Joomla! Discussion Forums

Hi All, i have nearly completed my site and are looking for some feedback.

letsgotorbay.co.uk

Looks fine to me. Although I think altering the header image does not justify that you declare it as 'design by ADP webservices' in the footer while the 247 series is a well known design by mamboteam ... 'design by mamboteam, altered by adp webdesign' would be more fair to mamboteam who did the main work  ...

Let's Go Torbay indeed!!

I've PM'd you on the real ultimate destination the the SW. 

You have pretty much all you need except additional content other than MTree.  Try some local stuff like history and tourism bits and pices, always a good addition!

Thanks for the feedback. I am looking at a new look to the site because i was not very happy with this one in the beginning,
I do have alot of content to put onto the site which i need to work on.

Anyone know of some good templates that would be good for a directory site.

Any more feedback is well appreciated.

Mod Edit: removed url -please put this url in your signature instead of manually adding it to each post. - MMMedia.

Hi All, i wasn't happy with my current layout so i have changed it.

Please take a look and see what you think. I still have alot of content to go on.

Mod Edit: removed url -please put this url in your signature instead of manually adding it to each post. - MMMedia.

I like the colors of the site.  The header looks a little bland, and your 'Let's go Torbay!' image is not showing, but I'm sure that will all get fixed quickly. 

EDIT: I also noticed that some of the other pages need to be cleaned up.  Like your links to the 'Bed & Breakfast' and 'Guest Houses' do not give anything other than the names of them.  Some contact information for those places would be nice, or even some pictures like you have for the hotels. 

I also noticed that your 'Links' and 'News' (News links on the bottom of the page) still have the old default Joomla stuff in it.  It's content that does not fit with the site so it might be best to just delete or un-publish that stuff.

Thanks for the feedback.
I have noticed that if the URL is http://letsgotorbay.co.uk and not http://www.letsgotorbay.co.uk then the header pictures are missing. Any idea why this is.

It looks good. You'll want to fill it with lots of material, which I'm sure you will do, since that's what will make people visit the site often. I am building a local website too and I'll be looking at your site to give me ideas with my site. I like the local attractions idea if it gets filled out.

Thanks for the reply, i am going to insert lots of content soon for my site and have started a marketing plan to promote it and hopefully get some sponsers.

Keep an eye on this site, i am making updates all the time.

Mod Edit: removed url -please put this url in your signature instead of manually adding it to each post. - MMMedia.

Hi, i am in need of some more feeback.

Mod Edit: removed url -please put this url in your signature instead of manually adding it to each post. - MMMedia.

I liked the layout..  I thought the content was light, not enough details..

Yeah its missing a nice intro by John Cleese Torquay's biggest fan  

nice website! Do you charge companies to put their content in your website? 

I am not a grade school teacher, so I cannot give you a letter grade , but after looking at it for a while, I would say SEE.
here is a site that  needs a few corrections/helps. The menu is illegible at the top and the logo is too dull and lacks the vibrancy your holiday site demands

lets go torbay


should be


LETS GO TORBAY!! with a swirl and a flourish and some emphasis!

the logo is ....well, lets move on

the slightly grey background should be a little bit darker to focus attention to the center of the page where the content is, the menu should have a full reverse hover state instead on a tiny dark blue on light blue underline - maybe a wee bit more spacing too,

those tiny additions would make this site Be much more user friendly! 

I have added more content to my site now, but i am having trouble with rankings. Does anyone know how i can increase the rankings of my site.

Adrian...

LOL, its all a little bit of a black art....
Some simple things are check the page metatags and make sure the site metatags are good... check similar sites (don't have to be your area) and see what the tags are.. and how they rank...
Lastly get links from authoritive places....
This is a bit hard...
for some weird reason i don't understand we are not allowed to link from posts but from our sig.on this board.
However your posts having been deleted by a mod will negatively affect your ranking.... (a lot) ...

You can offset this negative but you are only offsetting it for several months.... in other words everything you do positive for the page rank will be being used as "points" to offset the damage you caused by misreading the forum rules
Sorry thats not very helpful now but ....

As a general rule, NEVER post a site here you need to increase the page rank for... the rules here are so bizarre you never know what will happen.  (This subforum thread most of all, many of the rules which are 'technically' broken thousands of times a day on other sub forums are jumped on here in the extreme!)  and many of the rules in general are extremely vague.... and open to huge mod interpretation.  From what Ive seen this particular forum/subforum takes the hardest line possible in all cases... so its not worth the risk if you are worried about page rank.  Once you have a decent page rank a few deleted links won't matter but when you are starting off they can be disasterous.  (In general less than a 3-4 you are in deep water if say you get 500 clicks from here one day and then the mods delete the links) What you must remember is google does it all automatically...  there is no common sense nor appeal... anything that looks like its trying to cheat their algorithm  will get a hammering...
Your posts have been made to look like you are a SPAMMER.(all the more so with the RED)... (so far as the google bot is concerned) posted on a forum and then deleted... fits the pattern. 

