Site Review

Seohelp

Hi all,

I'd love to get some opinions on the current site design of Better Irish Websites

I got a structure to the site in place about 3 months ago and haven't had the time to do much to it since. Hoping to expand the number of articles on the site.

Could anyone give me some advice on any part of the website. The main areas I love to get some feedback on would be:

Suggested article categories
Site Layout
Any particulars features that could be a good addition to the site
Any code issues that a more design focused Webmaster could offer
Any gremlins in the site (broken links or anything else that should be there)

Really though, any feedback is greatly appreciated. With some good direction I can definitely save a fair bit of time developing this site with proper focus.

Thanks in advance... and Happy Christmas!

grahamor

I think the layout is fine.

I would get rid of the inner shadow in the banner image, also the type face you used is very techy and a bit ugly IMO

You could jazz up the links too. I found this css set that is really east to implement http://exploding-boy.com/images/cssmenus/menus.html .

Just go here http://exploding-boy.com/images/CSSmenus.zip to download the zip.

A simple background pattern might work too.

Hope my opinion helps

Laslo

All I'll say is this - if you're going to run around waving your sword of righteousness and espousing opinions on Web design and development then you really need to practice what you preach. Your site looks completely rubbish and the marked-up could be a lot better.

The industry in this country simply doesn't need more snake-oil salesmen.

ninebeanrows

It depends what standard your looking for your site to reach??

Firstly whatever the case the banner must go..

If your trying to make the site top quality then you dont have a hope but with a few twitches you've got yourself a decent site which you can expand in the future...

axer

Where to begin...

Firstly, the menu links are very hard to read as there is not enough contrast between the background green and the white links. You can use this tool to help you get the right contrast:
http://snook.ca/technical/colour_contrast/colour.html

The beveled edges of your header image do not help in the look either. I would consider getting rid of them.

The footer looks like it is bigger than it is supposed to be. It looks very plain with just the one "Site Map" in it.

I could be wrong but is it not supposed to be a good idea to have the name of the website/company i.e. "Better Irish Websites" in the title followed by what the current page does/deals with?

Just my 2c...

mneylon

What is the site's purpose exactly? SEO advice??

Surely you should lead by example....

Seohelp

Cheers for the feedback.

grahamor

I would get rid of the inner shadow in the banner image, also the type face you used is very techy and a bit ugly IMO

Weathercheck

Firstly whatever the case the banner must go..

axer

The beveled edges of your header image do not help in the look either. I would consider getting rid of them.

That banner sure is damn ugly and I completely agree. It'll be one of the first things to change. Thanks for the comments.

axer and grahamor... thanks for the links and the advice on the CSS links. And you're right axer; The footer needs to be filled with more info. I set it up as a footer to fill but am yet to fill it.

Laslo

All I'll say is this - if you're going to run around waving your sword of righteousness and espousing opinions on Web design and development then you really need to practice what you preach.

The industry in this country simply doesn't need more snake-oil salesmen

Right... where to start on this one.
Firstly, what sword of righteousness?
What are you talking about?

No more snake-oil salesmen...

What exactly do you think I am selling?
Free information?
Damn. That comes at a huge cost. Seriously though. Have you got any constructive criticism or do you just want to sit on your high-horse and patronise without right?

Michele

What is the site's purpose exactly? SEO advice??
Surely you should lead by example....

I've helped you out before by offering constructive criticism for your shopping directory before and your feedback was one that I was really looking forward to recieving. It's pretty obvious (I would've thought) that the site is a SEO article site. There is a lot of work I need to do with optimisation in mind. The home page hasn't been touched in months and I will be addressing the code/targetted keywords in time. I would've appreciated it if you had any pointers or tips that you would like to share.

Thanks to all for the constructive criticism though. I would appreciate more opinions on this site if anyone has any.

smemon

i'm no expert myself, but i'll tell you what i think..

• too much text, not enough graphics
• lacks gloss and shine (web 2.0)
• menu's lack clarity - they don't stand out enough.
• homepage is too busy, should be less packed.
• needs a logo
• 'contact us' needs an automated on site script.
• header doesnt link back to homepage
• in general the site seems faded... the green background on headings and white text don't go well imo.

very critical there of course, that's an A1 site i've described above... very difficult to achieve, especially if you've little or no finance and lack some skills.

adsense is nicely blended and isn't aggressive, although i'd suggest using the right side menu's to put a small ad block in, near the top if possible. Perhaps adsense text links in the middle of the page would be worth a shot also.

