Will appreciate feedback www.conference-coordinator.com

oneofthe3lions · #1 (**permalink**) 10-27-2005, 12:17 PM

I will appreciate all feedback on this site that I have been building for over a year. It started with poor design tools etc and I have tried lots to improve the looks etc.

Is doing well traffic and ranking wise(or was until jagger) but always looking for design improvement ideas,ways to look professional and improve sales,convertions etc.

Also is it too slow etc as some code is bloated via navigation etc..

Thanks,appreciated.

janeth · #2 (**permalink**) 10-27-2005, 03:14 PM

I would play with the header a little more. It needs to make me want to use your business for my business.

It does not do that.

We built one of these sites a long, long time ago but the customer did not like it and never used it.

Time Sample

You can use anything on that one if you want but back to your site.

I also do not like the buttons on the site or that the header is smaller then the width of the text.

But you are off to a great start.

ADAM Web Design · #3 (**permalink**) 10-27-2005, 03:22 PM

Your flash header at the top appears to be missized. I don't think it's all that much, but it's enough to stand out.

Google AdSense, and any other advertisers, do not belong on sales sites. If you're selling products and services, why direct users away from what you're trying to sell?

I'm with janeth on the buttons. They're a bit too odd-looking. You'd be better off with a series of plain-text links a la WebProWorld down the left side.

Also, keep the links either on the left or on the top, but not both.

You need some pics of conferences you've done just to add a little colour to the site.

If you can, try to conceal your email address to ensure that spam bots don't pick it up. This is usually accomplished via a form that processes the sending of email on the server side. Never publish an email directly, even if you can avoid it.

It's not a bad start, though.

**dharrison** · #4 (**permalink**) 10-27-2005, 04:18 PM

The buttons aren't so much odd-looking, but they are everywhere: across the top, to the left and a different style right at the top. Oo and they are duplicates. Have them either along the top and down the left-hand side (preferably the latter),

Why do i see so many sites on these forums with AdSense??!? And not only that, as they use the same words as you (Event Planning, Corporate Conferences, etc) I daresay that they are competitors.

Also your piccies down the bottom (which I assume are examples of work) need to be placed higher up the page than they are at the moment. Even on my big screen, I have to scroll quite a way down to see them.

On the plus side, the site overall looks clean and very corporate looking and well done for getting a domain name of your main keywords.

HTH. If not feel free to PM me or post on the thread.

oneofthe3lions · #5 (**permalink**) 10-28-2005, 11:13 AM

Thankyou all for your feedback so far. its very generous of you.

I guess nobody likes my navigation lol so I will have a play and see whether I should remove some of it.. I think once you start to get some nice traffic one becomes paranoid that moving half of those inside links may cost me somehow..

I do see even this site has links above the banner ads, below the banner anddd on the left.altho yes they are not duplicate ones.

As for the Adsense, it got to a point recently, (literally till this blasted jagger on google but still with the other engines), that we were ranking top for so many general keywords that 90% of visitors werent looking for our location. ie ranking top for 'event planners' but we were only trying for 'event planners in Spain' It just made sense to send a lot of these away through adsense, a genuine monthly income from it and hopefully the searcher sees what he/she is looking for at the same time. I have of course blocked local competitors from showing up :-)

**dharrison** · #6 (**permalink**) 10-28-2005, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oneofthe3lions

I guess nobody likes my navigation lol so I will have a play and see whether I should remove some of it.. I think once you start to get some nice traffic one becomes paranoid that moving half of those inside links may cost me somehow.

Your buttons are OK, you just need to rethink the navigation so its a) consistent and b) In roughly the same area. Bad navigation can confuse visitors and drive them away from your site. The text links are OK, but should be closer to the bottom of the page.

Quote:

Originally Posted by oneofthe3lions

I do see even this site has links above the banner ads, below the banner and on the left.altho yes they are not duplicate ones.

Oh yes they are duplicates, 3lions, I've just checked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by oneofthe3lions

As for the Adsense, it got to a point recently, (literally till this blasted jagger on google but still with the other engines), that we were ranking top for so many general keywords that 90% of visitors werent looking for our location. ie ranking top for 'event planners' but we were only trying for 'event planners in Spain' It just made sense to send a lot of these away through adsense, a genuine monthly income from it and hopefully the searcher sees what he/she is looking for at the same time. I have of course blocked local competitors from showing up :-)

What even the "Free Worldwide Venue Finding Event Management Services" on your homepage? Because that sounds eerily like your sector and "worldwide" surely includes Spain? Does your monthly income from AdSense equal the value of a potential sale to justify this?

Also you have horizontal scroll bars showing on both Activities and Venues page. Even on my cinema screen of a monitor set at 1280 x 1024 resolution. Activities is the worst, but both need scaling down widthways.

