Ok as I am always working on my website I am always looking at other cake/bakeries web-sites trying to see what I need to add or do to mine to make it better. Anyone else out there do the same? What websites do you think are the most stunning? Which ones/ what on them would you want to replicate on your own site?

check:


www.mysweetandsaucy.com

www.aprilreed.com

www.artandappetite.com

www.thecaketress.ca- based in canada

www.designmeacake.

I totally looked at other sites. I actually made a list of what I like about each site and what I didn't like, although I can't find my list right now. I know that I searched "wedding cakes" in different states and found many great sites as well as many not-so-great.

That is what I did too. I also did a little survery with brides to be - what were they looking for when they were on a website?? What info made them want to call me, and what was a turn off ? It was a great eye opener!

When I did my website I apparently did everything wrong, accoring to web designers. Too many pictures, too much text. blah blah blah. But I get emails from random brides all the time telling me that they love my website, they thought it was the most thorough they've ever seen, and they appreciate the info on it.

Brides don't follow the same rules that other people do when they're shopping around online, necessarily. They're shopping for something they've never shopped for, from vendors they've never heard of, and probably spending more money on one event than they've ever spent before. They like looking at pretty pictures, but they also want information.

I went to Sylvia Weinstock's website today, and it was an example of the biggest waste of time I've ever seen. She obviously works off of her reputation and doesn't need to advertise to get business, but if you want to learn about her cakes you won't get any info from it.

I've been "arguing" with one of my friends who's a wedding consultant about my website. It gives her fits, but it works for me, so I'm not going to mess with it too much. I told her I'm going to write a series of blog entries about the logic behind it, because there is logic behind it whether web designers like it or not, ha ha ha!

Yep, I totally agree. My husband took a class on websites and he told me that people didnt want to see anything flashy, that they wanted something they could just click to. I wanted him to create a page for mine kind of greeting everyone with pictures and things. He disagreed. And he still hasnt done it or touched my website! So I worked on it myself. I hear a lot of people saying that they love my website! Its still not where I want it to be but its getting there!
I have to say that I absolutely love www.justcake.com, bakerella's, and a few others. I have to agree about Sylvia's. No cake porn on it and its really disappointing! Another one is Mike McCareys. Its been the same forever and he doesnt show any of his Food Network Challenge work or anything of his latest things. So Im kinda sick of it! I like Jan Kish's just because you can see a ton of cakes on it also. I have to say I love looking at any site that has a ton of cakes on it! I even bookmark my favorites!!

LOVE the justcake.com site gorgeous! I am definitely going to go buy a piece of black velvet for my light box. I had been struggling with what to use for a background.

I agree about Sylvia's site very disappointing.

Those "website designers" the ones who randomly email you unsolicited advice are usually a crock of cr@p. They just want $$$.

I think the 2 BIG things I am noticing with some of the awe inspiring websites is a very clean and simple look with extraordinary photos!!!! I either need to get super fantastic at taking pictures or rake in so much cash that I can have a professional photographer on speed dial.

We just finished a full site redesign and new logo rollout. We were going for something really easy to use while being visual enough to keep a bride's attention. We wanted to stay away from flash menus or any technology that made it less accessible to certain browsers (ipads, etc)

It's a significant improvement over our old site, but I still seems to make changes every day.

We still break some web design rules like having so many full size pictures on our gallery pages but I went with a thumbnail gallery to start with but I really didn't like it. From years of talking with brides they want to see the maximum amount of cake pictures with the least effort and since most of our people have high speed internet it's the easiest way to show maximum photos in the least amount of time. We also use it as our portfolio during tastings so we don't have to break out the crusty old books and the scrolling with a wheel mouse makes it easy for couples to see our portfolio.

The best thing to do is look at your site like it's the first time you are seeing it and see how easy it is to find the info your customer would want. If it takes too many clicks to get where you need to go, or if the navigation isn't clear or if there is too much going on, that's crucial to address.

Best of luck!

I thought I was finished with mine (except fo adding photos) I still have to take some more pictures for the site.

