Website Critique Requested - Aesthetic and SEO Tips

Hi everyone -

My website has been up and running in its current state for a couple years now. Im happy with the way it looks and feels, but Ive been looking at my Google Analytics and Im seeing some disturbing trends. My bounce rate for some of my key terms is much higher than I would expect (as high as 60% for some?) and my overall traffic has been trending DOWN over the 6 months.

So, my request is two-fold - first, what is it aesthetically about my site that might make someone who has searched for my content and clicked into my site leave without exploring further? Is it the layout (confusing, un-appealing, a hassle, etc.), the content (poor images?), or something else?

Second - are there any glaring SEO mistakes or opportunities for me in the content of my site? I know getting quality backlinks is going to be more important, but if my website has flaws its not going to matter.

Thanks!

www.northerncaptures.c​om

one-time bump...appreciate any and all feedback.

Thanks!

Brett, Not that I am a website guru or anything but a couple things I noticed.

On your blog, when you click Northern Captures Gallery, it takes you to your home page - not the gallery page.

On the gallery page, on my monitor, the descriptions are of each gallery are cutoff. Could be my 20" monitor, but thought I'd mention.

Pics come through great and didn't notice anything else.

I just took a quick second to look over it. First thing that hit me was that the homepage was cluttered. You don't have to go quite as simple as I have (vanguard-imaging.com) but you could probably move some of the stuff on the homepage to an about page. Make the homepage all about your images, all about capturing that viewer and making them want to view more.

Secondly, the gallery view was kind of cluttered. I was presented with way too much all at once. Consider using one of the sets of code that reduces it to say 4 across

Hope this helps!

I agree with the previous posts, but have one more additional response. Blogs are a fantastic tool and if you are going to utilize one it's best to update it quite a bit more often than every 20 days. While this has nothing to do with the design of the sight it will assist in optimization as you will be adding pages of information into your site. It's best to try to get a post a day on your blog, what I would do is go out every day for a few minutes get a few shots and pic your favorite to make a post about.

There is a lot of unnecessary clutter on the splash page and the ad at the bottom of the page makes the website is unprofessional for a photographic portfolio. I would simplify the splash page maybe include your best shot and a few words as introduction. Save the really long talk for the about Brett page and split it up so the visitor isn't overwhelmed right off the bat.

2 quick comments on first appearance

1) the header image looks way too big (height) , i would go with half the height

2) the wording at bottom goes wider than the rest of the page, i would suggest that the left and right margins stay constant.

Im starting to see a trend here, specifically with un-cluttering the main page.

So, the reason I have it this way is to give search engines something to grab onto - I wanted keyword rich text to be found right on my homepage. But, Ive always disliked the way that looked and have toyed with the idea of replacing it with a stretchy slideshow. Maybe somewhere in between is where it should end up?

Thanks for the tips on the other items, Ill work to clean those up. I also understand the comments about the blog - unfortunately a new baby and working 60 hrs/wk rarely leaves me with even a couple minutes to update a blog on a daily basis. But, I agree - 20 days since my last post is far too long.

It has been ages since I've messed with website documentations, but isn't there a meta tag section in the header of the document to place keyword rich content for the search engines to grab onto? There is a member on this forum who's name is eluding me at this point, but in his signature is a fantastic link to seo for the photographer. I'll see if I can't drum that link up for you real quick.

Edit: I'm not sure the rules on links here so I'll post you to his post in another thread and you can click the link in his sig. Check his Sig

I checked out the source code for your site and overall it looks pretty good.

I would get rid of the Google banner ad at the bottom of your site - I don't have a problem with ads on blogs (and I have a few on my blog), but for your website you definitely don't want people clicking other links to leave your site. The trivial income it generates isn't worth it.

As for the bounce rate, I find that analytics is often pretty inaccurate when it comes to reporting the time visitors spend browsing so if you see a page full of "Average time on site: 0:00:00" don't despair too much. Also, random google searchers aren't really worth worrying about too much. I'd focus more on a specific target market through real world marketing especially and targeted social media. Blogging is very useful in developing a following - writing a post isn't enough though, you need to promote it too until you finally get to critical mass and enough people are reading and recommending it.

I agree that the header image is too big - your main content should be right in the middle of the page as soon as you get to it...users don't like to scroll right away.

Thanks for the tips everyone - Ill begin to put them in place this weekend to see what happens. If there are other comments, Im all ears.

Thanks again!

It is better to show 6 or 10 very good photos than 12 to 30 photos with several or many that are ok to good. Show your best of your best.

And I find this statement on your home page odd:
This page is best viewed using the latest version of Internet Explorer.
Other browsers, such as Firefox, may not display dark gradients and some colors as they truly appear on the original images.
Since I believe that Internet Explorer does not honor embedded color profiles while Firefox does honor color profiles.

Hi everyone -

I made the changes outlined below - what do you think?

-Changed the size of my banner

-Removed the text from the homepage and placed it on "About". Made up for losing this text (SEO wise) by updating my metakeywords and description.

-Removed the single image display and replaced with a slideshow the same width as my header and navabar.

-Removed some of the footer clutter (ads, un-necessary text) and formatted the rest to remain within the same width as the rest of my page. (I think my comments regarding FF vs IE are still correct, but Ive received critique both ways depending on which way Ive had it written).

-Changed "About" and "Contact" into two seperate Nav Bar containers instead of having them combined in a single drop down.

I still need to update my blog more often and try to find a way to address the gallery descriptions, but I think I hit every comment above I wanted to address.

Get rid of "This page is best viewed using the latest version of Internet Explorer.
Other browsers, such as Firefox, may not display dark gradients and some colors as they truly appear on the original images."

Since you're concerned about SEO, read my link and implement it.