SITE REVIEW: Jacks&Jokers Clothing

I have launched my new apparel site Jacks&Jokers Clothing. My major concern is SEO right now, of which I understand I don't have the search engine friendliest links and lack of keywords on the front page.

I hope to resolve the keyword problem with some added content in the backend. The links however, I'm stuck with.

The site is built using Mambo CMS/Virtuemart

http://www.jacksandjokers.com

Please give me any criticism as I'm a big boy and can handle it

Thanks![/url]

For starters, I think you have a nice looking site. I especially like the way you've outlined the pages to look like playing cards, and your use of the card suits in your index - nice touch. From an SEO standpoint, try to limit your page titles to your keywords alone, and if you want to include your company name, place it after your keywords (rather than before). It's also good to have your keywords appear a few times in your content, as well as at the very end of your page. Other than that, I'd suggest focusing on gathering as many backlinks from related sites as you can, and you won't go far wrong.

One other thing I noticed is that there's a large space at the top of each page that looks as if it should be displaying a banner logo...except no banner is appearing - at least not on my computer. Just thought I'd let you know in case you didn't already. (By the way, I'm viewing the site in Firefox.)

Hope this helps, and best of luck.

Sam

Oh yes, like WebFreedom says, the flash thingie does not show on firefox nor on Opera.

I think the linking is wrong. Try and replace this line



with this one



Should work I think

Worked perfectly! Thanks!

That is a very clean looking site. Good job! I like the shirts also.

I can see it now - looks great!

Sam

Oh my god. Is *that* why the web's gone mad? I've noticed for ages now that people seem to have forgotten what the purpose of <title> is on a web page, and I didn't understand how the epidemic could be so widespread. Egad.

nickelmedia, you've got a nice site. Try increasing your font size a couple times, you'll notice that your layout breaks a bit. That's not terrible, most non-liquid layouts do break at that point (including my own), it's just an FYI.

That e-mail envelope. You might expand the alt/name for it a bit. Currently it just says "E-mail." Does that mean click to e-mail you, or click to e-mail a friend? If the latter, shouldn't the envelope be placed on each product page, rather than next to the category header?

Finally, and this is just a personal preference, but my assumption of people who think it's okay to enclose a paragraph of comma-separated keywords in the <title> of their pages is that they have no idea what they're doing. It's unprofessional and completely disregards the fact that human beings view web sites, not just indexing robots/spiders. Imo, the <title> is the equivalent of a store sign, and should be as efficient and concise as most signs are. Additionally, I prefer the way you have chosen to name your pages. When I have several tabs open in a browser window, I'm more concerned about being able to quickly identify which tab contains which site than I am about a particular page of that site. I would rather see "Jacks&Jokers Clothing" then see "Poker Shirts for..." (since tabs frequently cannot display the entire title) and have to figure out which "poker shirts" site that tab represents.

Mind you, I know nothing about SEO. I'm more interested in facilitating human-computer interaction and making that experience as compelling for human beings as I can.

Overall, I think you've got a great site. Good luck with it!

- Gita

Great point! I will do that!



Pardon my ignorance, but what page were you looking at to get those results? I agree 100% that the <title> is your store sign. Which is why the main title of my site is 'Jacks&Jokers Clothing'

Thank you for the critique!

good and attractive.


loading slow in dial up.

Just to clarify my statement, I'm not talking about "keyword stuffing", which is basically inserting as many keywords as you possibly can into a title. (From an SEO standpoint, this practice will actually hurt your rankings.) I'm talking about limiting your title to your main keywords, and if used in conjunction with your website's name, placing the keywords first, followed by the name.



This really comes down to where you're priorities lie - branding your website's name, or achieving high rankings in the search engines. From an SEO perspective, including your main keywords in the title of your pages is one of the most impactful steps you can take.

Sam

Whoops, sorry, I should've clarified. I like what you've done with your <title>, it's as it should be (imho). My rant was to convince you not to change it. =]

It was actually in response to Sam/WebFreedom's advice about your page titles. And Sam, my apologies to you as well. I did, indeed, think that you were talking about "keyword stuffing," a practise I find most odious. Thanks for the clarification (and the education)!

- Gita

The title keyword should be limited to 10-12 word. More than that is useless.

Also throw aways unnecessary words. Just keep the important keyword.

No worries, Gita - your post allowed me to clarify my post. I find keyword stuffing to be undesireable, as well, and I'm glad the SEs are cracking down on it. Hopefully our dialog will help others make good choices with respect to titles, from both a visitor and SEO perspective.

Sam

dont worry,
your site loads fast, your site is not bad,

though its not eye catchy its pretty.

the site is very cool
colors, layout, background even the products
P.S: put your login box up the page not down the page