Baltimore Pearls ABA Basketball Team - pearlsbasketball.com

weslinda · #1 (**permalink**) 10-06-2006, 01:31 PM

Hello all, I've been working on this site over the last few days, and I'd love some feedback. While all of the content isn't it, I'd like some thoughts on the site, functionality and such things.

I've played with some CSS that I haven't before including image backgrounds for headers and some specific placement that I haven't tried before.

I'd love to hear what people think of the site from a visual and navigation standpoint and if there is anything I can improve on with the site.

Also, would love some ideas for rich content to add to the site that would make it a top sports team web site.

www.pearlsbasketball.com is the web site.

Keimos · #2 (**permalink**) 10-06-2006, 09:19 PM

Hi Weslinda,

Nice work, your on the ball with what you are doing.

Check your metatags. Put keywords above description and modify the list to how people are going to be looking for your site. You have some leeway as it is local, but outsiders may want to find you.

Keep your description as short as you can and make sure there is similar content on your home page. eg as current you have a picture of Ollie Matson. Put a link in the graphic to the article.

Put your description in instead of this

Quote:

This is where we would add a short news item that would push to a larger article on another site. This is where we would put the text and it would be about this size. Read More Here

PLEASE UNDERSTAND THIS SITE WILL BE UNDER CONSTRUCTION FOR 72 HOURS STARTING ON OCTOBER 4th, 2006.

Just a few ideas that may be expanded upon.

But,I generally liked the site, so good work from you

Keimos

weslinda · #3 (**permalink**) 10-06-2006, 09:57 PM

Just a couple of things...

Meta Tags have not been completed at the page level. The content is still to go in, then the tags will be updated.

Can I ask why you think the keywords should go above the description? I've found that the description gets used by the engines and that keywords are at a point where they are almost unimportant. But that is my opinion and I'd love to hear your viewpoint on why you think the keywords tag should be higher in the page.

Regarding the main article, I don't have an article yet, so we don't have anything to link to, otherwise, there will be a link into the article.

I guess I should be more clear that the content is really lacking, and that it's a layout and design review more than anything. Of course, once I get the content in, then I'd love more ideas there as well.

Thanks for the feedback and please keep the comments coming folks.

thorfjalar · #4 (**permalink**) 10-07-2006, 07:14 AM

Regarding your menu. It seems crowded and I suggest you make a distinction between the standard/classic menu links, that everybody expects (such as: Home, About us, Contact us) and the ones that are unique to your site, those you could categorize by importance, placing the more important menu links like Schedule higher than the less important such as ABA Rules.
I suggest this more from the viewpoint of a visitor than a developer, I (like most visitors I imagine) rate sites by how fast I can make sense of it, get my bearings if you will. The faster I can do that the more likely I am to go exploring.
On useit.com there are some good studies on where people expect menu links of this and that type to be located. Don´t be fooled by how the site it self looks, the info there is good.
If you can find a way to center the content in stead of fixing it on the left side of the screen that would improve visitor experience.
Since the site is in developing stages I suggest a random picture in the top of the content area (where the coach is now) to give it a constant fresh feel regardless of how often the text/news is updated.
Hope you got somethinng outof this visitors eye. Best of luck.

weslinda · #5 (**permalink**) 10-07-2006, 02:15 PM

Okay, so I changed up the menus and such, and would like everyone to look again.

Also, becuase of the always changing content on this page. How do I ensure that people get a new version of the site each time they visit will ensuring that the engines are caching the page.

I haven't created a site with a lot of content changes and I want to make sure that it is managed correctly.

Keimos · #6 (**permalink**) 10-08-2006, 06:41 PM

HI weslinda,

Keywords before description is just a logical thought process of mine. Basically if you get your keywords right, search engines then have a defined target, if your description matches you hit a winner.

The important thing to remember is that search engine algorithms are only as intelligent as the the programmers. These guys are generally very intelligent but go on ant search and you will find anomolies because ther are literally thousands if not millions of topics that cannot be identified through word association.

Each page needs to be targeted to the content within and the site needs a general theme that cvers them all.

Regarding your home page article, why not simply tell people what the site is about.

Another important thing to remember Google is not the only player in the game and that your home page is not necessarily the one that the search engines will find.

I have many discussions with search engine sales people trying to sell a keyword or key phrase. I tell them which one of 1500 will work. Silence!!!!!

It is a matter of playing around and testing. Find out what the people looking for your site are looking for.

You have a good site, keep with it, have patience and try different things on different pages to find out what works best for you

Keimos

weslinda · #7 (**permalink**) 10-08-2006, 08:31 PM

Are you saying you feel the site isn't laid out well to be found by other search engines?

Or are you saying I should put more value in the keywords section of the meta tags?

I'm just a bit confused on what you are trying to say here.

I mentioned in my original post that the content was not complete, and that I was looking for reviews on layout and functionality vs. meta tags and content.