When it comes to SEO, I've been around the block. I've gone from seeing it in action to hiring a company to doing it myself, and did fairly well at it. I'm not going to claim to be an expert, far from it. I do however, understand the basics. The top level planning and strategy, where to go to get the work done that I cannot do myself, and basic design. I'm not a graphics guy, so I usually use a template that has layout images in it, dump the junky photos that come with it and find my own and viola I have a site that looks decent, can easily be edited and does fairly well in organics over time.
Let's get on to the meat and taters of the story.
I changed companies and took on a more intense role at another debt settlement company. It's young with a lot of talent and potential. There is a website that was written prior to me coming on board and was set up to be "optimized for search" and there is a marketing/SEO firm that is currently working on it. Let me say, I'm not a huge fan of the site, but I'll let you form your own opinion. My company has already paid for the design and the start of the optimization and there remains another portion of the agreed upon price to continue the optimization efforts. I did mention already that I'm not an SEO expert, but I do have experience right!?
I looked through the code of the site to start my work with the SEO company and was shocked. I noticed a few errors and started talking with a designer that I have worked with in the past who does great work and he about fell out of his chair. If the IM's back and forth had appropriate language I would post them, but they don't.
I'm currently building my list of things for a meeting with the SEO/Marketing firm tomorrow morning. I was just curious how many of the SEO people I know would like to see this piece of work and comment about it. Please, arm me with ammunition on just how you think the company is doing.
Depending on how all of this works out, I may be looking to hire one of you to do it! Consider it an option to bid on the work. Not the design, just the SEO, you would work with my designer, or just wait until he was done and then you could have the site to yourself.
I don't want you to tell me what you would do to fix it, I'm not asking for your thoughts to take and do it myself. I would just like you guys (and girls) to tear it apart and point out the flaws. I'll send a special prize to the person who gets the number one flaw that Jason Bee the designer pointed out. Keep in mind, Jason does not do SEO, and this is not just an SEO flaw, but a flaw in the entire site.
here's the URL www.matrixdebtrelief.com
Oh, so much fun and so many coding problems here.
ReplyDeleteIn my five minute analysis, here is what I see:
- embedded CSS Styles
- Something is going on with the design. The sections are out of whack.
-Missing images on the "Request a Call Back" button
- Tons of nested tables - the site should be in tableless CSS
- None of the scripts are properly commented out on the pages - they should actually be pulled from external files.
- Canonical Issues throughout the site
- The live person video is so annoying - and plays every time you go back to the home page!
Let me preface by declaring that
ReplyDeletea) I have not looked over it with a fine tooth comb and
b) SEO issues/functionality is not only mostly foreign to me, but also not what comes to mind first
With that being stated, for me, something about this would have me worried:
href="http://174.143.18.52/chat/chatstart.htm?domain=www.matrixdebtrelief.com">
src="http://174.143.18.52:8080/stat.gif?d=www.matrixdebtrelief.com&p=pagename.htm&response=g">
For me, if you are facilitating a spot for persons to discuss debt settlement type matters, having a chat session on what appears to be a non-secure channel just doesn't seem sound. Your potential customers may decide to start throwing around SSN's and other sensitive personal information regardless of your obvious desires for them to not utilize the window for such things.
Not having insight into any other measures you may have in place, there is no way to know for sure if you are safe in this situation.
Interesting, and thank you. I had not even got into the security of the chat. We do not transmit any personal information through the chat client, but i do appreciate the comment and you pointing that out.
ReplyDeleteIt' just one more issue I need to address.
It was nice of you to impart your experience in SEO,sir. This business is surely meticulous, and it must be done with careful planning. I can see your company doing great this year!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first opened the website, the first thing I noticed is that it’s made of “tons of nested tables.” They actually make the entire page appear crowded. In my own opinion, it would’ve been better if they also make use of both large side spaces in the background. And I have to agree with Tony Wright, the site would appear much improved if they used a tableless CSS format.
ReplyDelete