Adam

smemon wrote:

i'm no expert myself, but i'll tell you what i think..

• too much text, not enough graphics too much text? bold statement...
• lacks gloss and shine (web 2.0) sort of, but every site these days doesn't have to look 2.0
• menu's lack clarity - they don't stand out enough. just the top nav really
• homepage is too busy, should be less packed. disagree, its not too much text and its well broken down into small sections
• needs a better logo
• 'contact us' needs an automated on site script. not necessarily for an informative website such as it
• header doesnt link back to homepage learned that yourself just the other day
• in general the site seems faded... the green background on headings and white text don't go well imo. the only decent statement really

very critical there of course, that's an A1 site i've described above... very difficult to achieve, especially if you've little or no finance and lack some skills.

It's nothing personal but I think this is an awful lot of advice coming from yourself with most of your points being based fairly obviously on the new jpegr.com, which isn't without its problems. Sites dont all need to be devoid of text, or have loads of images, or look 2.0 to be good sites.

Anyway, in my opinion, for the type of site it is I don't think the look is too far off what it needs to be. A nice, plain banner would work I think, and a little bit more contrast in general, the only really strong colours on the site are the links. But as I said, I think its the right idea.

Laslo

Seohelp wrote:

Firstly, what sword of righteousness?

The one in which you attack companies for not understanding Online Marketing. The one which accuses most of the pre-dot com burst designers as being irresponsible. While I do actually agree with most of what you're saying, I don't know if you should be saying it. Do you know enough to have an opinion? I'm just asking is all.

Seohelp wrote:

Have you got any constructive criticism or do you just want to sit on your high-horse and patronise

I have the experience and talent necessary to sit on my high horse and have an opinion.

Laslo

smemon wrote:

i'm no expert myself, but i'll tell you what i think..

Seems to be an awful affliction of this industry.

smemon wrote:

lacks gloss and shine (web 2.0)

Jesus. And here's me thinking that Web 2.0 was just a bulls**t buzzword or, at best, a way of describing social networking sites, tagging, folksonomies and all that crap. Shiny icons, eh?

Sorry to be so malicious of opinion on Christmas Eve folks but I'm thoroughly exhausted of it. All I want for Christmas and 2007 is an end to crappy websites and bandwagon jumpers in Ireland... and a decent measure of quality. Just until we get back on our feet as an industry and stop becoming a laughing stock.

Adam

Can I just ask(while I'm of the same opinion as you I'm still curious), where lies your talent and experience?

smemon

Mirror wrote:

It's nothing personal but I think this is an awful lot of advice coming from yourself with most of your points being based fairly obviously on the new jpegr.com, which isn't without its problems.

i'm well aware of JPEGr's pitfalls and have rectified many so far.

i'm just giving my opinion, first impressions... not trying to stick the knife in or anything or be malicious.

If i came across this site through searching for seo or whatever, i wouldn't stay on it. It doesn't grab my attention.

sure, the content might be world class, but i'm not interested as i have to work in order to read it, it doesnt spoonfeed me the content.

The internet has changed and users have got lazier, they like step by step guides, clean, non-scrolling sites with a bit of 'class' in the design.

Of course, you can be successful with any plain html website but web 2.0 is the way to go (well as you've pointed out that mainly refers to social networking etc.. however there is also web 2.0 design :-). It's where the masses are at and design is what attracts those masses in the first place.

You don't need flash all over the place or a space age design with loads of colour.. that's not what i mean... but just something simple and user-friendly.

*yeah, i know i'm not practicing what i'm preaching...theleavingcert.com's design is boring, old. Actually all of my sites are bar JPEGr in fact, if i came across one of my sites i'd click out straight away. But i've plans for them... JPEGr has taught me many lessons already.

Adam

smemon wrote:

i'm well aware of JPEGr's pitfalls and have rectified many so far.

i'm just giving my opinion, first impressions... not trying to stick the knife in or anything or be malicious.

If i came across this site through searching for seo or whatever, i wouldn't stay on it. It doesn't grab my attention.

sure, the content might be world class, but i'm not interested as i have to work in order to read it, it doesnt spoonfeed me the content.

The internet has changed and users have got lazier, they like step by step guides, clean, non-scrolling sites with a bit of 'class' in the design.

