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minimegeology

posts: 143

Feb 05, 2008 4:38 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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Hello Everyone,
 
I have two websites that I would love for you to check out. 
 
 
 
They have each been up about a year.  I want them to be as user friendly, informative, and eye catching as possible.  The Giverny site is targeted toward 35+ and Mini Me Geology is targeted for parents and kids (elementary age).
 
Thanks!
 
Tracy


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Tracy Barnhart, Owner
Giverny, Inc. / Mini Me Geology
http://www.GivernyOnline.com
http://www.MiniMeGeology.com
Feb 06, 2008 4:59 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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Tracy,

First of all I would like to say that your websites look very good. You also have some decent page ranks both sites (3). Your page presentations look professional and thought out. It makes it easy for people to navigate without seeing too much information.

Here are a few key points for GivernyOnline.com:
  • Homepage pictures need ALT texts. My suggestion is to use the keywords for those related products. I see your product list pages do have Alt texts which is good. Just remember your keywords in the equation.
  • Your pages have individually written metatags. Good job! However, I noticed you used Decor with the special `e` character which I don`t even want to figure out how to do on the keyboard. Have you gotten searches with this spelling rather than the normal `e`? My instinct tells me others won`t spend that much time spelling their searches. Try not using the special `e` when keywording.
  • Are you tracking your visitor trends with any statistical software? This applies to both websites. You should be aware of trends so you can improve your page organization and management. That would probably give you more information than someone like me analyzing your page display. "Markets determine more than the manager."
  • Just as a small recommendation, besides the product pages your site offers little `quality information`. Try making a few (1-5) extra pages containing a short article (300-600 words) about something related to your product. Howto`s, Faqs, Industry news, Tips, Tricks, etc. These articles will also help with link baiting which will help you reach a PageRank of 4.
Your overall presentation and functionality of the site is great. Just a few things you could look at and tweak.

I wont go into the good parts so much, so here are some changeable key points about MiniMeGeology:
  • Your product pages seem a little short. Your category listing already cuts the description so why not make the product pages a little more interesting. A parent reading them would be more intrigued to buy one if there were some interesting facts, suggestions of uses for it. Increased page description will also help the ranking of those individual pages.
  • Make all your category listings have a brief 1-2 paragraph description of the category on the top of the page. This will help SE`s recognize the page as important and quality information. I see that you did that a little with the the two Minerals pages. These descriptions should be good information as well as filled with your main keywords for that category.
  • The create-a-kit menu link looks like a great button to click but it brings the visitor to a middle-man page. I would strongly recommend cutting that out and linking directly to the product page. That should help the linking quality as well as the customer presentation.
  • Make the MiniMeGeology logo at the top left of all the pages a clickable logo that brings the visitor to the homepage. Even though you have the home link at the top, this is almost an industry standard for websites, is to have the logos lead to the homepage. You did do this for your Giverny website.
  • Put `Tell a friend` and `Printer Friendly` links in the main part of the page for all product pages. Listing at the bottom is great, but we all know people will glance over it. If they need either of those features, it needs to be easy, right there and then.
Overall, your website looks pretty professional and presents very well. Your images are not bad quality or mal-formatted which is good. Most of the suggestions are just functionality and technicality related.

Good work!

Regards



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Colin Winter
Small Business Website Management and Marketing
minimegeology

posts: 143

Feb 10, 2008 9:37 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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Thank you, WebsitesUnleashed.  You noticed some things that I never would have known to look for.  By the way, the slash over the e is from Word - that is my lesson never to cut and paste!

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Tracy Barnhart, Owner
Giverny, Inc. / Mini Me Geology
http://www.GivernyOnline.com
http://www.MiniMeGeology.com
ArcherTC

posts: 40

Apr 17, 2009 8:26 AM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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My internet connection may be cranky today, but you lost me at the Flash-dense but slow-loading home page.  I am using the lastest version of Firefox.


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Tammi L. Coles
Archer Targeted Communication
ArcherTC.com
Follow me on Twitter @archertc
Apr 17, 2009 9:59 AM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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It loaded pretty fast for me, Tammi. I`m on Cable and running Firefox.

I liked it - but it might be nice to have some streaming video or something upon entry if it`s a free tv channel. ;)

Jarrod1937

posts: 85

Apr 17, 2009 4:38 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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Adding sounds to buttons usually annoys most visitors. Usability wise, they need a queue when an action of theirs can result in something, but sounds are not the way to go about this. Use movement and color changes as a queue.
4Founders

posts: 11

Apr 19, 2009 7:52 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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The flash loaded rather slowly for me.  It wasn`t unbearably slow, but more than enough to detract from the experience and turn off visitors. 

I don`t think the animations add enough value to justify the extra 3 seconds of load time.


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Fundamentals for Founders:
The Practical Guide to Kick-Starting Your Business
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