Site for Review

[lbnet]

My site: www.bannerstar.co.uk

General
Is this site completed or is it still under construction, or due an major overhaul?

A: The site is complete, but at just 3 months old is very new.



MAIN QUESTION:
What is the reason for living of this site? what do you want it to achieve for your clients and for your business. (Be aware this is the big one here, if YOU do not have specifics, then I personally will not be able to help you). Post answers like 'sell as much stuff as possible and make me rich' will see me ignore everything else from there down.

A: There are many directories where webmaster can advertise their site. However, these directories hold THOUSANDS of links and hundreds of different sub catagories. How are people supposed to find and choose YOUR site within these mazes?

There are sometimes options for 'premium' listings that put your link at the top of the pile, but the price for these places can be upward of £100 a month!

BannerStar.co.uk was designed to allow webmasters to advertise their websites to a targeted audience, in a way which ensures their ad will be seen by interested parties, for a price which everyone can afford (currently less than £3 a month). Also, the site is open to free link exchanges from any webmaster with a UK themed site.

In a nut-shell, BannerStar aims to give webmasters a cheap, yet high quality platform to advertise on.



If completed:
How long has the site been up?

A: 3 Months


SEO
Do you have incoming links, how many?

A: There are around 30 incoming links traded from a link exchange (allways adding more), and a myspace page which was started just 3 days ago and already generating traffic for the site (see www.myspace.com/bannerstar)


What keywords are you targeting?

A: Advertising, Business, Computing, Employment, Entertainment, General, Gifts, Property, Opportunities, Webmasters.



Do you want your code reviewed for errors or improvements?

A: No



I]Marketing
Who is your target market?

A: Webmasters who operate small to medium online businesses + general UK consumer traffic.


What sets your site apart from your competition? What are your unique selling points? Why will someone want to do business you?

A: The unique design and advertising concept, the quality of the traffic and the affordability of the advertising packages.


How important is usability?

A: Very. Site must be very easy to use and understand.


Why does the site exist, what does it aim to do? (inform, sell, online community, support , contact info only, etc)

A: To provide a good quality, UK targeted advertising platform which is good value, and helps small web businesses grow by providing a high clickthrough and conversion rate.


Design
Do you want design suggestions?

A: I would like comments on the design and usability, as well as any possible improvements which would make the site more user friendly and attractive towards UK based consumers and advertisers.

 

[temi]

Thanks for that. OWG is the chief reviewer await his reviews but if the site is excellent I will write a blog about it, that will help generate more backlinks and traffic for you

 

[inactive_jumpenjuhosaphat]

Do you want your code reviewed for errors or improvements?

A: No


How important is usability?

A: Very. Site must be very easy to use and understand.


Design
Do you want design suggestions?

A: I would like comments on the design and usability, as well as any possible improvements which would make the site more user friendly and attractive towards UK based consumers and advertisers.

The problem that I see, without ever looking at your site: (I mean this in the best possible way)

You don't want your code reviewed, yet you say that usability is very important. Usability begins with proper coding. Why wouldn't you want a full review of your efforts? It's actually quite easy to comply with the standards, and when you do, you increase the usability of your site. If their are problems in the coding of the site, suggestions on improving those errors will help to improve your sites value to the consumer.

 

[lbnet]

I don't think i understand?

There is very little in terms of coding on the site and all the links work.

I didn't want to waste anyones time.

Thank for the comment though.

 

[temi]

I think the little coding even if its just simple HTML can benefit from quick verification with recognised standards authorities such as World Wide Web Consortium to ensure not missing tags etc little things like this actually play a significant role in your ranking by search engines.

 

[lbnet]

Ok, no problem.

Whatever helps!

I am removing the anti-right click code now so you can view site code.

Thanks for your help.

All comments are much appreciated.

 

[PrivateInvestigator]

nice design but there's nothing ont he index page to tell me what its about.

add in a short paragraph between the categories and the top banner briefly describing the site.

 

[lbnet]

Ah yes, i knew about this issue when making the site.

The text didn't seem to fit with the design of the index page, so i made an 'about us' page instead.

 

[lbnet]

I think what i am really trying to get at is a different point of view on the operation of the site rather than it's design.

For instance:

1) Why would/wouldn't you advertise on the site?

2) Is there anything confusing or off-putting?

3) If you found this site while browsing, would you be inclined to click on any of the listed banners? If so/not, why so/not?

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

lbnet

 

[temi]

I think what i am really trying to get at is a different point of view on the operation of the site rather than it's design.

For instance:

1) Why would/wouldn't you advertise on the site?

2) Is there anything confusing or off-putting?

3) If you found this site while browsing, would you be inclined to click on any of the listed banners? If so/not, why so/not?
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
lbnet

Giving a honest review to someone you do not know well is always a very tricky jobs, you do not want to come across the wrong way hence you sometimes economise with the truth so as not to cause offence.
I will give feedback based on the points you listed above.

1) Why would/wouldn't you advertise on the site?
I will not advertise on this site because it lacks contents. Most effective adverts are usually placed to go with a particular contents type for example, I am in the market to buy links (Not banner) ads from other forums and or SEO related sites to point to this forum. The reason I am looking for those particular type of sites to buy advert from is because their users would probably be interested in my forums as its close to their reason they went to where I advertised. What sort of industry/services is you site related to? Then target people in that industry as they are the most likely to advertise on your site.

2) Is there anything confusing or off-putting?
Yes, the absence of any contents, just banners *(this will also hit you search engine ranking as there is not text on the homepage to tell search engine and you visitors what the site is about. (On the index page) most visitors land on a site, scan the site for information that would keep them there, finds nothing, just go elsewhere.


3) If you found this site while browsing, would you be inclined to click on any of the listed banners? If so/not, why so/not?
If I am surfing and land on the site, I will just thing: what is this site about?.... just banners, ummm affiliates adverts, not thanks.

BUT
If I find a little text saying: Welcome to bannerblahbla, we provide advertising solutions for UK businesses, lets help you promote your website, please click on any of the banners below to explore blah blah.
I will be more inclined to stay on the site and explore.

Hope the above info is helpful.

 

[lbnet]

Thank you very much. This is exactly what i need to hear.

Please comment on whether i have understood correctly:

1) I need introductory text on the index page to let people know what the site is all about.

2) Instead of advertising 10 banners in each catagory, i should advertise 10 descriptive links with text (like in other directories).

If i have understood correctly, i will get to work right away.

Thank you very much for the advice.

Regards.

lbnet

 

[lbnet]

Ok, i have made some alterations on the site.

1) If you take a look at the index page, you will now see that there is text with a brief description of the site.

2) if you have a look on the advertising page bannerstar.co.uk, you will see that the banners have now been changed into text ads.

Any feedback on the new developments would be very helpful and much appreciated.

Thanks.

lbnet

 

[temi]

Your site is looking much better (search engine ranking wise) . On suggestion I will make is that you should have a common navigation link to all pages.
What I mean by this is that on the top or bottom of you page, one should be able to go from one page to another, at the moment, on can only go back to the page one come from for example I was on this page bannerstar.co.uk/advertising.htm and I wanted to contact you, I cannot get to the contact page, I will first have to click "back" to get back to the homepage and from the homepage, click on the link to contact you. It will be much nicer if the navigation menu at the top of the homepage is also and this page and any other pages on your site.

Well done, the addition of text will make search engine index your site better.

 

[SponSpot]

You may want to add a background image to that site since it looks like html tables thrown on onto a page.