Web Site Critique

[jamestl2]

My site does not have much traffic, so I am just wondering:

Site-related Questions:
Does it have a good, inviting layout?
Is the content and theme good, would you return to see the next list?
Should I write content more often to get ranked higher, etc. in search engines? (I’ll create a new list about once a week or so)

General Questions:
Am I being to impatient (my site is over 4 months old)?
Do I have enough links (Google says I have 73 external links)?
Do I have enough directories submissions (I’ve been accepted by about 20 directories or so)?
How long did it take fellow webmasters to see a constant, steady stream of traffic?
How much “time and effort” should be spent on marketing?

Site is in Sig.

Any tips and advice I would greatly appreciate,
Thanks

[Mayo]

Hmmmm...

-more inviting font(nothing too fancy, test...)
-turn table border off
-logo


well i'm not someone who has been building nice websites but you really-really need to work ... u must understand that if you want to succeed you must make it and work in progress..

example of uglyish website is plentyoffish.com.. but it's pulling 3-4 million $US annually

keep at it! evolve and keep it simple..

Best of luck,
Patrick

[Alex Zito]

You also may try to use Wordpress or similar blogging software - it looks very professional. If you have some PHP skills, you may create your own plugins for your own top 10 lists. Google it for "wordpress"

Look at the site in my sig - powered by Wordpress.

[jamestl2]

Originally Posted by Mayo

Hmmmm...

-more inviting font(nothing too fancy, test...)
-turn table border off
-logo

Would wordpress take care of the font?
For some reason, the table border only shows up in firefox, I couldn’t find the source of the problem.
What good would a logo do? Should I just design one myself?

Originally Posted by Mayo

well i'm not someone who has been building nice websites but you really-really need to work ... u must understand that if you want to succeed you must make it and work in progress..

example of uglyish website is plentyoffish.com.. but it's pulling 3-4 million $US annually

keep at it! evolve and keep it simple..

Best of luck,
Patrick

I’ve redesigned my site before, but it doesn’t seem to be that much of an improvement. Do you know where I could get tips on layout, color, etc.?

Originally Posted by Alex Zito

You also may try to use Wordpress or similar blogging software - it looks very professional. If you have some PHP skills, you may create your own plugins for your own top 10 lists. Google it for "wordpress"

Look at the site in my sig - powered by Wordpress.

I'm not familiar with wordpress. Is it free? Is it compatible with Dreanweaver 8 (My current web design software)? Also, I'm not interested in blogging at this moment, if it is necessary for wp.

[Alex Zito]

Originally Posted by jamestl2

Would wordpress take care of the font?
For some reason, the table border only shows up in firefox, I couldn’t find the source of the problem.
What good would a logo do? Should I just design one myself?

I’ve redesigned my site before, but it doesn’t seem to be that much of an improvement. Do you know where I could get tips on layout, color, etc.?

I'm not familiar with wordpress. Is it free? Is it compatible with Dreanweaver 8 (My current web design software)? Also, I'm not interested in blogging at this moment, if it is necessary for wp.

You can define all the design properties in CSS files of a wordpress theme, and there are tons of wordpress themes to can choose from, and even dont change a bit, check Theme viewer .

The layout based on the <TABLE> tags is so "last year" The problem with it is that every browser renders tables in different way, everybody is using <DIV> tags to layouts now.

Wordpress is free. And with a bit of tweaking, the wordpress platform can be used for any type of site; you can just use wordpress static pages to assemble your web site, and publish your news as blog posts. Some magazine web sites use wordpress as their platform, and those are not blogs.

Yes, the wordpress themes is compatible with Dreanweaver, however, you may need to know PHP to change themes (very easy to learn).

Good luck with your site - I was there as well, so I know your feelings, and keep on reading

[Pat P.]

I agree with Alex. There are several benefits from moving towards CSS design. After the initial work, they are easier to maintain, usually smaller in size (which could help to have a more effective bandwidth use), better from a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) point of view, and you would have less issues with browsers.

If you are interested in learning more about WordPress, check the following tutorials:
Why WordPress and How It Works | Tubetorial
7 Essential WordPress Hacks | Tubetorial

Also, I will try to use a color-coordinated palette. ColorBlender is a free tool that generates great color palettes.

Hope it helps

[Alex Zito]

Pat, thank you for the link to ColorBlend - i was looking for something like that, it really helps to create balanced web site design.

[Brutha]

Your site design breaks in Opera.

[jamestl2]

Originally Posted by Brutha

Your site design breaks in Opera.

Is there any software / site that would show me the problem with my site's code, etc.?

[Alex Zito]

You can check your web-site using W3C Markup Validation: The W3C Markup Validation Service

Just put your web-site URL in "Validate by URL" part and it gives you all the errors. It will also give you some tips on how to fix the error.

