Website Critique help

27 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
  • |
Hi all,

I agreed to help my friend out by evaluating his website. I was wondering if any of you would look over the site and help me critique the quality of the site. Any and all comments welcome (good, bad, etc.). Thanks

site www.d24wrestling.com

#critique #website
  • Profile picture of the author Paul M Smith
    My advice would be to start by changing the meta title from home to a better title that starts with your main keyword and shorten the meta description as it is too long. You should always keep your title around 65-70 characters, always place you keyword first in the title, try to make it stand out from the rest of the competitors in your field. Even though the description tags do not gain your website any ground in search engine rankings they are still important for getting click thoughs on search engine result pages from potential customers. The average length of a description tag should be roughly 155 characters. The searcher will be drawn into your page based on what your description says to him or her. Be careful not to use quotation marks as search engines will cut your description short at the quotation mark. Also the site isn't mobile friendly. In some cases your text size is to small and hard to read. I would increase it. Like the concept but your site needs some work to make it rank in seo. Hope I haven't been too harsh but sometimes it's better to tell it like it is. Good Luck
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    • Profile picture of the author vrendoc
      Thank you Paul, those are the kinds of suggestions that I'm looking for. I'm going to work on the site into as you stated. I couldn't decide if it was too long, or short. What you said makes a great deal of sense.
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      • Profile picture of the author vrendoc
        Do you think the website looks better now? Updated based on your two recommendations.
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  • Profile picture of the author Govalen
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author vrendoc
      Thank you for your recommendations.
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul M Smith
    For some reason the doctype and meta tags are being duplicated in your source code so I would check your cms or what ever program was used to build the website as there seems to be a problem. There is about 150 lines of code that should be minified and place below your doctype declaration and is not. View your source code to see what I mean. Once you get that sorted out you can work on putting your css and js into external files. Having that much css and javascript inline slows down your loading time. Inline css and javascript works best if kept to a small size. Hope this helps you.
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  • Profile picture of the author kpmedia
    When a site will not load without Javascript, I move on.
    I'm not going to give it access to infect my system, when I don't even know what's on the site.
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    • Profile picture of the author vrendoc
      I am helping with the site, but a lot of the coding and expertise that you have mentioned is over my head. He also wants a site where he can edit content (so no html coding). Has anyone tried web.com?? I read that they will design the site for you and charge about $3 per month?

      Also in terms of the site and its overall presentation, where would you rate it from 1 to 10? 10 being the best. If anyone could give an ideal site in terms of a "10' for representation, I'd appreciate it.

      Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author LuckyIMer
    Honestly, it is a very old style. There are many great free templates or premium templates online that you can use. You also need to make SEO for your website or look for someone who can help you with it.
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    • Profile picture of the author vrendoc
      Thank you. Could you give me some examples? Or a website company that offers modern templates. We are currently on Go Daddy.com Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul M Smith
    So was the site built using a GoDaddy free template system? That may explain the duplicate code. From what I've heard GoDaddy is pretty good with support. Why not contact them and have them look at it for you. Maybe it is an issue with their web builder script. If you are thinking of starting over with a re-design using another cms, you might want try wordpress, as it may be more suited to you and your friends skill set to set up and maintain. You already have the images and content so you are a head of the curve there anyways. Are you able to log in to your account to upload a new cms?
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    • Profile picture of the author vrendoc
      Thanks Paul. If we stay with Go Daddy I'll do that. Do you think the site looks too old? And if so, what wordpress based company would ypu recommend?
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul M Smith
    Wordpress is a free content management system that is installed on your server (GoDaddy) using mysql as a database with a backend admin area where you add themes, plugins and customize your site appearance. It is well suited to beginners provided you have the time to learn a few things concerning setting it up on the server. There are scripts that hosts provide that will do this for you like Softaculous Auto Installer where you just follow the prompts and the cms is installed for you. Most hosts will aid you with this if you are still unsure or lack the confidence to do so. Yes your site looks old but that won't be hard to rectify once you choose a better platform to use. Again I recommend wordpress. Contact GoDaddy and explain your situation and see if they still want your hosting business as I suspect they do. If not then look for another reasonable host for your website. There are hosts out there that specialize in hosting wordpress sites also.
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    • Profile picture of the author grantveronica
      Hi. I think you should enhance the menu bar and header. Make the slideshow smaller so viewers can see not just the photo but the copy too. Because I don't really know what's going on in the photos unless I scroll down and read what you've written down there.

