Critique of MacksimumMemories.com

The Overall Design / Initial Thoughts

 

While I don't particularly find this site to be appealing, I do know that sometimes older sites tend to be patched instead of replaced.  The question always becomes, "how long do you patch a wall before you replace it?"

 

And to that, there really is no simple answer, because really, there are a TON of factors involved. 

 

That said, I don't particularly see a whole lot of design here, and I see nothing that I would truly associate with a photographer (other than the obvious, photos).  When I think of photography, I think hip, modern, clean and warm.  But your home page and overall design doesn't offer me the instant ability to see and enjoy your artwork. 

 

Although the text is extremely important, in your line of work you almost need to slap the potential client in the face with large examples of some of your best work.  Sure, you do that on the interior, but what about the home page?  And furthermore, how does the slapping of the face fit into the design so that it's not actually 'slapping' them? 

 

All I see is big, ugly Comic Sans, which is considered by professional designers to be the worst font ever created.  Comic Sans is overused and has no real design capacity to it.  Unprofessional is probably the best word for the font itself.

 

Though I do love the attempt at hierarchy of font sizes, the comic sans makes it very hard to appreciate what you have tried to do.

 

I feel very lost and confused when I first enter your site.  And granted it's big and bold in Times New Roman at the top of the page, when I finally realized this was a photography studio I was looking at, I knew that if I weren't critiquing the site, I would have left and gone back to Google to find another result.

 

The Colors and Imagery

 

I want more imagery!  And certainly more color.  The harsh red and green text on a white background represents Christmas and not necessarily summer as the home page insinuates.  Also, with the use of CSS you could be formatting your link colors to give the site a more uniform look.

 

The color of the buttons on the left doesn't seem to tie in with any existing branding, and they don't add any real continuity to the rest of the site.

 

The Navigation Items

 

The navigations themselves are great!  The split of information is awesome and I like how the navigation is consistent from page to page.  You wouldn't believe how many sites I critique where the navigation changes per page, which drives me nuts!

 

Anyway, the buttons, or design of the navigation items, leaves a lot to be desired.  It makes the site look VERY dated, and it also appears as if these buttons were created from some sort of template.

 

The Header

 

Though I do like that you have your networking logos in a very visible spot, we read left to right in this country...and when your website first loaded I noticed the Quinnipiac Chamber logo first.  For a split second, I thought I was on a Quinnipiac Chamber site...the navigation colors even reminded me of the Quinnipiac Chamber.  Is there, perhaps, a better place for these logos?  How about adding BNI now that you're a member?  :-)

 

The Margins

 

Well, there really aren't any. Just a bunch of white space doesn't do your site any design justice at all.  I'd consider adding something to make the actual web content stand out from the background.  Otherwise it's one big blob, especially when you throw comic sans into the mix.

 

The Text

 

The text on the home page is phenomenal.  It says a lot about what you have going on in your studio and it does show some very nice images.  I'm wondering if the content should be split up, which would give you more pages.

 

The text on the interiors where you show your work aren't really necessary, I don't think.  Sure, I like them...some more than others...but they're very cool, but I'm not sure if on top of the photo is the best place for them.  It, again, gives it that look of a patched wall...where you have an idea and due to design constraints were unable to flesh it out completely.  That, and it uses comic sans.

 

As for adding more text, please do so.  Add more text that has keywords stuffed into it.  The only real page that has any sort of relationship with Google is the home page, which has a page rank of 1 out of 10.  Not where it could be, that's for sure.

 

This leads into Search Engine Optimization (SEO), so...

 

The Search Engine Optimization

 

Sometimes it's suggested that older sites with less design actually do better in the search engines.  And in SOME cases that is actually true.  The problem, though, is that once people find you through the search engines, they switch gears and start thinking about presentation. 

 

But even though I've touched on how the presentation needs to be cleaned up and the site needs to be modernly uniformed, the SEO isn't getting people to your site.

 

For starters, what stats package do you use?  Counters on the bottom of the page don't count, and are a HUGE design no-no in this day and age.  Do you have access to your stats?  Do you check them?  Do you know what people are searching in order to find you?  Where are your inbound links coming from?  Can you track them?

 

The title tags for each page lack something, even though I can see you've started to optimize them.  There's nothing saying you can't have multiple keywords in the title tags...but honestly, they do you NO GOOD if you don't replicate that exact text multiple times throughout the page.  So if the title of a page is "Wallingford Bowling Center," but that exact phrase appears no where else within the content, Google pretty much ignores it.

 

Sure, the age of your domain name helps to overcome Google's ignorance, but in the long run, it means you're not getting as many phone calls or as much business as you should.  And while there's never a guarantee on SEO work (if anyone gives you one they're full of it!), there are a lot of elements that you can work with.

 

Another one which your site lacks completely is H tags.  Where are your header tags?  <h1> <h2> <h3> ???  Where are they?  They are MIA and that's not a good thing for optimization.

 

Then it's a matter of adding keywords that don't currently exist because Google can't and won't find you without them. 

 

I ran a report based on the keywords stuffed into your site and currently you have no ranking at all.  Keep in mind that ranking in search results is different than page ranking.  In this case, we're referring to your keywords.  You are not listed in the top 30 in any search engine, for any of the keywords pulled from your site's meta tags.  Something's wrong with that picture. 

 

The problem is that a lot of your keywords are not specific enough.  When people search, they don't search global.  They search local. 

 

 

The Do It Yourself Approach

 

Typically this is disastrous.  It's usually catastrophic, actually.  But I have to say, you don't have a single broken link on your site and that is something to be commended!  Great job!  So many times we tell people to stick to what they do best and to let us come in and do the work because websites are what we do best.  Makes sense, right?  And even though I don't know if you had even considered a redesign, I think for a business like yours it's important to do so every three to five years just to stay current.  I'm not sure that your existing website is serving its sole purpose - to bring you calls and to give you the opportunity to generate more business. 

 

The question for a lot of people becomes, does your site make your visitors feel that they can trust you?  And are there design elements where users would expect them?  Do you know where design elements are and are not necessary?  And most importantly, would a man from Mars be able to quickly understand your page structure and what your company stands for?  Is your content engaging?  Is it short and to the point, because people skim websites and don't read thoroughly?

 

Some answers might be yes, others might be no.  The point is, how comfortable are you with your site?  And I'm not talking about your comfort level in so far as making your own updates...but I'm talking about how comfortable you are handing out a business card with the URL to your site on it.

 

Anyway, you have a good foundation with text and obviously images.  But it seems that the design and SEO could work for you a lot better.  I make the assumption that in the process of SEO-ing the site, you'd want to redesign it.  That would be my suggestion, but this critique is more to give you an idea of what a professional designer sees.  That's it.

 

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