help please: added navigation bars and now my hyperlinks don't work

Andy From Sligo · 06-02-2018 1:14am #1

hello - i have added some navigation buttons to the top of my page and now my email / facebook /twitter hyperlinks no longer work .

if I put "</div>" directly before my email hyperlink then the hyperlinks work again , but then i loose the navigation buttons. I cannot think what i am doing wrong.

http://www.pcrepairs.x10host.com/

(sorry i couldnt find a way to paste the html to this post, but if you bring it up on browser and right click and select 'view source' you will be able to see it)

06-02-2018 11:29am

Short answer: you're not matching, closing, or really using your HTML tags correctly. As a minimum starting point, you've got three <body> tags. You should only ever have one.

Really, you need to learn HTML from scratch, because you don't have a good understanding of it (try here). When you've done that, rewrite the site from scratch properly (attempting to fix what's there would be a pointless task). When you're finished, fire it through the W3C's validator to check for errors.

tricky D · 06-02-2018 12:37pm

Learning html for a single site is overkill. As mentioned in the other thread, the OP needs to get a decent modern theme and use that. The current method and resources being used are wasting a lot of time and ultimately money, and looks very amateur and dated.

Andy From Sligo · 06-02-2018 4:09pm

28064212 wrote: »

Short answer: you're not matching, closing, or really using your HTML tags correctly. As a minimum starting point, you've got three <body> tags. You should only ever have one.

Really, you need to learn HTML from scratch, because you don't have a good understanding of it (try here). When you've done that, rewrite the site from scratch properly (attempting to fix what's there would be a pointless task). When you're finished, fire it through the W3C's validator to check for errors.

thanks I will try that W3C validator. I tried HTML tidy last night, an online HTML cleanup thing hoping that would clean up the HTML and get my links back working, but it didnt

Andy From Sligo · 06-02-2018 6:42pm

tricky D wrote: »

Learning html for a single site is overkill. As mentioned in the other thread, the OP needs to get a decent modern theme and use that. The current method and resources being used are wasting a lot of time and ultimately money, and looks very amateur and dated.

I really dont really need a fantastic website in my business to be honest. I really dont get that many people visiting my website (maybe you could say if i had a better website I might get more visitors, maybe, but i dont personally think so)

And the odd times I have asked new customers how have they heard of me its normally by word of mouth. and if they have seen my website i often ask them "What do you think about the website?" - and they say, "its OK" (maybe they are being polite

)

But its better to have a website than not have a website these days. Yes it looks outdated but as I say I think it does for my needs.

Now, just to get these blinking hyperlinks to work and I will be happy. I reckon I havent closed of a tag... but where, that is the thing?

tricky D · 06-02-2018 8:28pm

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

I really dont really need a fantastic website in my business to be honest. I really dont get that many people visiting my website (maybe you could say if i had a better website I might get more visitors, maybe, but i dont personally think so)

You would definitely get more visitors. Right now you have no presence in Google which means...

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

And the odd times I have asked new customers how have they heard of me its normally by word of mouth. and if they have seen my website i often ask them "What do you think about the website?" - and they say, "its OK" (maybe they are being polite )

... you are relying on getting most of your work from word of mouth only, completely missing out on the market in search. I've seen what happens to businesses when word of mouth dries up even just temporarily and it ain't fun. This is a classic eggs in one basket mistake and is dangerous for your business. Also the feedback you get like above is wide open to confirmation bias on your part. Ask yourself what the people who decided not be customers thought. There are clues in access logs analysis which might give insight how many leads you are not getting ie. people bailing out having only seen the homepage.

And yes, they very likely are being polite.

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

But its better to have a website than not have a website these days. Yes it looks outdated but as I say I think it does for my needs.

Do a search for 'computer repairs sligo'. One, you are not there and secondly, take a look at the websites listed and then your own. Ask which one a punter would choose. The others look so much more professional - in a different league.

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

Now, just to get these blinking hyperlinks to work and I will be happy. I reckon I havent closed of a tag... but where, that is the thing?

Again using even a free theme/template* and you would not be wasting time on things which are not your expertise. You had a thread on this in Oct, so you are at least 3 months into what would be so much quicker (days), simpler and easier if you took on the advice given. This is again a classic mistake due to opportunity cost - the cost of fiddling about instead of doing your actual business.

The site still does not cater well for phones and devices, so that's another market opportunity you are neglecting.

This should be about you getting value for and making your business resilient to potential adversity.

Lastly, as a rule of thumb, avoid putting general text in graphic format, mainly because Google will ignore it. Again any basic theme would avoid that.

* https://www.google.ie/search?client=firefox-b&q=free+responsive+website+templates&oq=free+responsive+website+template

Andy From Sligo · 06-02-2018 8:48pm

tricky D wrote: »

You would definitely get more visitors. Right now you have no presence in Google which means...

... you are relying on getting most of your work from word of mouth only, completely missing out on the market in search. I've seen what happens to businesses when word of mouth dries up even just temporarily and it ain't fun. This is a classic eggs in one basket mistake and is dangerous for your business. Also the feedback you get like above is wide open to confirmation bias on your part. Ask yourself what the people who decided not be customers thought. There are clues in access logs analysis which might give insight how many leads you are not getting ie. people bailing out having only seen the homepage.

