12 replies to this topic

[cazint]

Hey peoples,

Here's the site for review: www.premo-promos.com

I was wanting to wait on posting this request, but also, i'm too curious and want to go ahead and see your opinions if possible. Please find below the answers to the standard questions. But before i paste that, I wanted to explain the reason for this request and a little background.

Years ago, when i first made the site, I was right in the mix of seo, and what did and didn't work. At that time, many techniques were used that are now considered spam, such as doorway and hallway pages, etc, and of course, you will not find those type of pages on our site now. (DISCLAIMER: but you will find obvious keywords at the top of our site...but i'm only copying what other sites in the top 10 did and what worked) Anyway, after doing a TON of legitimate seo work, my site got to the top 10 in google and stayed that way. This was around 2003. And regretfully, i become comfortable, although i always knew it would come to bit me. About a year ago, my site went awol in google. It WAS still listed. It was and is indexed. But other than being indexed or by searching by the actual business name, the site, or any of its pages, could not be found, again, unless one searched for the actual business name, "Premo-Promos".

I then learned this was the result of many things, including the infamous google dance. Since then, our google traffic has not really increased again. We are still top 10 in Yahoo, but google...

So that's when i came here months ago asking with the obvious newbie banner plastered to my forehead asking what is the "new thing", the best method, the newest techniques, of getting to the top. And of course, you guys just "love" those questions. I then read Jill's advice on making one's site the best it amongst competing sites, and that ideally, if google's algorithm was "perfect", the best site would truly be at the top.

So i went back and turned our 600+ html website into a data-driven, php site and added over a thousand customized items. That change alone makes us a lot better than we were, but i have a lot to do. For example, our site design, although clean, was made in 2001 and was designed when the first and primary focus was on "what is the screen resolution of the user", and as such, the width of the site is quite small on many monitors including my laptop. I do plan on changing the actual look of the site over the upcoming december holidays, and this should be easy considering that the previous 600+ pages has now been reduced to maybe 25 or so.

But i'm just curious what seo things i should be doing. I just don't know where i should be spending my time in order to help the google rankings. You can do a brief search on "promotional items" in google to view some of the top competitors and compare how their sites look.

QUESTIONNAIRE

Is this site completed or under construction?
- It is completed.

If completed: How long has the site been up?
- Since 2001. However, the new, php version has been up for about two weeks.

SEO
Do you have incoming links?
- Yes. 76 on google, which may mean close to nothing.

What keywords are you targeting?
- in general, promotional items, promotional products, and specifically, an of hundreds of thousands of printed items.

Do you want your code reviewed for errors or improvements?
- please feel free.

Marketing
Who is your target audience?
- Really, the target audience is any Business looking to purchase giveaways, or even executive type gifts, to be used at various events such as tradeshows, etc.

Why is your site different from sites selling/offering similar info/goods/services? Why will someone want to do business you?
- GOOD QUESTION! And this is how you guys can advise me. There are literally THOUSANDS of promotional distributors, with several 100 having decent, custom websites, and at least 30 having pretty nice sites. We ALL offer the SAME items from the SAME manufacturers. So really, the differences occur in customer service and who the customer is comfortable working with. Customers also care about prices and ease of use of the site.

How important is usability?
- Very important.

What is the purpose of the site?
- Sell promotional items. However, the site is mainly used for FIRST-TIME customers, because with the nature and customization of the products, 99% of repeat customers will simply work with their established salesperson. As such, the purpose of the site is mainly to attract the business customer for the first sale.

Design
Do you want design suggestions?
- please feel welcome to suggest and criticize.


Thanks for your help and your time. Looking forward to hearing your suggestions.

Jonathan

[cazint]

And as a side note, maybe one of you experienced seo users can give me some encouraging words regarding being patient with seo and not trying to do all the typical, old-school seo techniques.

I say this because if you do the google search on "promotional items", one of the top 10 pages, based on content, doesn't even deserve to be in the top 100 or 1000. It is a downright ugly page. They're surely not in the top 10 because they are "better" then the competition! Yet they are in the top 10! Frankly, it looks like they took webposition and made a page filled with keywords, and lucky them, it worked.

This is just one example of my frustrations.

I read on here how one should not plaster their keywords all over one's website, yet even if you look at the top 3 pages for my keyword, you see how they have "promotional items" or "promotional product" plastered throughout. That is specifically why i put those two OBVIOUS keyword filled lines at the top of my page.



So these are just some of the frustrations as I get back into this seo field and want to do the right techniques. Just want to know what to do and to do the right thing.

Thanks.

Jonathan

Edited by cazint, 13 November 2006 - 09:47 PM.

[cazint]

Okay, you guys hopefully have a good bit of turkey in your tummies and are in a helpful mood.

Anyone with experience have any feedback for the site?

Thanks.

