Training Website Improvements...
-
Hi Folks,
I'm in the process of going over our corporate website with a view to improving on-page optimisation, layout, design and user experience and I would like your feedback on what you think I should improve or change with respect to SEO. Some of my ideas include:
- Restructure Home Page to Better Show Our Services
- Possibly Add a Slider to the Home Page (I know engagement rates with these are generally low)
- Restructure the Course Pages Completely (https://purplegriffon.com/courses/itil-training/itil-foundation-training/itil-foundation)
- Restructure the Events Pages Completely (https://purplegriffon.com/event/2028/itil-foundation)
- Improve & Streamline the Booking Process
- AJAXIFY the Booking Process
- Improve Responsive Elements
I'm also interested in conducting user testing before I go ahead and make any changes.
What are your thoughts? What would you change? Thanks.
Gaz
-
Hey,
No problem. I appreciate you taking the time to have a look and get back to me.
I've fixed the issue. It was a JavaScript class selector problem but it's all sorted so thanks for spotting that mate.
Cheers
Gaz
-
Okay so the course thing and the special offer, any page that requires you to scroll down to see the complete list, and the click the next page, will always return to you to the top of the page not at the bottom where you actually clicked the next page button.
To replicate the Consultancy issue
Firefox (browser)
- From Homepage Click Consultancy link
- Click Training to bring up the accordion
- Click any option inside the accordion menu to expand it
- Re-click the accordion menu option to collapse it
- Consultancy text disappears
Sorry took me awhile to get back to this post.
IMG: http://i.imgur.com/fRndGJJ.jpg
Hope that helps,
Don
-
Cheers Dude,
Yeah, the special offers is an issue. I'll look in to sorting that or perhaps only show 5 at a time.
Which courses page are you referring to mate please?
The quiz had all the chrome removed in order to offer less distraction for those taking it. That was intentional.
Finally buddy, I can't replicate the issue you're having with the consultancy page. Seems fine to me bud.
Cheers!
-
Looks really good
Couple nit-picky things, on home page when you click special offers (page 2+) the page refreshes but doesn't bring you back to the special areas you have to scroll back down. Same for the courses page. Perhaps these are good places to use anchors. Also the Quiz page is still orphaned. Finally, when you're on the Consultancy page and you open the Training accordion and close it, the consultancy info disappears.
Cheers!
-
OK, you're probably getting bored with this now but other than including a course search on the home page I'm pretty much getting there now and I've made some more adjustments to the nav and fixed up the event and course pages somewhat. Still a bit more to do but we're getting there now.
https://purplegriffon.com - Home Page
https://purplegriffon.com/courses/itil-training/itil-foundation-training/itil-foundation - Course Page
https://purplegriffon.com/event/2028/itil-foundation - Events Page
I've also improved the load time too and it loads in around 1 second now.
-
Thanks dude. I'm still updating and have now added further enhancements and fixed some bugs. I've also reincorporated the special offers. Cheers.
-
I like the accordion for training (your previous biggest navigation hog), I used this style for our jobs page myself.
I like the reduced footer size still too large for me but better.
I noticed your specials were gone from the home page, was that a low engagement item?
Your top navigation is gone on the Free Quiz page which makes that category an orphan
Looks very good overall.
Don
-
I'm slowly improving the layout and design. Let me know your thoughts.
https://purplegriffon.com/ (CTRL + R or CMD + R)
-
Hi Gaz,
I'm glad you found it helpful. I can certainly concede the point about the Google layout I am sure more people find that type of layout pleasant then not, or it wouldn't be so popular.
I think you really have a firm grasp on what to do and it certainly looks like it is going to require some thought. I kind of wish more people gave you some opinions to help you with your future development.
Best of luck,
Don
-
Hey Don,
Thanks for taking the time to look over the website and give me your opinion on it. I appreciate it.
You've hit on some great points in your feedback. That said, I actually like the Google page you linked. I believe there is an argument for using whitespace well. Whether I've achieved that is another matter.
