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new website layout

by marks2424
8 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
A month or so ago I asked people to look over my site and tell me why they thought people weren't staying on the site for very long. After listening to them I changed the layout of my site some. The problem they had was that my site was showing double scroll bars one on the far side of the page like they all have and one in the middle of the page which I put in so the page wasn't 10 feet long. People didn't like that and since everyone else's sites are like that I figured I should change mine. I also took the suggestion to move my stories from the about us section and ad them to the new blog I added. The only problem with this is that I know google likes sites with lots of pages and by moving the stories to a blog I lost about 10 pages from my site. I was thinking about putting them back and putting something in the blog but an not sure. Also even though I for the most part didn't change anything with the content on my site just the layout and looks a little when I took down the old version and put up the new one which took about 15 minutes my site vanished from search results for over a week and when it did return it was way back on page 28 and it had been around page 12 to 15 for the past 3 months, anyone have any ideas why this would happen. Every page has the exact same urls they had before so anything that was indexed before shouldn't change. So could a few people check out my new layout and see what they think. Thanks My sit is http://www.myitaliantravels.com
#layout #website
  • Profile picture of the author mgreener
    Hi,

    Once you have pages (URL's) up and indexed, removing or changing them incorrectly will destroy their rankings and can hurt your site overall. My suggestion is to stop making major changes, leave the pages and posts where they are (unless you feel everything is messed up and confusing to the user). If you got rid of a certain page and/or changed the URL without using a 301 redirect, you need to set that up immediately as this tells the search engines and any links in general that the link has changed and where to find the new one!

    Continue to add new content to get crawled often and over time your rankings will improve (assuming that you are doing SEO in other areas).
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    • Profile picture of the author Steve B
      No offense meant, but your site looks very "do it yourself" and not real professional.

      First thing you should do is get rid of that smothering red background. It's hard on the eyes and too distracting. White or very light gray would be better.

      Spend a few bucks and purchase a professional web site template.

      Steve
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      Steve Browne, online business strategies, tips, guidance, and resources
      SteveBrowneDirect

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  • Profile picture of the author marks2424
    Hi Steve thanks for your thoughts but why does the site look do it yourself because of the background color. Also I had about 50 people look over my changes with different colors in the background and they all liked the red. I liked a darker red myself but I thought it would be better to go with what most people liked. Also Most of the italian travel sites I have looked at have background colors other then white or gray. As far as a web site template most of what I see looks to busy to me for what I want and many sites in my area have a similar layout nice plain and simple. Also while putting my site together so many people in many forums kept saying keep it simple because that is what people want so that is what I did. I will keep your ideas in mind because I can make my site look something like travelocity or one of the other big sites with boxes of stuff all over any time I want to I just find those sites confusing, there is just too much stuff in too many places.
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    • Profile picture of the author Bellasys
      LOL. Steve was very kind in his feedback.

      It has been proven time and time again that you don't have to have a slick, hollywood, or otherwise "elegant" site to conduct business. And that remains true as long as the appearance of the site doesn't distract, undermine, or otherwise devalue the business aim put across.

      You asked a question, and Steve's answer was valid, and most importantly- it's an accurate assessment.

      If you paid good money from a professional designer for your site, get your money back. If you did it yourself, then perhaps you should be more open to the wisdom someone provides rather than getting defensive just because you are proud of your work. If you want to make money, you'll need to open your mind a little.

      Respectfully,

      Max

      ------
      I am a designer and developer successfully marketing sites for 12 years now. I was putting people on top of google in 1999, and I've transitioned successfully to the new marketing style using video and meta-marketing styles. I have clients resist things far stranger than this that will make them successful, and well- this one is pretty obvious. Everyone needs to learn or grow in some regard- no matter who they are or what product or business they have. I won't argue with Marks2424 if he responds defensively, but for anyone else reading this- you'll need an open mind when you get tech advice that seems to differ with your own opinion. If you are your best client- AWESOME - do whatever you want. If you want to make money, listen to qualified consultants. And stop tripping over dollars to pick up pennies- It's just not attractive
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  • Profile picture of the author CSS Architect
    I'm not feeling the menu hover color.. . try making using a duller shade, so the text would be readable.

    Also check out this link:
    kuler

    I used this from time to time to help with my color schemes.
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  • Profile picture of the author marks2424
    Hi Bellasys. Where in the world did you get the idea I was being defensive. I thanked the guy for his advice and told him what I did and why. I did come to this site to get advice from people who know more then me and more then a month ago I asked about my site and got many ideas of what to change and I changed it based on what those people said to do. Now I am asking for input and what good is input if people don't explain themselves. If I tell someone about there site I won't just say change the color I will say change the color and why I think what I think. If I tell someone that there site looks do it your selfish I will say why I think that not just make a statement. I explained what I did and why in my response to him. 90% percent of the italian travel sites have a similar look to them nice plain simple with straight lines and I am assuming that is because that is what people want to see so that is what I put together. Also I would like to make more money from the site but I am also not going to jump head first into something someone told me I will research it the best I can before I do something. I came here for advice and ideas and it does me no go to get short answers that explain nothing to me. I didn't come here to be bashed i came here for help and it doesn't do me any good to have my site torn down but no real advice given. It also doesn't do anyone any good for someone to say all about what they have done if they don't express there full ideas about a site. I do not want to argue with anyone either but Bellasys bashes me in my response and says my problem is obvious but if it were so obvious then why doesn't any one explain it to me not just say buy a template.
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  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    1. Questions/topics about anybody's Google ranking, SERP - do NOT belong to this sub-forum. Keep them out (or they will be deleted)!

    2. The two biggest mistakes one can make when asking feedback on their design:
    a) making every change that was suggested by everybody
    b) replying to every suggestion (good or bad) trying to explain why not agreeing with the suggestion
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    • Profile picture of the author Azarna
      First thing that jumps out at me is it is called 'MY Italian Travels' (singular), but you refer to yourself as 'we' (plural) throughout.

      There are a few typos, such as on the About Us - 'We are a couple friends'
      or the rather wonderful 'Click Above Or Bellow To Check Room Rates'

      A few more pictures would be nice, there is a lot of great, informative text, but let's face it, lots of people like a picture to go with :-)

      Your 'About Us' doesn't really say anything about you. You are still two anonymous men/women, no idea. This section is really about why you built the site, not about yourselves at all.

      Overall I really like the site. You are offering a lot of quality information for would-be visitors. You have clearly put a lot of work into this. I should think this is a genuinely useful site when planning an Italian holiday.
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