Usually a web-site maybe broken in some browsers because of the markup errors, but sometimes it's the way the browser renders some tags. Try also installing other browsers on your computer and verify it.

BTW, A List Apart: A List Apart is a good resource on how to solve browser incompatibilities, try read all the articles.

[jamestl2]

Originally Posted by Alex Zito

You can check your web-site using W3C Markup Validation: The W3C Markup Validation Service

I'm not sure what most of those errors are or how to fix them, since I am a GUI type of designer. Still have to look at other clarification site.

Also, I noticed that www.stevepavlina.com has 93 errors, so I'm not sure how urgent the errors are for fixing.

[Alex Zito]

Originally Posted by jamestl2

I'm not sure what most of those errors are or how to fix them, since I am a GUI type of designer. Still have to look at other clarification site.

Also, I noticed that www.stevepavlina.com has 93 errors, so I'm not sure how urgent the errors are for fixing.

Right, stevepavlina.com has the errors, mostly of them are not severe, their are just warnings that some of the attributes or tags are not supported or depreciated.

You need to look for the errors that say "This tag is not allowed here" or "Missing tag", etc.
I can look at your web-site report and guide you through the errors when I will be at home, ok?

[jamestl2]

Originally Posted by Alex Zito

I can look at your web-site report and guide you through the errors when I will be at home, ok?

Thanks, when will that be, because I still have hw and cooking to do?

[Alex Zito]

You'll have enough time for your hw and cooking

[jamestl2]

Originally Posted by Alex Zito

You'll have enough time for your hw and cooking

Just wanted to know when you would be ready, so you wouldn't be sitting on the computer for a few hours waiting for me to come back online

[Alex Zito]

Oh, I'm just gonna put my review here, so someone may use it as the guide as well.

Alright, I put your site thru the validator and we have this: "Failed validation, 23 errors"
Your html pages have "XHTML 1.0 Transitional" type, which is standard now, and it's good.

Errors:

1-2) just remove that meta tag with name="verify-v1", you dont need it anymore, you've passed Google check up.

3-5) depreciated attributes (ignore, or move to DIV layout from table layout)

6-48) ignore, for some reason, the URL encoded string was not ignored

49) This is a serious one. You cannot have <DIV> tag inside a paragraph <P> tag. Try to remove surrounding <P></P> tags

50-55) ignore

56) same as 49)

Actually, you dont have that many serious problems in markup, but better to fix 49) and 56).

Your next step will be installing other browsers and see how does it look there.
However, if you are considering to use Wordpress, then you even may not need to fix those errors, most of the Wordpress themes are W3C compliant.

[jamestl2]

Alright, I am having some trouble finding these errors,

Originally Posted by Alex Zito

49) This is a serious one. You cannot have <DIV> tag inside a paragraph <P> tag. Try to remove surrounding <P></P> tags

56) same as 49)

Actually, you dont have that many serious problems in markup, but better to fix 49) and 56).
.

Is 49 and 56 suppose to represent lines 49 and 56 of my site’s code? because I looked and could not find anything pertaining to the errors on those lines. Unless I am looking on the wrong page, if so, then what page were these errors found on? Or else what do those numbers represent?

[jamestl2]

Anybody? I still cannot cannot find the source of this problem.

Here are the lines for the code:
49: </style>
56: <td colspan="4" class="Subtitle"><div align="center" class="style2">Toptenlisted.com</div>

These are according to my dreamweaver software I used to create the program

[Brutha]

No he meant the faults 49 and 56, the site validator produces.

[jamestl2]

Just a few more WordPress Questions:

1. Does Google "like" WordPress-made pages? (I mean is it easier to ger ranked higher, include more links, etc. with a WordPress site? Also, would I lose my google ranking for converting my already existing web pages to wp style, even though it isn't very high?)

2. Where is the best place to download it the fastest and for free? (So that I wouldn't have to worry about programming code or syncing it, or additional charges I wouldn't need, etc.)

3. Are there any important restrictions I should be concerned about, like bandwidth, host compatability, FTP time, etc.?

[Liara Covert]

What you think of your website needs to be evaluated in relation to a basline. What are the measurables? What are you trying to accomplish. I would suggest you brainstorm your purpose and step back to see how your product helps you accomplish it. You may also benefit from reading web articles like the following:

21 tips to improve blog quality » Make You Go Hmm

Keep up the great work with your site. The fact that you notice its not doing exactly what you want is the first step to positive change.

[Gemini15]

I am not a technical expert so will leave that to the others.

I liked your site and just reckon you need more stuff in it. At the moment it is a site you will look at once. I think you need hundreds possibly thousands of different top 10's. Then you will become recognised as the place to visit for this type of information.

Good Luck

[Minsc]

You have spaces in your filenames. You should replace them with underscores.

