Review:whatconsumer.co.uk

[tb987]

1. what is the purpose of the site.
   To provide UK consumers with clear and practical consumer advice
2. Specify what target audience you have in your mind for your site
   UK Consumers
3. Tell us how many backlinks your site has.
   None, it is a new site only just complete been on the Web since April ish
4. What keywords you are targeting.
   A lot, but here is an example:
   [sale of goods act]
   [consumer rights]
   [save money]
   [complaints]
   [consumer forum]
   [consumer advice]
   [consumer forums]
   [money saving tips]
   [consumer complaints]
   [statutory rights]
5. How is your site any different than other similar sites already online.
   There are lots of Government sites - too many it is disgusting how much money has been wasted with duplicated sites, but they all lack interactive features i.e. comments and forums.
6. do you want feedback on your code errors and any improvements you can make.
   Yes
7. specify how important usability and accessibility is to you.
   Very
8. do you want any design suggestions.
   yes please
9. also
   Community building suggestions most welcome.

The site is What Consumer built using Wordpress and Vbulletin.

Thanks in advance

Tony

BTW There is a no advertising policy on the forum, but forum members get a member listing after 50 posts.

For the reviewers (from New Website Review Guidelines and Rules)

1. If the user requesting the review has asked reviewers to review a particular aspect of their site, then refrain from making comments on other aspect of their site. Similarly, if the user has requested reviewers not to give any input regarding any particular aspect of their site, then please comply with the request.
2. Don't be afraid criticize, but try to give constructive criticism. For example, don't just say that "i don't like your site's design" provide reasons why you don't like the site design, what can be done to improve the site design in your opinion.
3. When posting about a layout bug, give as much information about your system as possible. Answer at least following questions in you post :
   1. which operating system you're using?
   2. which browser you are using?
   3. what is your screen resolution?
   4. is your browser window fully maximized?
   5. did you changed any default settings which can affect site layout?
   providing a screen shot will be quite helpful as well.
4. When posting about a website code bug provide detailed information including any input which you used uncover the buggy behavior.
5. You don't have to be an experienced web developer or web designer to review a site, try giving review from an end user's perspective. Some of the questions you can try asking yourself and answering when reviewing a new site :
   1. is it clear what the site does when you visit the site's homepage or do you have to
      search around to find out what the site is actually for?
   2. is the site navigation logical? can you easily move around or do you feel lost?
   3. are colors appropriate for the target audience?
   4. is the site loading slowly compared to other site?

[OldWelshGuy]

Well firstly may I congratulate you on taking the time to properly request a site review Hopefully the info below will be of help.

what is the purpose of the site.

To provide UK consumers with clear and practical consumer advice
using a UK domain and the IP resolves to the UK so this is ideal. It would greatly help your Geo search ranking if you had the ownership details in the footer of every page.

Whatconsumer.co.uk is a trading name of Meanwhile Media Ltd. Registered office: 9 King Street, Westhoughton , Bolton, England, United Kingdom BL5 3AX

Note the additions to the address, this will help geo locate ranking.

Specify what target audience you have in your mind for your site
UK Consumers
The site is obviously British, but I would tend to add a disclaimer in the footer saying ‘The information on the site may only be applicable to England, Northern Ireland And Wales, with Scotland having a slightly different legal system. Always take legal advice before acting on a consumer problem.


The aim of this is to protect yourself, build credibility, and also mention all 4 constituent countries of the UK thus re-enforcing the UK theme.

1. Tell us how many backlinks your site has.
   None, it is a new site only just complete been on the Web since April ish

No need for me to tell you then that you need backlinks. A site like this is highly content driven. I would try for fewer, but better quality deeplinks. Scout around forums and get links posted back to relevant articles on the site. (without spamming).

1. What keywords you are targeting.
   A lot, but here is an example:
   [sale of goods act]
   [consumer rights]
   [save money]
   [complaints]
   [consumer forum]
   [consumer advice]
   [consumer forums]
   [money saving tips]
   [consumer complaints]
   [statutory rights]

You are in effect up against advice guide, the UK governments website, and other big hitters in the marketplace BUT. Add the word ‘independent’ in front of those, and you have another USP.

1. How is your site any different than other similar sites already online.
   There are lots of Government sites - too many it is disgusting how much money has been wasted with duplicated sites, but they all lack interactive features i.e. comments and forums.

You have hit the nail on the head there, it is the interaction that matters and sets you apart. SO WHY DOESN’T YOUR SITE SCREAM THIS OUT.

Consumer Information
Clear and Practical Consumer Advice AND SUPPORT FROM FELLOW CONSUMERS
You’re never alone with What Consumer!

1. do you want feedback on your code errors and any improvements you can make.
   Yes

Not my bag really, as I outsource all my coding.
However, here is the Google text only content of your site
http://216.239.59.104/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4DKUK_enGB242GB244&q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fwh atconsumer.co.uk%2F


half way down is a list of links

• Feature Articles
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• About this Site

This is not good, have the coder to make some sort of relevance to the anchor text in the list as numbered is not ideal

1. specify how important usability and accessibility is to you.
   Very

usability is good, although better explanation on the home page of the fact that the site is an INTERACTIVE SUPPORT SITE!
Explain the forums “where people discuss their problems with others who can help”
Accessibility is also good with no must fix issues, just a couple of little things like fixed font sizes etc.

1. do you want any design suggestions.
   yes please

There are a LOT of links, but there are no headings and information around the links. Featured article# x for example, but no link to ‘articles’? How do I find them? I covered this above, but I would have a small intro area telling people what to find and do in the main headings.

1. also
   Community building suggestions most welcome.

Covered above, encourage your traffic to post their problems/solutions.

I would consider changing the ‘Post a response or visit the consumer forum’ text to:-

Write your thoughts and feelings her, or on our consumer discussion(or possibly support), forum.

OR

Have your say here, or on our…

[tb987]

This is great feedback thanks you very much.

You spotted a major problem - very little traffic is going from the information section of the site to the forum. This is not surprising as it is not obvious enough that it is there - I'll address this and most of the other items.

One question though

The numbered links on the homepage will be difficult to change - I can make them nofollow. Do you think it matters that much as they are links to a bookmark on the same page?

Thanks again OWG, very useful.

Tony

[OldWelshGuy]

If the links are anchors to the same page, then leave them. the thing to remember with Google is that anchor text on the page caries a heck of a lot of weight in that pages SEO. leave them as is if they are internal page links

Glad I have helped. It took me over an hour to do the review, which is why I refuse to review sites that don't follow the forum guidelines

[tb987]

Thanks again OWG made some of the changes Just back from two weeks in France : ) . I'll buy you a beer if we ever meet. And will also put a similar amount of effort into reviewing sites that make proper requests.

[Thelight]

Are there any other reliable review sites i could try?

[Thelight]

Ive tryed paid2review