Rate My site Please! (Take 2)

[Own3r]

After taking note of all the suggestions that I got from all of you guys in the last thread, the site has changed a lot!
Tell me what you guys think!


www.reloadfitness.ca

[PerFit]

looks good man but you need some form for them to fill out to capture their details. Offer a free report "6 tips to fast fat loss" or something like that (as long as its appealing to the target market) where they put in their name and email.

They may not be ready to purchase your services right now but when they are you want to be at the forefront of their mind as you will be marketing to them regularly (ie sending great info out weekly)

If you have before/after photos they are a must for your testomonials.

[jlitt]

Excellent site. Very professional looking. Im in the process of designing my own site and was curious if you did this on your own, what program did you use. And also do you have a background in website design.

[Own3r]

looks good man but you need some form for them to fill out to capture their details. Offer a free report "6 tips to fast fat loss" or something like that (as long as its appealing to the target market) where they put in their name and email.

They may not be ready to purchase your services right now but when they are you want to be at the forefront of their mind as you will be marketing to them regularly (ie sending great info out weekly)

If you have before/after photos they are a must for your testomonials.

Thanks man!
Will definitely do the information collection!

Excellent site. Very professional looking. Im in the process of designing my own site and was curious if you did this on your own, what program did you use. And also do you have a background in website design.

Thank you, I did not design the web site myself, I hired a web design studio that does a LOT of work in the service industry.

[drudixon]

I like it. Not sure @ the splash page tho. Confusing.

[md3sign]

^ This. What is the point of selecting option A or B? They both end up taking you to the same site. It also makes people pause and think before even getting to your site.

In general I would avoid splash pages unless you have a very compelling reason to use one (such as very limited time offer or something, but even that can be a timed popover).

Good job on the branding, looks solid.

[tovis]

Looks great!

Might want to improve some SEO stuff though. Check out http://websitegrader.com to see what it lacks (it is free)

After taking note of all the suggestions that I got from all of you guys in the last thread, the site has changed a lot!
Tell me what you guys think!


www.reloadfitness.ca

[tovlakas]

Ok, design-wise the site is excellent. Great color scheme, layout, etc. Very "corporate gym" looking if that's what you're going for (not very "mom and pop gym" in other words).

However, the structure is VERY BAD for SEO. You're idea to have two portals, one for each emphasis (fitness and corrective or whatever) is good on paper but terrible for SEO.

You should have ONE site, with OPTIMIZED SPECIALITY PAGES specifically for each area, rather than two sites with ajax'd info. You are really going to have a horrible time ranking without PPC with your current website design. If your designer is the one who came up with this idea I would ask them to remake it for free, because that is one of the first things you learn not to do as a website developer.

This is my friend's website, he is one of the top internet marketing agencies dealing with social media. http://www.turbosocialmedia.com/

While it's not personal training, the same rules apply to the structure of the site—his site's structure is excellent (as is the design, if I do say so myself having made it, haha). If you look at the "Our Formulas" menu item, that is basically the same thing as saying "our products/services". Note that there are three items under that, each of which is its own page for the respective service.

Your site should be similar. Have "Our Services" or "Pick your Specialty" or "Training Emphasis" or whatever you want the menu option to be, and beneath it list each page for each service. Yes, it's more content writing on your part but Google will love you for it and you will rank much better. You can then optimize each of those pages for the specific keywords you want to go to them... just like niching your business, narrowing your keywords is critical.

I hope you reconsider your site structure. Your studio, the way you dress, your site design, your logo, etc are all top notch and honestly, appeal to my OCD immensely. Make sure your site's structure isn't crippling all the good stuff you're doing.

[tovis]

agreed

Ok, design-wise the site is excellent. Great color scheme, layout, etc. Very "corporate gym" looking if that's what you're going for (not very "mom and pop gym" in other words).

However, the structure is VERY BAD for SEO. You're idea to have two portals, one for each emphasis (fitness and corrective or whatever) is good on paper but terrible for SEO.

You should have ONE site, with OPTIMIZED SPECIALITY PAGES specifically for each area, rather than two sites with ajax'd info. You are really going to have a horrible time ranking without PPC with your current website design. If your designer is the one who came up with this idea I would ask them to remake it for free, because that is one of the first things you learn not to do as a website developer.