But I keep changing things , just when I think "OK! thats it " I see another site I like and want to change something about mine...

www.cakesbyjaimeann.weebly.com

Piece of cake AZ love your new site! VERY easy to navigate. I hope to have that many flawless cake pictures on my own site one day. AWESOME work. I like the size of your pictures on your site. I do think that when it comes to cakes we are all outside the standard website rules as our customers/potential customers want to see pictures!

Here are a couple sites I think look good

I like the photography and use of slideshows on this one:
http://www.charlotteweddingcakes.com/

interesting welcome page although I wonder how many brides figure it out
http://www.idreamofcake.com/

I like the layout, photos and amount of info on this one..
http://www.maisiefantaisie.co.uk/

I think I want to revamp my site completely. Yikes that's gonna be a lot of work. Guess that's what I need to do during hot hot hot southern July when it is otherwise pretty slow here.

Love the topic! There are so many great sites out there. I am trying to get mine together. I have stopped looking at others because a) I have no web building experience and don't really have the $$ to spend on the 'style' I want and b) because I was always finding new things to add or change.

I just had to buckle down and find a template that represented me (even if I wanted fancier or whatever) and then get to typing. I really just wanted to make something I would want to stay and look at. I still have to add pictures.

I did want to ask, how do you put up the Facebook badges? I haven't been able to find that.

POCAZ--i love your website too! i wholeheartedly agree with you on those sites that have the flashy click here to enter page. ugh! i do have thumbnails on mine which i think i will keep for now. i do see your point about it being easier to scroll with your mouse tho. i don't like the webshots pages where you are constantly bombarded with ads or the websites with music, just annoying to me. i LOVE pink cake box's website and these:

http://www.layers-cake.com/index.html

http://www.yummycupcakes.com/

http://www.sugarcreations.com/

http://www.welldressedcakes.com/index2.php?v=v1

http://www.cakesbyallison.com/index.html

just to name a few

_christina_

i am not computer savy so i just went with yahoo's website builder. it's just a point and click thing and not a whole lot of page layout choices but it was the best i could do for now. unfortunately it does not support any "badges" so i have to write it all out for my FB and WW info. it has helped me immensely with business having it, however simple it is

Cas17, I use yahoo sitebuilder too, but I built my own template. Check out my site and let me know what you think. I was able to add my FB badge, so I'm not sure why it wouldn't work for yours. The only think I can't do is link directly to my blog from my navigation bar. OH well. I did just add about 5 new pages of cake photos.

Piece Of Cake- I love the new site too! great colors and great cakes (duh)

jill, awesome site and cakes! i used the simple builder and everytime i cut and pasted the link it would be all written out and not the FB logo. then i contacted customer services about adding the badges and it's a no-go with the simple builder btw i love your wedding tips on your FB page.

If you're just looking for the "find us on facebook" label, you can go to my homepage and steal it...Save the image onto your desktop, then add it as an image in yahoo sitebuilder. You can then make it into a link to your facebook page.

I am happy with my website. It took a long time for me to figure it out. I have many brides who tell me they love my website and that it is part of the reason they call me. I looked at other sites I liked to help me design mine.

[quote="costumeczar"]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PieceofCakeAZ


I am always baffled by the use of welcome/splash pages. It's like saying to someone "I know why you are here and what you want to see, but I'd rather make you wait and watch an intro that I think is cool before giving you want you came here to see" ... It seems silly...but maybe it's just me.

I'm with you on the welcome/splash pages irritating and stupid I love your target analogy!!!

I keep messing with my website and driving myself crazy I think I may have gone about as far as I can go with Iweb and a DIY site. I really love the automatic slideshows on other people's sites but I think it is outside of Iwebs capabilities. Would you all mind looking at my site and giving me suggestions? I do plan to add a FAQ page soon, which I am working on.

I worked on it some. I had not been able to figure out how to change the color of the text in the navigation menu as Iweb presets it but I finally just changed the page themes and reworked some of the pages with the new theme which seems to have fixed it. Thanks for taking a look at it for me!