For SEO, I've read that you should have keywords you think people would use to find your site in search engines in your title.
For usability, I've read that your title should start with what the current page is about, to have that show up in the user's taskbar instead of getting cropped off.

Also, you could make an icon for your site so that it shows up as an icon on favorites lists(like this site).

[jamestl2]

Well, I completely redesigned my site and it is now using a wordpress format,
which should reduce the number of errors, improve SEO, Google rankings, etc.

[jamestl2]

My site has had its final redesign complete for a few weeks and it is working great so far.

BTW, if anyone wants to contribute by writing a few top 10 lists or commenting on others, feel free to do so, I'd appreciate it.

Also, site is in sig.

[OnionJack]

Hello Jamestl2,

Some of this might sound a little harsh. It's just my opinion with a little review.

Very first, get rid of About Me. You think people may care, but include that in About if you have to. Change About Site to About Us. Your idea is a separate entity. It just happens to also encompass a website and top ten lists.

Change I to Us, or We.

Copyright toptenlisted.com. Do a sole proprietorship, it's cheap, or just copyright it as the web address. Odds of your taking it to court in beginning will be slim

Get rid of your footers for the DNS, etc. Minimize them all as much as possible.

There's 0 diggs. Don't advertise it.

Be Proactive! Get your web address out there. Any means you think will be effective. Join more message boards. Craigslist. Keep doing what appears as external links. It will only help.

Keep creating original polls. But if they aren't getting the numbers. Remove them! 2 of 5 of your polls have 1 response at most on your political polls. PLEASE it's politics make the polls stirring. Intrigue the visitor, or inflame them, produce a response.

People don't want to vote where no one else has. We all follow the leader. If you can get an interesting enough topic to start the responses. Digg will take care of itself.

I would also try to tie in with other sites in any way possible if you're focusing on polls. Host them, sponser them(maybe), keep posting them as comments to hotly debated topics.

[jamestl2]

Originally Posted by OnionJack

Hello Jamestl2,
Some of this might sound a little harsh. It's just my opinion with a little review.

Thanks, I actually prefer blunt criticism, it helps me out greatly and which areas of my site need improvement in.

Originally Posted by OnionJack

Very first, get rid of About Me. You think people may care, but include that in About if you have to. Change About Site to About Us. Your idea is a separate entity. It just happens to also encompass a website and top ten lists.

Change I to Us, or We.

Actually, with this page, I was trying to follow Steve’s example. Just gave some facts about myself to show I am a real person running the site.

TBH, I do believe that no one really does care, but I just put it in anyway to give guests a sense of humanity behind it. Also, since I am the only one running it, there really is no “we”, just “me”.

Originally Posted by OnionJack

Copyright toptenlisted.com. Do a sole proprietorship, it's cheap, or just copyright it as the web address. Odds of your taking it to court in beginning will be slim

Yeah, it is just a sole proprietorship right now, don’t know if I will change it in the future or not though.

In my footer, I do show people that it is copyrighted, which is right above the footer links, if that’s what you were referring to? I ‘m not completely sure what you mean by “copyright the web address”, as I already own the site.

Originally Posted by OnionJack

Get rid of your footers for the DNS, etc. Minimize them all as much as possible.

I actually have to keep those links that are in the footer, they are required by the author / designer of the wordpress theme I chose to use.

Originally Posted by OnionJack

There's 0 diggs. Don't advertise it.

Be Proactive! Get your web address out there. Any means you think will be effective. Join more message boards. Craigslist. Keep doing what appears as external links. It will only help.

A SEO advisor from another forum recommended me to put the digg icon code on to attract traffic and show guests that they can digg them, and get involved in other social bookmarking sites.

Originally Posted by OnionJack

Keep creating original polls. But if they aren't getting the numbers. Remove them! 2 of 5 of your polls have 1 response at most on your political polls. PLEASE it's politics make the polls stirring. Intrigue the visitor, or inflame them, produce a response.

People don't want to vote where no one else has. We all follow the leader. If you can get an interesting enough topic to start the responses. Digg will take care of itself.

My site isn’t necessarily a collection of polls. While they are top ten lists, most of them are just my opinion and trying to help people out. There were never really any “voting options” to my lists, I just wrote them up because I thought people may find the information I provide useful.

The comments are there because it is a blog style site (although not technically a blog). Do you think it may be better to just disable comments for a site such as mine? Or maybe even somehow incorporate "voting" into my site (although I wouldn't know how to do that)?

Originally Posted by OnionJack

I would also try to tie in with other sites in any way possible if you're focusing on polls. Host them, sponser them(maybe), keep posting them as comments to hotly debated topics.

It is good advice to find other sites with similar activity, but as I said earlier, my lists aren’t polls exactly, although I do welcome debate (Once visitors actually start commenting on my lists, lol) on the order I choose to list the headers in each list.


