Website Revamp

[[email protected]]

Hello

I've revamped my website a little bit and would appreciate some feedback and comments.

Am i missing anything / is there too much information / too many images / not enough....

Any and all feedback / comments are very welcome.

www.blacktiedj.co.uk

Cheers
Alan

[Danno13]

I can't work out why it's happening, but on every page apart from the homepage there seems to be a margin on either side. This looks a bit funny as the page layout seems to shift about when you change between pages.

Also.. the links loose their underline after the homepage, are you using a different stylesheet? That could explain the above too.

There's lots of information on there, but it does look very homemade I'm afraid, I've always thought it worthwhile investing in having a website done professionally.. first impressions, and all that

Oh, and if you do want to design it yourself, then ditch frontpage - the code it's produced is an absolute mess and it's using outdated tags like <font>. All these things count towards your search engine rankings.

[discomobiledj]

I actually think it's very good, gives all the information needed and is far better than alot of DJ websites that I have seen on here.

All the links work fine for me, they all change colour once I have clicked on them. There is plenty of information on there for everything I would need to know.

[rob1963]

Hi Alan,

Having looked at your site, a few things jumped out at me.

I don't really see the relevance of the bottom half of your home page. There is a load of information for search engines. Can't it be hidden in some way?

Also, I don't really see the point of listing all the towns & counties you've worked in. Surely it's best to just say which areas you cover?

On the contact page, I'd add an enquiry form.

Lose the equipment page. It may be of interest to other DJs, but will mean nothing to potential clients.

Finally, please forgive my curiosity, but are you REALLY doing 9 mobile discos in a row from Monday 3rd August to Tuesday 11th August?

Hope this helps.

[Dynamic Entertainment]

Looks good, but i personally dont like the distorted (bubble) photographs you have. They arent too easy on the eye and you have some really great shots there which people may not take the time to look for.

[Shaun]

Also, I don't really see the point of listing all the towns & counties you've worked in. Surely it's best to just say which areas you cover?

I'd imagine it's good for S.E.O.

[[email protected]]

Hi Alan,

Having looked at your site, a few things jumped out at me.

I don't really see the relevance of the bottom half of your home page. There is a load of information for search engines. Can't it be hidden in some way?

Hi Rob, thanks for the feedback, it all helps to have fresh eyes look at things, from what i've read in my SEO book and online, if i were to hide the text on the page, it's classed as hidden text and frowned upon by search engines. I think i may hide the information around the site.

Also, I don't really see the point of listing all the towns & counties you've worked in. Surely it's best to just say which areas you cover?

My thinking behind these lists were that a list of the venues, counties & towns i have worked would represent good seach keywords ie they search mobile disco + the venue and i would appear, or moble disco + town. This hasn't quite gone to plan, so ditto the above. [/QUOTE]

On the contact page, I'd add an enquiry form.

Good idea i think i'll do that!

Lose the equipment page. It may be of interest to other DJs, but will mean nothing to potential clients.

Never thought of it that way, *looks for the delete button*

Finally, please forgive my curiosity, but are you REALLY doing 9 mobile discos in a row from Monday 3rd August to Tuesday 11th August?

Hope this helps.

No, i wish! It's holiday, i should change the note at the top from booked to unavailable really, although i don't want to publicise the fact that i'm away on holiday to too many people. I have to make a point of blocking it out of my diary, and be strong if some gigs come in and turn them down. Before we had the kids, i always used to say, we'll have a holiday this year, not block dates out then i'd take the gigs and get in trouble from the missus!

Thanks once again to all for the feedback so far..

[Vectis]

I'd imagine it's good for S.E.O.

Only if it ties in with the site's keywords, which it doesn't. It might get you a few extra index points on some of the engines using older algorithms but with Google etc. it's quite likely to get you lots of bouncers, ie folks not looking for discos but looking for a place or venue who'll hit your site and immediately click off again, costing you bandwidth and them frustration.

True, you might very very occasionally spark someone's interest this way, but if this is important to you then have a dedicated page for this stuff with an obvious link back to your homepage to follow for anyone that's interested in following up.

Focus on 8-10 key words used in your meta tags distributed around the pages of the site (without "stuffing" them) and you'll get a much better return which is more pleasing on the eye.


Here's a suggestion for the availability page - Google Calendar. Dead simple to implement, it means you don't have to fiddle with your site each time you want to update - it can be done in realtime from any browser. I have mine sync'ed to my iphone so I have realtime access anywhere, and if I make any changes when out and about these are immediately reflected on the website. Here's how I did it http://www.vectisvibe.com/pages/diary.php. Also, the page itself is TINY and loads quick as a flash.

Others have suggested losing the equipment page. I disagree. But it DOES need numptifying - as it stands it's pointless unless you're a sound tech or a DJ. You need to write it in layspeak to be meaningful to your average punter. I have had quite a few good comments on mine from customers.

Site map is a good idea to help SEO - internal links are liked. However, as it stands no-one's going to pick through it for the info they need. Why not use some carefully keyworded <h1>'s (also SEO friendly) as subheadings to break up the page a bit.

Other than that it's a nice clean layout, easy to follow, and much better than many I've come across

[gareth886]

The information you have mentioned that was included for search engines can be hidden in meta tags of the code. Having it physically visible on the page won't help the search listings any more than having them hidden.

[discomobiledj]

The information you have mentioned that was included for search engines can be hidden in meta tags of the code. Having it physically visible on the page won't help the search listings any more than having them hidden.

Search engines are more keywords than meta tags these days so actually, having them visable on the page is alot better than having them hidden.