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Website Review Request
Hi Greg and Mo, please review my new website at aliceshapiro.com Your comments are very welcome. I updated my website a bit after our last communication.
Thank you,
Ali
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4 Replies
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Before making any comments, I need to say: yes, I know your website is new, so it can’t be perfect at the beginning. You need more time on it, and that’s why it feels incomplete.
Secondly, I try to be as objective as possible, but you know this is impossible, so don’t eat everything I serve; make your own judgment.
Your homepage intro: Not everyone is interested in reading a statement. I would gather your bio, a photo of you, the statement, and CV on the same page, called About or Bio. Potential collectors or anyone who wants to read more about you could then easily find and dig your info. Of course, I would use a clear layout and arrange with some image: Here is an example I sometimes use as a reference: https://en.saype-artiste.com/bio
I would replace CV with Exhibitions, as, in my view, a CV is more for getting a job.
The statement: I would split it into three paragraphs to make it more readable. The text is good otherwise, personal, while most people today use more generic generated texts.
Again, on the Homepage: A shorter text, keeping your style, simply presenting yourself and what you do in two or three lines. Like: “Hi, I am Alice…”
Then you need to lead your audience to something that matters to you. It could be presenting a newsletter subscription, your next event, or your last (or best) series of work.
Your price range, as it is, isn’t high, but even so, no one will buy on the first visit. So you need retention, make your audience come back. That’s why you need to show a newsletter subscription. If it’s your priority, it can be a pop-up or announced directly on the homepage’s 1st screen.
Your URL https://aliceshapiro.com/ redirects to https://aliceshapiro.com/en-eur/, which suggests you plan to support other languages. I don’t think it is necessary, and a redirect is messing with bots’ ability to find your site on search engines. Today, you don’t really need translation versions on your website, as browsers will do it automatically and quite well with AI if you allow it. You don’t need the unnecessary https://aliceshapiro.com“/en-eur”/pages/bio on every page.
Still on the homepage, second screen, the image of your artwork is full-width and vertical; that makes it impossible to see it fully at a glance on the desktop version. I would use a horizontal image or reduce the width. On mobile, it shows better as the screen is vertical.
That’s all for now. Some pages are not yet finished, so I think you have enough to work on 🙂 I hope it will be helpful.
Best,
Greg
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Thank you Greg.
I made many changes based on your excellent recommendations and always appreciate honest guidance. The gallery page is now 3 across on desktop and 2 columns on mobile. The About page was most challenging because the website company isn’t totally mobile configured yet. Do you think the text size is too small. I may add some red accents after adding a few more details to the bio. A mire Boss photo might replace the art talk photo. Do you like the newsletter placenent or should it go on the Anout page only. I will connect the newsletter to Beehiv soon.
On the url redirect, the chat said try refreshing if you bookmarked since its good on this end. Let me know if you are referring to a different issue.
So looking forward to your next comments with much gratitude.
All the best,
Alice
aliceshapiro.com
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The About page is more problematic on the desktop version. Horizontal images are way too wide and take too much space. A two-column layout would be better, I think.
There is also a bug with the footer in the middle of your statement.
The text size is fine. Bold is better than colored text for accentuation, as colors are usually used for links.
As for the newsletter registration placement, it really depends on whether you want to be aggressive (Pop-up), straightforward (Homepage), or discreet (contact page). But I don’t think it should be on the About page.
The URL redirect is working. I am just saying it isn’t good for your website’s visibility in search engines. And the EN-EUR in the URL is absolutely useless if you have only one language. But yes, maybe it is Fourthwall constraints…
The Work page. I would categorize your work by series (named by years, or Series title). It feels like this site represents a teenage artist, whereas you should have years of work across different styles. (Again, this can be because you just started this new website, and more content is yet to come.
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So interestingly I made collection by year, 2025 abd 2026 plus Holidays, before I saw your recommendation.
Unfortunately Fourthwall limitations about the footer jumps is because they aren’t fully mobile yet and I use a tablet and phone only. Is the irl still doing that? I think if I change it in Google Analytics from the Fourthwall c to my custom domain that might work.
Rethe red color headings on the About page, I took it from the example you sent last time and other websites but those were more commercially leaning. I’ll bold instead. I changed the photos to a 2-panel gallery. I appreciate these insights because of my device situation.
.I’ve got lots of previous digital work and some from the public art series but nothing much from the past. My focus now is making these digital collage works for a graphic novel to include stories and poens, 25 of which will be in the 2026 collection. Could you elaborate on the teenage statement a little. Are you referring to the art itself or to the presentation? If presentation please have another look since I made the collections by year. I can go back c to 2019, how many years would resonate with viewers?
This website review is extremely valuable alable and sppreciated.
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