New website

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Still got to integrate DJEP and do all the back end stuff but I'm pretty happy with it given it's the first time I've built a website for about 15 years and that was a geocities band pile of :Censored: :)

Think I've earned a :beer1: now.

Let me know what you think:

www.scotlandspartydj.com

[Imagine]

I like it....a LOT :)

It's crisp, clean, concise and very professional looking :)

Are you trying to sell enhancements by any chance? ;)

I did notice one teensy wee mistake though. On your FAQ page you've got the word reqiorement instead of requirement ;)

[ukpartydj]

I like the different fonts for different page links, may not work so well for SEO but looks nice.

Using a mobile I think it's pretty clean, unoffensive for me it lacks excitement but for weddings it's well suited.

My only quibble is the terminology "ultra hd mood lighting"... Where ultra hd is only about 8 million times higher definition than a mood light. But I'm sure nobody really cares. I've heard coloured lights been called many things now...

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

I like the different fonts for different page links, may not work so well for SEO but looks nice.

Using a mobile I think it's pretty clean, unoffensive for me it lacks excitement but for weddings it's well suited.

My only quibble is the terminology "ultra hd mood lighting"... Where ultra hd is only about 8 million times higher definition than a mood light. But I'm sure nobody really cares. I've heard coloured lights been called many things now...

I'll change that once all the wedding host DJs who are neither bride nor groom do the same :D

Cheers for the thoughts lads. In sure the odd typo will pop up after me staring at it for hours I've just lost all sense of any bad spelling.

The mobile site was kept plainer on purpose namely so it doesn't take ages to load and chew uo everyone's data with pics and stuff. The hope is they'd then go on the main website.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

I like it....a LOT :)

It's crisp, clean, concise and very professional looking :)

Are you trying to sell enhancements by any chance? ;)

I did notice one teensy wee mistake though. On your FAQ page you've got the word reqiorement instead of requirement ;)

I price myself so it's not really here nor there if they add anything on but if someone wants to pay me £100 an hour to sing some buble and Neil diamond it would be rude to refuse :D

Will get the typo fixed now.after letting someone else fo my site for years, I'm amazed how user friendly it can be. Got a couple of seo textbooks for nighttime reading :-)

[ukpartydj]

Typo on contact page "enhancements" misspelt.

I've just read your FAQ page, almost read it all so must be quite interesting compared to others!

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Typo on contact page "enhancements" misspelt.

I've just read your FAQ page, almost read it all so must be quite interesting compared to others!

lol that's the 2nd best compliment I've had this month only bested by "you sound great but we're just looking for a run of the mill DJ" :D

Fine tooth combing the spell check just now.

[Nakatomi]

Wow. That's a very good site nevermind for something somebody built by themselves.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Wow. That's a very good site nevermind for something somebody built by themselves.

Thanks man.

My brother built my last one and I never realised how much work went into this but I'm really pleased with the result.

Touch wood it should serve me for a good few years without getting dated.

Anyways I'm off to suit up and record some guitar demos :D

[DeckstarDeluxe]

"As well as being one of the best wedding and party DJs in Scotland"

I would get rid of this, how can you possibly state this, I just roll my eyes whenever I see statements like this.

Instead something worded more like a vastly experienced DJ who has catered for all tastes and played in all the renown wedding venues in the area etc..

The photos in the about area I would change if you have ones with you and guests/bride/grooms that don't look staged or cheesy, or just stick with one good photo (thing you use on on the main about thumbnail which is nice)

Good effort for a DIY site though. I would get "non DJ" people to look at it and give their first five second impressions though as that's what counts ultimately.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

"As well as being one of the best wedding and party DJs in Scotland"

I would get rid of this, how can you possibly state this, I just roll my eyes whenever I see statements like this.

Instead something worded more like a vastly experienced DJ who has catered for all tastes and played in all the renown wedding venues in the area etc..

The photos in the about area I would change if you have ones with you and guests/bride/grooms that don't look staged or cheesy, or just stick with one good photo (thing you use on on the main about thumbnail which is nice)

Good effort for a DIY site though. I would get "non DJ" people to look at it and give their first five second impressions though as that's what counts ultimately.

I said one of the best and I'll gladly put myself up against any other wedding or party DJ around here so there's nowt wrong putting it on in my opinion and there's plenty of the experienced pro chat elsewhere on the site.

