New site, high on content, low on design

[smackinyaup]

www.beatnolimit.com

Hello everyone. I have been working on this site for the last few weeks and would like to get your comments and criticisms. Its not quite finished up yet, but I think I have enough up to get some input on it.

I personally feel that the content is top-notch compared to the majority of strategy sites out there. The strategy guide is very detailed and the articles will be very informative. The problems that I see are these:

1. SEO. I have done no SEO work yet. I still need to research and execute.

2. The design is somewhat cheesy. I made it myself using FrontPage which I've heard is not the best but I wanted to make the page myself with less trouble. At least the overall look is pretty clean.

3. Conversion. I provide a great site for strategy, but the point of it on my side is to make money. I feel that I don't have enough "calls to action" and I'm not sure where to go yet. I will be writing a "Psychology of switching poker rooms" article sometime soon with embedded links though

4. I'm not sure if I do a good job conveying the value my site offers. The strategy guide looks very generic unless you actually read it.

5. The site is very text intensive. I'm not sure how I should break it up.


So there is my little self-analysis. I would like to continue with the design myself in order to learn and keep the startup costs as low as possible. I would also like to switch to a CSS site sometime, but that is still a long ways off for my skill level.

[NewPokerGirl]

Well, I would change a couple things.

1. use text instead of that image..it will help with seo
2. change background
3. make it a little less wide so visitors dont have to scroll over
4. use different "back" "next" buttons..try cooltext.com

If you focus on content and SEO you can do very well. A good example is playwinningpoker.com...he has the worst design ever but he does very well because his site is a seo masterpiece. Maybe use a dark solid background..that should help. FP has many to choose from.

[JohnH]

Here are some things I noticed right away. (For further explanation of anything below, just use the handy-dandy search feature for this forum.)

SEO

• Need title tags
• Need metatags
• Do your keyword research, write content based on what keywords you are targeting.
• Get backlinks to every page, not just the home page.
• Use h1, h2, and h3 tags.
• Use a 301 redirect to redirect the non www. version of your site to the www.version.
• Internal Linking: Come up with a more function navigation. All of the articles for your strategy guide are hidden 2 levels deep in the strategy section. Maybe some links from the homepage will help users and search bots find your content easier.

Design

• Although the layout is ok, you may want to consider a simpler approach. Try http://www.searchenginefriendlylayouts.com/ for some simple css layouts that could work similar to your current layout.
• Enclose the banners in boxes so they are not just floating out there on the side.
• There is something funny about the back/next buttons in the strategy guide.

While your site is not hideous, it's not perfect. Its a good start. Work on content and a good internal linking structure.

Thats all for now.

[ThePokerBank]

Try using a different font to make the text easier to read. The font you are using at the moment looks like Times New Roman which isnt the easiest to read when in big chunks of text.

Try using a font like Verdana or Arial which is easier on the eyes as the letters are formed better.

[addaminsane]

if you're going to use just text for the logo, i'd recommend actually using text. like BEAT NO LIMIT in bold to get some on page optimization. No offense, but the background is terrible.

if you're going to do an html site, why not get a free layout that looks good already and then add a little customization. Good source is templatesbox.com - free html website layouts that look really good.

[Randy]

Get rid of the background image. Just use a flat color for the background, or leave it white.

Your links to your homepage link to the URL: http://www.beatnolimit.com/index.htm. You need to just link to the URL http://www.beatnolimit.com/.

Lots of text on your pages is good.

Using Frontpage is no problem. Don't listen to the Frontpage-haters.

[haynesey]

Ok, i have a few suggestions.

I would go for a light blue background, the current one hurts my eyes after a few seconds.

The logo on top looks bad. I would quit the "dropshaddow"? effect. Go for some nice bold font, using a black font.

The banner on the right, i would go for a 120x600, the current one isn't to large. You want to get some sign up's right? So use a larger add to attract attention.

Theres lots of white space to the left, below the "menu" i suggest adding links to your content pages, using keywords you want to target, this is good for SEO.

Hope that helps, nice job so far

[smackinyaup]

Hello again,

I sincerely appreciate your time and responses. I will get to work on these changes right away and will be able to reply more in depth as I tackle each challenge. Don't worry about offending me, the harder you are on my site, the more it helps me.

I noticed several people mention that I should provide more links to the content on my homepage. Lets say I set up a "featured articles" thing on the left side with short descriptions, and maybe somehow get one that automatically cycles through various articles/strategy guide sections similar to a newsfeed. Would that be close to what you are talking about?

Also, does the site look very sticky? Any suggestions for improving return visits and page views?


Ok edit - I have made a couple of minor changes. I'm not too big of a fan of a solid color for the background on this particular site. I am still interested in changing the look of the site, but I think that I will have to make some other changes before it looks right with a solid color for a background.
http://www.beatnolimit.com/altindex.htm
http://www.beatnolimit.com/index.htm

[ThePokerBank]

Looks much much better with the blue background. Now chnage the font for the text and have a better looking font for the heading and it will look great.

Also include more of a navigation down the left.

[smackinyaup]

Ok, I am liking this one a little more:

http://www.beatnolimit.com/altindex2.htm