New Dating Website - Opinions appreciated re: Design & SEO

gg1

Hi,
I'm not entirely happy with the website that has been built for my new company www.FirstDate.ie. The guy designing it wants to sign off on it now and payment by the end of the month in order for him to renew the hosting.

I don't know if it's just me being fussy but I would be grateful for any feedback re: design and SEO work.

Many thanks

tricky D

I wouldn't be happy with this at all. It looks like you've picked up an amateur for this. Did you get multiple quotes, examine portfolios and choose best value over low price??

From the homepage:
Don't like the layout with navigation and newsletter and login stuff above logo. Logo and signup should not be in the same graphic.

It's not clear enough what you do and how this works? A clear and short statement of what you do and then a step by step description are required.

The text content there is poor, it needs to be short snappy and scannable, no more than small blocks of text preferably in list format. Needs to address issues, provide solutions and call to action.

I fear the couple photo might not be properly licenced and just copied from another site (That's my impression, but I could be wrong on this though). istockphoto own the copyright for this image and they pursue infringers and charge for unauthorised use. Same for any other stock photos.

Logo links to newsletter signup, should link to the homepage (except on the homepage).

Layouts keep jumping from page to page - sloppy.

Events pages layout isn't great. Clicking on venue image brings up a useless popup with same logo image and this popup has the title 'Bathrooms etc'. The style sheet file for your site is also called bathrooms.css. This naming and popup method make the site appear to be a poor copy from another previous design.

The top of the basket page is messed up with extra buttons appearing below the main ones.

Payment options aren't listed until well into purchase process and are they limited to PayPal. Better to show the steps better and not require registration.

Newsletter subscribe is better as an input box and some reasons selling why one should subscribe.

Bottom text nav doesn't match top nav.

Dinner dating page.
Again text needs to be snappier. Find out more links could be better thought out.
Wine tasting page is similar.

Contact us has no form and no postal address. Address is vital for trust and I wouldn't advise anybody to do anything with your business until an address is displayed.

Some spelling errors.

Under the bonnet technical issues:
Some css styles are in the page's head and elsewhere when better to have external in one single file.

Layout is done using tables, when layouts are much better done using divs.

target="_parent" in links would make many a coder chuckle.

Code is generally not written well.

SEO:
Titles are bad breaking so many guidelines.
In page keywords could be exploited much more.
Many page URLs are not descriptive and SEO unfriendly.
Location based keywords aren't used enough.

Without the SEO/SEM (or a large ad/marketing budget) your business is in danger of never getting off the ground as you are late to well populated market.

Overall, there's a lot of sloppy errors and the whole site should be thought out and displayed much better. There also could be some more content on matters like safety and a few other areas edit: testimonials/reviews etc. A large amount of the problems are your designer's fault as the product appears quite amateurish and sloppy, some are both of your fault and some are your fault. The sum of both parties' knowledge, experience and skills could be improved. You should have got a true professional who would have guided you to the best well thought out solutions.

I wouldn't sign off on it as is. I would get him to fix the glaring mistakes at least. However no matter how substandard the end product you should pay what you think its worth (legal thing), then get control of the hosting and domain registration and get a proper professional.

gg1

Thanks for this indepth review.

The text is something I can work on but I'm really worried about how I am going to get the rest of it sorted.

A very good friend of mine recommended the web designer, he wasn't the cheapest quote I got nor was he the most expensive and his portfolio looked ok. He has his own office in a busy town so I assumed he wasn't some cowboy.

This has turned out to be a real nightmare and a huge mistake. I have been waiting for this website for several months. I asked him to install google analytics, even emailed him the code required and this took him over a week to do. If you have an apostrophe in your name you can't sign up to the newsletter, I emailed him and telephoned him several days ago and he is just ignoring me.

I wanted to sign of on this ASAP so I can transfer the hosting as it is sitting on his server and I don't want to have to have any more dealings with him.

There have been a few other things too and I have told him I am not paying the full amount billed and he has implied he won't renew the hosting or transfer it to the hosting company I requested unless I pay up in full.

I'm really worried he will do something to totally screw it up and I don't want my business to be finished before it even gets off the ground.

I would be grateful for any advice as I'm getting myself quite stressed about this.

BengaLover

Red is the wrong red IMHO, and why are the links under the dates in orange?
Font is horrible, and hard to read at length, newsletter subscription link is in wrong place, its pretty vile really.
I would get a new designer..

flashforward

gg1 wrote: »

I'm really worried he will do something to totally screw it up and I don't want my business to be finished before it even gets off the ground.

TBH if you use this site you may kiss goodbye to your business.
Its truly disturbing that he wants to sign off on this.

Id be interested to know how much you were quoted from this cowboy?

en.r4cart

Website being updated!

Trojan

I don't know what the original design looked like, but they're using a premium WP theme now, which is a good route to go down when you're on a tight budget & deadline.

gg1

Hi, thanks for the feedback.
The guy quoted me Stg 500 for the site. I refused to pay him until all the changes I required were done and he threatened to take it down unless I paid him in full!! I paid him £125, he decided to take the website down anyway and told me he would put it up again once paid the remainder.
I have never had the misfortune of dealing with someone so unprofessional in my life.
I should have checked him out properly first but he was a good friends relation plus I assumed he must be good at his job if he can afford his own office on a busy main street - I've learnt a hard lesson.
I wasn't giving this cowboy another penny and have since got someone else to design the website.
Anyway I'd be grateful if you could let me know what you think of the new site.
Ger

mbiking123

Hi

In my opinion I think he wants to act as a reseller, its not on his own server he has entered into a contract with a web hosting company and signs up as a reseller. He has registered the website in his name, and pays them to host it. The web designer then does the design. He will then charge you per year to host it. This is probably why he/she does not want to sign it over to you. They want to get this continous income year after year. see letshost.ie as an example and check out reseller package. I know somebody who has to pay 200 a year for a basic website with no updates etc provided just the hosting

If you have just paid 125 then leave and count yourself lucky, it cost 20 ish to register a .ie per year and he will have paid for hosting so far. Only problem I see is that as its a .ie its probably a registered company with audited accounts? so probably cost you a few bob. In any case as with bertieahern.ie and the porn site a number of years back you could force the URL to be given to back to you as was the case with bertie ahern

As for the site it does not work as described, it does look a bit vodafone with the red. The URL is registered to Geraldine McFadden and renewal is 16-July-2011 and the hosting company is http://www.blacknight.com/ which as based in Carlow. .ie URL are registered with company names so I think your ok here. this company also has a reseller option. Hope this is of some help.

Due to the fact that you will want to be making updates etc you will need to do one of the following (my own opinions)

Hire a web designer to continously make changes as required to the website

Do a web design course with FAS etc (evening course) and do it yourself

Use a content management service which allows easily creating/editing of your website. It is as easy as using MS word. There is a charge for this, depending on website from 20-60 per year giving option of shopping cart etc

GAA clubs have all been given a content management service to post info etc on local clubs this was arranged by GAA head office. If you feel this may be an option go to letshost.ie and take what they refer to as a test drive and you can see for yourself. This company is based in malahide in Dublin. Persoanally I prefer to deal with an Irish based hosting company and there are a good few available. There is also one in Waterford, a google search of website hosting will give you information of hosting companies available. There are plenty to choose from.