None of my photos are staged with the exception of the group shots. I personally cringe when I see posed photos of the dj and couple so that won't be happening any time soon, horses for courses.

Feedback from DJs, clients and others has been unilaterally positive.

[ckpr2]

"As well as being one of the best wedding and party DJs in Scotland"
.

We used to build up some of our DJ's just for a laugh.

"Ladies and gentlemen we are going to have a change of DJ's now. Please welcome all the way from Los Angeles Junior Roscoe !"

[Marc J]

Have only checked on desktop but it seems like it's trying to be responsive, but something is stopping it from being fully so...:(

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Have only checked on desktop but it seems like it's trying to be responsive, but something is stopping it from being fully so...:(

No clue what that means :/

[scott23]

No clue what that means :/
Ita what they call it if it responds to mobile phones easily. Ie fits the screen well. Its really important for your google ranking these days. Nice site Jim! Unfortunately with the whole seo.thing, you may well have to change headers etc.

But just make sure each page has a page title in the edit section.

[Nakatomi]

No clue what that means :/

Basically, Marc's observed that the size of the page border changes as the browser window is resized but when you reduce the window width beyond a certain point the layout stays the same like this:

17703

Whereas with my attempt at a site, this is what users of different browser sizes (i.e. different devices) will see.. the layout adapts itself to the screen/window size. I'll put my hands up & say I didn't code any of the responsive stuff - it comes with the WP theme I use:

17704

It's very important these days to work well on mobile screens (without zooming & scrolling loads), so people keep saying anyway. The stats bear this out though.. a large proportion of the users hitting my site are in mobile browsers.

[Gazza75]

You have very little meta data meaning search engines will not rank this site highly.

Summary below:

This tab shows search engine guideline violations, and pages that don't follow search optimization best practices.

Status Summary
Failure Google Search Guidelines - Some pages violate these guidelines.
Failure Bing Search Guidelines - Some pages violate these guidelines.
Failure Yahoo Search Guidelines - Some pages violate these guidelines.

Priority 1 Issues

Critical Offer an HTML site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site. Links embedded in menus, list boxes, and similar elements are not accessible to web crawlers unless they appear in your site map. If the site map is larger than 100 or so links, you may want to break the site map into separate pages.

Critical This page has no H1 element, which violates Bing webmaster guidelines.
Add an H1 element just before the main content describing the page.

Important No meta description tag found. Use a description tag that accurately describes the contents of a web page.
A well-written meta description attracts more clicks in search results than an irrelevant or missing description.

To view a live version click below and the other findings:
http://try.powermapper.com/Demo/ViewScan/41fed19f-d648-4bdd-817d-8282afd6a601

Also you do say on your FAQ page:

"I'm not going to make some baseless nonsense claim about being the best DJ in *insert wherever you like*"

As mentioned taken from elsewhere:

"As well as being one of the best wedding and party DJs in Scotland"

Nice design though it has to be said, just check that SEO out quickly or else the site may drop in googles ranking.

[musicology]

That's handy info to have (the google failure thing) How do do get that report? I want to check mine now!

[Nakatomi]

That's handy info to have (the google failure thing) How do do get that report? I want to check mine now!

You can get a 'free' SEO check from loads of places these days. Sometimes you have to sign up, sometimes you don't. In all cases, take what they report with a pinch of salt because they're ALL trying to sell services to improve your SEO. I looked into paying somebody - not even a big name & we'd have been talking about £200 a month.

I have a Wordpress plugin called Yoast which was free (a 'pro' version is available for money, who'd have guessed?) which can tell you a lot about how good your pages' SEO is. The first place to start is to make sure you've got good & relevant metadata.. title, keywords, description etc. Mind I'm not even sure how much weight Google gives to those these days since some people doing well in searches aren't set up properly in that department. Anyway it shouldn't take you long and it won't hurt to do it right.

You definitely should have a sitemap file though. This is an XML file (usually automatically generated) which describes the page layout of your site and the links within it. It helps search engines crawl your site. Google allegedly favours this method & while it won't shun parsing your site's own internal links it's given a much lower priority. Allegedly.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

You can get a 'free' SEO check from loads of places these days. Sometimes you have to sign up, sometimes you don't. In all cases, take what they report with a pinch of salt because they're ALL trying to sell services to improve your SEO. I looked into paying somebody - not even a big name & we'd have been talking about £200 a month.