In terms of AJAX, I wanted to make the booking process work on 1 page and reduce the amount of fields the user has to complete, with only those necessary for making a booking. I think this could be streamlined and made in to a faster process for the user. We all hate filling out forms.
The navigation is something that has been nagging at me from day 1. The problem we have though, is we have so many courses and categories, as well as non-course related pages that need to fit together. This needs some careful thought. I would ideally like to combine the 2 navigation elements and make them more straightforward to use. I really need to think about this one.
Fonts and typography is another one for me. It doesn't feel wholly consistent across the site and I feel that this could be improved somewhat.
Anyway, thanks again for your detailed feedback, I very much appreciate it.
Gaz
-
This may be not at all helpful, but I will provide my feedback.
Restructure Home Page to Better Show Our Services. It maybe helpful in your Special Offer section to show details about a particular course / program in a tooltip, then on the corresponding page give some course details, speaker info, training info, and syllabus rundown.
Possibly Add a Slider to the Home Page (I know engagement rates with these are generally low) I'm okay with sliders when done correctly. Keeping content fresh inside them and making them minimal click through. For example Amazon uses them but will only have 4 offers. Anything more then that I think they figured out is not going to get seen.
Restructure the Course Pages Completely (https://purplegriffon.com/courses/itil-training/itil-foundation-training/itil-foundation) Yep agree, more content details as stated above.
Restructure the Events Pages Completely (https://purplegriffon.com/event/2028/itil-foundation). This is actually one of the more informative pages, I will touch on layout (personal opinion only) in closing.
Improve & Streamline the Booking Process & AJAXIFY the Booking Process I didn't find this at all distasteful. Looks good and is smooth. What sort of AJAX calls were you wanting to add? Examples, error checking?
Improve Responsive Elements I don't have much to add here the only responsive element I seen was the Google map.
Okay, now to my personal opinion. First I didn't look at any source code, I didn't evaluate it from an SEO perspective, I only looked at it from a personal engagement point of view. This is where I differ from the modern layouts that have become much more popular as of late. The site in essence reminds me of a Google page like: https://www.google.com/services/?fg=1 and to me that isn't a plus. I understand from a dynamic perspective and the challenges us web designers are up against when trying to make a site that is for all devices. However, huge areas of white space, larger ass footers, over-populated navigation is really a turn off to me. Most people now-a-days have larger 24"+ monitors and this drive to consume the whole screen makes the pages actually harder to read on desktops. Since, your field is IT related we can assume at least half of your users will be on desktops?
Overall, I think the site is good, I would move some things around like the huge map on https://purplegriffon.com/event/2028/itil-foundation and make it more of click to interact element. Bringing up the "Register for this Course" from the bottom of the page. I like the call to action buttons being consistent and very easy to find. Color scheme is nice and not at all off putting.
Well not for nothing but I hope it helps,
Don
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Right schema markup for wallpapers website?