Of course, you can be successful with any plain html website but web 2.0 is the way to go (well as you've pointed out that mainly refers to social networking etc.. however there is also web 2.0 design :-). It's where the masses are at and design is what attracts those masses in the first place.

You don't need flash all over the place or a space age design with loads of colour.. that's not what i mean... but just something simple and user-friendly.

*yeah, i know i'm not practicing what i'm preaching...theleavingcert.com's design is boring, old. Actually all of my sites are bar JPEGr in fact, if i came across one of my sites i'd click out straight away. But i've plans for them... JPEGr has taught me many lessons already.

Mostly valid points but you're not supporting your original arguments really. And where are these statistics about users being lazier, and wanting step by step instructions and non-scrolling websites? I know of very few non-scrolling websites, and any I can think of are not of the informative nature. The emboldened comment I find particularly silly, what work do you have to do to read the content? Do you mean the actually reading? If that's the case the OP should just dictate all his content and release a series of podcasts or mp3's, then all you have to do is listen, or is listening as much work as reading...? And on top of that, anybody browsing for info on SEO would be a fool if they expected to not have to do a fair bit of reading!

I'm not trying to attack your general impression, yes, web 2.0 works, I happen to be a fan of it in fact. My real point is that the website is not in dire need of an extreme makeover to achieve its goal, as your opinions would imply. Take this site for example. Is it any cleaner or more concise by any great margin than the OP's? And yet we sit and read, day in, day out. Yet I wouldn't consider much about this site to conform with the general idea of the 2.0 look. Really, your points could be applied to any website today that hasn't joined the web 2.0 genre, but not all websites need it, and I dont believe the OP's does either.

smemon

Mirror wrote:

Mostly valid points but you're not supporting your original arguments really. And where are these statistics about users being lazier, and wanting step by step instructions and non-scrolling websites? I know of very few non-scrolling websites, and any I can think of are not of the informative nature. The emboldened comment I find particularly silly, what work do you have to do to read the content? Do you mean the actually reading? If that's the case the OP should just dictate all his content and release a series of podcasts or mp3's, then all you have to do is listen, or is listening as much work as reading...? And on top of that, anybody browsing for info on SEO would be a fool if they expected to not have to do a fair bit of reading!

I'm not trying to attack your general impression, yes, web 2.0 works, I happen to be a fan of it in fact. My real point is that the website is not in dire need of an extreme makeover to achieve its goal, as your opinions would imply. Take this site for example. Is it any cleaner or more concise by any great margin than the OP's? And yet we sit and read, day in, day out. Yet I wouldn't consider much about this site to conform with the general idea of the 2.0 look. Really, your points could be applied to any website today that hasn't joined the web 2.0 genre, but not all websites need it, and I dont believe the OP's does either.

yeah fair enough, can't argue with that

i'm just giving my opinion as a casual browser... which i thought the OP wanted.

This is a content based site - no doubt about that. It's content is what sells the site.. BUT i feel the content could be layed out better..

the Guru

My First opinion is it looks terrible, colours and layout. I don't know if you did this yourself or had a company do it for you, if so get your money back. I would try and add more visual aids to the site, their is way to much text.

And I don't know why companies use free email accounts, you own the domain name put a @betteririshwebsites.com email address in there, it looks tacky and unprofessional, or put a feedback form onto the page.

Also I look at this site, you're trying to offer advise on better websites and seo etc ... who are you, whats your background, whats your experience, what notable projects have you done, why should I read your material or look to you for SEO solutions. Get some content on their about you and your achievements. Even if your site looks **** you can over come this by telling users your knowledge, experience and how it will help them.

also "Businesses around the Ireland " I think you need to loose "the"

Seohelp

Good Stuff. Appreciate the comments. Please keep them coming. I'm fairly thick-skinned so don't hold back

However, Laslo

While I do actually agree with most of what you're saying, I don't know if you should be saying it. Do you know enough to have an opinion? I'm just asking is all.

Yes. I do know enough. Although this site may not be a good reflection of the knowledge that I have within the industry you'll just have to take my word for it (site is being affected by the ageing delay so the optimisation efforts that have gone into it have not been focused for good reason).
Apparently, I'll have to take your word for it too. Considering

I have the experience and talent necessary to sit on my high horse and have an opinion.

but you neglect to offer any feedback through your expert (?) opinion on the back of such talents and experience that you have shown no proof of. Ah well, at least you so agree with most of what I'm saying, but have still managed to through a bit of abuse my way.

