Please Review this Car Company Site

Chris_E · #1 (**permalink**) 07-17-2008, 11:50 AM

Used BMW Specialist

this is a friends site i've promiced to help

I want to see if you can see all the issues i've come up with on it.

kgun · #2 (**permalink**) 07-17-2008, 11:57 AM

May be a good place to start with the SEO analysis of your site is here:
Google learns to crawl Flash

Chris_E · #3 (**permalink**) 07-17-2008, 12:07 PM

Ah its not my site its one of my friends and unfortunatly he paid a lot of money to have the site built. I've made a lot of recommendations I just wanted to make sure people come up with the same issues as I've found

I totally agree with you on the Flash front it has its uses but I'd never recomend a site built in flash.

Dubbya · #4 (**permalink**) 07-17-2008, 12:12 PM

Once again, another auto-related site that's simply too dark.

On loading the the home page, it looks as though it's been switched off. I find the dark central image unappealing.

Once the scrolling text animation completes, the brighter image loads and all is well. I'd recommend that you put the text beneath the car on the pavement and let it do it's thing there. Keep images as bright and inviting as possible.

Consider that some users will want to print pages. While some might think that light text on dark backgrounds as visually attractive, in reality, the text is difficult to read and printed pages use a ton of ink or toner. That's just not cool.

You need a good deal more textual content to be able to compete in the automotive niche.

The Hamann link spawns a new window. Is that intentional? Not good.

Physical address? Telephone number?? Contact us?? Don't hide it! It should be clearly visible on every page. I'd recommend you put it in the header.

The home page title needs revision. Unless "Autovogue" is the most likely search term, it's completely useless in terms of ranking in the SERPs.

The home page is missing meta keywords and meta description tags. Check the other pages as well.

Your <H1> heading is useless as well. Again, how many prospective customers would search purely for "Autovogue"? Establish your targeted keyphrases and start implementing them in text links, headings, page titles, etc.

.02

Chris_E · #5 (**permalink**) 07-17-2008, 12:21 PM

Dubbya your on my wave length

glad its not just me pointing out all these issues SEO wise the site is very poor but that will be my job to change as for the look of the site I dont have much influence over that as he's paid a lot of money for the site and i dont think he'd like me telling him to start all over again.

Thanks for the sharp eyes!

Chris

kgun · #6 (**permalink**) 07-17-2008, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dubbya

Once again, another auto-related site that's simply too dark.

My first impression too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dubbya

Physical address? Telephone number?? Contact us?? Don't hide it! It should be clearly visible on every page. I'd recommend you put it in the header.

Important.

davebarnes · #7 (**permalink**) 07-17-2008, 05:08 PM

I like the Flash Movie on the homepage with one exception: the dark beginning. Get rid of that. My first thought was that something wasn't working. I like the movie because the photos are stunning. It is a good use of Flash in my opinion.

I find the gray text on the dark grey background on the inner pages to be very difficult to read.

I think the overall darkness is depressing.

There are no description and keyword meta tags on any page. Hurts SEO big time.

lspence · #8 (**permalink**) 07-17-2008, 06:07 PM

As previously mentioned, the site is a bit dark and the text needs more contrast to be readable. Perhaps the darkness works well for your target audience. That's an artist decision, that I'm not qualified to make. However, the text needs more contrast for readability. Try a lighter grey for your font. Even if it's one shade lighter, it'll be more readable, yet still preserve the dark feel you're going for.

I love the photos of the cars in the Gallery section, but there's no text with it. Brand, model, year, etc.

Nice cars, I'd love to have one, or two!

amxfan · #9 (**permalink**) 07-17-2008, 08:48 PM

Hamann page

You should 301 "http://www.hamann.autovogue.com/index.php" and "http://hamann.autovogue.com/index.php" to "http://www.hamann.autovogue.com/."

Do not link the "home" button to /index.php but to http://hamann.autovogue.com

Once you click the Hamann link there is no link back to Autovogue if that window gets closed. There is also no link to the privacy policy or terms and conditions that I saw.

I found myself hitting the back button too many times for my liking on this site as well.

You have link issues on this site as well. On the home page you have "Hamann Quality" linked twice, once in both rows. If you click the one on the top row it changes to Hamann Showroom. Now that one is listed twice. If you click the Showroom link it changes back to Hamann Quality. I'm not sure if this was done on purpose, but I found it confusing.

Autovogue page

When browsing through your site you are on a http: TILL you click the financing link. Then EVERY page is a https.

I found your privacy policy a little short. Does the term third party include financing companies? such as NatWest Bank Plc.

Used Cars page

I'm looking at the used cars and want to call or email you to find out a little more info. Where and how can I do this? I would add a link to every page that you are selling a car on. This link should also open in a pop-up window or a new window so the visitor does not lose where they are.

mtheory · #10 (**permalink**) 07-22-2008, 07:51 PM

The lack of brightnes is the biggest problem.

I find the fact that there is a "touch" of scrolling necessary and you loose the impact of presentation because of it.

Nice use of Flash but you could have increased the user experience tremendously by containg all of the pages in a in a consistent container without and browser scrolling necessary. This is a case where an all Flash site would give a great user experience but you've comprimised presentation for seo.

zionic · #11 (**permalink**) 07-22-2008, 09:43 PM

the car on the first page is too dark, but overall it looks excellent

austin video production 1 · #12 (**permalink**) 08-07-2008, 06:43 PM

Typo on the Finance page - "there" should be "their." Typo on About us page, there should be their. Typo on About us page aswell should be two words. Typo on Bespoke page, there should be their. My eyes are really hurting right now after actually reading the text on this site. Font needs to be bigger and brighter against the dark grey background. Or if you take everyone's advice and lighten the background, the text needs to really stand out better.