Once again, thanks for the honest site review.
It seems as if you can never stop learning about web design and administration, then again you could apply that to life as well.

[OnionJack]

Originally Posted by jamestl2;

Actually, with this page, I was trying to follow Steve’s example. Just gave some facts about myself to show I am a real person running the site.

TBH, I do believe that no one really does care, but I just put it in anyway to give guests a sense of humanity behind it. Also, since I am the only one running it, there really is no “we”, just “me”.

It's just my opinion, but Steve has his information because his website is designed differently. His web address is StevePavlina.com so you would expect to find personal information about him on it. Other websites you want a professional(not to be confused with cold) design.

Originally Posted by jamestl2;

In my footer, I do show people that it is copyrighted, which is right above the footer links, if that’s what you were referring to? I ‘m not completely sure what you mean by “copyright the web address”, as I already own the site.

I just mean change the copyright to toptenlisted.com. It refers back to the professionalism above

Originally Posted by jamestl2;

A SEO advisor from another forum recommended me to put the digg icon code on to attract traffic and show guests that they can digg them, and get involved in other social bookmarking sites.

Completely agree with a digg this link. But there's various ways to implement it. And it just SCREAMS that there's little site traffic if all the pages show up as 0 diggs, even if that's not the truth. So I would try to find one that is a text link that says "digg this" without display the number, until it gets up there.

Originally Posted by jamestl2;

My site isn’t necessarily a collection of polls. While they are top ten lists, most of them are just my opinion and trying to help people out. There were never really any “voting options” to my lists, I just wrote them up because I thought people may find the information I provide useful.

The comments are there because it is a blog style site (although not technically a blog). Do you think it may be better to just disable comments for a site such as mine? Or maybe even somehow incorporate "voting" into my site (although I wouldn't know how to do that)?

The comments could help spur more traffic and trackbacks. I think if you did change it to voting style that could also help. Where people have the option to vote for one, or rank the 10 in their order and on the backend it takes the overall numbers and ranks them all.

Originally Posted by jamestl2;

It is good advice to find other sites with similar activity, but as I said earlier, my lists aren’t polls exactly, although I do welcome debate (Once visitors actually start commenting on my lists, lol) on the order I choose to list the headers in each list.

Here's a link to who-sucks. It's not like your site, but it does have a few lists. 10 reasons so and so sucks, 12 reasons etc etc. If you want to peruse it for a few ideas.

Originally Posted by jamestl2;

Once again, thanks for the honest site review.
It seems as if you can never stop learning about web design and administration, then again you could apply that to life as well.

Hope some of my comments are helpful to you!

[jamestl2]

Originally Posted by OnionJack

It's just my opinion, but Steve has his information because his website is designed differently. His web address is StevePavlina.com so you would expect to find personal information about him on it. Other websites you want a professional(not to be confused with cold) design.

So you think I should be more impersonal when it comes to web administration because that is the direction I’m taking my site?

Originally Posted by OnionJack

Completely agree with a digg this link. But there's various ways to implement it. And it just SCREAMS that there's little site traffic if all the pages show up as 0 diggs, even if that's not the truth. So I would try to find one that is a text link that says "digg this" without display the number, until it gets up there.

Say, do you know where I could get that digg code? I looked on their tools page, but they don’t offer any code for a simple “digg this” text link The current code I have on there now is this (Which is the code they offer):

 <script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

Originally Posted by OnionJack

The comments could help spur more traffic and trackbacks. I think if you did change it to voting style that could also help. Where people have the option to vote for one, or rank the 10 in their order and on the backend it takes the overall numbers and ranks them all.

I’ll admit I’m not a code programmer, so I wouldn’t have any idea how to implement something that advanced.

Originally Posted by OnionJack

Hope some of my comments are helpful to you!

Yes, they definitely were

[OnionJack]

Originally Posted by jamestl2

So you think I should be more impersonal when it comes to web administration because that is the direction I’m taking my site?

Well your site doesn't appear to be geared towards your individual preferences. Your trying to come up with unique top ten lists.

Originally Posted by jamestl2

Say, do you know where I could get that digg code? I looked on their tools page, but they don’t offer any code for a simple “digg this” text link The current code I have on there now is this (Which is the code they offer):

 <script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

Check out this link Digg / tools / integrate

Originally Posted by jamestl2

I’ll admit I’m not a code programmer, so I wouldn’t have any idea how to implement something that advanced.

Google Wordpress Poll Plugins. First one I found is WP-Polls 2.20 Readme

Also just as a side note. It looks like your in college right now. I'm not sure how big your social circle is. But if you can even start with Top Ten lists that intrigue/insight other students to respond, that can at least start helping with your traffic.