This is my friend's website, he is one of the top internet marketing agencies dealing with social media. http://www.turbosocialmedia.com/

While it's not personal training, the same rules apply to the structure of the site—his site's structure is excellent (as is the design, if I do say so myself having made it, haha). If you look at the "Our Formulas" menu item, that is basically the same thing as saying "our products/services". Note that there are three items under that, each of which is its own page for the respective service.

Your site should be similar. Have "Our Services" or "Pick your Specialty" or "Training Emphasis" or whatever you want the menu option to be, and beneath it list each page for each service. Yes, it's more content writing on your part but Google will love you for it and you will rank much better. You can then optimize each of those pages for the specific keywords you want to go to them... just like niching your business, narrowing your keywords is critical.

I hope you reconsider your site structure. Your studio, the way you dress, your site design, your logo, etc are all top notch and honestly, appeal to my OCD immensely. Make sure your site's structure isn't crippling all the good stuff you're doing.

[askthetrainer]

After taking note of all the suggestions that I got from all of you guys in the last thread, the site has changed a lot!
Tell me what you guys think!


www.reloadfitness.ca

I think it definitely top notch site... only things I don't like is the 1990 splash page & the location and look of the contact button which should be the easiest

I would locate it in the standard place where you have corporate now because how many potential clients care about that and anyone looking to contact you for corporate reasons will probably email you w/out a page dedicated to it.

[Own3r]

Ok, design-wise the site is excellent. Great color scheme, layout, etc. Very "corporate gym" looking if that's what you're going for (not very "mom and pop gym" in other words).

However, the structure is VERY BAD for SEO. You're idea to have two portals, one for each emphasis (fitness and corrective or whatever) is good on paper but terrible for SEO.

You should have ONE site, with OPTIMIZED SPECIALITY PAGES specifically for each area, rather than two sites with ajax'd info. You are really going to have a horrible time ranking without PPC with your current website design. If your designer is the one who came up with this idea I would ask them to remake it for free, because that is one of the first things you learn not to do as a website developer.

This is my friend's website, he is one of the top internet marketing agencies dealing with social media. http://www.turbosocialmedia.com/

While it's not personal training, the same rules apply to the structure of the site—his site's structure is excellent (as is the design, if I do say so myself having made it, haha). If you look at the "Our Formulas" menu item, that is basically the same thing as saying "our products/services". Note that there are three items under that, each of which is its own page for the respective service.

Your site should be similar. Have "Our Services" or "Pick your Specialty" or "Training Emphasis" or whatever you want the menu option to be, and beneath it list each page for each service. Yes, it's more content writing on your part but Google will love you for it and you will rank much better. You can then optimize each of those pages for the specific keywords you want to go to them... just like niching your business, narrowing your keywords is critical.

I hope you reconsider your site structure. Your studio, the way you dress, your site design, your logo, etc are all top notch and honestly, appeal to my OCD immensely. Make sure your site's structure isn't crippling all the good stuff you're doing.

Thank you for the advice! I do not know easy it will be to revert those things at this point though, especially considering that I have asked to make it a 2 section site.

To the poster above you who said that they link to the same site, it is not true the content is different on both sides as well as the overall design logo.

What if I have 2 different URL for each site? Would that be an easy fix in terms of SEO?

[tovlakas]

Thank you for the advice! I do not know easy it will be to revert those things at this point though, especially considering that I have asked to make it a 2 section site.

To the poster above you who said that they link to the same site, it is not true the content is different on both sides as well as the overall design logo.

What if I have 2 different URL for each site? Would that be an easy fix in terms of SEO?

Easy it may not be. However, this can make or break your website. Would you rather spend the effort making your website work for you, or just go ahead with what you have, because you don't want to do the work, when it is going to make your website impossible to rank and will make it a waste of space? I 100% feel that it is worth every second of extra work it takes to redo that site so it is SEO-friendly. Additionally, you SHOULD have a blog on your site. This is not 1999, you need a blog on just about every business-related website for SEO purposes.

You could make it two urls but I feel that is still working against you. I don't understand why you've separated these emphasis so much. They are not different businesses nor different trainers/team members nor a different facility, (even if all that was different, I'd STILL say to keep it on the same site) so you have no reason to have separate sites. I understand it feels more "big-time" to have this huge website with multiple areas but I'm speaking from 1.5 decades of experience when I say all that will do is stroke your own ego, while confusing/frustrating your site visitors, alienating the Google bots and overall ****ing up your chance for success over the internet.

