SITE REVIEW: Flooring Website

Chicagoland Flooring Services


This is the site I made for my friend's business. The main purpose of the website is to get inquiries from the clients, so my friend can get jobs. I was hoping you guys could give me some ideas for improvements or some feedback on this website. The url is: http://www.elmwoodflooring.com

Thanks a lot!

Hi,

If this is a freebie for a friend i think you've done an excellent job - i hope he's really happy Can't really comment on the design except to say, very original.

I notice you use tables instead of pure CSS, something for your own learning curve perhaps Additional thingys you may wish to include .... a bit of URL rewriting never went a miss (pure internet voodoo!).

Good luck.

Cheers, Prime ...

Yes, CSS... I guess I really should re-write it. Truth be told that was my intention from the very beginning. It's just that when I was coding it for the first time I used tables just to make a quick "dummy page" and it stayed that way.

As far as design.. well, he wanted lots of wood on the website About the URL, this is version 2.0 so the urls (I assume you meant file names) are leftover from the previous version.

I didn't want to change them because they were already in the search engines.

Thanks for the review!

Hi,

URL rewriting enables to you incorporate specific search terms into your website to help google and such like. It also helps to prevent 'duff' links such at the following ....

http://www.elmwoodflooring.com/dsfsfdfdsdfs

if you enter the same duff link at one of my websites for example

http://www.webconfection.com/dsfsfdfdsdfs

it refers you to the home page. Make sense

Cheers, Prime ...

Oh, you mean custom error pages? That's a good idea, thanks!

HI,

No - not exactly what I meant. Your client is very specialised and it should be quite easy to get him at the top of google for you 'local' web search if you use URL rewriting. If you are hosting on a Linux platform you may wish to create a .htaccess file and plonk it in your root directory. It would something like ...

RewriteEngine On
## hide one variable in the url and pass it to a script
ErrorDocument 404 http://www.elmwoodflooring.com/?error=404
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.htm $1.html

RewriteRule ^(.*)-flooring-chicago-(.*) index.html
RewriteRule ^(.*)-flooring-illinois-(.*) index.html
RewriteRule ^(.*)-bamboo-flooring-(.*) select.html
RewriteRule ^(.*)-Burnt-Mocha-(.*) select.html


..... etc ... etc ....

It gives a certain intelligence to your domain and enables search engines to assoiate far more keywords/phrases with the website.

An example would be http://webconfection.com/-seo-tutorial-. It links directly to the SEO tutorial page.

Just an idea, but far mor effective than keywords on such a specific target audience.

Cheers, Prime ...

See, THAT I did not know... but from now on learning this has a top priority on my to-do list! Thanks again!

EDIT:

I just tried it and it works! I owe you a big beer mate!
BTW. Does it matter that I have used the google sitemap program?

Glad it worked, pure voodoo Welcome to the world of internet witch doctors ...

No idea about google sitemap, never used it but i can't imagine it will have a detrimental effect. If it's working it's working .....

Have fun.

Cheers, Prime ...

PS> Mines a large JD and coke

on the rocks with coke on the side or all together?