Yet another "Please Critique My Web Site" post!

18 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
  • |
Hi all, I've had this web site up for a couple years and am trying hard to get it to page one of google but for many of the best keywords I'm still back in the 50's (though I do have a few that are on page 1 or approaching page 1). I have just done a lot of on-page SEO on it but I'm sure there's still more to do.

I actually think it looked and read better before I started taking advice re adding more keywords etc. in the copy, but the keywords etc do seem to be helping my ranking if I'm not mistaken. It's hard to tell because I'm doing other things such as buying backlinks at the same time.

Anyway, some of the questions I have are:

a) Do I just plain have too many pages? I started out originally with about 5-6 and now I have a lot more as I've added more pages regarding water and water filtration. Personally I like the idea that you can get all that information in one place. But one friend told me it's overwhelming to him...

b) How is the copy? I have recently changed it to include more keywording for one thing, but also I wonder if it's too "hard sell". It was more "organic" before so tell me if it reads badly or needs improved in any specific ways.

c) Some pages are very long. Again, this has to do with providing a lot of information but I can see that maybe it's too much on one page.

With the above in mind, I'd really appreciate any constructive criticism of my site and/or particular pages. I don't mind if you say "It sucks" as long as you tell me specifically why.

Also is it okay to also ask in this forum for on-page SEO advice/critique, or do I need to post a question on that in the SEO forum?

I appreciate your time in looking at my site and your time in writing a reply! I hope you will be specific in what you like or don't like.

p.s. While you're there if you could click any of the social bookmark icons or google +1 that would be great. (Hope it's okay to say that; that's NOT my main interest in posting this here, it was just an afterthought, as I just added the +1 and AddThis bookmark links.)

http://www.whatsthebestwaterfilter.com
#ad copy #copy #page design #post #web design
  • Profile picture of the author robinsden
    I think the top banner would look better if it were in the center of the page.
    The little picture to the right at the top of the page with the tap I would just get rid of as it just dose not really seem to look good.

    As you go down the page the text is all placed to the left side of the page, leaving a great big white space. The information should be more in the center of the page as it would look better.
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  • Profile picture of the author seosoldier
    Robinsden, I agree about the text needing to be centered. I am using a Template which is set up with CSS and I don't know CSS, only some html so I have not been able to figure out how to change it so that it goes to the center of the page. Is there some code anyone can give me here or point me to instructions for as to how to make the page open so that it fits the size of any screen in their browser?

    Interesting that you don't like the little faucet, I've gotten positive comments about that. ;-) I will wait and see how others respond to that. Thanks much for your comments!
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    > My Promise To You: I will never promote any offer I do not truly believe to be 100% worth buying and using!
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  • Profile picture of the author brianman
    I would lose the green theme color. Green speaks more of forests and trees than water. I would use either white or a blue color that looks clean and pure. Whenever you're thinking water, you think pure.
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    • Profile picture of the author seosoldier
      Originally Posted by brianman View Post

      I would lose the green theme color. Green speaks more of forests and trees than water. I would use either white or a blue color that looks clean and pure. Whenever you're thinking water, you think pure.
      Great idea! I agree! Now I have to figure out how to do that! ;-P

      Is there anyone here that could look at my .css file and tell me how to change the color scheme? I looked at it and I see a lot of different places where color can be changed and not sure which ones are which!

      I can write the template co. I bought it from and ask for their help. I do agree it would be nice to have blue-themed colors!
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      > My Promise To You: I will never promote any offer I do not truly believe to be 100% worth buying and using!
      https://bestwaterfilter.us
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  • Profile picture of the author jonhel
    I've only taken a quick look, but I see that although the site has an external style sheet, you've got a lot of styles on the pages. I'd move them to the style sheet if I were you.

    For example I noticed this with the h1 tags which you've styled separately, i.e. <h1class="style36">.

    This could have an impact on the rating since it may dilute your keyword density.

    Jonathan
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    • Profile picture of the author seosoldier
      Originally Posted by jonhel View Post

      I've only taken a quick look, but I see that although the site has an external style sheet, you've got a lot of styles on the pages. I'd move them to the style sheet if I were you.

      For example I noticed this with the h1 tags which you've styled separately, i.e. <h1class="style36">.

      This could have an impact on the rating since it may dilute your keyword density.

      Jonathan
      Ha ha! So far, everyone is suggesting changes that I have no idea how to make! Guess I'm going to have to either learn CSS or pay someone to make these changes!

      But thanks for the info. At least now I know what to change, if not how. ;-D Keep 'em coming, once I get all the things that should be changed, then I'll work on the how.
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      > My Promise To You: I will never promote any offer I do not truly believe to be 100% worth buying and using!
      https://bestwaterfilter.us
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  • Profile picture of the author Karen Barr
    Wow, back to the 90s. Very very outdated design. Sorry if that sounds rude
    The animated faucet is awful!
    Drop the feedjit thing, nobody cares who else is visiting your site.
    Your text is too many different colours.
    The template doesn't stretch with that page - probably because it was built in 1999 when we were all viewing at 640x480 :p
    Your landing page needs to have a very prominent, professional looking link to the shop page. Thats where your money is, so it needs to be very very easy to find.

