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Can You Review My New Writing Site?

by lorrainelim
15 replies
Hello,

My writing site was finished just a couple of weeks ago. I even posted the service at the Warriors for Hire forum. It's Elite Web Content.

The designer I chose used image "frames" (don't know what it's called) instead of html text. When I asked an SEO guy to promote it, that's the only time I knew there was a problem. I'm thinking of having it redesigned and I would appreciate any feedback about the website before I waste any more money.

I also got a couple of inquiries about brochure writing also but no content writing job. It surprised me since I didn't say anything about writing brochures, I don't know how to do them.

Thanks!
#review #site #writing
  • Profile picture of the author Jon Alexander
    It looks a little 'old school' if you know what I mean. And frames are a no-no if you want to make life easy on your seo-self.
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    • Profile picture of the author fixxidotnet
      Originally Posted by Jon Alexander View Post

      It looks a little 'old school' if you know what I mean. And frames are a no-no if you want to make life easy on your seo-self.

      Why are frames an issue with seo , i always wondered ?
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      • Profile picture of the author Jenni Mac
        Hi, I don't know about the SEO consequences, or clearly how much you spent, but why not just throw up a blog and use that for your site?

        If you're just starting out it doesn't have to have bells and whistles attatched, just the basic info about who you are, your service etc.

        I put up my site (in my sig) in 15 mins. I know it's not super dooper and everything, but it's making me money and all I've done is bought the domain, spent 15 mins installing it & plugins and then a little time adding content.

        If I want to then spend money on a header I can later on.

        Just my thoughts!

        Hope it works out for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author jlandells
    Image frames are an issue for SEO as the search engine spiders can't read the text, so can't see any of your keywords. Many web designers use this approach as they find it easier to work with big blocks of images, rather than taking the time to layout the web page properly using either tables, or preferably CSS.

    Hope that helps!

    -John.
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  • Profile picture of the author lorrainelim
    Thanks for your suggestions.. I feel like I've been had by the designer =(
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  • Profile picture of the author DavidO
    Image frames are totally useless because you'll never get good search results without readable text. Look in your source code and you'll see there's nothing there for the search engines.

    So, yes, in this sense you've been had. As for the design itself, it's not really bad but it lacks any flair or imagination. Writing is a creative field, even business writing, and your web content is uninspiring.

    Your portfolio shows you're a skilled writer and you deserve a better website than this.
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  • Profile picture of the author DavidO
    Another thing I've just noted is that your portfolio doesn't really show any writing samples. The links just go to the front page of the respective websites. Unless you wrote the whole site, in which case you should loudly say so, you need to link to your articles themselves.

    Anyone searching for writing samples will be disappointed by this and it will reflect badly on you.
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    • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
      Hi Lorraine

      I agree that you need to redesign the site. This is the problem with hiring designers who are more interested in their own idea of aesthetics than the commercial implications for their clients.

      @Jenni - your site looks great. I'm not surprised it's working for you.



      Frank
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  • Profile picture of the author lorrainelim
    @DavidO: I wrote the entire content of several websites there. But you're right, I should provide specific samples. Thanks again for your suggestions.


    I think that my website is completely useless (as it is right now).. Would it make more sense to just completely build another one from scratch? I like my domain though

    Thank you.
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  • Profile picture of the author Loren Woirhaye
    The fonts are all hard on the eyes. The menus in "reversed type"
    are really annoying and hard to see. The contrast of black against
    white is really strong here and the effect is to make this a hard
    website to look at.

    It might look cool in print but on my screen it's an eyesore. Different
    font could help a lot to make it more readable.

    Bob Bly's book "The Copywriter's Handbook" covers brochures. Your
    site looks like a brochure actually, so maybe that's why you got
    asked - people saw something that made them think "brochure".

    Funny how these things go.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      One thing that hit me, that no one else has mentioned, is how passive the writing on the home page is.

      Contrast:

      "Quality content is demanded by your readers."

      with

      Your readers demand quality content.

      Which has more energy?

      I hate piling on, but you've been well and truly had by your designer. The domain name is good, but scrub the rest and start over.

      What you have now is what I call a "Paris Hilton" website - pretty to look at, but not good for anything useful...

      Sorry.
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      • Profile picture of the author daver99
        Well you wanted feedback, you got it.

        I would go with a quick and easy wordpress blog, you will be up and running in no time.

        I would keep the the design somewhere on your URLjust not on your home page. There are some very conservative corporate type customers who would identify with this kind of a design. You never know if it might come in handy.

        Good luck
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      • Profile picture of the author daver99
        Well you wanted feedback, you got it.

        I would go with a quick and easy wordpress blog, you will be up and running in no time.

        I would keep the the design somewhere on your URLjust not on your home page. There are some very conservative corporate type customers who would identify with this kind of a design. You never know if it might come in handy.

        Good luck
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        Need Facebook Campaign Management?... I accepting clients!
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  • Profile picture of the author Loren Woirhaye
    I'm using a laptop and I just went back to the tab where
    your site was. While I was doing something else I changed
    the angle of the screen.

    To my SURPRISE! your color scheme is NOT black and
    white, it's something else! - however with my imperfect
    viewing angle the site was very difficult to look at and I
    think your designer's choice of colors is bad because of
    the viewing-angle issue alone.
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  • Profile picture of the author DodyMorisson
    A good one. I think you may need more ads.
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