I own a phone wallpapers website . I'm trying to find the right schema markup for my website. I'm planning to implant schema on home page and categories pages. What type and properties should I use?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Bren-Moss0 -
Blog on Custom Website - WordPress Alternatives
Howdy folks. I'm trying to find any good alternative for adding CMS blog to custom website. Most people, us included, are using WP, but, as we know, it's really painful to work with, easily hackable etc etc. So, I wonder if anyone knows of a blog platform, which can be installed on our own websites for blogging, but without drawbacks of WordPress. Any nudge in correct direction will be appreciated. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DmitriiK1 -
Best SEO practice for multiple languages in website
HI, We would like to include multiple languages for our global website. What's the best practice to gain from UI and SEO too. Can we have auto language choosing website as per browsing location? Or dedicated pages for important languages like www.website.com/de for German. If we go for latter, how about when users browsing beside language page as they will be usually in English
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vtmoz0 -
Stolen website content
Hello, recently we had a lot of content written for our new website. Unfortunately me and my partner have went separate ways, and he has used all my unique content on his own website. All our product descriptions, about us etc, he simply changed the name of the company. He has agreed to take the content down, so that i can now put this content on our new website which is currently being designed. Will google see this as duplicate content as it has been on a website before? Even though the content has been removed from the original website. I was worried as the content is no longer "fresh" so to speak. Can any one help me with this,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Alexogilvie0 -
Improve Response Rate
Hi fellow Mozzers, I have recently been trying to earn new links for my company websites by appealing to local public libraries that line up with our geographic footprint. We have store locations in 569 city, state combinations, so I am finding the local library for each city, state and asking them to add us to their website as a community reference for child care. Here is my pitch email that I am sending out.... Hi There, _ I hope this email finds you in good health and good spirits. _ My name is XXXXX and I represent <insert company="" name="">. I am reaching out to local libraries in the cities and counties where our schools are located in an effort to request local support for our schools. Many libraries across the country have reached out to us asking for parent resources and child care options in their local city. I would like to extend the same value to you.</insert> _ I would love to have our school in <insert city="" name="">be considered for placement on your public library site found at <insert target="" website="" url="">. With ample parent resources and child related materials, our school would be a great fit for your local community. We have many great parenting articles, blogs and local child care options in <insert city="" name="">.</insert></insert></insert>_ Our local school website can be found at : Our parent resource section can be found at: Who do you suggest I speak with regarding earning a placement on your site? Any information would be greatly appreciated. So far I have a response rate of about 1% and of those that do respond, none are willing to add a link on their site in any capacity since our company is privately held and not a public school option. Can anyone suggest either a better way to approach link earning on a city by city basis or help me improve my current initial email to get a better response? I really appreciate it! p.s.... some of my other link targets are city run websites, local chamber of commerce chapters (suspect this will be hard since most require a paid membership), local public school sites, and keyword targeted lists such as "child care in phoenix, az" to see what sites come for each term. Advice on these and anything I may be missing would be of great value.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | dsinger0 -
How to seo websites on another server
We have partners that want us to build and manage a co-branded white label for them. We will have unique content on the white label, however the white label will be located on our server. I was planning to put it on a subdomain and mask the URL, however was told that google will see through that and not give any credit to the white label. Our partners all have high PR and we are a new company with low PR. We want the white labels to get the credit from the partner websites. Should we do it through url masking or by changing the A Record in the other website to point to our server?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TravelerVIP0 -
Improvement in rankings then site dissapears from SERPS?
Yesterday I saw significant improvements in rankings and the first page resulapp for several keywords appeared to have changed and included my site. Today the results appear to have reverted back and my site is nowhere to be seen. At least before I was in the top 100 but now I'm nowhere?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SamCUK0 -
Optimising My Website Link Containers
Hi, I'm looking at my links containers and trying to optimise them. I would be greatful if anyone can give me some feedback on my plan for perfect optimaisation. My links are constructed as follows: I have a two states:
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | James77
1/. A Non Hover state which contains an Image and Text
2/. A Hover state which contains a bit more text - I do this as containing full text on the non hover state would not be good for users and would look ugly as well. Here's an example block of the HTML - as you can see from the URL, its quite a deep page level. From the URL and Alt / Titles the Page I am Linking to is about: "The Royal Hotel Accommodation New York Holidays". I Just a bit confused on how I should apply ALT and Title (Titles in particular) attributes given the nested DiV's etc - I can apply these to parent level, or apply all levels, or apply them to a mix. Also is there any obvious thinks you can think of I am missing that may help onsite SEO? Thanks in Advance CURRENT UNOPTIMISED CODE:
The Royal Hotel
New York Holidays Accommodation
The Royal Hotel
MY OPTIMISED CODE (Adding Title and Alt attributes):
The Royal Hotel
New York Holidays Accommodation
The Royal Hotel
0