And yes, they very likely are being polite.

Do a search for 'computer repairs sligo'. One, you are not there and secondly, take a look at the websites listed and then your own. Ask which one a punter would choose. The others look so much more professional - in a different league.

Again using even a free theme/template* and you would not be wasting time on things which are not your expertise. You had a thread on this in Oct, so you are at least 3 months into what would be so much quicker (days), simpler and easier if you took on the advice given. This is again a classic mistake due to opportunity cost - the cost of fiddling about instead of doing your actual business.

The site still does not cater well for phones and devices, so that's another market opportunity you are neglecting.

This should be about you getting value for and making your business resilient to potential adversity.

Lastly, as a rule of thumb, avoid putting general text in graphic format, mainly because Google will ignore it. Again any basic theme would avoid that.

* https://www.google.ie/search?client=firefox-b&q=free+responsive+website+templates&oq=free+responsive+website+template

thank you for the tips -

daymobrew · 07-02-2018 11:07am

A free theme based on bootstrap would also be a good starting point:
https://startbootstrap.com/
And they'll be responsive.

andywozhere · 07-02-2018 3:34pm

If you really want to start your website from scratch you could sign up for a course on Teamtreehouse.com or Udemy. As Tricky D said if it's only for one site that may not be the best use of your time though.

Andy From Sligo · 08-02-2018 2:49am

thank you all - I think I have it roughly OK now (well as good as its ever going to be, doing my own website design) - I know it looks outdated still and garish but ah sure it will do I think for my needs. I have even included some meta tags now for the search engines to pick up

endacl · 08-02-2018 3:05am

Your pricing's a bit odd too.

http://www.pcrepairs.x10host.com/page4.html
Charging 60€?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fire-Tablet-Alexa-Display-Black/dp/B01J90O0N4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518055364&sr=8-1&keywords=fire+7
€40 new from Amazon.

Offer €10 incl. postage?

M.T.D · 08-02-2018 4:55pm

If you really want to waste your time, and therefore the money you could be earning, doing your own website, then that is up to you, but at least listen to the advice being given and THROW AWAY -Serif WebPlus Starter Edition.

Install WordPress, it is free. Choose a theme/design from the repository they are free as well.
The theme will look after your menus.
The theme will have a style sheet so the layout all the pages will look the same, all you need to do is the content.

Regarding the meta tags "keywords" is ignored by Google. Content is much more important. Google reads text, images are not text. Turn images off and your page is mostly space.
Over half of your potential visitors will be on a mobile device, your site is fixed width, and there for unusable.

You have probably wasted any time you spent on the site, just as I probably have wasted my time writing this post.

Andy From Sligo · 08-02-2018 6:57pm

M.T.D wrote: »

If you really want to waste your time, and therefore the money you could be earning, doing your own website, then that is up to you, but at least listen to the advice being given and THROW AWAY -Serif WebPlus Starter Edition.

Install WordPress, it is free. Choose a theme/design from the repository they are free as well.
The theme will look after your menus.
The theme will have a style sheet so the layout all the pages will look the same, all you need to do is the content.

Regarding the meta tags "keywords" is ignored by Google. Content is much more important. Google reads text, images are not text. Turn images off and your page is mostly space.
Over half of your potential visitors will be on a mobile device, your site is fixed width, and there for unusable.

You have probably wasted any time you spent on the site, just as I probably have wasted my time writing this post.

ah dont be like that - and please dont take it so personally.

Of course I have taken in what people have said. And its helped me. I have changed my banner to a table now rather than a picture and I have put in some meta tags for search engine (SEO) now into my HTML so I am listening to people. i am just not that made keen on Templates personally, I know that would be the easy option and make my site look more modern, but its just not for me at the moment. I have been producing my own website for years now (I think i started doing it back when Microsoft front page came out) but I have never looked heavily into the design with java/bootstrap and CSS .. and if I did i think I would just get fed up with learning it all, so i prefer to just work with the bit of knowledge that I have even if its not brilliant.

- ah sure its cost a bit of headache, frustration (at my own lack of design knowledge) tiredness and a lot of time . what harm.

tricky D · 08-02-2018 7:20pm

Sorry but you are not listening at all to people who have wasted time, skills and expertise on advising you. No body said use meta tags for keyword SEO because that has been bad practice for well over 10 years and nobody said to use tables for layout. That is 100% facepalm dummy stuff for us professionals but you. To us you just keep digging a hole deeper with awful business logic, the classic being avoiding the easy option which requires little or no learning and provides proper value to your business. The main things you are learning are the methods which should always be avoided. My only positive take away from this thread is it is a perfect demonstration on what not to do with a business website, the type of potential client to be avoided and how not to listen to advice.

What a waste.

