9 replies to this topic

[mpea]

Sorry I didn’t read the review questions before

The site: Localtutor.co.uk

General
- The site is complete and functional, just now continuously updating
- The site has been up and indexed for about 4 months

- I have incoming links, but mostly link from directories, I need to work on getting good quality links from relevant sites (by link baiting? which I find quite hard)

- To begging with I am targeting “find a tutor” and “become a tutor”, in the UK a have achieved number 3 for both these terms, so now I will be moving on to “tuition” “tutoring” and “tutor”

Do you want your code reviewed for errors or improvements?
- No, I have no doubt there will be several errors here, I haven’t double checked my self yet

Marketing
Who is your target audience? Gender: -M/F
Nationality: -British
Age Range Students and parents (15-24) (30-50)
Income/Education level - A Range

- This is really targeting Tutors (which have a wide range, but are normally fresh graduates so average age: 21-25) and students/Parents, which can have a wide range

My site is free, it is different from other sites as it allows tutors to edit their own content when ever they wish with an easy to use web editor (you can sign up if you wish and try it). The editor still requires some updates, but it’s functional, so I’m working on the rest of the site first

The search facility for students and parents should be easy to use, when clicking on tutors profiles, all other profiles for that subject and area should also be displayed (a good example would be when searching for London maths, click on a profile)

I’m building up many resources for tutors, since these are people I wish to first attract, once I have the tutors, they become the main resource for student/parents, and they should be easy to contact (either by the profile or forum)

Its important that student/parents realise that this is a site full of tutors and easy to search for them as soon as they see the site. That is why there is a random rotation of profiles, an many search options at the top of the site

The purpose of the site is to provide a community space for tutors and allow students/parents to interact with these tutors

Design suggestions are welcome, but I am really interested in SEO advice, the dos and don’ts, what should I change and avoid that I have already done

- Thanks

[seoisgod]

its a nice looking site.

seems well laid out, did a test to find a spanish tutor in pembrokeshire and it came up with someone about 300miles away lol

seems like its got good potntial though

[mpea]

its a nice looking site.

seems well laid out, did a test to find a spanish tutor in pembrokeshire and it came up with someone about 300miles away lol

seems like its got good potntial though

Yes, the search should work better as more tutors join, it orders by realavence of both words "spanish" and "pembrokeshire", there is information about using the search, I should probalbly put a link next to the search box

If there was a spanish tutor in pembrokeshire it would rank no1. however since there isnt, it will show all spanish and all pembrokeshire tutors, you can further narrow this dow by searching for "pembrokeshire spanish" or "spanish pembrokeshire" within quotes

I should probably add an advance search section

[Ahmed]

Well lets see how many bad things I can find!

- First I suggest you either take the time to learn SEO copywriting or hire one because the website content sounds bad. "All I read is tutor, tutor, tutor.". That might work for SEO but if you want to convert visitors you need better copy. I'm no SEO copywriter so I cant really suggest anything but if you read some articles you might get the hang of it (Karon's Articles/book should help).

I know you want "SEO advice" but here's a few things that might help you out indirectly.

- The website navigation isn't intuitive to me -- it seems there are a lot of choices on the pages and it confuses me. I know redundancy is good sometimes but it has to be done right. I cant think of anything right now sorry but maybe put the footer links together instead of on two lines and link your logo (top left) to your homepage since it seems people usually look for that.

- The website colours are not that great maybe test out different ones? The green text on white background just isn't ... common.

- You plan to use your directory for link exchanges right? I doubt anyone wants to be in a directory where there are more Google adsense code than space for links.

- Your content pages need some serious work in-terms of colours (yeah I'm back to colours lol). There needs to be contrast - green text with green background is going to make people blind.


Thats it for now. Sorry I didn't have much time but hopefully this gives you some perspective and don't hate me oh and here's some wise words from someone who's probably younger than you - monetize your website after its worth it not before (just my opinion).

[mpea]

I have buckled under pressure, and agree that green on green was never a good idea, so changing it to black text (but keeping it for the navigation), and I like the green on white, its seems that everyone else hates it

I haven’t actually keyword stuffed on purpose, only tried to get the word tuition on some of the links.. Does it read that bad? ... eek, I may have to look at this, I don’t want to put anyone off.

I will reduce the adds to no more than one per page on the dir (it was previously 2)

Thanks, all critics welcome

[Ahmed]

No problem I'm glad you're taking the criticism well The copy we write I guess sounds good to us only sometimes - getting people to review it is always a good idea.

[mpea]

No problem I'm glad you're taking the criticism well The copy we write I guess sounds good to us only sometimes - getting people to review it is always a good idea.

You were right about the ads on the directory as well, thinking about this. I’m not in it for short term profit, but to have a successful useful resource, for everyone to use. The more resources I can build the better the site. Ads can always come much latter. I have now taken all of the ads off of the directory, and have even had a couple of good quality submissions since

I am very open to suggestions, be as harsh a you like (I can take it), and its for my own and many other peoples use

I don’t wish to waste anyones time, and really appreciate all reviews.

[Ahmed]

Here's another tip that might help you out -- try to organize the homepage a bit better. For example the homepage includes:

- a little info about you
- listing on the side for specific jobs
- directory with map
- tutor registration link (twice)
- forum and classifieds (twice)
- blocks of information with the appropriate links like (business cards, editor page etc.)

What I would do is get rid of the duplication (unless its really necessary). Split the homepage content into 3 parts:

1) First block would include an introduction/info about you and the job listings.
2) Would be the directory without the map
3) Condense the bottom links and bring them together. For example make a table with two columns and 5 rows then just include the links and information in there.

You would then center all this content.

OR..

You can have a sidebar that has the directory links and job listings. Then you can include the website content with some organization.

[Golferstube]

I like the site. All the green is a bit much though. My suggestion would be with the map. When I scroll through the map on the homepage, I think it would help to display the name of the area as your mouse scrolls over that area. I think it would make it easier for the user to see the different areas of the UK. I think it would make it more user friendly.

[ceuyan]

some suggestions.

1. get rid of the flash and make those options a solid menu.
2. add some color to it. the green is over whelming
3. center the links at the bottom
4. under student resources each box looks the same. consider making some logos for each section