If you can get links from what google considers authoritive sites (just check your local council etc.) and check their page rank... you should move upwards... it takes time... it takes permanent links from well ranked sites... transitive links or ones which are deleted can give you a huge negative hit. 
Either check your apache log or install Joomla stats.... check what people are searching for.... add these keywords.. make sure you repeat them and if possible used H1 or H2 or bold/italic...
All of this helps ....

Im on dial-up now in OZ andf the site takes ages to load....

Now this might just be me but.... A seagull as a logo? 
I HATE SEAGULLS..... I detest them with a vengence... dirty horrid but most of all noisy creatures....
I honestly think whatever your thoughts of seagulls to remove that .....
I honestly prefer to stop in a room with rats than seagulls on the roof!  (rats are much cleaner and less noisy)
I realise not everyone hates seagulls but I know a lot of people do.... perhaps a Siberian hamster  

Thanks for all the great feedback. I have inserted a Gallery and Forum to the site now.

nice content, very well organized. you need to take advantage of the ja zibel template and use their feature of changing the header image on different pages.

my only dissapointment is the template, it looks kind of grey dirty..maybe if you change the background to a lighter color,it could be some facelift in there,otherwise your register is looking good!

I have made ammendments to the site which seem ok, gradually adding more content but this is slow going.

I don't seem to have many visitors to the site, i have created an xml sitemap and this is listed with google and have been working on inbound links.
Does anyone know of a good way for marketing my site any better.

edits a bit more time now....
The more links you get to your site from high tranking sites the better....
Try installing some of the firefox plugins to give site ranking .. that way you can see the ranking of other sites.  If you find sites doing similar things then you can check what keywords they used and use the same style...
So say you find a nice site for The Scottish Highlands (by just doing searches for vacation Scottish highlands etc) see where it comes in the google list and then if its doing well check its source and look at the keywords and description. 

Mostly this takes time!  People claim to do it faster but its usually by buying links form a high ranked site or its so secret they won't tell you... .... and YOU need GOOD.... and lasting links from reliable sites. 

There is no big secret I can tell you yet I manage to get my sites into the top 5 in google if someone does the right search...
You can submit site maps or not.... to google etc. some people say it works others not... and I strongly suspect it has a lot to do with other stuff ...  mostly negative criteria that google use...
You can sneak up a few points by bolding or italisising keywords in the main text.. using h1 and h2 whatever your template is uising etc.  BUT avoid at all costs looking like your trying to artificially increase page rank...
The problem is google bot is a bot.... it doesn't make subjective descisions and it doesn't understand English...

As I pointed out above how will google-bot see the links removed for your site... 
It can't read the mod notes but it is familiar with the concept of forums so it probably sees your site as SPAM on a forum... especially since the mod notes of its deletion are in red etc.

Remember google isn't FAIR.... on a individual level what they try and do is prevent artificial increases...so you get hit a lot harder for LOOKING like your trying to cheat than rewarded for good practice...indeed Im not sure good practice is actually rewarded as such they just try and remove anything looks like it might be artificially cheating and then let the actual keywords/metatags and content sort it out ...

search status and se ranking are two firefox plugins I use...
Also check the google searches that find your site... either through the apache log or better perhaps Joomlastats...

but I'm dead serious about seagulls .... I don't know anyone actually likes them and many people really get annoyed by them they are in many way's the bane of the sea side vacation.  You might have seagulls but no need to advertise.. . I can't see it being positive for anyone (OK some people like keeping giant spiders so there's always someone) but quite negative for a few... 

Im being completely honest in that its a turn-off for Torbay... I know it has seagulls but if Im looking for somewhere to take a break and find your site then its a big negative...

Thanks for the pointers, i have changed the seagull to palm trees, still not sure whether this is ok.

I will have to get more links to the site and work on a better marketing strategy.

Thanks.....

Personally I think its much better, your capitalising on the English Riviera aspect because lets face it (and sorry to people from Scunthorpe) but Scunthorpe has sea-gulls too   (and you are now only a single seagull - not seagulls in the beach photo and one for the logo... which is I think what made me think "uggh seagulls"  which then stirs up 'unpleasant' memories (not really traumatic the things are just annoying) which is the last thing you want for advertising...
Of course having said this someone is bound to have been hot on a head with a coconut   but for people visiting Tobay I guess its not many ...