Andy From Sligo · 08-02-2018 7:33pm

tricky D wrote: »

Sorry but you are not listening at all to people who have wasted time, skills and expertise on advising you. No body said use meta tags for keyword SEO because that has been bad practice for well over 10 years and nobody said to use tables for layout. That is 100% facepalm dummy stuff for us professionals but you. To us you just keep digging a hole deeper with awful business logic, the classic being avoiding the easy option which requires little or no learning and provides proper value to your business. The main things you are learning are the methods which should always be avoided. My only positive take away from this thread is it is a perfect demonstration on what not to do with a business website, the type of potential client to be avoided and how not to listen to advice.

What a waste.

very harsh!

- ah well sorry that some people on here have taken it so personally and seem angry now that I havent listened, but anyway i say again thank you again for all your help.

endacl · 08-02-2018 7:35pm

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

very harsh! - ah well sorry that some people on here have taken it so personally and seem angry now that I havent listened, but anyway i say again thank you again for all your help.

Any word on that Kindle Fire for a tenner?

Andy From Sligo · 08-02-2018 8:40pm

endacl wrote: »

Any word on that Kindle Fire for a tenner?

Ah yeah, not printable! Haha

daymobrew · 09-02-2018 12:04pm

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

very harsh! - ah well sorry that some people on here have taken it so personally and seem angry now that I havent listened, but anyway i say again thank you again for all your help.

We are passionate about what we do and want you to have a good, presentable looking website that will be a benefit for your business instead of a negative an embarrassment. And you are getting this advice for *free.*

A "template" is not evil - it brings consistency to each page and that is calming for people. If every page of boards.ie used a different font or layout it would make it difficult to read and would drive people away.

Andy From Sligo · 09-02-2018 1:46pm

Not a criticism to anyone on this thread but I just asked has to get all my links working. I know my website is outdated, amateurish, most probably putting a lot of people off , driving people away, should have used a template, I know all that ... But I didn't ask the question "what do people think of my website design?" .,. In all fairness I asked how could I get my navigation bar to work

maccored · 22-02-2018 10:30am

when i try to access your site I get this:

URL: GET http://www.pcrepairs.x10host.com/
Category: Society and Culture
Reason: BLOCK-MALWARE
Threat Type: othermalware
Threat Reason: Identified as malicious domain or URL.
Notification: WBRS

Andy From Sligo · 22-02-2018 1:52pm

maccored wrote: »

when i try to access your site I get this:

URL: GET http://www.pcrepairs.x10host.com/
Category: Society and Culture
Reason: BLOCK-MALWARE
Threat Type: othermalware
Threat Reason: Identified as malicious domain or URL.
Notification: WBRS

God really !! Thanks for letting me know , will have to look into that now today. Was thinking of moving my site onto one which uses Https for a while now.

Thanks for the heads up

What virus checker do you use please by the way?

maccored · 22-02-2018 2:44pm

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

God really !! Thanks for letting me know , will have to look into that now today. Was thinking of moving my site onto one which uses Https for a while now.

Thanks for the heads up

What virus checker do you use please by the way?

its built into our CISCO proxy

Question:
Why is this site blocked with browser error "MALWARE_GENERAL, BLOCK-MALWARE"?

Environment:
Cisco Web Security Appliance (WSA), AsyncOS versions 6.x and above

The notification code below

Notification codes: (1, MALWARE_GENERAL, BLOCK-MALWARE, , 0x0021aee7, 1220506712.572, QAAAAQAAAAAAAAAAKP8ACA==, http://www.domain.com/) is due to the fact that the mentioned URL has a low web reputation score (by default WBRS equal to or below -6.0) and therefore is blocked by the default setting in access policies for the WBRS filters.

The reason for the low reputation score is that the site has been detected, either currently or historically, as sending spam/viruses/trojans by our spam traps.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/security/web-security-appliance/118028-technote-wsa-00.html

22-02-2018 2:49pm

It's based on data from this site: https://talosintelligence.com/reputation_center/lookup?search=pcrepairs.x10host.com. HTTPS is unlikely to make a difference (although you should get it anyway)

Andy From Sligo · 22-02-2018 3:00pm

Thank you both I will look into this

Andy From Sligo · 22-02-2018 4:01pm

ive just done an online scan - it came back as clear , but then again it might not be as good as your scanners:

28055760_10214447693159974_7962086861994649856_n.jpg?oh=c773d3b22b7e2136e6f3c1611f9b9af4&oe=5B04DE45

28055760_10214447693159974_7962086861994649856_n.jpg?oh=c773d3b22b7e2136e6f3c1611f9b9af4&oe=5B04DE45

Graham · 22-02-2018 7:27pm

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

ive just done an online scan - it came back as clear , but then again it might not be as good as your scanners:

It's not necessarily your site that's at issue, it could be you're just in the digital equivalent of a bad-neighbourhood.

Are you using free hosting by any chance?

Andy From Sligo · 22-02-2018 11:32pm

Graham wrote: »

It's not necessarily your site that's at issue, it could be you're just in the digital equivalent of a bad-neighbourhood.

Are you using free hosting by any chance?

yes its free hosting i'm with ( https://x10hosting.com ) - maybe its the hosting site itself thats got a bad reputation picked up by some of these site checkers

help please: added navigation bars and now my hyperlinks don't work

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