6 replies to this topic

[greggb]

Hey! How's everyone doing?

I've been asked to do some design work on a website, and I recommended to my client that I do some search engine optimization in the process. The problem is that the original designer of the website built the website in frames. On top of that, I think the previous design work was pretty... let's just say not very good. So I've made the recommendation that the website be rebuilt, from the ground up. I've told my client that it in its current state the website itsn't even the least bit marketable.

What I was hoping to get (from anyone willing to give it) is an unbiased opinion as to the quality of this website. In specific, I'd like to know if there would be anyway to salvage any of the work here. Also... maybe rate the website's marketability on a scale of 1 to 10, to sort of quantify (your opinion of) the marketability of the website.

What I'd like to do, if this doesn't bother anyone, is show my client the opinions I get here. That way he can get a sort of second opinion as to the quality of his website.

I have mentioned to him how difficult it is to optimize with frames. I showed him a previous discussion thread here about frames. But if anyone wishes to make any comments about frames, like whether or not they're good, that'd be fine.

The website URL is www.outdoorbarter.com (I assume it's ok for me to post a URL since I have over 10 posts here).

I'd really appreciate some honest, unbiased opinions. And if your opinion differs from mine, that's fine.

Thanks in advance,
Gregg

[Jill]

Gregg, I would say this is more appropriate to the Website review forum. I'm going to move it there. Please take a look at the pinned topic at the top of that forum and answer those questions, as it will help give a proper review of your site.

Jill

[humpo]

Last year i converted a site(used car dealer) from frames, they went from having 3-4 page in google to 144 in just a few months. Never really did much optimisation(didn’t know that much at the time) other than titles, meta tags, and few keywords.


The also suffered from a few crawlers finding inner pages, which had no navigation or looked odd on their own eg. found this page listed on Ask Jeeves for the search “hunt trades” www.outdoorbarter.com/hunts.html

[edge]

Similar to what humpo pointed out Ive come across framed sites that I stumble onto via SEs and there is no navigation. Most avg Aol users might just be confused and leave.

As far as the site, a quick look leads me to agree with you. "Pretty graphics" but why are they there? I cant click on them and just confused me why clicking on a link brought up an unclickable image that 3 seconds redirected. Just one persons view of it.

[greggb]

Thanks for the comments so far. I do appreciate them.

What I'd really like to get from someone is an opinion about whether or not the site should be redesigned-- completely. I mean take into account site usability, SE marketability, all of those things... should it be redesigned?

Gregg

[Ruud]

- I find the look & feel very basic, very "local commercials project with web site slapped on". Very ... back-in-time feeling. Not clean.

- It took me a real look around before I found my Home link to get back to the front page. I had expected it top-left, possible with a graphic linking to the home page as well.

- Clicking on the categories displayed in top I got this nice graphic. I tried hovering over it so see if it was a link but no... Started to look for another link. It was on the 2nd try with another category that I waited long enough to see the graphic be replaced by search results in that category. Post a message so I know what is going on...

- The auction block section looks better. As it is framed the BidFind link stays in the bottom frame and I'm lost whether or not I'm still at your site or somewhere else completely...

- I have no clue what prompted the limitation (read: abuse) of screen estate. Why is the bottom frame that high up the page?!?

- Decide on one logo. Register, affliates, advertise - these links have one logo style (3 colors). The other ones either have none at all or a different type.

- Use an email form on a contact page. Please don't start my email program because I click on a 'Contact' link or make sure I know what will happen when I click that link... :-)

- When I click 'cancel' on the log in the message is very unfriendly. And it looks so much like a plain white HTML page with something slapped on.

- There is hardly any meat for normal surfers here, let alone for search engines. 5 pages are showing in Google :-(

So...

I would just start over. With a normal, converntional layout. Company/site logo top-left, linked to home page. Horizontal menu bar for site sections, vertical category bar on the left.

Disclaimer: I'm not an SEO expert. Building and working on web sites is a work of love for me. That's why I can be good at it :-)

Ruud

[weblord]

it would be better if it's on 1 page and not on frames, that's my contrib. great background on the logo a very sharp picture.