22 replies to this topic

[t49]

why do SEOs have crappy websites?
o.k.,so your site is fine,but take a look at your competitions sites.
makes you want to laugh ... or toss your lunch ... this idiot is a web marketing specialist?????

go ahead,pick your favorite search engine,and look up some SEO sites.
on some,I didn't get past the 1st page ... I could have,but there wasn't anything to encourage me to.

black background,with scrawny white lettering,that looks gray because our eyes are overloaded by the black.The links,like most links,are blue.They blend in nicely with the black.
Large graphic,takes up 1/2 of the page.What is it,and what does it have to do with SEO?
Then there's the black site,that the owner insists is blue ... look at code ... son of a gun,according to the colour code it's blue all right... a very,very,very,very dark blue!
... and it looks like they might be dyslexic too,because while the words are English,they don't make sense ... must have been playing Scrabble,while writing this ...

oh,look,this site isn't black ... it's every other colour but black.Either someone got a new box of crayons,or they didn't take their medication.

Maybe we shouldn't tell them how bad their sites are.After all,the competition is tough enough as it is. Trouble is,if our customers have seen these sites,how do we explain them without slinging a little mud on ourselves.

Remember,I'm not complaining about YOUR site.Your site is GREAT!!!

[MakeMeTop]

My website is complete crap. I certainly don't boast about being a web designer

However it works

So, what do I care.

[OldWelshGuy]

this idiot is a web marketing specialist?????

But he has got you looking at his site, so he has got you there!

Do you not deal with a butcher because he does not have a farm?

Should you not be coached in sport by a coach who is not as good a player as you?

The sole purpose of a Website is to pass on a message, and if an SEO website is there or there abouts amongst its peers then they have conveyed the message 'my site is here, so can yours be'

By the same token, why do graphic designers have such horrible slow to load graphically driven poorly optimised websites? because they design maybe.

a request for information from a company can vary immensely, but i would bet that by and large they will all have one thing in common, they will all have sent you a white sheet of paper, with some black text on, and you WILL read this, even though it is the most boring (design wise) item in the pack.

What i am saying is that sometimes there is a need for pretty, and sometimes there is a need for direct plain information IMO many allow the message to get lost or diluted in the design.

Give me functionality over design any day of the week.

I know a motor cycle mechanic who has been in the pits at a grand prix for a works team and who does not have a motorcycle licence, doesn't stop him getting the bikes go like stink though

[OldWelshGuy]

AFTERTHOUGHT,

your dead right about boring design being crap, and holding back a website, look at that there Google thing, plain white, abit of blue and a few words, not even any decent copy on there ... they got NO CHANCE

[qwerty]

We SEOs always have an excuse...

I'm too busy fixing up my clients' sites to work on my own.
Search engine optimization is too competitive a category, so I don't bother trying to optimize my site.
My site is an experiment. It's not something I'd do on a client site.

Excuse #3 is the one I use.

[GeordieSEO]

The web design company I work for doesn't have a very good site but the designers never have time to do anything with it. The SEO stuff is poor as well but I don't have control over it so there is nothing I can do...

I have a colleague who has his own web site which doesn't even work properly but he hasn't fixed it because he gets more than enough work anyway to keep himself busy.

[t49]

guess I'd better expand on my original post... [Edit]

I'm doing research for some articles,that will appear on quite a few community sites ... i.e.: community name dot something,and not seo community,or left handed sewer flute players,etc ...
and I've been looking up SEOs in those communities,so that I can add local flavour to the articles.
Some of the sites can't even be identified as SEO sites,and while there are links to be clicked on,you don't really think that I would want to be connected with the person who put that up.

Don't know if I can take on an Old Welsh Guy,and I'm sure not about to take on some crazed Irishman ... especially one of those Northern Irish. got any Hacketts,or Dohertys up there?

... what's that you said? ... dead Canuck on a stick? ... never heard of it ...

my apologies to left handed sewer flute players,for lumping you in with this lot.

does anyone remember PDQ Bach?

Edited by Jill, 23 November 2003 - 01:24 PM.

[qwerty]

does anyone remember PDQ Bach?

You bet. And I used to work with Schickele's daughter, too. Does that give me a valid excuse for why my web site's so ugly?

[t49]

You bet. And I used to work with Schickele's daughter, too. Does that give me a valid excuse for why my web site's so ugly?

didn't know PDQ was still around.Last time I saw him ... on the idiot box ... was about 25 years ago.
black tie and tails optional folks ... very optional.
does he still play the left handed sewer flute?

P.S.: Your sites' not that ugly.
P.P.S.: hope I didn't offend you,when I didn't offend you,when I offended OWG and MakeMeTop.


I know you understand what you think I said,but what you heard isn't what I meant.

[Scottie]

What I love even more are the usability sites that aren't usable... was just looking at one the other day and the navigation was inconsistent (different links on different pages for no apparent reason). There was no link to the home page that I could find and they kept mentioning a newsletter, but there wasn't anyplace to sign up!

But as the others already pointed out... if it works and you are getting business, so what?

[t49]

why are the good SEOs,with the good sites,sticking up for the SEOs with the bad sites?
Geez! some of the sites ... oh,never mind ...

sigh! ... I give up!

[Scottie]

Maybe we want them to have bad sites...?

[MakeMeTop]

>got any Hacketts,or Dohertys up there?

Loads of Hacketts here where I live. Doherty is not a local name for this area of Tyrone. Oh, I may be crazy, (I do live in NI) - but I'm as Irish as OWG

[Jill]

Without looking at the SEO sites in question, my answer would be because they are probably focusing only on SEO, not the other stuff. And sites that do that, generally suck.

There's a site we're reviewing in the Website review section that was obviously designed with pretty much only SEO in mind. IMO, that just doesn't work.

Jill

[SEO-Richard]

Hey, don't give up! I was thinking this just a few days ago too. A usability site that was all confusion (a 'high powered' person, too) with messages all over the place, and another usability one that didn't give a clear indication of what it was about; SEO sites that were made 3 or 4 years ago and look it, all clunky design and over-optimised keywords (I'd like to name one, it's not on this forum, but it just wouldn't be fair - anyhow, I'm a beginner, though it still doesn't stop me noting what's crud and what isn't) .... and of course, sites that are completely and utterly unchanged since their inception, still banging on about doorways and DIVs off the page (but they're also getting the work - maybe)

The cobbler's children always being the worst shod. It doesn't look good, does it?