I have a Wordpress plugin called Yoast which was free (a 'pro' version is available for money, who'd have guessed?) which can tell you a lot about how good your pages' SEO is. The first place to start is to make sure you've got good & relevant metadata.. title, keywords, description etc. Mind I'm not even sure how much weight Google gives to those these days since some people doing well in searches aren't set up properly in that department. Anyway it shouldn't take you long and it won't hurt to do it right.

You definitely should have a sitemap file though. This is an XML file (usually automatically generated) which describes the page layout of your site and the links within it. It helps search engines crawl your site. Google allegedly favours this method & while it won't shun parsing your site's own internal links it's given a much lower priority. Allegedly.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm completely new to all of this but I know once I integrate DJEP the next step is getting the SEO sorted.

I'm reading through a couple of textbooks just now that is making it a lot clearer about what I need to be doing (and definitely not doing) so I'll get there in time I'm sure.

[musicology]

I've just had a go with some of those checkers and don't really understand them. Still, I noted that google responds to social media more so have added a "like and share" widget to my home page now. Can't do any harm! Really like your site by the way Jim. Very tidy mate!

[scott23]

Mind I'm not even sure how much weight Google gives to those these days since some people doing well in searches aren't set up properly in that department. Anyway it shouldn't take you long and it won't hurt to do it right.

You definitely should have a sitemap file though. This is an XML file (usually automatically generated) which describes the page layout of your site and the links within it. It helps search engines crawl your site. Google allegedly favours this method & while it won't shun parsing your site's own internal links it's given a much lower priority. Allegedly.

Google doesn't use meta atol these days! Its all about responsive and google plus pages! They are kicking people down the listings for deliberate seo manipulation aswel.

[Gazza75]

You can get a 'free' SEO check from loads of places these days. Sometimes you have to sign up, sometimes you don't. In all cases, take what they report with a pinch of salt because they're ALL trying to sell services to improve your SEO. I looked into paying somebody - not even a big name & we'd have been talking about £200 a month.

I have a Wordpress plugin called Yoast which was free (a 'pro' version is available for money, who'd have guessed?) which can tell you a lot about how good your pages' SEO is. The first place to start is to make sure you've got good & relevant metadata.. title, keywords, description etc. Mind I'm not even sure how much weight Google gives to those these days since some people doing well in searches aren't set up properly in that department. Anyway it shouldn't take you long and it won't hurt to do it right.

You definitely should have a sitemap file though. This is an XML file (usually automatically generated) which describes the page layout of your site and the links within it. It helps search engines crawl your site. Google allegedly favours this method & while it won't shun parsing your site's own internal links it's given a much lower priority. Allegedly.

Couldn't say it better myself!

Remember it's all free and yes if you favour googles products you will be rewarded by google. They do invest billions in their own products for a reason, they want more eyes on google so it makes sense to put you up if you tie in with google+ or google business listings. Both of which are... free.

[Marc J]

Google doesn't use meta atol these days!

That's quite a statement, and totally wrong. While it's been known for a long time that Google ignores the keyword meta tag, they place quite a lot of importance on the page title and description metatags, and also look at others. See Meta tags that Google understands (https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/79812?hl=en) and Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.co.uk/en/uk/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf).


Its all about responsive and Google plus pages!

Almost - Google have said they will use mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal, so mobile friendly websites may rank higher on searches conducted from mobile devices. If and by how much is anybody's guess - I've even seen tests indicating that there's no real change (yet!). More info - Finding more mobile-friendly search results (https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/finding-more-mobile-friendly-search.html) & FAQs about the April 21st mobile-friendly update (https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/faqs-april-21st-mobile-friendly.html).

As for Google Plus pages - I wouldn't personally place much importance on them. Google Plus is being gradually picked apart, and the latest update makes it (IMHO) largely unusable, especially from a business POV. Much more important (again, IMHO) is to verify your business with Google (https://www.google.com/business/), which covers searches across Search, Maps and G+.


They are kicking people down the listings for deliberate seo manipulation aswel.

That's nothing new, they've pretty much always done that and anyone trying to manipulate things with "black hat" techniques (think low contrast / invisible text, duplicate content etc.) totally deserves what they get - see Webmaster Guidelines (https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769?hl=en).