K.I.S.S., and optimization are the name of the game here. I promise you that if you ignore my advice you WILL come back to this a year down the line when much more is at stake and will be forced to do what I'm suggesting to keep your cash flow and business increasing. Might as well handle it now before it becomes a huge headache. Take it as a learning experience.

[Own3r]

Easy it may not be. However, this can make or break your website. Would you rather spend the effort making your website work for you, or just go ahead with what you have, because you don't want to do the work, when it is going to make your website impossible to rank and will make it a waste of space? I 100% feel that it is worth every second of extra work it takes to redo that site so it is SEO-friendly. Additionally, you SHOULD have a blog on your site. This is not 1999, you need a blog on just about every business-related website for SEO purposes.

You could make it two urls but I feel that is still working against you. I don't understand why you've separated these emphasis so much. They are not different businesses nor different trainers/team members nor a different facility, (even if all that was different, I'd STILL say to keep it on the same site) so you have no reason to have separate sites. I understand it feels more "big-time" to have this huge website with multiple areas but I'm speaking from 1.5 decades of experience when I say all that will do is stroke your own ego, while confusing/frustrating your site visitors, alienating the Google bots and overall ****ing up your chance for success over the internet.

K.I.S.S., and optimization are the name of the game here. I promise you that if you ignore my advice you WILL come back to this a year down the line when much more is at stake and will be forced to do what I'm suggesting to keep your cash flow and business increasing. Might as well handle it now before it becomes a huge headache. Take it as a learning experience.

Thanks a LOT for the advice man, I really appreciate it and I am willing to make the necessary adjustments (so stay tune for Take 3 hehe) .

I will forward this thread to my designer and hopefully we will figure it out from there

[tovlakas]

Thanks a LOT for the advice man, I really appreciate it and I am willing to make the necessary adjustments (so stay tune for Take 3 hehe) .

I will forward this thread to my designer and hopefully we will figure it out from there

sweet bro, I guarantee you will look back and go "thank GOD I made that choice." Small price to pay for the immense benefit of an SEO-optimized website!

[WonderPug]

I like it. Not sure @ the splash page tho. Confusing.

This * 1000!

Plus, you're still not emphasizing the facility, which is a very strong selling point.

I think the site is design driven more than results driven. It's not visitor focused and it's not enticing.

That said, it's a clean and professional design.

[Own3r]

A photo gallery accessible through the "Facility" link will be available by the end of the day.
Aside that there is really not that much more space where we could stick pictures unless we fully scrap the current design which I would really not want to do.

[TonyMuscoli]

Ok, design-wise the site is excellent. Great color scheme, layout, etc. Very "corporate gym" looking if that's what you're going for (not very "mom and pop gym" in other words).

However, the structure is VERY BAD for SEO. You're idea to have two portals, one for each emphasis (fitness and corrective or whatever) is good on paper but terrible for SEO.

agree with tovlakas on all accounts.

besides a complete lack of bicep pictures, it looks pretty good. You do need some SEO done. If you want people to find you via Google, get some html loaded with keywords and crush the meta info as well. If you have questions PM me. I do consulting work for this when I am not getting my pump on.

[tovlakas]

A photo gallery accessible through the "Facility" link will be available by the end of the day.
Aside that there is really not that much more space where we could stick pictures unless we fully scrap the current design which I would really not want to do.

that should suffice just fine. With your blog you'll be able to make whole articles promoting your facility with tons of high def pics and videos etc anyway. MAke it happen son!

[madkad]

nice site.

you site consists of 3 full pages (this is what it will look like to search engines any how) and in turn you will not get much traffic etc from search engines, like google and others.

apart from that and like the others said forms etc its a nice site, looks pro

edit: just read other posts and see it was said about the SEO sorry

SEO is worth learning to get the inside info on what you need to understand, i am an owner of 11 websites and this was a big help along with other things.

[NorwichGrad]

I wouldn't train in your gym cuz there is no power rack..



JUST KIDDING!!


Seriously, this is one of the best fitness website I've seen. What Ben said makes lots of sense, though.. Congrats!

PS.. I love the Soviet / Eastern Bloc sounding names of your team members.. Reminds me of top notch Olympic coaches who produce awesome gold medalists..

[Own3r]

I wouldn't train in your gym cuz there is no power rack..