Mirror and smemon I really appreciate your feedback.

A new design is something that is a must for this site. The kind of design tips that I'm getting from ye are something that will be a great help. Thanks to both of ye for your input.

the Guru

Thank you for your blunt response (no sarcasm... seriously... thanks). The design was done by myself by plugging content into a template design that I used for a site a while back. It doesn't suit and looks poor at best. Visual aids isn't something that really goes hand-in-hand with a SEO Article site but I will look to see if there is a chance to address this short-coming in the new design.

And I don't know why companies use free email accounts, you own the domain name put a @betteririshwebsites.com email address in there, it looks tacky and unprofessional, or put a feedback form onto the page.

Good point also. I will be putting the @betteririshwebsites.com email address onto the site with the redesign.

so I look at this site, you're trying to offer advise on better websites and seo etc ... who are you, whats your background, whats your experience, what notable projects have you done, why should I read your material or look to you for SEO solutions. Get some content on their about you and your achievements. Even if your site looks **** you can over come this by telling users your knowledge, experience and how it will help them.

I only want to make this a shared article resource site and will be putting an authors section to it as I feel that within the area of webdesign and seo there are so many different aspects to the industry that I don't want to associate one name with the site.

Cheers for the heads-up on the grammatical error as well.

Thanks to everyone for contributing. I'd still love to hear more back (specifically article category suggestions if anyone has any).
Have a good Christmas.

Laslo

Seohelp wrote:

Yes. I do know enough. Although this site may not be a good reflection of the knowledge that I have within the industry you'll just have to take my word for it

Again this is what I have a problem with. It's very easy to gather information on SEO on the web and then make your own spin on it. While I agree with you that SEO is very important, I feel that as it is such a remedial skill, it should be part and parcel of what Web design/development agencies are offering.

Now before you point out the obvious to me; that most Irish Web agencies ignore SEO completely, yeah. I already know. However, this is a problem that the industry at large needs to address. I don't think that niche specialists offering their clients life-saving solutions are the way to go.

Seohelp wrote:

Apparently, I'll have to take your word for it too. Considering
but you neglect to offer any feedback through your expert (?) opinion on the back of such talents and experience that you have shown no proof of.

Regarding proof - it would be a little unprofessional of me to post my clients URL's publicly for everyone to slander so needless to say, I won't be doing that. However, if you want some solid feedback based on my experience, here it goes:

1) "Businesses around the Ireland and the rest of the world paid a fortune for web designers to come in and create an online presence for their company and expected that they could put their feet up and the money would come pouring through the door." - making sweeping simplified generalisations like this, coupled with titling your website "Better Irish Websites" is just asking for trouble. My advice would be to sell your strengths, not other people's supposed weaknesses. Even if they do exist everywhere we look!

2) Consider redesigning your site. Get a decent brand and aesthetic to your site as it looks very unprofessional. I appreciate of course that you may not be trading and only offering advice and that this may be a little difficult. Should I assume you're an enthusiast and not a professional?

3) Mark-up your code semantically, giving meaning to each XHTML element. At the moment it seems there is no real understanding of when/where headings, tables, lists, etc. should be used.

4) Use relative sizing for your fonts.

5) Your dashed link underlining in the Article Directory causes pixel-shifts in Firefox.

6) More consistent and comprehensive page titling could be used for SEO, no?

...shall I go on? I'm not trying to lambast you, simply giving you a few simple pointers as you have requested.

I guess my point is this, depending on what your position is:

- If you are selling yourself as a professional 'Search Engine Optimiser' then you need to be able to practice what you preach on every level. There's no point in saying you're a Web professional with a sub-standard web presence; although I'm well aware that there are plenty out there.

- If you're an enthusiast/amateur then you have every right to express your opinion and say what you like. There's nothing to stop you. However, I'm sure you can understand professionals of many years such as myself taking exception to simplifications and generalisations being made.

Seohelp wrote:

Ah well, at least you so agree with most of what I'm saying, but have still managed to through a bit of abuse my way.

There are many of 'SEOs' out there who are jumping on the bandwagon and, like incompetent accessibility 'gurus' before them, once again raping this industry by failing to see the bigger picture. Niche specialists never have long-term answers. However, I shall assume that you're an enthusiast and not trying to make a quick buck - so please accept my humble apologies.

Seohelp

Thanks Laslo for the tips and pointers. Much appreciated.