How Can I Improve My Website?

16 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
  • |
I recently created my website and I know there are tons of things I can do to improve it. Whether it be a theme, layout, content, etc

Would you recommend making the About page or the Blog as the Home page?

Having difficulty figuring out what to put on the home page. If I was a user and saw that page, I would probably leave myself.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
#improve #website
  • Profile picture of the author Abdullah Isa
    I need a link to view the site to give you honest comments.

    However, in general, your site should contain a sitemap, about page, and blog - these pages help your site to rank in search engines and give an overall more professional feel.

    Your home page should be just that: a "home" page - not an "about" page although it should contain a little information of what you are all about.

    Depending on what type of website you are running, your home page could either be a sales copy style landing page or a gallery style shop front displaying your latest and greatest offers - again, more information from yourself is needed.

    In my opinion - every website should contain an about page, contact page, home page, legal/disclaimer page and a sitemap - a blog is an added extra which does help for SEO and traffic purposes.

    I hope my answer was helpful.
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    • Profile picture of the author jamescanz
      Thanks for the input

      I can't post websites yet

      It is

      jamescanzanella

      with www before and com after
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  • Profile picture of the author RobStelton
    Few suggestions:

    - change theme, default wp theme is bland (or update to newest wp theme and tweak to make more visually appealing.
    - Make your optin more appealing. Give the benefits of subscribing. "Subscribe and Receive a Free Chapter" doesn't tell the reader what the book/chapter is about.
    - Layout of site should reflect your goals. If you want to build a list, your optin should be in a more prominent position for example.
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    • Profile picture of the author Asis Studios
      I think the theme in general is too simple. But if that's the style you want.

      The homepage needs more info, maybe a quick story about how you used to be fat and these are your secrets etc. You can put some contact info and some of the about info on the home page. Avoiding contact info always looks shady, throw it out there, even if it is "contact me on facebook and twitter" it's better then nothing and adds a good deal of credibility.
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      • Profile picture of the author jamescanz
        Originally Posted by RobStelton View Post

        Few suggestions:

        - change theme, default wp theme is bland (or update to newest wp theme and tweak to make more visually appealing.
        - Make your optin more appealing. Give the benefits of subscribing. "Subscribe and Receive a Free Chapter" doesn't tell the reader what the book/chapter is about.
        - Layout of site should reflect your goals. If you want to build a list, your optin should be in a more prominent position for example.
        Originally Posted by Asis Studios View Post

        I think the theme in general is too simple. But if that's the style you want.

        The homepage needs more info, maybe a quick story about how you used to be fat and these are your secrets etc. You can put some contact info and some of the about info on the home page. Avoiding contact info always looks shady, throw it out there, even if it is "contact me on facebook and twitter" it's better then nothing and adds a good deal of credibility.
        Thanks for the advice guys, I am looking for a simple theme, and I do agree, the one I am using is in fact too simple

        I am debating getting opt-in skin. At the moment I am looking for a optin that integrates with mailchimp
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  • Profile picture of the author rankingconsult
    Originally Posted by jamescanz View Post


    Having difficulty figuring out what to put on the home page. If I was a user and saw that page, I would probably leave myself.

    THAT is the whole key!!

    Google are getting very clever with their algorithms with the end goal that they will be looking to rank pages and sites higher that they believe are clear and concise for visitors.

    if you feel that your message is poor on your homw page then you are failing on many levels.
    If you get that bit right, then the page SEO itself looks after itself to an extent.
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  • Profile picture of the author tarif
    I am not sure if this is good, my senior designers are here too for better suggestion but I am placing my honest comments on this website:

    * Twenty ten seems too simple change this theme or customize it.
    * The background color should be darker or their should have borders on two edges of the template body. It will focus body content and grab more attention to body area rather than surroundings.
    * Navigation menus are not focused. Those should be more eye catchy.
    * No border for sidebar.
    * Contents look too scattered. You should work on typography. They should look more compact and pleasant to read.
    * The subscribe button on about page and sidebar looks fade. It suppose to be eye catchy to make people click on it.
    * Contact form fields are far away from one another. I have to scroll over to see the whole form. The spacing should be reduced.

