Please Review my site

montanatennis · #1 (**permalink**) 05-01-2008, 09:42 AM

Hello Everybody,

Please take a look at my site and tell me what you think. What improvement is need. Perhaps you make like it. My Url is Montana Tennis Academy.... Thanks

davebarnes · #2 (**permalink**) 05-01-2008, 10:42 AM

UNFRAME the site.

Frames are ugly when used this way.
People hate frames as they can't bookmark deep into the site.
Search engines deal very poorly with frames.

mtheory · #3 (**permalink**) 05-01-2008, 02:05 PM

I agree with Dave. Lose the frames. If your going to use Flash like that, don't bother, either make it all html/css or all Flash. If you must Flash, set your frame rate higher and speed up the fade-ins. The slow fade in is distracting.

Don't use the same photo for every page. Too redundant.

On the directions page. Incoroprate a single dynamic map with the Google Map api so people could request directions, see the relative locations, etc...

Now, to get real picky. Center your text in the menu buttons.

cw1865 · #4 (**permalink**) 05-03-2008, 03:06 PM

I went in there, clicked on a left menu and it froze up.

Clicken · #5 (**permalink**) 05-04-2008, 12:29 PM

I didn't have a problem navigating but the calender would not display any information when i clicked on a day. It would change the months when I clicked on the forwards or backwards arrows.

Dave, not everybody hates frames and search engines do not have a problem with frames as long as they are set up correctly. Yes, they require extra work but for some webmasters the extra work is worth it to achieve the effect which only frames can offer. Even pages without frames can trip spiders if not done correctly.

As for SEO and Flash, the following link will give information on how to do that as well as offer a script which will determine if the browser is flash compatible. How to SEO Flash » by Jonathan Hochman

Quote:

… an open source Javascript function called swfobject() to detect when browsers are capable of viewing Flash. When an appropriate version of Flash player is present, the Javascript manipulates the page's document object model (DOM) to replace the primary content with the Flash movie.

Here is a script for bookmarking. It can go on all pages but only the index page will be served and the frames will all come together. You would have to search if someone has found a way to bookmark the individual pages to be in the frames.

The individual pages could have a standard bookmark but they will not be served in the framed format however if links are available on those pages then when the index link is clicked on then the frames will display.

Since my site doesn’t have an internal page which would be popular for bookmarking, I offer the index bookmark on all pages.
This code goes into the <head>

Code:

<script language="JavaScript1.2">
   
  /*
  Add-to-favorites Script
  Created by David Gardner (toolmandav@geocities.com)
  No warranty of any kind comes with this script!
  Permission granted to Dynamic Drive (http://dynamicdrive.com) 
  to post and feature this script on their DHTML archive
  */
   
  //configure the two variables below to match yoursite's own info
  var bookmarkurl="http://www.yoursite.com"
  var bookmarktitle="your link text here"
   
  function addbookmark(){
  if (document.all)
  window.external.AddFavorite(bookmarkurl,bookmarktitle)
  }
      </script>

This code goes with the text link in the <body>

Code:

<a target="_self" href="javascript:addbookmark()">Bookmark This Site!</a>

The extra work for webmasters is that duplicate pages need to be created to achieve good results for all visitors. Small sites can manage this easier than larger ones. CSS can help reduce the work involved. Not all browsers support frames so pages need to be created to serve up the content.

The robots meta tag will be needed in the <head> so that the site is not punished for having duplicate content. Here is how I use this tag however it really depends on the preference of the individual; I put the index,follow on the index noframes page but for the other no frames pages, (for the browsers that do not support frames,) I use the noindex no follow.

On the default page (which holds the content part of the framed set) I use the noindex,follow and on the other internal pages, designed for the framed format, I use the index,follow. I have incorporated links on these pages and the site identification so that if these pages are found by someone during a search then they will know which site they belong to and they can navigate through the site.