    If you're interested in updating to a modern design, please contact me.
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    • Profile picture of the author seosoldier
      Originally Posted by Karen Barr View Post

      Wow, back to the 90s. Very very outdated design. Sorry if that sounds rude
      The animated faucet is awful!
      Drop the feedjit thing, nobody cares who else is visiting your site.
      Your text is too many different colours.
      The template doesn't stretch with that page - probably because it was built in 1999 when we were all viewing at 640x480 :p
      Your landing page needs to have a very prominent, professional looking link to the shop page. Thats where your money is, so it needs to be very very easy to find.

      If you're interested in updating to a modern design, please contact me.
      I'll take at least some of your advice. Thanks for weighing in!
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      > My Promise To You: I will never promote any offer I do not truly believe to be 100% worth buying and using!
      https://bestwaterfilter.us
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  • Profile picture of the author seosoldier
    Okay, I made some changes:
    I made the fonts more uniform on the home page- at least all the same font, now, though a few different sizes and emphases...

    I got rid of the little moving faucet gif in the top right (Even though I liked it, 2 here didn't so I took that into consideration).

    I added a line in red in the top middle of the home page that says "
    CLICK HERE
    TO SEE OUR SELECTION OF THE BEST WATER FILTERS YOU CAN BUY


    as someone suggested that I need a way for them to get to the money page easily and quickly.

    I want to change the background colors of the menu and header to blue instead of green but I need to figure out how to get little blue rectangles of that size to replace the green ones with. What's the easy way of getting plain rectangle .gif's of the size and color I want?

    I tried to change the Centering of the header at the top of the page so that the little butterfly and name would be centered but I couldn't figure out how to do it. Will ask the tech support of the web template co. and see if they can tell me...

    Anyway, as time permits, and as I gain the necessary knowledge, I will make these changes and a few other changes suggested, throughout the site.

    As to the template looking too sixties, I don't know about that but I like it pretty well so am not looking to change the whole site's design.

    I think the main thing is to be in the "ball park" of a decent looking site. But it doesn't have to win any design awards, it just has to look professional, which is the main thing I am trying to achieve, and hope I have achieved, at least enough that someone would not leave the site because of the design or look of it.

    I was able to make the text go all the way across my screen now. I wonder how it will look on smaller and bigger screens...?

    I think the very most important thing is that it is SEO'd well.

    As to getting opinions re on-page SEO should I ask that in the SEO forum or in this one? It involves web design but it has more to do with the code and keywords more than with colors, fonts, and the overall "look".

    Anyway thanks for the design tips and I will continue to work on making the fonts more uniform throughout the site and etc. Is there a way to code the page to automatically adjust to the size of one's display? That is possible, isn't it?
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    > My Promise To You: I will never promote any offer I do not truly believe to be 100% worth buying and using!
    https://bestwaterfilter.us
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  • Profile picture of the author lovenot
    Do not underline words that are not links. If you're gonna post a huge chunk of links among texts, Make them in different shades of colour. The top right gif does not make the site look professional. Especially with the black border. Classify your menubar into deeper categories for example: Home| Buy More | Fruits (and inside fruits) - Apples, Bananas, Oranges. Make your images with white in them, transparent. Make your buy buttons more prominent. Fix your menubar. It expands on some pages due to your text.

    There are alot of issues and stuffs to fix. You should perhaps, use a wordpress theme.
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    • Profile picture of the author seosoldier
      Originally Posted by lovenot View Post

      Do not underline words that are not links. If you're gonna post a huge chunk of links among texts, Make them in different shades of colour. The top right gif does not make the site look professional. Especially with the black border. Classify your menubar into deeper categories for example: Home| Buy More | Fruits (and inside fruits) - Apples, Bananas, Oranges. Make your images with white in them, transparent. Make your buy buttons more prominent. Fix your menubar. It expands on some pages due to your text.

      There are alot of issues and stuffs to fix. You should perhaps, use a wordpress theme.
      Will do some of this when I get the chance. Couldn't figure out how to make the links different colors. Seems Dreamweaver wants to make them all the same color on the page. I have to find the key to change that...

      The top right gif was removed yesterday before I posted my last entry. Weird that it still shows up for you...

      Nesting the menu bar seems like a good idea - again if I can figure out how to do it. ;-D I have my work cut out for me in learning how to do some of this stuff.