Yes but you also need GOOD QUALITY links of some permanance... the whole SEO thing is a black art... I wouldn't be surprised if google switched startegies over randomly just to confuse those who are trying to beat it  

In the end its almost exponential... you keep at it and you get more visotors and they post links and .....  but it is actual work... Its possible to pay for this but I honestly think its just work... check the search strings in JoomlaStats... modify your metatags...

here is an example
google :ricardo ramirez puerto rico

The third one for me is my website for my friend Rico ... now this is amazing because there are probably thousands of Ricardo Ramirez's in Puerto Rico !!!
For ages I struggled ..now I type something vague and POP...

Now try
Galeria alegria Calla Cruz
This is a Gallery shows his work....  #1 for me is my website....  not the gallery website.. (I saw this the other day looking for his Gallery website)

What did I do special ?  Not much... I used the google submission stuff (some people say never do that) and tuned the description and keywords and made sure the highlighted and h1 and h2 (header 1 and header 2) are used with the keywords somewhere repeated...

Honestly its nothing special... yet #1 result on google is pretty good, specially looking for a Gallery which is probably on page 20 or so   I hjust checked it every other day and update stuff (it seems to like that) provided the sitemap to google and keep telling him to tell everyone to post a link ...

Check the site...
http://www.tourismtrade.org.uk/visitbri ... ations.asp
and others here...
Now you are unlielky to get a link from here direct BUT.... follow the link here
http://www.efct.com/

Now you might get a link because Tobay is a popular conference area... and this is a page rank 4 site... so its worth a decent link...
Follow others.. email them and ask... it costs nothing (I usually put links to them first and then email them saying "hope you don't mind but I made this link to your site... it would be nice if you could link to mine) quite often people will, specially webmasters because it gives them a leg up too   (for instance 4/10 isn't great... a few extra links it might hit a 5/10 which is  good)

But its work....
check my gluten free paris site..(just google those words I can't po9st a link I don't think). you can submit a link and its rank 4 ... but iuf you do then just do some research and find some gluten free stuff in Tobay so it looks informative...  

Also do direct marketing... try and get a mention in a local free paper etc.  a lot of curious people visiting can do wonders for the page rank...  

Thanks again for the feedback slord, i have been looking at my title and keywords which i have adjusted and seem better.
I do have a problem, i am using Mosets tree directory for the site and the keywords and descriptions for each advert are not appearing in the source for each page only the default. I am trying to sort this but not sure how, if you have any ideas.

Thanks again.

Adrian...

sleek design, I like your color combination 
good luck to you! have a look also my site http://www.nusa-penida.com 

Hi Lolak, thanks for your opinion on my site, it is coming on quite nicely now. I do like your site, but check the XHTML validation, you have errors that need correcting. If you don't then they will email you asking to correct them or remove the validation from the site.
I know because i have been through the same.

Adrian.....

Hi, my site has been running now for about 3 months, i have submitted it to the search engines and the site has been ranked not too bad. The area i am in is mostly tourism and i am trying to optimise it for the keywords 'torquay hotels'. This seems to be the most common keywords used for this area. Can anyone suggest what i can do to accomplish this.
Thanks

Adrian...

Hi

A few words on rankings and links, etc.

An important component of you Google Ranking is the link popularity of your site, and specifically links from valid or related sites.

Submit your site to as many SEO Friendly tourism and travel directories as you can find - a search on Google will yield tons of them. this builds link popularity. You can get a list of various SEO Friendly niche directories at http://info.vilesilencer.com

An added advantage is the traffic you get. While it is tough to be in the Top 10 or 20 on the major search engines, niche directories can get you better exposure. One of my directories get more traffic from its links than from the search engines (and it is in the top 160 in its category on Alexa)

Another great way to build links is to publish free-to-publish articles in travel article sites and general article site like http://www.goarticles.com

I am sending you a PM with some more links

Jens

Hi,
I really liked the look of ur website, although being a novice myself, i am working in mercchant navy, and trying to develop a website related to marine, did u designed the header urself, i really liked it, i would love if u can give me the link to the template of the site.
thanking you
Sachin

Hi, i did do the header myself and the template i used for the site is from joomlart.com, it is the ja_zibal template. You will have to join joomlart by paying a subscription, then you can choose from all the templates.
Hope this helps.

Adrian........