For SEO POV review

[borderfox]

<EDIT> For basic review..

As the title says...


hxxp://www.energysurveyor.net/

<EDIT>Originally, I was looking for info on ways to optimise the site for SERPs but as Richard pointed out, the site itself has basic problems - so I am looking for a review of the site itself.

Any straightforward suggestions as to changes I could make to improve would be welcomed. Most of you would probably say start again but bear in mind i'm a novice at this and I'll have to work within the limitations of my own ability here.
</EDIT>

 

[Cormac]

Well...first off all link to your domain properly, that is seo tip #1
What exactly are you looking for? A report on some of the seo you have added to this site or some advise on adding seo to your site?

 

[borderfox]

Well...first off all link to your domain properly

No offence but I don't want to..

A report on some of the seo you have added to this site or some advise on adding seo to your site?

Some advice on basic things that can be done to optimise for SERP.

 

[RedCardinal]

Hey borderfox

I think you should start off by looking for a normal review.

As much as a great site is useless if no one knows about it, getting traffic to a site that wont convert is not doing anyone any favours either.

I suggest you show the site to a few people (preferably not someone who is going to nod and agree) and ask them can they figure out what your sites about and would the site make them more or less likely to buy from you.

After you've received some feedback on the site I'd be happy to add some comments about the SEO side.

Rgds
Richard

 

[borderfox]

Yeah - I know where your coming from but it will have to do for now. I'm working with the limitations of having to put this together myself. It doesnt warrant hiring a professional given that i'm not trading just yet - and any trade carried out this year will confine it to a sideline and nothing more.

Whilst its flawed, its still important that its up there as this is a new service that builders/developers have no choice but to find a service provider for.

Other than that, I will have to start from scratch - but with the limitation of my own skills, its going to take a while before I can upload anything more professional..

 

[RedCardinal]

I really think you should ask for a review here. We're very lucky in that we dont have any trolls and I think you might be able to make many improvements yourself from the feedback people here will give you.

Like I said, if you look for basic feedback first I'm quite happy to give you a few pointers on the SEO side.

Rgds
Richard

 

[borderfox]

I really think you should ask for a review here. We're very lucky in that we dont have any trolls and I think you might be able to make many improvements yourself from the feedback people here will give you.

Like I said, if you look for basic feedback first I'm quite happy to give you a few pointers on the SEO side.

Rgds
Richard

Thanks Richard. Have Edited title & initial post.

 

[Peter McC]

As the title says...


hxxp://www.energysurveyor.net/

<EDIT>....

Any straightforward suggestions as to changes I could make to improve would be welcomed. Most of you would probably say start again but bear in mind i'm a novice at this and I'll have to work within the limitations of my own ability here.
</EDIT>

Hi borderfox,

I have a few straight forward suggestions for you, take em or leave em...

Red text on blue background is not a great idea (contrasting colours can cause reading difficulties).

You could implement a basic grid to give some solidity to your design. Check out other websites or printed material for inspiration; pick up a couple of design books (about grids) to get a basic starting point.

Your image quality is poor. If you're using something like PhotoShop use 'save for web' and experiment with the different settings in there till you're happy with the file size and quality of the images.

A couple of positive points to mention:
Your site is live, and no matter how poor it looks right now it's there and ageing. Search Engine's seem to favour longer running sites so you've made a start. Some of the images used are widely recongised as energy related, good. I'd tend to move the wind turbines or solar panels to the front page.

For a first site it's not that awful, there's another thread dealing with some of the early sites seasoned members of this forum made in there early days, so I think you can hold your head up. Good start.

 

[glengara]

Both SEs and viewers love content rich sites, I gather you're fairly recently qualified, should still be full of enthusiasm and information, so suggest you build the site into an informational resource and use it to piggyback your services. Break the subject down into major components, make them keyworded directories (Energysurveyor.net /insulation/index.html) and include them in your nav bar, you'll be able to add content pages as you go along (Energysurveyor.net /insulation/attic.html). Use sub-menus in the directories (again using keywords as the link text), this ensures that deep pages such Energysurveyor.net /insulation/attic.html will have a number of links with the "correct" link text even though they may never receive an outside link...

 

[borderfox]

Red text on blue background is not a great idea (contrasting colours can cause reading difficulties).

Any suggestions for a 'websafe' colour that would best fit with blue background?

You could implement a basic grid to give some solidity to your design. Check out other websites or printed material for inspiration; pick up a couple of design books (about grids) to get a basic starting point.

Yes, that makes sense to me. I used a dreamweaver layout template for this as having mucked around with it before, I found setting up the layout manually very frustrating. I will have a look back though and see if theres a more suitable template that would cater for a grid.

I'd tend to move the wind turbines or solar panels to the front page.

I'm not sure what I was thinking as regards that first image on the homepage - but i've binned it now.

Both SEs and viewers love content rich sites, I gather you're fairly recently qualified, should still be full of enthusiasm and information, so suggest you build the site into an informational resource and use it to piggyback your services.

I didn't invest as much time into developing the content as I would have liked - and will go back, review and expand.

Break the subject down into major components, make them keyworded directories (Energysurveyor.net /insulation/index.html) and include them in your nav bar, you'll be able to add content pages as you go along (Energysurveyor.net /insulation/attic.html). Use sub-menus in the directories (again using keywords as the link text), this ensures that deep pages such Energysurveyor.net /insulation/attic.html will have a number of links with the "correct" link text even though they may never receive an outside link...

Will do thanks.


Thanks to both of you for taking the time out to post. The above makes things clear as to what I need to focus on.

 

[RedCardinal]

And I'm going to offer one or two general thoughts now as well:
1. When writing your copy the most important elements are the headline and the opening paragraph. The headline will make the difference between people reading and people tipping on. Once they like the headline the opening paragraph acts like the hook.
2. Learn to use <h1> <h2> etc for breaking up your text content, and try to write what you would like to read not what you think makes you look good.
3. Keep it as simple as possible, and above all don't make people have to think about how to get around (navigation) or what you're about (theme). And very often less words make more sense (but being who I am you have to balance this a wee bit with what the old SEs want)

Some good pointers also on site architecture and naming your directories from glengara.

And I wouldn't be afraid to make changes and then ask for more feedback - everyone likes to help people who are starting out

 

[glengara]

*..the opening paragraph acts like the hook.* The way a lot of journos do it also works well with the SEs, where the opening paragraph is a brief synopsis of the article and includes the topical keywords...