[ukpartydj]

Whilst google does claim to mark down websites for trying to manipulate I found relatively good success in link trading which is effectively boosting your backlinks with other likeminded people.
I personally think it's a bit of a cheat but it appeared to have worked okay for me! It does take a fair bit of effort though!

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

The one thing I'm taking away from the seo boons I'm reading just now is that black and even a lot of grsy hat stuff is to be avoided as if you get caught they'll hammer you in the listings.

[scott23]

That's quite a statement, and totally wrong. While it's been known for a long time that Google ignores the keyword meta tag, they place quite a lot of importance on the page title and description metatags, and also look at others. See Meta tags that Google understands (https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/79812?hl=en) and Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.co.uk/en/uk/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf).



Almost - Google have said they will use mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal, so mobile friendly websites may rank higher on searches conducted from mobile devices. If and by how much is anybody's guess - I've even seen tests indicating that there's no real change (yet!). More info - Finding more mobile-friendly search results (https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/finding-more-mobile-friendly-search.html) & FAQs about the April 21st mobile-friendly update (https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/faqs-april-21st-mobile-friendly.html).

As for Google Plus pages - I wouldn't personally place much importance on them. Google Plus is being gradually picked apart, and the latest update makes it (IMHO) largely unusable, especially from a business POV. Much more important (again, IMHO) is to verify your business with Google (https://www.google.com/business/), which covers searches across Search, Maps and G+.



That's nothing new, they've pretty much always done that and anyone trying to manipulate things with "black hat" techniques (think low contrast / invisible text, duplicate content etc.) totally deserves what they get - see Webmaster Guidelines (https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769?hl=en).

You quoted some parts of what I have said missed others from my prev post then tried to use it as a dig?! I said already its important to use headlines and descriptions. You are preaching to the converted and then trying to the smart arse at the same time.

[Marc J]

You quoted some parts of what I have said missed others from my prev post then tried to use it as a dig?! I said already its important to use headlines and descriptions. You are preaching to the converted and then trying to the smart arse at the same time.

I quoted a part of your post that was wrong - "Google doesn't use meta atol these days!". Although the title element isn't technically a meta tag (and neither are headings), there are a whole bunch of meta tags that Google does use. That's a fact. I linked to the page listing them.

I missed your earlier post (#15), to be honest, and agree with you on headings and titles. But that doesn't make your later statement any less wrong.

The rest is my personal opinion - it's not "all about responsive" (at least, not yet) and I think Google is scaling back massively on the G+ side - links, posts and reviews are no longer shown in SERPS (although reviews are still shown if the business is verified). Unless you actually add "Google Plus" to a search, you'll probably find it difficult to even find a business's Google Plus page from a standard Google web search.

[Nakatomi]

Not that I want to contradict anybody, but my own sites ranking is below my google + page right now, which royally sucks. I'm being hammered, but people are still finding me somehow. It's something I'm working on but I doubt I'll make much headway until I have more of a Facebook presence. Love it or loathe it, Facebook is essential

[funkymook]

Love it or loathe it, Facebook is essential

No it isn’t, none of my leads come from FB, and going by the comments I see from a lot of DJ’s who rely on it I wouldn’t want to dip my toe in their waters anyway.

[Marc J]

Not that I want to contradict anybody, but my own sites ranking is below my google + page right now, which royally sucks. I'm being hammered, but people are still finding me somehow. It's something I'm working on but I doubt I'll make much headway until I have more of a Facebook presence. Love it or loathe it, Facebook is essential

Not for me....what are you searching for? Not that I don't believe you, but have you got a screenshot?

[Nakatomi]

Not for me....what are you searching for? Not that I don't believe you, but have you got a screenshot?

Alright nevermind. Up until a few days ago my G+ page outranked my actual site. Things must finally be improving :)

[Nakatomi]

No it isn’t, none of my leads come from FB, and going by the comments I see from a lot of DJ’s who rely on it I wouldn’t want to dip my toe in their waters anyway.

I think that FB is probably where lowest common denominator gigs lie. Having seen a lot of stuff on DJ groups about people's postings in buy/sell groups & wedding pages it's disheartening to be honest. ("I need a DJ for my wedding but only want to pay £50", and "Full disco, 7pm-midnight, only £35!"). No, it's for link/awareness building, not business dealings :) Loads of sites are saying to ignore FB at your peril. For all you say none of your leads come from FB, do you still have a presence on there linking to your site?