    and so on. What I want to say is making the theme more modified (not fancy) and presentable to visitor. You should work on the sections which you want visitor's attention on them.
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  • Profile picture of the author rising_sun
    Banned
    Use corporate color and
    a attractive and lucrative logo,
    and the content must be informational.
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  • Profile picture of the author benjaminalfie
    • Accessibility
      Making a site accessible is a legal obligation in many countries. Despite that, inaccessible websites are still being created. That can affect your sales, depending on how inaccessible you are, as visitors find the site impossible to use and go elsewhere (and end up recommending one of your competitors to their friends as well). A fairly typical inaccessible site could be losing 5% of potential sales because of this. (A really inaccessible website could even prevent search engines indexing it, giving a far higher amount of potential lost sales.)
    • Browsers
      Many designers only pay attention to Internet Explorer. The justification for this is usually that 99% of the site's users use IE. It never seems to occur to the designers that perhaps the reason they have so few visitors with other browsers is that their site is fundamentally broken - it doesn't work in anything else. Percentages of people not using IE varies from site to site - over 60% of visitors to this site use an alternative browser, for example. The number most often quoted though, is that 80-85% of web users are using IE on Windows, which means that an average site that doesn't work in anything else could easily be losing 15-20% of sales.
    • Be Bold!
      What happens when a user decides to buy a product? They add it to a shopping basket. How do they add it? They click a button or link (usually a button). What happens when they can't see the button? They go elsewhere. There are some users who are still uncomfortable scrolling. Having things above the fold is still important. And yet there are still plenty of sites out there with buttons that are too subtle, or don't say the right thing, or are hidden away at the bottom of the page. "Add" is rubbish button text. "Buy" is ok. "Add xxx To Your Basket" is great. "Add xxx to Your Basket" in big letters on a big, bright button, near the top of the page, is even better. Calls to action, like this, don't have to be gaudy or tasteless, but they do have to be obvious and clear. Sites I have worked on where just the call to action was changed have reported anything from a 1% to 30% increase in sales as a result.
    • Usability
      If your potential customers want to find out more before they buy, can they? Is it obvious to the user where to go to find the technical specs on your products? Are they online at all? Are they in PDF format? Can users even find your products in the first place? This is probably the most common mistake I see on any website - a complete failure to think of what the user wants and needs, and how they might use a site. Plenty of sites have product pages with a photo and some sales patter - and nothing else. Anything from 1% to 99% of potential sales can be lost through poor usability.
    When you combine all of the problems above, it becomes fairly clear how easy it is to have a site perform poorly. Make your site accessible, make sure it is usable, make sure it works in common browsers, and make your calls to action clear and unambiguous, and you should be in a position to start converting the people who want to buy.
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  • Profile picture of the author dhanakncet
    First step you want to follow the guidelines,based on the white hat techniques you modify your sites with the natural format.
    setup the correct theme because if the theme getting time for loading means its increase the bounce rate.
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    • Profile picture of the author jamescanz
      A lot of great feedback guys, thanks.

      I am looking for a different theme, and have been for days and weeks now similar to this one



      Any recommendations of where I could find something similar to this (free or premium)
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  • Profile picture of the author tarif
    Okay I think there are two solutions:

    Solution 1: Browsing themes on themeforest > themeforest.net/category/wordpress they have hundreds of professional theme where you could find similar theme like the one you mentioned.

    Solution 2: Choose a theme (free/premium) which have similar features and roughly structured like this one and customize it to bring similar look

    Solution 2 is more perfect approach if can not find a suitable theme like this one.I hope this will help you to come to a decision.
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  • Profile picture of the author snehrugs
    if you are promote your website with high page rank site then your site is improve..............
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  • Profile picture of the author Jessy Copy
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author Pardeeps
      Increase your website page speed,reduce flash work with Jquery and optimize the images.
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  • Profile picture of the author jackjiang
    I think SEO is the right way for you to go.
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  • Profile picture of the author cssbros
    Hello,

    You should probably have a cool and unique wordpress theme for you r site.

    Improve the header, add some cool graphics, a slider will do.

    Look for a good typography as well.

    All in all, it looks really simple and neat.

    Regards,
    Arman
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