I hope this helps and looking back at what I've written, I genuinely do not mean to sound malicious, I am just trying to give you my honest opinion to improve what you have (and yes generally it does look good). Its better that it comes from a mouthy bird like me than a prospective customer (LOL) ;-D.

Kind regards,

oneofthe3lions · #7 (**permalink**) 10-28-2005, 02:15 PM

Quote: Your buttons are OK, you just need to rethink the navigation so its a) consistent and b) In roughly the same area. Bad navigation can confuse visitors and drive them away from your site. The text links are OK, but should be closer to the bottom of the page.Quote

Ermm, how do you mean it isnt consistant or in the same area? My main area navigation that runs top and left?

Quote What even the "Free Worldwide Venue Finding Event Management Services" on your homepage? Because that sounds eerily like your sector and "worldwide" surely includes Spain? Does your monthly income from AdSense equal the value of a potential sale to justify this?Quote

Well you have a point i suppose but past experience from some experts suggest that the visitor will only click away if we dont have what they want anyway, or if they dont like the site etc.. in other words the clickers are already leaving.

Quote Also you have horizontal scroll bars showing on both Activities and Venues page. Even on my cinema screen of a monitor set at 1280 x 1024 resolution. Activities is the worst, but both need scaling down widthways.Quote

Damn... I guess you are using firefox or something? >> i Just checked with that browser and see what you mean. It shouldnt be doing that and cant see where the problem is.. will keep looking, perhaps i will have to put my photos in a table.

Quote I hope this helps and looking back at what I've written, I genuinely do not mean to sound malicious, I am just trying to give you my honest opinion to improve what you have (and yes generally it does look good). Its better that it comes from a mouthy bird like me than a prospective customer (LOL) ;-D.Quote

Im very grateful! Insights etc are very welcome and Im pleased not put out.

Ive moved my pics higher up the page.. added another sentence to try to sound a bit more attractive as already suggested on here.. again, thanks to all
Kind regards,[/quote]

**dharrison** · #8 (**permalink**) 10-29-2005, 04:37 AM

Quote:

Ermm, how do you mean it isnt consistant or in the same area? My main area navigation that runs top and left?

3Lions, take a look at the buttons on your page. From top to bottom of the page, there are 3 navy oblong buttons at the very top of the page, there are long light blue buttons with white borders spanning across the page AND down the left-hand side, textual links down the bottom and a list of 2 links under your contact information and the sitemap link right down the bottom of the page.

All I am saying is have a rethink of what navigation you plan to use and try to keep it in the same area. If you so opt for buttons or a dynamic menu, then keep the text links down the bottom of the page, but keep them all together. At the moment it is quite alienating.

Quote:

Well you have a point i suppose but past experience from some experts suggest that the visitor will only click away if we dont have what they want anyway, or if they dont like the site etc.. in other words the clickers are already leaving.

And whats to say you have everything the client needs now?

I can't really debate this, but People log onto sites for many different reasons and you can't provide everything.

Quote:

Damn... I guess you are using firefox or something? >> i Just checked with that browser and see what you mean. It shouldnt be doing that and cant see where the problem is.. will keep looking, perhaps i will have to put my photos in a table.

Doesn't matter what I'm using: It might look dandy in MSIE, but in FireFox, Opera and Netscape Nav, they all have that scroll bar. MSIE isn't as popular as it used to be and cross browser compatability is essential. Gone are the days of little footnotes at the bottom of your page saying "This website is optimised for MSIE on 800x600 resolution".

Can I also suggest that you validate your text with W3c.org. In your homepage, there is no <!DOCTYPE> and even after that, there are 46 errors in the homepage alone.

HTH

Owens88 · #9 (**permalink**) 10-30-2005, 06:38 PM

"Your ideas were tremendous. Your confidence and calm inspiring (I don't think I ever heard you utter the words "no, it can't be done" once in 6 months)."

That is a wonderful testimonial but surely it is a reflection of your style and attributes, and possibly not your core raison d'etre ?

I have organised conferences abroad ,and occasionally get close to doing so now (my day job is described on http://SkillsApplied.co.uk ) so I think I do understand what you offer, but it doesn't leap out hard at me.

The site does load very slowly.

It doesn't feel corporate. I suspect that you want a 'med' feel to it, but its slightly too soft (for me).
You aren't selling holidays you are selling services (and peace of mind for the responsible organisers).

Some of the strong story unfolds later but the opening page didn't lead me in.

good luck

John

JuniorOnline · #10 (**permalink**) 10-31-2005, 08:28 AM

i would recommend shrinking the size of the font. too big.also the advert google on the RHS makes the site looks cheap - this could lead serious customers to think twice before using ur services.

Q1- why the font is centred? i think it would give the site a cleaner look if it was left aligned

:) good work so far

T