Face Lifts

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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