please review my site :)

Daddyoftwoboys · #1 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 07:27 PM

Well I was suggested to put up my main site for review

this is my cheerleading site I built for my wife, she is really into it and wanted a webpage for it, that was a year and a half ago. It gets a decent amount of hits but not what im happy with.

the site is in my sig, just click the link

oh also it hasnt been updated as far as the templates and menus and features since I really started getting into the details of site making so please be kind, but dont hold back iether

James · #2 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 08:50 PM

Never fear. People here will speak their mind. Fortunately in most cases it is well informed and polite. We seek to help.

As to content, I cannot tell you what cheerleaders would be attracted to, but you have the background to think that through.

However, I do know that people are attracted to personalities more than facts in a site like yours. It seems to me that it would be helpful if on the home page there were pictures and references to popular cheerleaders. Give some recognition to any achievement you can think of and get people coming to see if they might show up there.

There are several layout issues that need attention. Some of the colors don't all seem to blend too well (maroon and red?) although that might be my taste, but what is important is that the combination of background colors and text make reading fairly difficult. If the background gray were much lighter that might work. But frankly, I have a feeling that the color scheme would fit a game site or motorcycle site or something better than cheerleaders. Something a little lighter might work better. Too much personal taste here, but the readability part is what I would emphasize.

If you do not have any FAQ's I would not include it in the navigation. It distracts from the site rather than helps. You can just "comment" it out in your code and that way it is ready to use when you are ready for it but won't show.

The arcade has great potential with a little work. Groups would probably send you their pictures with a little encouragement and the knowledge that others would see them. However, this section would be much better if the set up used the same look as the rest of the site.

The registration doesn't appear to have any purpose so why do people sign up? or do they? If it were presented as something specific I think you would get more response which would give you a mailing list for promotion. Perhaps, "Sign up to receive notifications of upcoming events and new posts on our site." Then when you have new pictures of a contest or something you could notify them.

After you build adequate traffic, and maybe you do have it already, you can work on monetization. There really are a lot of things you could market on a site like this.

One small thing, but important for traffic, is having search terms in your page titles. For example your home page is titled "home." I needs to be "Cheerleading Canada" at least so google will list you, probably first, when people search for that term.

I'm getting too long. Hope this helps.

jazzguy · #3 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daddyoftwoboys

Well I was suggested to put up my main site for review

this is my cheerleading site I built for my wife, she is really into it and wanted a webpage for it, that was a year and a half ago. It gets a decent amount of hits but not what im happy with.

the site is in my sig, just click the link

oh also it hasn't been updated as far as the templates and menus and features since I really started getting into the details of site making so please be kind, but dont hold back iether

Hi again. I'll be brief because I'm off to bed...and maybe others can chime in as well.

The first thing that pops out at me is the color scheme...There's too much Grey for my tastes...plus the font color either gets lost in the Grey background color or there is too much contrast with the very bright red text.

I would definitely get remove the text near the welcome button: "Written by Cheerleading Canada Thursday, 27 September 2007" Even if the site hasn't been updated since then, no one needs to know that.

I would add a title page tag on the index page for simple search engine optimization.

Personally I would get rid of the arcade section of the site...I feel it takes away from the professionalism that you are trying to get across to the reading public.

The News section has too many links to click before you get to read some news...I would work on tightening that section up.

There's nothing in the FAQ section. I would remove that until you have something fro people to actually read.

I would get rid of the Hosting Donation box and maybe add a quick monetization resource like Google Adsense, which is free or check out Yahoo's YPN network, which is relatively the same.

I woudl attempt to make the content on the site a little more personal for the readers and would think about adding a blog that could keep the site up to date...this could also help you with search engine ranking.

Well, that's all I got for now. I'm off to bed. Take care and I look forward to seeing the site develop more. All the best.

jazzguy · #4 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 09:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by James

Never fear. People here will speak their mind. Fortunately in most cases it is well informed and polite. We seek to help.

As to content, I cannot tell you what cheerleaders would be attracted to, but you have the background to think that through.

However, I do know that people are attracted to personalities more than facts in a site like yours. It seems to me that it would be helpful if on the home page there were pictures and references to popular cheerleaders. Give some recognition to any achievement you can think of and get people coming to see if they might show up there.

There are several layout issues that need attention. Some of the colors don't all seem to blend too well (maroon and red?) although that might be my taste, but what is important is that the combination of background colors and text make reading fairly difficult. If the background gray were much lighter that might work. But frankly, I have a feeling that the color scheme would fit a game site or motorcycle site or something better than cheerleaders. Something a little lighter might work better. Too much personal taste here, but the readability part is what I would emphasize.

If you do not have any FAQ's I would not include it in the navigation. It distracts from the site rather than helps. You can just "comment" it out in your code and that way it is ready to use when you are ready for it but won't show.

The arcade has great potential with a little work. Groups would probably send you their pictures with a little encouragement and the knowledge that others would see them. However, this section would be much better if the set up used the same look as the rest of the site.

The registration doesn't appear to have any purpose so why do people sign up? or do they? If it were presented as something specific I think you would get more response which would give you a mailing list for promotion. Perhaps, "Sign up to receive notifications of upcoming events and new posts on our site." Then when you have new pictures of a contest or something you could notify them.

After you build adequate traffic, and maybe you do have it already, you can work on monetization. There really are a lot of things you could market on a site like this.

One small thing, but important for traffic, is having search terms in your page titles. For example your home page is titled "home." I needs to be "Cheerleading Canada" at least so google will list you, probably first, when people search for that term.

I'm getting too long. Hope this helps.

Hi James. I just posted my own comments on the site and it looks like we agree on most things, except for the arcade...

That's why it's always good to have two pairs of eyes or more checking things out. Good stuff.

Daddyoftwoboys · #5 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 09:17 PM

thanks for all the suggestions, you have given me some stuff to do. just by chance what do you think of this site?

http://www.dcfthunder.com/

this is my latest site i threw together in a day for her cheerleading team she coaches. I like this one a lot better than the cheerleading canada one since it is new and I was able to use some more of my skills I developed over the year. perhaps I could re do the xheerleadingcanada site with this sort of feel to it?

the only thing I have yet to figure out is how to make the integrated forum to look like the rest of the site

James · #6 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 10:31 PM

Daddyoftwoboys

Glad you mentioned the arcade, Jazzguy ( Lyle), because I made a slip up there for some reason. I would probably discard the arcade, too. I meant to refer to the gallery.

The gallery is what doesn't match in format and looks to me as offering a great potential to showcase different individuals and groups. I think that could be a big attraction.

Will try to look at the other site later.

Daddyoftwoboys · #7 (**permalink**) 09-14-2008, 06:14 AM

much appreciated

Daddyoftwoboys · #8 (**permalink**) 09-17-2008, 02:43 AM

ok, got the new site up and running, not finished yet but I have a lot done. I tired to make it as visually pleasing as possible while still being functional, I created link trees for easy finding and I have added a few features such as the pics , videos and forum sections as well as a few articles in the main body. I still need to get some ads up that I am waiting on from the companies since they needed new sizes for the new site but other than that I am good to go, a few more tweaks and I think I can focus on advertising and money. I still cant figure out how to lure people in to registering and being active though

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