New website launched - www.mytown.ie

[garrybennett]

Hi All,

I have just launched a new website - mytown.ie - Irish Towns Online - Irish Weather & News, Maps of towns in Ireland

If you visit the site, I hope you realize that it is a community (portal) website for all the mid-to-large towns of Ireland. I have only got content for some of the towns so far (towns on homepage) but I am working on the rest right now. I am a one-man-band so it will take some times, but I will get there.

I like to think I am pretty knowledgable in these areas, but I am not naive enough to think I could not use some help. I am sure there are lots of people out there who have lots of ideas of how I could change the site for the better (technically, design and work-flow). Please voice your opinions by emailing me at feedback@mytown.ie

Thanks for your help in advance,

Garry

 

[Gavin]

Hi Gary.

I would take a look at the URL structure and see if could be made more friendly for the users & search engines.

For example for bray I get town54,bray.html - it would be ideal to make it town-bray.html or even better /town/bray.html

 

[garrybennett]

thanks for advice

Hi Gavin,
Thanks, that is actually top of my list of things to do but again thanks for the advice.

If you have any more, please fire away!

Garry

 

[Gavin]

No probs Gary.

You might want to read up on url canonicalization by Matt Cutts. Although its an old article (Jan 2006) I believe its something that should be still looked at.

One thing I also noticed is the green box on the main page. The box and the font inside really doesn't fit well with your design. I'm no designer but there is just something about that font. Hopefully one of the designers on here can chime in with some advice.

 

[garrybennett]

more good feedback

Thanks again Gavin,

I am reading that page now and it looks very interesting. I have just bought a book from Amazon on SEO but waiting for An Post to show up with it.

I know that green box on the HP doesn't look great, and I am open to ideas. I want it to stand out a bit so that visitors can see that the site is new and will be more forgiving about the lack of conent. I am very open to new ideas with regard to design though - it is not my field!

Thanks,

Garry

 

[Gavin]

Take a read through Matt's blog, he gives a great insight to what Google expects from websites. He also has a bunch of videos that are of great help, see here.

Whats the book you purchased?

Unfortunately my design skills are dire so I cant really give you advice on that green box, I have enough hassle trying to work it out for my own sites.

 

[garrybennett]

seo book

The book that I bought is:
Get to the Top on Google: Search Engine Optimisation Techniques to Get Your Site to the Top of the Search

The title sounds good, but I am sure it isn't that easy. It has had good reviews but it is not yet released here so I am waiting. I'll let you know if it is any good when I get it.

 

[davkell]

Hi Garry,

On the green box - for a start, I'd try centring the first line and making it into a heading. Also, some padding and a smaller font size might help the box - it looks a bit cluttered as it is.

Further down the homepage, you've got some <strong> text that look like they should be links, but aren't (it'd make sense to have things like "Register" as a link to the registration section).

I've only looked at the homepage, but the code isn't validating which might be something else you should take a look at.

 

[ghost]

Hi Garry nice site just registered and hopped in two clubs for Ennis under free listings ta ver much
Disappointment neither of these clubs have a phone contact just an email.
as your not giving away free email links the entry's are a bit useless as nobody can contact us , will you be making concessions for clubs on emails ?

 

[louie]

Nice site, but why is Dublin missing for the drop down menu?

 

[ghost]

my town .ie

 

[Forbairt]

Nice site, but why is Dublin missing for the drop down menu?

my town .ie

Fair enough to have it as a town ... but by leaving out dublin you're ruling out a pretty big market ? ... you may be trying for the niche .. but 1.X million people in dublin ... thats a lot of people in the country you're automatically ruling out ?

Dublin is .. a LOT of peoples town ? ... (ok its a city but still)

 

[davkell]

I'm feeling discriminated against in Galway too

 

[ghost]

give him a chance he is just finishing off my city.ie

is Galway a city

 

[babyboy808]

Nice site. But I tried to navigate the towns without Javascript and is it completely unusable. I would include a submit button.