[Benny Smyth]

For all you say none of your leads come from FB, do you still have a presence on there linking to your site?

Yes.

I've said it many times before - Facebook is :Censored: for advertising, but fantastic for marketing.

[Marc J]

Alright nevermind. Up until a few days ago my G+ page outranked my actual site. Things must finally be improving :)

Also remember that no 2 people will have identical search results. They're personalised to a certain degree, primarily by geographic location but also by browsing history and social factors. So if you clicked on your G+ page a lot from a search result, or are logged in and have liked / shared / +1'd anything, it'll rise in your search results but not for anyone else.

The best way to check what everyone else might be seeing for you is to use a different browser just for that - set it not to receive cookies and don't be logged in to any services with it, and use private browsing mode just to be sure. And if you want to try from other locations, use a VPN or proxy (for example the VPN I use lets me choose from 2 UK locations - London & Southampton - as well as about 3 dozen Worldwide locations).

EDIT: Also see Google - Search and browse privately (https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/4540094?hl=en)

[funkymook]

I think that FB is probably where lowest common denominator gigs lie. Having seen a lot of stuff on DJ groups about people's postings in buy/sell groups & wedding pages it's disheartening to be honest. ("I need a DJ for my wedding but only want to pay £50", and "Full disco, 7pm-midnight, only £35!"). No, it's for link/awareness building, not business dealings :) Loads of sites are saying to ignore FB at your peril. For all you say none of your leads come from FB, do you still have a presence on there linking to your site?

I have a business page for one of my sites (how well it’s linked I don’t know as I’ve never optimised it for that). And one site that has no presence on FB at all.

Both are ranked well and get enquiries in roughly equal amounts (there’s a little bit of crossover between them so I sometimes get two enquiries from the same person via both sites as they don’t realise it’s the same DJ). So from that I’m not seeing any benefit, but I’m probably not using it the right way.

I can see how having a FB presence could help now you explain it, might have to look into it as long as I don’t have to deal with any of those DJ groups!

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Alright nevermind. Up until a few days ago my G+ page outranked my actual site. Things must finally be improving :)

Are you searching when logged into your G+ account?

[Nakatomi]

Are you searching when logged into your G+ account?

Maybe I was. Yup, I forgot that can affect search results too.

[ppentertainments]

Social media is like a website, flyers, business cards, attending wedding fares etc etc

You don't NEED any of the above, but it all helps with your overall marketing. I very rarely get bookings as a direct result of Facebook, but do get many who I've spoke to at a wedding fair, who have then looked at my website and liked a few things, then looked at Facebook and liked a few things, then read my email and ......... you get the picture :)

A few years ago for some unknown reason my website totally dropped off google, this was for 5 months and I never noticed a decrease in bookings. Your overall presence is what counts.

[scott23]

I think that FB is probably where lowest common denominator gigs lie. Having seen a lot of stuff on DJ groups about people's postings in buy/sell groups & wedding pages it's disheartening to be honest. ("I need a DJ for my wedding but only want to pay £50", and "Full disco, 7pm-midnight, only £35!"). No, it's for link/awareness building, not business dealings :) Loads of sites are saying to ignore FB at your peril. For all you say none of your leads come from FB, do you still have a presence on there linking to your site?

I totally agree with you there. My facebook is updated regular and has plenty of followers/likes. I have not had one booking from it and all the enquiries have been a waste of time. Looking for a disco for pennys and the likes. The main thing it is good for is reviews from prev clients and pics/videos.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

I totally agree with you there. My facebook is updated regular and has plenty of followers/likes. I have not had one booking from it and all the enquiries have been a waste of time. Looking for a disco for pennys and the likes. The main thing it is good for is reviews from prev clients and pics/videos.

Funnily enough I'm having quite a few issues with a flake who came through my business FB.

I think the only other booking I've had through it was a pal who PMd me instead of phoning and then all I've had since is a bunch of people getting in touch giving it: Jamie said you were great at his engagement - can you do my wedding at venue X for £peanuts.

Anyhoo the new website seems to be doing the business - I've grossed more in bookings this week than my monthly salary which isn't too shabby in its own right. :D