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Website Review

RicWillmotRicWillmot subscriber Posts: 14
edited January 2008 in Website Critique
Okay, I am willing to be castigated ... 
 
What input can be provided to improve the commercial success of the site?
The problem in seeking this review, is that I know nothing about tecghnology so I am unsure as to what questions I should be asking you all.
The website is a content management system, where I can add pages, edit, etc myself. Although I have never done it, as I pay someone else to do it.

Keywords
Meta Tags
SEO (I am making this up ... I have no idea what these terms mean)

The immediate goals are to:

Create a high-quality blog
Add a monthly video of 4-5 minutes to the website (which would also be linked with the blog)
Add a monthly podcast (which would also be linked with the blog)

The mid-term goals are to:

Create a "paid subscription" Forum Board for my clients and mentees.
Create downloadable business education programs for a fee (this is for my many newsletter subscribers from around the globe in countries that I do not regularly visit

Finally, what other advice would you suggest to make my websites better and more commercial (income-generating)?
 
Rgds,
Ric
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    WeblineWebline subscriber Posts: 13 Bronze Level Member
    Although I like the color scheme, I`m not sure it works; a lot of black doesn`t usually go along with a professional/executive type of site. Also, the occasional green boxes just do not blend in at all.The top fold ( top half of the page that I first see in the browser ) should tell me right away just what it is you do, but I`m seeing logos/taglines/upcoming classes, etc. I don`t really get who you are, what you do, or why I`m here yet.Keywords are basically the search terms people would put into a search engine to find your site. Each page of your site should have a unique theme/topic, and keywords for that topic should be implemented into the page.Meta tags are basically text that is placed into the head area of your page; they include usually a list of keywords for that page, a unique descriptive title, and a brief description of what that page is about. There are many other tags that can be added, but these are really the main ones to implement.SEO is "search engine optimization". In a nutshell, by adding certain things into your pages, search engines can better determine/understand the most relevant words/text on a page, follow/understand links a little better, get a textual understanding of the images ( search engines don`t "see" images ). Nav menus, sitemaps, external javascript and css are also helpful.
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    RicWillmotRicWillmot subscriber Posts: 14
    Thank you, Webline.
    Any feedback from others?
    RicWillmot1/5/2008 7:18 AM
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    vwebworldvwebworld subscriber Posts: 40
    To follow up on what M.Hall said... you should decide what search terms you are targeting, then optimize your site`s pages for them.
     
    This is what the search engines "sees" on your home page:

    http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:ht ... en&strip=1

    The search bots also read some of your html code (title, description... and other tags), but if you look at the text above you;ll see that the header of your page has no associated text (alt image tag) and there are several images that have tags like "plmw_green.gif" and "BC_orange.gif".
    These are the file names of the images. It would be better. more search engine and user friendly to add alt image tags that are descriptive of the image like: "psychology of leadership" and "executive wisdom business college".
     
    Your header image should also have an alt image tag... relevate to the page`s content.
     
    Another SEO tip - while you do use bold text (strong tag) it would be better for SEO if you used an <h1> or <h2> tag. Talk to your web designer, the appearance on the page can look the same by defining the style but an h1, h2 tag carries more value in terms of Search results.
     
    Look at the text that search engines see on your see Ric speak page: (not much)

    http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:ht ... en&strip=1

     
    I see you use bioview for the video presentation. That is fine... you might also consider a YouTube page to get your video out in the "viral world". ...and a few others like Squidoo.
     
    There may be some restrictions to what you can does because you are using a content management system.
     
    In general there is a lot of text for someone to read.... and web viewers typically to not read, they scan a web page. While the bolding paragraph heading help and are a good practice to follow the view still has to scroll down the page to get to them.
     
    ~Roland
     
     
     
     
     
    vwebworld1/6/2008 1:06 AM
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    RicWillmotRicWillmot subscriber Posts: 14
    Good feedback, Roland.
    Now the challenge is to fix this; or even if it is repirable with my Content Management System?
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    WeblineWebline subscriber Posts: 13 Bronze Level Member
    Is this a pre-written system, custom made .... ? The original program and scripting language can make a difference in how easily things can be altered.
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    RicWillmotRicWillmot subscriber Posts: 14
    Pre-written system, I believe.
    The company designed the shell graphics; loaded the original content from my previous websites and then on in, I have one of my staff modify content, add and delete pages, by simply logging in to the admin section of the site and working with the editing section which is almost like working with MS-Word.
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    WeblineWebline subscriber Posts: 13 Bronze Level Member
    I`m sure it can be done, mostly a matter of deciding the changes you want done, and then going through the files and scripts to make those changes.
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    RicWillmotRicWillmot subscriber Posts: 14

    To follow up on what M.Hall said... you should decide what search terms you are targeting, then optimize your site`s pages for them. This is what the search engines "sees" on your home page: http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:ht ... en&strip=1The search bots also read some of your html code (title, description... and other tags), but if you look at the text above you;ll see that the header of your page has no associated text (alt image tag) and there are several images that have tags like "plmw_green.gif" and "BC_orange.gif".These are the file names of the images. It would be better. more search engine and user friendly to add alt image tags that are descriptive of the image like: "psychology of leadership" and "executive wisdom business college". Your header image should also have an alt image tag... relevate to the page`s content. Another SEO tip - while you do use bold text (strong tag) it would be better for SEO if you used an <h1> or <h2> tag. Talk to your web designer, the appearance on the page can look the same by defining the style but an h1, h2 tag carries more value in terms of Search results. Look at the text that search engines see on your see Ric speak page: (not much)http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:ht ... en&strip=1 I see you use bioview for the video presentation. That is fine... you might also consider a YouTube page to get your video out in the "viral world". ...and a few others like Squidoo. There may be some restrictions to what you can does because you are using a content management system. In general there is a lot of text for someone to read.... and web viewers typically to not read, they scan a web page. While the bolding paragraph heading help and are a good practice to follow the view still has to scroll down the page to get to them. ~Roland     So Roland,Where can I go to get some assistance in fixing this up and keeping my current content management system, which I like?Thanks,Ric
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