 

[raul]

I'm not very good at this so I might be wrong but...here it goes...try to change the page background color OR the menu ( submenu especially ) color - ( black font on white background on top of ...black font on white backround looks a bit odd to me ) and yes. the green box in the middle of the page is...weird.
Looks ok otherwise

 

[garrybennett]

Replies to messages from Ghost, Davkell and Louie

Ghost: I have upgraded your 2 listings from Free to Basic. I can upgrade this further to a Premium listings which will ensure yours appear at the top of the list and it also gives you an individual page in which to feature details and images for your club.
You should be able to add your phone number to your listing and see it on the site, please let me know if you are having any difficulty – email sales@mytown.ie
Basic and Premium listings for businesses will be charged an annual fee, but for Clubs and other non-for-profit organisation I will waive this fee (look around Mitchelstown Clubs and you will see an example). Let me know if you would like Premium packages.

Davkell: Thanks a million for this advice, I have implemented it and I agree it looks much better. You seem to have a good eye for design (which I am lacking) so any other advice would be gratefully accepted.

Louie: I am starting with the more rural towns of Ireland and will then be working towards the city suburbs. The reason for this is that most of the cities already have a website which is similar and that most towns in Ireland don’t have such a website.

 

[louie]

Sorry garry but if you start something you have to finish it as well.
I do understand your point but

most of the cities already have a website

is not a good excuse. So what if they have a website already.
We design websites for users, who are the ones that will choose between "so many"...
There will always be many websites doing the same or similar things, but in the end only few will be at the top...

In your case you are after making a big mistake and I am sorry for saying it to you but as some of the post above said, you left out the most popular places which could be the best users.

 

[Forbairt]

was about to post something similar to what Louie has said ...

You target your towns first ... Galway is pretty big ... dublin .. not a town but .. 1.x Million people ... if you're serious about your business this is where you start to generate the traffic and get your business moving. Sure you can target the little towns .. but why would I want to be in there ? ... I don't even see galway / dublin so whats the point in being in there ?



Apart from that .. some comments on your design

Your javascript links are killing me
I don't want an annoying popup telling me to choose a town ...
I don't want a dropdown telling me select a town ... what happens when you have 2000 towns in there ? ...

I want something similar to ratemypub.ie ... a map ... I click a county I get a listing for that county ... maybe individual towns on the map that I can click on ... make it interactive .. make it simple to use ...

Your fonts/sizes seem to be a bit all over the place as well on the site ?

Your footer menu is quite hard to read ... white gradient .. to orange and white .. is generally a no no in my mind ... sure you're going with the irish flag colours again but hm...

I have to always select a town .. yet I'm being given a weather forecast on the front page. . where is that for ?

Is there a remember me feature / cookie ? or will I have to log in every time ?



Just some coffee fueled thoughts.

 

[garrybennett]

mytown.ie in Cities

This reply is for Forbairt, Louie and Davkell:

Thanks a million for your comments I am glad to see that you all want to see your towns(cities) listed on the mytown.ie.

This was something I have been debating with myself about so I am glad to get other people's view. My plan was to launch with more rural locations, then after receiving some feedback I would make the necessary changes to the site before hitting the majority population in the cities.
Because the site is designed to be used by local communites, I would not simply add Dublin and be done with it, I want to refine it to smaller communities within cities, eg. Christchurch, Rathmines, etc. I guess it would be ok to list cities like Galway and Waterford on there own as they are smaller - what do you think?

Forbairt: Thanks particularly for your feedback on the design. There will be a redesign in a couple of months and I will take this into consideration - unfortunately for now, I can only make simple changes.
With regard to the navigation you suggest using an interactive map, this is something I am also planning to do in time. For me the dropdown is quiet simple as if you type the first couple of letters of your town it should find it for you. But I may also introduce an AJAX autosuggest box here. I can't see any more than 200 towns being listed as there would be no more than that in the country.

Keep the feedback coming - criticism is more than welcome and will not be taken personally.