Code:

  <meta name="robots" content="index,follow">
  <meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow">

This is an example of how my ‘no frames’ page is a duplicate of what the frames looks like, it just doesn’t have the frames effect and i changed the heading just a little. It is done using CSS and you may copy the layout if you wish.
Kids Learn Math With Electro-Math Flash Cards Online

hurricanebob · #6 (**permalink**) 05-04-2008, 09:47 PM

Montanatennis,

I won't comment on the use of frames, because I use them myself from time to time. But, I do agree that the use of the same flash animation on every page is a bit redundant.

Also, the size of the animation poses a problem. It seems to me that it really doesn't need to be that big. It takes up a serious amount of vertical real estate on EVERY PAGE, causing the main content of almost every page to go "below the fold" (not visible without scrolling).

According to these stats Browser Display Statistics, almost 50% are viewing your site at a resolution of 1024x768, and depending on the number and size of the toolbars in the users browser, vertical space can many times be less than 500 pixels.

With this in mind, you might want to consider slimming down your title/banner frame, and lose that flash animation on any of the pages containing important content. Or not.

For what it's worth.

aidsntcg · #7 (**permalink**) 05-06-2008, 10:21 AM

The menu on the left is cramped and hard to read. The text font is too small for both of your menus.

I checked out a few of your pages and they load very slow, much too slow for my patience and probably for others.

drmadcow · #8 (**permalink**) 05-10-2008, 02:17 AM

@Chicken

I'm going to have to disagree about your "search engines do not have a problem with frames as long as they are set up correctly.". When it comes to link building and how search engines work on nearly every single site your index, default, or whatever your homepage file happens to be carries by far the great authority because this is where its easiest to generate organic links. So if you take the strongest page on your site and you start laying out frames with it your throwing away all the strength of this page and just counting on it to cascade down to the internal pages.

Now when it comes to internal pages an effective internal link structure is paramount, if all your navigation links are in one file which is a frame vs every single page on your site this can make a massive difference. I redid my Web Hosting Reviews, Computer & Hardware Reviews and Articles, and Computer Links :: Dr. MadCow's Educational Resource Portal at the end of 2006. The two big things I did was 1) CSSing the entire template for a cleaner design and 2) On every one of my article pages I added the latest 10 articles, and top 10 articles. By mainly adding these additional internal links my search traffic nearly tripled within 2 weeks because of the internal anchor text and more site strength cascading through the site.

I'm not going to get into a debating war on this one, if you Google SEO Service out of North America, I'm the Director of Optimization Services at Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning. Cheers.

Clicken · #9 (**permalink**) 05-10-2008, 12:30 PM

Quote:

When it comes to link building and how search engines work on nearly every single site your index, default, or whatever your homepage file happens to be carries by far the great authority because this is where its easiest to generate organic links.

Apparently you don’t know that it is the index which is the root page of the site. All of the internal pages are picked up from this page through the default page which is part of the framed set. If you are going to direct the SEO for N. America then this might help in understanding how to SEO using fames even though they may not be the most popular way to design.

Quote:

if all your navigation links are in one file which is a frame vs every single page on your site this can make a massive difference.

Of course, this is why I suggested adding links on all of the pages and not only in the side frame.

Clicken · #10 (**permalink**) 05-14-2008, 01:02 PM

This thread not only motivated me to find the table I used to track my site search results back in 2006 and 07 after losing DMOZ links, but to also expand on it.

Putting the table in a post here was not possible so I created a page at my site for those with an interest to view. Other details have been added to the page to give a little history of the site progress.

This table will show that a frames site can get top SE positions and also that the internal pages not only get indexed but can also get top position results.

Any comments about the chart or my site should be sent to me in a PM or started in another thread so that this thread stays on topic.

Good luck Montana, frames or no frames!

montanatennis · #11 (**permalink**) 05-14-2008, 02:56 PM

Hello.. I would like to thank you all for let me know what you think about my site.. I think I have fix some of the problem that you all have been tell me. If I have miss something I would like to apologgy for it. If possible can you revisit my site again to see what else do I need to look at. Thank you all for help. I real appreciate it....