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Website Critique Please

by goindeep
8 replies
***Notice to Mods - this is not promotional in the slightest, purely for feedback only ***

Ive been working on a review site on my own in the last few weeks and im thinking it may need to be niched out. In the beginning I thought that I could cater to all product reviews and in fact I probably could have... long story, dont ask...

I feel I know the answer already.. (im modest too) but would I be better off going for a totally niched out version of the current site or staying broad?

For example instead of just product reviews I was thinking of doing something like "Bloke Reviews" or "review for dudes" and just reviewing things men love like video games, fishing, beer and cars... Or go even deeper and just do the one product type like games or beer?

Im kind of scared of jumping head first and then having to turn back, ive burnt a lot of time already with this blog.

What do you all think?

Thanks.

-Andrei

p.s. going to bed now, please dont expect me to reply until the AM. Thanks again.
#critique #niche #website
  • Profile picture of the author goindeep
    Anyone out there? Or did the end of the world come early?
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    • Profile picture of the author amazonsaver
      Two things that I would work on.

      1. The site loaded pretty slow. I tried twice and it took in excess of 30 seconds each time. I am not sure if it is your server or if there are some scripts that might need to optimized. I suspect it un-optimized scripts.

      2. You have a 'Product Categories' section of your site but you need to scroll down considerably to see it. That seems like a main site navigation element and I think that works better at the top of the page.
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  • Profile picture of the author zaco
    I have the same idea and I came to the conclusion to start an "Authority site" for reviews will be so hard even tho I have the best domain for it that I just got from an auction and it's since 2002..

    It is a good idea to start with a small reviews for targeted keywords then once your site starts to grow and gain rankings in Google then start to build the site as an Authority site, The most important thing to consider is the website structure..if you are thinking to go big then build the foundation.. make sure you are able to add categories and topics after without the need to change anything, you don't want to start building again and lose your rankings right?

    Also building a site for all products and reviews is alot of work, I am still trying to figure out how to do it in the easiest way..the only way it to let the users add their own reviews like epinions or amazon but its so hard to reach that point..

    EDIT: I didn't notice your site in the signature...IMO your theme isn't the best, I would choose a a more wider theme and I would put the categories on the right side as amazonsaver mentioned
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    Even with a fast connection this site took way too long to load. It's good to have video reviews, especially for DVDs. But you absolutely need to shorten them. People see how long they are and many won't bother. I think I saw one that was more than 9 minutes. Ugh. Most people want short video clips and info. Take the most compelling clip from the movie and put that up. I'd try and keep them two minutes and under.

    You have no headline for the site, nothing to grab the visitor's attention. You need one. You also need a short paragraph explaining the nature of what you do. Don't make people guess and don't make them click a video to find out. There are still a lot of people who aren't in love with video and prefer to see something in print before clicking on a clip.

    I'm not sure I'd want Adsense on this page either. Do you actually want someone to click away for $0.25 when you might have made $5 on a movie or game? You're probably okay because absolutely none of the ads that displayed when I looked were related to movies or games.

    And last, I think you've got a bit too much on a single page. You might consider limiting your reviews to four or five at the most. Overall, not bad but in need of some work, especially the headline and intro paragraph. Good luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author Raydal
    I agree with the others that this page is way too video/graphic
    heavy and people are not going to stick around to see your
    page load. Much too impatient for that.

    You need to split up this page into smaller pages and link
    to them rather than have everything on the same page.

    -Ray Edwards
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    The most powerful and concentrated copywriting training online today bar none! Autoresponder Writing Email SECRETS
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    • Profile picture of the author goindeep
      Thanks guys.

      Im actually switching to wp ASAP and will host the site with a local host.

      How about with regards to the niche, currently we are very broad and we rank on google.com.au for keywords "Product Review" and "Product Reviews" which again is very broad.

      Im thinking I should niche it out further but am unsure. And with regards to the site be video heavy, Im having trouble understanding that...? I get most of the content that I dont create myself from youtube, are we saying that I cant create the site as an authority video review site?

      Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author Kom
    Thanks to share

    Just listening

    KOM
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    Video Heavy = 1. Too many videos on a page. 2. Slow loading because there are too many on the page. 3. The videos are too long. 4. You could use more written stuff because (see # 5) 5. Too many videos on a single page. 6. Make the pages shorter with fewer videos on each one.
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