Website Review and Suggestions

**redshirt** · 08-01-2008, 11:07 AM

My site has been up for about a month. I have 94 visitors but most of them did not stay long. My average visitor time is less than one minute. I don’t know what is turning people off from my site. I don’t have any pop-up ads or flashy banners. I tried to make it as user-friendly as possible with neutral colors and easy-on-the-eye layout.

Please take a look and let me know what you think. What is turning them off?

Thanks for your help.

http://www.bigeyemaps.com

**justen** · 08-01-2008, 12:31 PM

Here's a suggestion, I love the site it's great. Maybe add some more cities that may draw people like Portland, OR, Washington DC, Seattle WA, just some more bigger cities.

Here are the top 50 biggest cities in the US. Use this as a guide.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0763098.html

**redshirt** · 08-01-2008, 01:20 PM

Justen,

Thanks for your input. We do plan to add more cities. In fact, we currently have Las Vegas and London near 90% finished. Our goal is to add all the popular tourist destinations not just the United States.

Much appreciate the link. I'll use it as a guide to add more cities.

**vangogh** · 08-01-2008, 04:13 PM

Honestly what's at the site to keep people there? You have a little information about New York and Los Angeles. That's hardly enough to keep someone on the site. Even the information you have is incomplete and easier to find in other places.

Your idea is fine. In time when you've built up more information about more cities then the site might attract more people who stay on the site longer, but until you have that information there's no reason for people to stay.

What you're offering at the moment is a couple of pages pulled from a complete book. Until you have the rest of the pages of the book the single pages aren't very useful.

**Local SEO** · 08-01-2008, 05:33 PM

There was nothing that explained what your website is about. I would have bounced as well. You need to explain what your site offers through content. THat content will also help you with the SE's

**darrenfox** · 08-01-2008, 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Local SEO

There was nothing that explained what your website is about. I would have bounced as well. You need to explain what your site offers through content. THat content will also help you with the SE's

I agree, there needs to be some kind of transition. I was a little thrown off when I went straight to the map. A lot of people who do not work with Google Maps or not computer savvy may not known its capabilities so they are probably thrown off when they see this giant map. A website tour or demo may help as well.

**redshirt** · 08-01-2008, 07:28 PM

Thanks for all your replies. I understand what you mean about the site needing contents. However, since this is a mapping website, the content is the graphical representation itself. I was hoping people could see the value in the graphical contents. The map helps visitors see where everything is located in relation to the overall city. It has many useful features, such as turning the markers on or off and printing individual locations. Each marker also has contents with links to more detailed contents.

I also understand that we need to add more cities and I agree that is one of the reasons why people might bounce. This is easy to fix because we are already planning to add more cities. We are also working on providing the ability for visitors to add their own locations.

I agree I should work more on explaining the website. I’m thinking about providing a video demo on each page.

What is your opinion on the small sample of markers initially displayed for each city? Does it hurt or help the site? Or is it better to display all the markers straightaway when they visit each city?

Thanks for all your suggestions.

**vangogh** · 08-03-2008, 05:09 PM

I think in order for the site to be valuable there needs to be more information about the two cities listed and eventually there needs to be more cities. Your idea is good, but it's just not ready yet. There's not enough to keep people now.

Looking at New York I see a few sample markers. They're not very obvious though. You can make them stand out more. Beyond that they're targeted for a very specific type of person. Other than that targeted person they aren't particularly useful.

A better idea would be to let people search for what they want and then present markers based on the search.

When I click on the link for attractions I see three ads on the left and one attraction. New York has a lot more things to see than the Folk Art Museum. Imagine you're traveling to New York and looking for things to do. Someone gives you one and only one recommendation while most everyone else easily gives you hundreds. Who are you going to ask next time?

You have an idea with potential. You also have competition. What are you offering that I can't find at Google Maps or any of the other mapping services. At the moment you really aren't. Again the idea is fine, but you need to build it out more.

When I click plane I see the JFK international airport. Great, but where's Laguardia, the other major airport in the area. You could also show the airport in Newark since some people flying into New York will land at Newark. You could extend the distance from Manhattan and mention some of the other airports in the area.

You need more of what you have and a lot more before the site is going to be valuable to someone. In less than 10 minutes I can consume all the content you currently have. Once I've done that why would I come back?

**cowsgonemadd3** · 08-04-2008, 12:09 AM

Doesnt google show attractions? In mass?

**webdesignernew** · 08-04-2008, 05:56 AM

I don't get it, it looks like google and you are not explaining anything - what do you want people to do? You show the whole world but only allow usa as the country

**leew_2006** · 08-04-2008, 06:57 AM

i look for england but only usa is clickable to see, pointless unless it contains the whole world or ppl would rather use google maps instead of this mate

**mozza** · 08-05-2008, 02:53 PM

Looks good but too much like google maps.

**Mystic Liquid** · 08-05-2008, 03:13 PM

Yea I would try and spice it up a little.

**highanddry** · 08-05-2008, 03:40 PM

It is extremely useful...

For limited travel info about NY or LA... I havn't read the rest of the responses, but this is a joke. You have to have at least some relevant information to get traffic.

**siberia77** · 08-05-2008, 06:29 PM

what in the blue hell am i supposed to do with this site? i went to it and a giant map stared out at me...