Question
First off, thanks to Mike for introducing me to here. I've read several threads this morning to try to familiarize myself with these boards so I hope I'm not asking silly Q's
I started building my first site in January, had it up in 2 weeks and have been working on it since, I think we now have about 100 pages, and lately have been working on article content as well as stock content.
I have also spent a LOT of time over the past months learning about SEO, read a lot of webmaster forums and articles, and have also run my pages through keyword density analysers & used Google, Overture & wordtracker to help me with keywords
I am trying to hone my keywords even more, and am now looking for other points of view. I do have one problem with my meta tags & that's the lack of description. I use Yahoo webhost which strips out this line every time I upload changes to the site and I have to add them back in every time.
Other than that, a critique would be very welcome, since I have stared at it so long I am no longer a good judge - keywords, general look & feel, and ease to navigate etc. Anything obvious that I've overlooked?
Many thanks
themetalpeddler.com
Answer
First welcome to the board. I'm sure you will get some comments. I don't do comments on "pretty" I mostly do SEO stuff.
Your description meta tags are missing. From the small sample I took it appears you are doing ok on Yahoo and MSN. Now your google SERPS are another matter. It could be as simple as the "sandbox" if so you just have to sit and wait.
Brass Pot Racks Google N/A May 5, 2005
Brass Pot Racks Yahoo 12 May 5, 2005
Brass Pot Racks MSN 1 May 5, 2005
Handcrafted Copper Pot Racks MSN 1 May 5, 2005
Handcrafted Copper Pot Racks Google 118 May 5, 2005
Handcrafted Copper Pot Racks Yahoo 1 May 5, 2005
Hanging Pot Racks Yahoo 111 May 5, 2005
Hanging Pot Racks MSN 39 May 5, 2005
Hanging Pot Racks Google N/A May 5, 2005
The numbers in red are your SERP standing. N/A means it is not in first 200.
Mike
Answer
Thanks Mike,
yes the description meta tags I have to manually add back in with every upload of the site which is a huge pain because I am uploading daily right now. I need to figure a way around that
Thanks for the stats. Yes I hope google is just a sandbox effect,
My keywords, I think I am focusing on too many. I went with the most popular ones that came out of wordtracker and overture keyword tools but I still wonder.
For future reference, how can I get those SERP stats myself (or is that a trade secret? )
Danielle
Answer
You can use this tool for tracking keywords. I have 6 accounts for tracking my sites and sites of people I'm helping. It is one of the first things I check in the mornings, after checking my advertising $$$.
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/
Mike
Answer
thanks Mike. I'm setting that up now, very useful
Answer
You may want to run your pages thru a validator.
There's a few errors.
Here's but three:
http://www.htmlvalidator.com/lite/?g...HTML+Validator
http://www2.imagiware.com/RxHTML/
http://www.netmechanic.com/toolbox/html-code.htm
Answer
I'll do the "pretty part"
It was easy to navigate and I really appreciate the "return to..." buttons at the top - I didn't have to use the back button once.
Pictures are clear and measurements are easy
I liked the site a lot - it did take a couple of seconds to load at first (I'm on cable) but my computer is wonky today so it could just be me. Once I was in the site I had no problems.
One question - those racks and hooks - is there any such thing in stainless? I've been looking for hooks to hang utensils on and my kitchen is all stainless so I don't want copper? Just curious.
Good Job
Answer
Kathleen, thanks for that. Yes I see several errors although some are caused by the yahoo program I use so I'll have to figure I way round some of them.
One day, I do hope to have time to recode the whole front page myself without so many HTML tables but I have to have time to learn some more languages first! LOL
Sandy, thank you. I think some of the load/speed problems maybe all the coding? Maybe lots of pics too... I have a really high speed internet thingy so it's impossible for me to know. I ran it through a speed/download program once which helped me eliminate stacks of slow loading problems.
I'm glad you found it easy to navigate
Re stainless, yup we do some custom items in stainless. The only thing my husband avoids is a couple of kinds of the hooks because he bends them by hand and stainless is hard! But most of them can be made if you have a specific idea
Answer
I liked the navigation. Very easy.
I like the green/gold colors, too. You do need some way to tie the page together, colorwise. On the home page, you almost have it with the Index menu down the left side....except the yellow in the menu is a different shade that the yellow/gold on the rest of the page.
I saw quite a few problems with text placement. I think perhaps you've fallen into the common pitfall of designing for your monitor instead of your viewer's monitor. Attached are some screen shots that show how your text looks on my monitor.
Answer
Jayne, thanks. yeah the color of the index - I only added the index a few days ago and I am struggling to get the color to match exactly. I'll work on that
Re the alignment - ick! that's not good! We have a couple of computers/ monitors in the house and I hadn't spotted that problem ion either of them, even with different monitor sizes and browsers. I'll have to figure how to change that too since I can't see it