background color so you have to highlight it to read it. I will add that to my todo list.

I'm not quite done with everything yet, the kids and youth sites are in the works, both on their own separate wordpress architectures but you're right, I should link to something. I should have the youth site done this week, pending content from the youth pastor then i can link out to that.

Bunced, thanks so much for the insight. I am going to pass your comments along to the staff so they can take them under advisement now that they can update the site themselves. It probably wouldnt hurt to be more conversational throughout the entire site.

thanks guys!

LG

www.statcounter.com does invisible JavaScript counters that you then view on the Statcounter website. It is generally the best way of doing it if you value appearances /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

I've made the suggested changes guys.

The counter is now gone and i've simply provided cpanel stat access to the staff... problem solved /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

I also created the support us page and placed the "ad" on it along with some additional text.

This is why I chose wordpress, i can make these changes so fast /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

Thanks for the input again everyone and please keep it coming!

Oh Bunced I sent your comments to the staff, we'll see what they do with it.

LG