Hey everyone!

I just started my own site and its coming along slowly but surely. It's a leadership development web site. I've been studying leadership for a while and I'm really passionate about it so I wanted to share some knowledge and experiences. I write articles which I post and I have some forums. My site is:

http://www.leader-leadee.com

I only know pretty basic HTML so I decided to build my own site to save money. What do you think of the site design? Layout? Colors? Content? My writing? (if you can call it that)

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Thanks everyone.

What the heck is a 'leadee" ?? If you're not a leader.. then you're a follower.

Please don't take offense, but what design ?? There's really nothing there. If you're going for minimalist design - you achieved it.

i have to agree with Lady, there's no design, barely any layout and 1 color...

you don't need pictures to be a great site... maybe start at the drawing board and see what you can bang out first

FYI - There is a Review and Suggestions forum here:
http://www.webmaster-talk.com/websit...d-suggestions/

That's really the place to be asking these sorts of questions.

Originally Posted by LadynRed

If you're not a leader.. then you're a follower.

I'm neither, I'm all by myself . (Although, I think it's probably a coined term, I haven't heard it before, and Jon describes what it is on this page.)

Thanks jamesstl2 for your support! Sorry I posted in the wrong forum, I saw HTML and posted cause I'm actually still trying to learn it!

Yes, Leadee a word I created to describe the role.

Let me just get this out there before I take any more heat, I am not a web designer/developer. I am by no means good at making web sites. This is the first one I have ever created. I'm lucky it looks this good...

I'm just a beginner writer that tried to save money by building my own site. It's basic HTML, nothing fancy whatsoever. And yes I was going for a simple-professional look. That being said, I'd still appreciate some feedback on how it looks in terms of the layout, links, colors, font, etc.

Thank you for your opinions in advance.

Yeah, I also agree. You might need to add some more colours and maybe pictures on your website. Are you a basic html coder or advanced, I'm still learning so It would be interesting to see some good designs on your website.

Make a good logo. In my opinion it is one of the hardest things to design for your site, but it will go a long way.

Also, how do you keep your site updated? Do you just edit the code manually? You might want to consider getting wordpress. It's free and there are hundreds of pre-made templates you can play around with.

Good luck

You need SEO

If he's this new, he may not know what SEO is......

<meta name="keywords" content="leadership, leader, leaders, leadee, personal development, personal growth, personal, relationships, goals, success" />

That is an absolute waste of time and effort since NONE of the major search engines pay any attention to that much-abused meta tag any more.

eer I think I've already seen your site in another thread thou

Originally Posted by LadynRed

That is an absolute waste of time and effort since NONE of the major search engines pay any attention to that much-abused meta tag any more.

If this was true then why do most well known SEO checkers tag the issue if
this "keywords" META tag is missing or too long.

He needs to go ahead and use the tag but keep it to less that 10 words/phrases and make sure all of the 10 words appear somewhere in the page.

Same goes for EVERY word in your page title.

By the way, dozens of other bots look for that tag. Keep it in there.

The whole world doesn't revolve around Google and Bing.

My Genealogy site alone receives visits from over 50 bots.

If this was true then why do most well known SEO checkers tag the issue if
this "keywords" META tag is missing or too long.

Outdated software ?? Google specifically states is IGNORES the meta-keywords and the other ones do too. That's because it was over used and majorly abused with keyword stuffing and keywords that absolultely NOTHING to do with the contents of the page. So.. now they all IGNORE it. It's a wasted effort to put things in there. The 'keywords' should be in your TITLE, headings and CONTENT.

Google and Bing aren't the only ones that pay ZERO attention to the that meta tag.

Originally Posted by LadynRed

Google and Bing aren't the only ones that pay ZERO attention to the that meta tag.

And Yahoo only uses it for verrrry rare keyword combinations with very few if any searches, and virtually no competition.

Originally Posted by marketingman100

The whole world doesn't revolve around Google and Bing.

but most of the world does, these are the primary SE you want to target if you want good healthy traffic

Well, adding that keyword meta isn't going to hurt him with Google and Bing and it will help him with other bots.

