Hello,


I have been working on and off this website www.ycr.co.uk for over two years and wondered what you thought of it. Please be gentle!!!

I just want to check on the topic of the site before I click the link --- don't want to go to anything racy and I can't tell from the domain name.

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Mark Reichard
iData Technologies www.idatatechnologies.com - SEO Friendly Content Management

The website is about "The UK's Largest Cash Register, EPoS & Printer Distributor to the Trade"... and it's a very professional-looking site with lots of information. It made a good first impression on me.

I only have a minute so I can't give you a proper review... but, I would suggest going through page-after-page and trying to edit down just about every description. It seems "wordy" to me. Example sentence: "Available either without application software, so you can load your preferred software, or with the Easy2Touch hospitality software or with Sentinel for most retail and hospitality solutions."

Try to simplify sentence structure and repeat the "words that sell" (Here's a list of good ones: you, save, earn, guaranteed, easily, free, yes, quickly, benefit, love, results, safe, proven, fun, new, save, now, solution, more.) Avoid words that end in "ing".

You're using CSS for font management only... which means you could improve the site by using CSS for more.

Your URL isn't descriptive... and it probably should be.

You've done a nice job of using lots of alt and title tags... now go through and delete all the filler out of them. For example, delete every single use of the word "the". This will improve "keyword density", and although it won't rocket you to search engine prominance, it certainly won't hurt.

Delete this B.S.: "This site is best viewed in Internet Explorer 5+ with monitor set at 800 x 600 pixels" Not one person is the world is going to back out of their browser and open another upon reading this. They aren't going to reset their screen size either. This line sends a message that you've made a decision not to support some customers and their very reasonable preferences.

Don't get discouraged. You've done very well.




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http://www.storyboardtoys.com/ and http://store.yahoo.com/storyboardtoys/

"This site is best viewed in Internet Explorer 5+ with monitor set at 800 x 600 pixels" - It isn't! In IE there is a 1 pixel black line coming off the right top and bottom of your right-hand column boxes. These aren't there in Firefox!

As a general rule you cannot write too much about a product that you are selling 'off the screen'. Buyers need to know as much as possible before buying. So in contrast to CJacobson's advise I would be wary of cutting the text. Use, as he suggests, selling words, but remember that these also need to be search engine 'keywords' too - words that people will search for - which are not always "words that sell".

Overall a great, business-like site. Hate the flashing gifs. Wonder about the URL and company name 'YCR' - does that mean anything to anyone? There is also a need for a short strap line at the top saying exactly what the site is about - like "Online specialists in electronics for retailer" - or whatever it is you sell...

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Paul Bilton design services ~ Sites not Sights

Hi there, YCR is a cash register distribution company based in the UK, it stands for 'Yorkshire Cash Registers'. Please feel free to check out the URL.

All the best

Gary

Hi there,

Thanks for your suggestions and great ones they are. I am making notes as we speak to futher enhance the site. I think sometimes you can't see the wood for the trees and a fresh eye is whats needed!

Thanks

Gary

Why the 2 different colors of blue. I think the light blue boxes look better than the dark blue boxes.

You have home page in hiding. Should be the first thing you see at the bottom menu.

Your sitemap is hard to read.

You might divide the pdf files from the rest of the pages. Let the user know that they are look at that.

Break up your nav bar more. I kepted on getting into the wrong area. It is small to me.

I would say you have to many colors on each page. You have 4 colors. Cut it down to 2 or 3.

Clear your code up. You have some things in it that can be taken out/not needed.

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YourWeb The Friendliest Shopping Mall On The Net |
Buying First Time

I am still almost a newbie - not an expert
but lets see what the experts say about this

I click on your link and go to a page that is about your company - what about the benefit to your visitor?

I usually leave a page giving info about the company quickly - I mean, who cares? - so what? - boring

Why not start out with the biggest benefit to your customers, talk to your visitors about their needs

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Don
Develop a slender lifestyle to take off weight and keep it off.
Dieting Sucks Online
Re-live the Days of the Wild West
Explore Tombstone

drgonzo1969 - hello :)

I agree generally with the comments above about content & copy. It needs to be sharper. More direct. To the point.

The banner at the top of the page doesn't say who you are or what you are about. Neither does the first few lines of the first main paragraph in the middle of the page. Aleady people will be hitting the back button of their browsers because they haven't found what they're looking for.

Incidentally, you may want to go here: Web Page Analyser. It has such useful info as and other things which might prove helpful for you.

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Laser Eye Surgery Facts| Helen Flanagan

Hi delstu,

'About Us' pages are vital for e-stores selling online.
Yep, they may be boring, but if was about to spend my hard-earned cash online with a company I had never heard of I would want to to know who they are, where they are, how long they have been in business and read something reasuring about their trading record from their existing customers...

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Paul Bilton design services ~ Sites not Sights

of course Paul, but this appears to be the landing page
do you really want to use an about us page for the visitors to enter your site?

I think this looks great as an about us page

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Don
Develop a slender lifestyle to take off weight and keep it off.
Dieting Sucks Online
Re-live the Days of the Wild West
Explore Tombstone

Nice site - it looks professional.
I found the four small rotating/flashing banners on the sides a little disorienting though, maybe calm them down a little, either by keeping the same image up longer before rotating to the next, or maybe consolidating and only having a couple.
I think changing the color scheme to make it more uniform is also a great suggustion.

I would reccommend changing the Title meta tag by taking out 'the UK's Largest' in the front of the tag, and moving it to the end of the tag.

Overall though you have a good template, and it displayed well in firefox and there are no errors on the home page and only 49 warnings which is really good.

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Yes, we really do carry a 50 grand in-wall speaker.

Whole home audio high end speaker systems

Hello Paul, many thanks for your comments, sorry i didn't reply straight away. Yes i take onboard what you're saying, i'm on the case!!

Gary