Web site reviews and advice

[BryanEx]

After reviewing close to 600 maple web sites in the past few weeks I noticed quite a few common issues on maple producer web sites that hurt their site's presentation either to the customer or Google. Some of these problems included poor or missing meta descriptions, poor navigation, no contact information, and one even spelled their business name incorrectly on their main page. If anyone is interested I'd be happy to take a look at your web site and offer any suggestions I may have or let you know if you've done better than I could have. I am not a professional webmaster... but I'm not bad at it either and know my way around both html and php (pretty clueless at flash though - sorry). Just thought I'd offer in case the interest is there.

[BryanEx]

I've had 6 Maple Traders take me up on this offer so far but they were all done through the private message system. FYI - they were all excellent sites and the only thing I could suggest to a few of the owners were minor Google adjustments. I would like to do at least one on the message board so others can see the types of things I'm looking at. If you are up for it just post your link and let me take a look. Anything I suggest is just that... a suggestion.

[ennismaple]

Bryan,

Have a look at www.ennismaple.com

I haven't spent much time on it recently so any advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks a bunch.

[upsmapleman]

Feel free to look at Mine. I have not updated it for a couple of years.
www.millersmaple.com

Dale

[red maples]

Yeah sure I know I have some issues with mine. Email contact info for one I need a form. I haven't really had any time to sit down and figure things out beacuse I can do it it just takes me a bit longer to do. and I am not the best at grammar so I need to have my wife check everything out for me. But feed back is good. thanks

[BryanEx]

Have a look at www.ennismaple.com

I can't seem to pull up your site today. I tried this morning and again this evening but no-go. I know it's there because I've seen it enought times in the past. I'll move on to millersmaple and keep trying ennismaple in the mean time.

[NH Maplemaker]

I'm having the same problem also! I also tried last night. Jim L.

[BryanEx]

Okay upsmapleman... you've done many things with your web site VERY well but there are a few that should be addressed when you have time to "play computer". I'll start from a consumer point of view;

Your header is excellent and carries across all pages. I can get to any page from any page and same goes for your footer. I also like the rotational graphic menu you have on your main page but the text to the right of it needs to be squared up and widened. It looks awkward with each paragraph being different widths and hard to read for the second one (see attachment 1). I would also address the line "Please visit our store any time" because I thought that meant online store. If you have a retail front make it big and bold on your main page. While you are working on this section update your open house dates. 10 months is way too long to leave this if it's an annual event. In the middle section of your main page you have three images - 2 from the 2004 farm show and another from Almost Home which is a link. These three images are taking up way too much real estate on your most important page. Make them all the same size in height and have them line up in a row straight across the page so they do not take up so much room. They are important but not enough to take 1/3 of your main page. Down at the bottom of your main page I like the sugar shack image and the footer links are perfect. I would drop the extra email link though because you have a contact link at the top and bottom of every page which is perfect and all you need. Given that you are using paypal what I would suggest is to keep the maple leaf graphic and see our catalogue link, center it directly above the sugar shack image (which should also be centered) and include both the text and graphic as the link. Directly below the graphic add the Paypal sign up link but shorten it to simply "Sign up with Paypal" and have it as it's own link. Right at the very bottom is your copyright. Legally it has no bearing on anyone's claims but what it does serve as is an indication on whether the web site has been ignored or is actively administered and if you use a date range as you have it shows longevity. I will point out that the date range covers the content production date (text & photos) and not how long your web site has been online. If one of the photos on your site was taken in 1995 and you own the copyright your date range should be 1995~2011. Your copyright notice is 2 years out of date given it shows as 2002-2009 .

For your "About Us" pages you are on the right track but the multiple pages (Continue) is not the way to go. Make all this info and images one page, shorten up the early history stuff and keep the current info pretty much as is. I recommend changing the file names of the photos used in this section to meaningful names like collecting_sap.jpg instead of dale2.jpg for example (that's a Google thing) but the big thing for me personally is that I clicked on 4 links before I could figure out if I could come and see how things were done at Miller's Purely Maple. It may be only me, I doubt it, but many maple producers do not make it clear right up front if they are open to visitors and/or sell on location.

"Our Products" should be a regular html sales page. You have an impressive range in products and a large production scale. Use this page to "sell" each item with descriptions and photos. Link from there into your Paypal store instead of trying for the sale right away.

Your "Events" page is good but be sure to keep it up to date. Add as many links as you can into the text and especially if they link back to you (another Google thing). I would also say there is no need for the email link to the right of the sap bucket photo below the event listings.

"Contact Us" is really good but I would add the basics as the first section - Business name, mailing address, phone number, & email... then all the rest you already have.

Your "Ordering" page is very good but it doesn't say how to buy your syrup in person. Maybe add your store info under the credit card info if you don't have enough room for a fourth column or put it as a main paragraph above everything else. After all, we all prefer cash in person sales.

Part 2 - Google. You are rocking! Your meta keywords and description are perfect. Google results for Miller's Purely Maple filled an entire page with the first 3 results being direct links. The only suggestion other than renaming a few photo files would be to drop the "Welcome to" in your main page title. The page title is what appears on someone's bookmark or favorites list if they save your site and often the names used are too long or do not make sense. Your title is good but I would drop the Welcome part to save room and not create a long-ish named bookmark. It's a minor thing and only my opinion... as is everything else above. I truly hope that helps and not hurts because it is my intention to help those that want a better web presence.

[BryanEx]

red maples... I'll tackle yours tomorrow evening unless I can access ennismaple before then. Either way I will get to everyone in order that they volunteer for a review.

... besides, I think you just want to rub that gorgeous sugar shack in my face yet again.

[Sugarmaker]

Brian,
I am always interested in constructive advice. But I believe my web master has used flash to build it so, any thoughts in general might help. Maybe like a lot of other folks I don't maintain mine as much/often as I thought I was going to.
Regards,
Chris