JUST KIDDING!!


Seriously, this is one of the best fitness website I've seen. What Ben said makes lots of sense, though.. Congrats!

PS.. I love the Soviet / Eastern Bloc sounding names of your team members.. Reminds me of top notch Olympic coaches who produce awesome gold medalists..

In Soviet Russia Power rack Squats you.

[adamrochester]

sick site man i currently have some one doing mine now ! i work at a gym in australia fenix i have to pay $230 a week rent its f**ked !!!!!

[drudixon]

Thank you for the advice! I do not know easy it will be to revert those things at this point though, especially considering that I have asked to make it a 2 section site.

To the poster above you who said that they link to the same site, it is not true the content is different on both sides as well as the overall design logo.

What if I have 2 different URL for each site? Would that be an easy fix in terms of SEO?

2x as much to market IMO. 2x as much to brand. Keep it simple and as common and reusable as you can. Ford is better without Mercury.

[drudixon]

2x as much to market IMO. 2x as much to brand. Keep it simple and as common and reusable as you can. Ford is better without Mercury.

A quick point @ SEO. I used to make all my sites in Flash. I'd have edge2edge flash, base movie stage, quick links, then I'd use flash to load everything in/out of the stage without an actual reload, much like the ajax is doing for ya. The trouble with this, is that search engines use the meta information off of each html page they catalog. Search engines can't crawl flash pages because that requires actual clicking, not simply looking for tagged html files.

So, while my flash sites loaded super fast, had killer graphics and animations, they appeared to search engines as one html page, and so only one page (the home page) would pop up in search results.

I probably haven't explained this well at all. The other guys giving you advice are solid. Best of luck to ya.

[PerFit]

Looks great!

Might want to improve some SEO stuff though. Check out http://websitegrader.com to see what it lacks (it is free)

Wow didnt know about that site.

Just ran our website through and got a 70

[tjt011]

Dimitri,

Very excellent professional looking site to go with your professional looking gym. I can tell you put a lot of work into it and it looks like I caught you on the 2nd take, its getting pretty good.

I made a quick video review for you for some tips on a few things you will want to change to build trust with your visitors instantly and also make it more affective for marketing

screencast.com/t/HTSNSmdBbI

Also, I totally agree with what Tavis said about websitegrader. That site is excellent, we use it for all of the sites we create for the studios to check how things rate as we go along. The people who create that tool are very reputable in the industry.

In the websitegrader report you'll see it rates your blog. That's why what Tovlakas said about needing to have a blog on your site is so important. I recommend just installing a wordpress blog on your site. It will allow you to post fresh new content on your site, something that search engines really like. It will also give people a reason to keep coming back to your website. Blogs have features in them that normal websites just don't have. They notify the search engines every time you post a new posting and they come and eat it up and then rank you better.

Dradixon had it spot on two when he said having two sites would just be twice as much work. Check out the site homemadepizza.com/ to see how they section off their visitors so that messages don't get mixed up.

Let me know if you have any more questions, I'd be happy to help.

[BelieveExcell]

agree with tovlakas on all accounts.

besides a complete lack of bicep pictures, it looks pretty good...

Yeah get a few pics of some 600lb deadlifters on the go haha

This may be a naive suggestion but what about prices?

Agree with above on highlighting the contact and pictures of gym, otherwise looking awesome mate! Very pro!

[askthetrainer]

Just re-checked it and you did away w/ the splash page and made a couple changes...

I would say everything looks great but you will never truly know until you put it in action....

Make sure you keep track of your site's performance so you know where its shortcomings are so you can adjust them for the future.

Make sure you have google analytics installed so you can know more about your visitors...

[djz]

I think the most important thing to google rankings is "popularity". The more popular your site is, the higher it will rank. I think that's where SEO is heading in the future if it ain't already. I see many who put a lot of work in meta keywords and other stuff. The best way is to get people linking to your site, as well as creating internal links. That will boost your rankings in googles eyes. Facebook, myspace, linkedn, youtube, and others. Also localize your website

It's so much easier and you wouldnt have to worry about seo and popularity as much, if you didn't have any competition in your area. If you only had 3-4 competitors, you'd probably be on the first page without much effort. I've had my craigslist ad on the first page of google numerous times in my area.

[alex a]

really impressive setup you have there bro.. you cater to all types of athletes ... Really good man! keep it up!