      Remove the white border and make the black background a little bit transparent so it doesn't look like a children's website (or is that it?).

      Put more lines to separate sections. Organize the sections.

      Arrange the alignments of all the texts. Even the black background is not in the center. Everything must be consistent.

      And why is there a big empty space before I get to the very bottom of your site?

      So much to fix there but I know your friend's gonna make it better.
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  • Profile picture of the author one1
    I think you left more space in footer unless my browser showing me wrong ( I'm using Opera). Also you need make some tweak in terms of CSS.
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  • Profile picture of the author ThomasDWright
    First check the onsite optimization of your site, then according to that try to check few points related to your site such as: Meta Description, Page Title, Targeted keywords, Keywords stuffing in the document text of your page. These all are the pick points for creating your site successful.
    By looking your site, its look good but for initial result you have to check all the on page optimization that will make you aware all the essential details about your site.
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    • Profile picture of the author vrendoc
      Well guys, I've worked all evening on this. Please be brutally honest.

      Just check on the front page, as I haven't started on the others yet...wanted to see if the front was okay first, thanks to all for their help.

      www.d24wrestling.com
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      • Profile picture of the author grantveronica
        Hi, vrendoc. There's an improvement in your friend's site.

        Maybe it's better if you switch the places of the copy and the slideshow. The header must be on the top instead of the menu.

        The background before is better than the gradient you have now.
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  • Profile picture of the author JonesMurray
    Critique Writing requires deep analysis, observation and keen interest. All these ingredients makeup a good critique. These core elements are present in our professional and dedicated members. So, grab this opportunity of getting your Website Critique Writing Services providing by ContentWritings.com
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  • Profile picture of the author OneWarriorNation
    Interesting! I'm a huge wrestling fan and fighters creator/artist myself.
    Do people still pay for this?
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    • Profile picture of the author vrendoc
      Hi One Warrior Nation. Yes! Our game is out there and has a following.
      If you'd like more info, email info@d24wrestling.com Or PM me and I would be glad
      to tell you about it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Johnec
    I check out some of this pages and i liked mostly have a cool design, can check out my page is TrafficNews Noticias de Las Américas y Europa is about news of the world, tecnology and alexa and more. Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author vrendoc
    I've revamped it again. Please rate from 1 to 10 (1 horrible 10 couldn't be better). Along with feedback VERY much appreciated. Sincerely, you guys, especially Paul have really helped.

    www.d24wrestling.com
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul M Smith
    The site is definitely improving in the speed department. Try to remove the white border around your background image as it is distracting. Not sure what photo editor you use but in Photoshop you can use filters to make the background image seamless. Or you could make the image larger and transparent as another option providing you can keep the file size low. Try and find out why there is such a large space at the bottom of the page if you can. Here is a link for you to run your site through to gain some more insight to what you can do to improve it even more.
    SEO Tools - Learn about your webpages
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  • Profile picture of the author vrendoc
    Thanks for the link Paul, will definitely check. Going to chat with their support on the page length as well. When I try to change it, I get a big white blank at the bottom!

    Changed the background pic...went with a d24 die pic instead...better, worse?
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul M Smith
    Yeah that looks better than the chain link fence. I've been trying to find out more about the website builder cms that Godaddy provides but can't seem to find the original developers website to see how much control you have over design. Oh well you'll have to rely on GoDaddy for support. I have visited some other sites that I found using the same program through Godaddy to build their site and their page source doctype declaration code looks normal so I'm not sure if it may be something you've done inside your back end when making changes to your configuration. Keep pluggin away and you'll get it eventually to where you want it. It's a good learning process for you also. Good Luck
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    • Profile picture of the author grantveronica
      The site's improving. It's getting better. I agree with Paul, remove the white border.

      Good job!
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