Lady N Red, you need to quit sniffing glue and making statements like your "now they all ignore it" comment.

I just fixed a site this spring that had NO Meta commands with a generated front page full of a sliced picture.

No activity for months has now disappeared. Their site activity has increased 4000 percent after adding the Metas.

Google can say anything they want to head off "stuffing" at the pass, but in my experience, now two plus decades, I will ALWAYS use Meta commands. Google still uses them, they just don't claim it publicly.

Google has never publicly discolosed their methods but I will guarantee you that unless someone creates a totally new language and we all dump this HTML base forever, Meta Commands will ALWAYS be used for search Methods.

Anyone with programming experience in software know what it takes to write a search algorythm that works. I'll guarantee it will NEVER exclude keywords.

Originally Posted by marketingman100

Google can say anything they want to head off "stuffing" at the pass, but in my experience, now two plus decades, I will ALWAYS use Meta commands. Google still uses them, they just don't claim it publicly.

Nonsense. Google totally ignores meta tags, except for the description, which appears in the search results. Try this experiment:

<html>
<head>
<title>Does Google use META keywords?</title>
<meta name="keywords" content="superfragipoopliexpa-random-word">
</head>
<body>
<p>Will Google read my weird random word?</p>
</body>
</html>

Link to the new page. Create a sitemap and submit it to Google. Wait a week or two. Then, search Google for "superfragipoopliexpa-random-word", in quotes like that so that the dashes are included and everything. You won't get any results. If you search on Yahoo, you'll probably get results, but not Google.

Google doesn't state policy publicly very often, but when they do, it is the truth. It's not like META keywords are going to be very helpful to them, so there's no huge secret that they need to hide. Most of the tags are just stuffed with spam anyway.

Well, here's my take on your rule based assumptions.

1. I NEVER use sitemaps.
2. I have never waited more than 24 hours for Google to see my sites.
How I achieve that is a secret I will take to my grave.
3. I deliberately test keywords for searches to see where they place my sites.
If the placement is too low I change the keyword.
4. I don't use Adsense, Analytics or anything else Google on any of my sites.

I do follow my PR. So far Technology Morons and Marketing Sanctuary have a
PR of 2. Genealogyland has a PR of 3 thanks to my dead celebrity page.

I have not checked my Alexa rankings lately but since two of my sites are not
tech oriented and I haven't put the toolbar on my sites, I really don't worry.

Now back to the original poster in this thread. He has designed a site that really should be a blog. He is servicing a niche marketplace where he would be far better off in some specific directories that either Google or Bing. He'll get lost in the shuffle there. Too many similar sites.

Just because the herd follows Google and Bing in their code design does not mean he should also. He needs to use every possible avenue to promote his site outside the box, because for his topic, the box is extremely crowded.

Since Meta Commands can't hurt, then why not use them. And since I know they help, even inside Google and now Bing, I always use them and place them on every site I design. I never forget an ALT on a Graphic either. They make a lot of difference in results too.

The basics and fundamentals.

It also helps to write strong content too. And not to miss the gems.
Between Michael Jackson and Karl Malden, Genealogyland has received almost 10,000 hits in less than two weeks. It usually does about 2000 hits a month.
Every one of those 10,000 people saw my site and my ad for Marketing Sanctuary
and Marketing has seen a 20% upswing too.

You all are getting way too wrapped up in claims and assumptions about search engines. Just do what makes sense.

Since Meta Commands can't hurt, then why not use them. And since I know they help, even inside Google and now Bing, I always use them and place them on every site I design.

You don't have any way to qualify that statement. If either Google or Bing used it, there would be quantifiable evidence, which does not exist.

This statement makes more sense than yours: http://www.pandia.com/sew/73-avoid-t...words-tag.html

His argument makes more sense? How so?

Don't put a keywords list because your competitors might see them.......
But make sure you put them in your title.

Since when have titles become invisible so competitors can't see them?
Have I missed the <Invisible></Invisible> tag all these years?
Or is it <Claude Rains></Claude Rains>

Get out the boots Pilgrim! Thus stuff is gettin deep around here!