      When you say fix the menu bar because it expands with the text, you mean just that some buttons are bigger than others? That's a bad thing?
      Not sure what the problem is... Or maybe you're seeing some error that I'm not seeing in IE or Firefox...?
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  • Profile picture of the author Web Tempest
    If I were you I'd go to Themeforest.net, get one of the beautiful wordpress themes there and migrate the data over. Will take a while but will make your site much better.

    Reason being the foundation or core structure of the site is out of date and is at the stage where starting afresh will be quicker than fixing what's there.
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    • Profile picture of the author seosoldier
      Originally Posted by Web Tempest View Post

      If I were you I'd go to Themeforest.net, get one of the beautiful wordpress themes there and migrate the data over. Will take a while but will make your site much better.

      Reason being the foundation or core structure of the site is out of date and is at the stage where starting afresh will be quicker than fixing what's there.
      Okay, I'll consider that. But won't I lose google ranking if I do this? I am currently running a campaign to get 5 keywords pushed with one to go to 1st page of google, so I don't want to screw that up!

      Also, can you explain more of what you mean when saying "the core structure of the site is out of date". What does that mean exactly? Does it affect my ability to rank the site? And is the core structure really that big of a problem? I'm not doubting you, just asking for clarification and whether or not it's really worth it to migrate, vis a vis google rankings.
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      • Profile picture of the author Web Tempest
        I'm not sure what will happen with the Google rankings. Visitors might stay longer on the site if it's re-done and thus Google will like you better. But I can't say for sure so there is some risk involved (perhaps create a new thread in the SEO section of the forum).

        By core structure I mean the HTML code.
        - your site shouldn't be in a table
        - very view sites are full width such as yours - they are instead centred, usually with a 960px container (check out something like Blueprint CSS)
        - moving from table to a fluid design like with blueprint will make your site look cleaner not just on a computer, but phones and tablets too

        Structure isn't a HUGE problem - you're getting visitors and it's not as though your text is in another language. But I think design and style can go a long way to building authority and respect from visitors.

        I instantly think the site was made in the 90's and not been updated since. But perhaps other demographics wouldn't care so much.

        Matt

        Originally Posted by seosoldier View Post

        Okay, I'll consider that. But won't I lose google ranking if I do this? I am currently running a campaign to get 5 keywords pushed with one to go to 1st page of google, so I don't want to screw that up!

        Also, can you explain more of what you mean when saying "the core structure of the site is out of date". What does that mean exactly? Does it affect my ability to rank the site? And is the core structure really that big of a problem? I'm not doubting you, just asking for clarification and whether or not it's really worth it to migrate, vis a vis google rankings.
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        • Profile picture of the author seosoldier
          Originally Posted by Web Tempest View Post

          I'm not sure what will happen with the Google rankings. Visitors might stay longer on the site if it's re-done and thus Google will like you better. But I can't say for sure so there is some risk involved (perhaps create a new thread in the SEO section of the forum).

          By core structure I mean the HTML code.
          - your site shouldn't be in a table
          - very view sites are full width such as yours - they are instead centred, usually with a 960px container (check out something like Blueprint CSS)
          - moving from table to a fluid design like with blueprint will make your site look cleaner not just on a computer, but phones and tablets too

          Structure isn't a HUGE problem - you're getting visitors and it's not as though your text is in another language. But I think design and style can go a long way to building authority and respect from visitors.

          I instantly think the site was made in the 90's and not been updated since. But perhaps other demographics wouldn't care so much.

          Matt
          Thanks for the honest and clarified response.
          Based on what's been said here I will seriously consider re-building the site from scratch in the future, with the same domain and same page names so that I won't lose any google juice. (At least I assume that doing so would not affect me negatively but I will check with the SEO experts to be sure!)

          It seems as if you web design folks definitely don't like the design and think it looks like sixties or nineties or whatever. But without wanting to be or sound defensive, I do think the AVERAGE person does not see or feel that way. Also believe me, my competition is way worse looking for the most part!

          Nevertheless I appreciate the comments, have already implemented some of the proposed changes and will implement more as time and knowledge permit.
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          • Profile picture of the author billsull
            I would suggest filling in that empty space on the right side of the page or centering the text.
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            • Profile picture of the author seosoldier
              Originally Posted by billsull View Post

              I would suggest filling in that empty space on the right side of the page or centering the text.
              Yesterday, using the new Firefox, I had that problem solved, the text went to the right of the screen. Here using IE 8.0.6 I notice that it doesn't.... so back to the drawing board...

              May I ask what browser and version you are running? If you're running Firefox try clearing the cache.
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  • Profile picture of the author rallport
    For me, too many "click here" style links - screams of a typical site from 1998 to me

    As do the color scheme for the design and text unfortunately.

    Granted, you may be getting visitors, but I imagine with a site like (that doesn't give an amazing first impression) that you're getting a fairly high bounce rate.

    I also think the banner is too tall - maybe decrease the size of that a little.
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