Website Review and Suggestions

**wildbackpacker** · 03-06-2008, 06:55 PM

I would like to get some feedback on my site, Outdoor High Adventure. I have a lot of visitors only staying for a few seconds, and I want to know why. Also, I am curious if the weather, youtube, and photos widgets work. If people could visit my Kalalau Trail page and see if the photos and youtube videos at the bottom of the page work and let me know. Also, does the weather feature and photos work on the Coyote Gulch page? This feedback would be very valuable! If you could tell me ANY feedback at all , even negative, it would be great. If you could tell me your connection speed, browser, and operating system, that would be great, too. Thanks so much!

**bakerc** · 03-07-2008, 05:14 AM

I am no developer so I can only comment from a 'joe blogs' perspective - I have had a look and the utube works ok, I found the background (the burnt paper) made some of the text hard to read, dont get me wrong, for outdoor adventures the background makes sense but it didn't 'look' right, would you not be better going for a more traditional background (not something boring, just more traditional)- to be completely honest I didn't want to read anything due to the colour contrast. Got some very nice picks though and lots of content.

**wildbackpacker** · 03-08-2008, 08:50 PM

Thanks for the feedback!

**aschecht** · 03-08-2008, 09:24 PM

Here's some feedback.

The forum opens in a new window. THis is annoying and unnecessary.

The pop-up survey is annoying. In general, any pop-up makes me flee quickly from a website. Fine if I'm a regular visitor but not if it's my first time coming.

On the Kalalau Trail page, the text wraps too closely against the embedded images. It needs some padding there. The Google Ads look really nice - the color scheme matches well and they aren't bothersome as they are on many pages. The YouTube video works properly. The photos also display properly. I really like the photo interface. My only suggestion is that I'd rather have the caption appear more quickly.

On the Coyote Gulch page, the weather widget works properly. The photo display is also functioning. I think you'd want to have your photo display be consistent from page to page.

The burnt paper background doesn't bother me and I don't feel it impairs readability. Keep it.

The font size is small and doesn't adjust up or down when I change the text size setting in my browser. Some visitors will find it too small to read. You may wish to use CSS formatting that doesn't fix the font size (this forum is a good source for help with issues like this).

Amusing that on your recipe page the Google Ads showed an ad for Enema Recipes

Hope this feedback helps.

Andrew

**wildbackpacker** · 03-08-2008, 09:56 PM

Hey that is all great feedback man! Thanks so much for all the detail and help with it. I agree that the popup survey is annoying, but honestly, I feel like I really need some more feedback about the site from visitors. I'm not sure what I'll do about that. One more thing about the photo galleries. I realize that they need to all be the same, but I've been working on getting a better one. If you could help me for just a second more, and visit http://www.outdoorhighadventure.com/testtest.htm and click on the buckskin gulch photo album (this is obviously just my test page with random features and do or don't work). Spend just a second looking at that and see how you like it. I am trying to adopt that as my new photo gallery for each page. Every little detail helps! Thanks so much, you've helped me a lot!

**aschecht** · 03-08-2008, 10:41 PM

The Buckskin Gulch photo album looks great. I think that would be a good one to standardize throughout your site.

I hear you about wanting feedback from your site visitors. All webmasters love it because it lets you fine tune your site to meet the needs of your visitors. But . . . visitors giving you feedback are doing you a favor. People landing on your site aren't going to feel like doing you a favor until they've gotten a chance to know your site. Asking for feedback with a popup on the first page is really shooting yourself in the foot IMHO. Remember your primary goal is to get, keep, and build traffic. If folks leave as soon as they arrive because of the popup, no chance for checking out the site, getting bookmarked or a future visit. As an alternative, can I suggest that you start a mailing list. Allow visitors who want to to sign up for it. Perhaps you can offer some content just for those who sign up. People who've signed up to your mailing list by definition are interested in your site and what you have to offer. These people may be willing to complete a feedback survey for you.

All the best,

Andrew

**wildbackpacker** · 03-09-2008, 05:55 PM

Thanks man! I get you about the whole feedback thing! As I grow and get more content I'll think about a mailing list, and also, I've used that photo gallery and you anyone can see the full one at http://www.outdoorhighadventure.com/triptracker.htm, which will soon be placed http://www.outdoorhighadventure.com/thekalalautrail.htm as soon as I make some more minor changes! Thanks for all your help!

**aschecht** · 03-09-2008, 07:08 PM

I think the ideal location when jumping to a link mid page is to have the content show up not right at the top of the page but a little bit below (maybe an inch). Identifying it with a different shade as you do works well too.

If you're set on using the pop-up survey, there's a way to have it pop up when someone is leaving your site instead of when they first arrive. This makes more sense for three reasons: 1 - because they will have seen some of your site by that point so can give you more valid feedback, 2 - if they liked your site, they'll feel the goodwill toward you to make them want to share the feedback, 3- they're leaving anyway so if you piss them off with a pop-up, you may loose the return visit but at least you've already captured their eyeballs.

A.

A.

**aschecht** · 03-09-2008, 07:09 PM

One more thing. I like the new photo gallery but it would be better if you linked to it with an image rather than a text link (just to visually cue in your visitors to the fact that this link goes to images. A thumbnail would work well for this.

A.

**mdofpc123** · 03-10-2008, 03:57 AM

your site looks good.

**wildbackpacker** · 03-11-2008, 12:20 AM

Ya I totally agree with you A. I plan on working on that soon. I am just worried about while viewing the slideshow, the transitions look a little bad, but maybe its just my computer. Thanks for the feedback mdofpc123.... (I don't think that that is going to count as reviewing someone elses website....)

**collegephotosus** · 03-11-2008, 09:49 AM

These items on the left hand side of the page "photos
trails
recipes
gear
forums"
Look like they should go somewhere but they don't.

Also the forum opening in a new window is annoying and does not have the same look and feel as the site.

**wildbackpacker** · 03-11-2008, 05:22 PM

Those words should appear on the right side of the page.... I don't know what's wrong. and ya I am working on the forum. Thanks for the feedback!