[torka]

Quickly, as I've got a meeting starting in a few minutes. This is mostly from a conversion/usability point of view:

My initial impression on the home page is that it's too "dense." There's just an overwhelming amount of relatively small, closely-packed text, and it's too hard to read to see what's going on.

Instead of those relatively long paragraphs of text, try breaking things up with headings, bullet lists, maybe some (very restrained) use of bold or italic text, that sort of thing.

If the Aqua Mouse is one of your flagship products, try to get a picture / link to it up above the fold. Ditto for those "best sellers." Likely you'll have more room for this if you shorten/break up the text and redesign the site to accommodate larger screen resolutions.

I would suggest NOT underlining the main heading ("Promotional Products, Promotional Items, Imprinted Computer Accessories & More!") as it makes the text look like a link. If you'd like it to stand out visually (which I think it should) maybe try making it a little larger, maybe a different color -- something that doesn't involve underlining.

Do you really need all those categories in the left hand navigation? It's an awfully long list. I clicked on the "American Patriotic Products" link and got a page with zero results... Perhaps there's some way to categorize these links, maybe make a drop-down menu type navigation so the initial impression isn't quite so overwhelming?

Hope this helps! It's a start, at least... Now, I've gotta go get ready for that meeting...

--Torka

[cazint]

Thanks for your input Torka. You specifically were one of the ones I had hoped to get a review from. Although your review, as you stated, was not really about seo, it was still helpful.

As mentioned, the overall look of the site will be redesigned shortly.

Those two paragraphs were there basically for seo purposes, as a person who comes to our site and knows what promotion items are does not really need to read that. Several competitors had added similar paragraphs, so simply followed in turn.

Your comments and opinions are greatly appreciated, and if you do end up getting a few free moments, any other comments, especially those specific to seo, would be wonderful.

Thanks again.

Jonathan

[vegatina]

Hi Jonathan

I looked at your website before and after reading your post.

Initial impressions:
I’m looking at your website more from a customers point of view. I’m probably not your typical customer who searches for you but I was immediately confused as to what the website was about. I gathered it was about gifts but the first sentence of text confused me.
“Premo......products superstore”. I think part of it was 3 “P” words in a row. I’d recommend simplifying.

My other impressions - clean and nice, looks quality.

After reading your post:

Why your different: I liked how when I clicked the help button your 100% customer satisfaction popped up first. If your offering the same products as others, the only way I can think of to distinguish yourself is to offer the most usable and customer friendly site of the bunch.

Hope this is helpful.

Tina

[peteark]

The site looks ok to me however it is written in complicated English, by this I mean this is your opening line

Premo-Promos.com invites you to experience the world of promotional items via your very own personalized promotional products superstore.

If people don't understand it straight away they will be off

Just my opinion

[piskie]

Just a "First Impression" of the Home Page,
Too Busy Too Dense.
Text needs to have more White Space amongst it. Also I would like to see the Font Size increasing.

Main thing though is that it sits Narrow and to the left in my monitor making it look "Lonely" masses of whit space on the right.
It is about 640px width. Think about making it at least for 800x600 monitor and if it were me, I would pitch it at 1024x768.

Those using smaller than 1024 width is less than 10% and rapidly falling on average in the stats that I monitor.

With a wider page, you could then introduce white space and make it look less busy.

>>Edited - Forgot to say<<
When you get away from the Home Page, there is a marked absence of Copy Text. The pictures alone will not Attract The SEs

[John H]

I looked at your site and it looked to busy for me. I personally would put the products available behind the home page. It looks a bit too busy and overwhelming. Also there is nothing there to educate me about you or your company. What makes you stand out from your competitors? I would suggest you speak to a copy writer who has experience putting together website text. I used one and to me it improved my site 100%.

Hope it helps!!!

John

[adybee]

In truth you can never have enough text on a website however it needs to be spread out on the page better and some of the product images are below the fold. How about widening the page and having tabbed products/info on the same page? This would allow you to have lots of text but it would be easy for visitors to navigate the info/products.

The intro text is way too long and the font is way too small for me - verdana 12 point is my fave - easy to read and easy on the eye. Don't make it hard for your visitors to read your website - it's a real turn off.

[Abhay]

I cudnt read all reaview frm other ppl..
So If i repeat sumthin discussed prvsly jst ignore it
The site shud b align to center..
the width of site shud b 800px atleast

Menu is too much crowded,Fonts can b improved..
Header is nice bt width of site hamperd the overall design heavily

gud luck fr better website

[cazint]

Hey peoples,

We've updated the look of the site tremendously. Curious about your thoughts.

As you probably don't remember how the original site looked, here's a PICTURE of the old website (old look): http://www.premo-pro.../oldwebsite.php

Here's the new website: http://www.premo-promos.com

Thanks.

Jonathan

[dropin]

all of the images look pretty tacky. i would recommend working on those and then work on the fonts. good luck, do well.