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What is wrong with this website design?

Discussion in 'HTML & Website Design' started by Vadadosa, Jan 29, 2016.

  1. #1
    We have used few automation tools for SEO optimization and accordingly made changes and corrections in the website. Every time we used new tool for SEO optimization, something or other shows up in optimization list. So, it looks like we are on a long road and I decided to post the link here and get additional inputs from SEO experts like you.

    Website: http://www.ashiro.ca
    Category: Search engine for Canadian Rental Property

    Please post what is wrong with this website and what can be improved?


    Updated:
    Just incase, we have two separate websites.
    For computer users: http://www.ashiro.ca
    For mobile users: http://www.ashiro.ca/mob/
    System automatically senses device and takes visitor to corresponding website.
     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2016
    Vadadosa, Jan 29, 2016 IP
  2. deathshadow

    deathshadow Acclaimed Member

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    #2
    Visually there's nothing of "value" in terms of "content" on the main page. You have a complex search form and.. uhm, well you have a search form. Even just a paragraph or two explaining things would go a long ways as right now, I'm not sure content wise what exactly you are expecting search engines to even see to base what the site is about on.

    From purely a usability standpoint, you've got absurdly undersized fixed metric fonts in the form, serif fonts on screen media in those painfully small static sizes, and the page is a non-responsive non-elastic non-semi-fluid design, which pretty much tells anyone not on the magical higher resolution it was designed on to go **** themselves; not a great plan for success in the age where mobile/handheld traffic is neck-in-neck with desktop/notebook. Simply put the page is useless on phones and tablets, AND on higher resolution desktop displays.

    Peeking under the hood, the codebase contains the worst of decade and a half out of date practices. The first line ALONE proudly proclaims such, since "transitional" means "in transition from 1997 to 1998 development practices". Tranny is for using new stuff in old outdated pages, NOT for the development of new websites.

    You've gone overboard with site verification/validate and alexa crap META, tried to use http-equiv that nothign will pay any attention to, an overstuffed pointless keywords meta pretty much designed to be ignored, possibly even getting you slapped down by search engines for abuse.

    Remember, it's called keyWORDS for a reason, and should be 7 or eight single words or proper names that exist between <body> and </body>. Since MOST of your terms in there do not exist on the page as cdata and you've got so blasted many of them, you've pretty well gone and shtupped yourself.

    Likewise using the descrition meta as your opengraph title? that's just gibberish nonsense. Likewise the blocking scripts in the <head> are making the page take far longer to load than it should, and like most sites I see zero reason to be ***ing it up with the bloated train wreck of ineptitude known as jQuery, much less four separate scripts on a site that from what I'm seeing shouldn't even have JavaScript present on it (apart from that advert area)

    ... and that's before we get into the <body>, where you have static style inlined in the markup, tables for layout, tags and attributes that have ZERO business on any website written after 1998, gibberish run-on sentences masquerading as menus, gibberish use of numbered headings with nothing remotely resembling semantic markup, multiple nested tables for *** only knows what, pointless redundant value attributes on your <option> tags, no labels for your input / select as you've got TD doing LABEL's job, incomplete forms... the HTML reeks of being built by someone who either has their head permanently wedged up HTML 3.2's backside, or that isn't qualified to be writing HTML in the first place.

    Hence the 24k of markup to deliver zero content images, 686 bytes of plaintext, and a half dozen form elements; two to three times the amount of code that should be needed for such a simple page!

    I'd Ripley that one. Nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure. It's such a disaster of 18 year old out of date broken inaccessible methodologies that if it's listed on search engines AT ALL, much less having people using it, it's out of blind luck and certainly not "by design". It would be faster and simpler to start over from scratch with someone who actually knows what they are doing, than to try and salvage anything from that laundry list of how NOT to build a website.

    Pretty much EVERYTHING in my series of articles here:
    http://www.cutcodedown.com/article/whats_wrong_with_YOUR_website_index

    Applies to that site.
     
    deathshadow, Jan 29, 2016 IP
  3. Vadadosa

    Vadadosa Member

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    #3
    Hello SEO expert,
    I am looking for suggestion not the criticism.
     
    Vadadosa, Jan 29, 2016 IP
  4. hdewantara

    hdewantara Well-Known Member

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    #4
    I think Deathshadow has not-only-good but vital suggestion for SEO.
    It's in his topmost paragraph, if read carefully...
     
    hdewantara, Jan 29, 2016 IP
    kk5st likes this.
  5. kk5st

    kk5st Prominent Member

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    #5
    Oh, really?

    Then what do you mean by this?
    The suggestion is to start over with content that is indexable, that is properly tagged and works without scripting, because what you have is a steaming pile SEO-wise.

    gary
     
    kk5st, Jan 29, 2016 IP
  6. Vadadosa

    Vadadosa Member

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    #6
    Please see updates posted on original post.
    I am looking for more valuable inputs.
    Thank you for your help.
     
    Vadadosa, Jan 29, 2016 IP
  7. deathshadow

    deathshadow Acclaimed Member

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    #7
    Then you probably shouldn't have asked "What is wrong with this website design?"

    Though it sounds not so much like you want suggestions as you want a magical silver bullet fix -- when the fix involves bullets alright, right to the head.

    @kk5st briefly outlined what I was saying. Your site is so poorly written under the hood it's a miracle it shows up on search what-so-ever. The entire codebase need to be junked and started over if you care at all about ranking. I will ATTEMPT to break this down part by part as "suggestions", but if you can't take a little criticism you might as well put the site down like Old Yeller right now.

    <title>AshiRo.ca Rentals Apartment Office Shop Vacation Home</title>
    Code (markup):
    Is keyword stuffed, and as such likely to get you slapped down by search. Remember the TITLE exists for the sole purpose of what is to be shown as text for the link on a serp, and the title of a window and/or tab. That's it.

    <meta name="description" property="og:site_name" content="Find your home here. Advertise your rental property here." />
    Code (markup):
    Makes ZERO sense as a opengraph site name, and is gibberish Engrish moist goodry as a description META. Should be one or two natural language sentences that avoids repeating "stop words" to be shown under the link on a SERP. That's all it's for.

    <meta name="keywords" content="apartments, apartment, housing, listings, locators, online, free, toronto, mississauga, markham, brampton, vaughan, etobicoke, richmond hill, GTA, ontario, university, apts, rental search, for rent, homes, properties for rent, apartments for rent, rent, rentals, moving " />
    Code (markup):
    This is stuffed to the gills with more abuse of the tag's meaning. This is supposed to be seven or eight single words or proper names that exist between <body> and </body> as character data (plaintext). Since most ALL of that mess doesn't actually exist inside the document body, at BEST that meta is ignored, at worst it could get you de-ranked.

    <link rel="shortcut icon" href="Images/AshiRoIco.ico" type="image/vnd.microsoft.icon" />
    Code (markup):
    Minor nitpick, a lot of browsers won't find that icon... parly from it not actually being named favicon.ico, not being in the root, but more so using a type attribute on it. Check your server logs, you've probably got a few 404 thanks to that.

    <link href="Styles/Styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    Code (markup):
    No media target, just what is this uselessly vauge "styles.css" actually FOR? Screen? Print? Aural? Braille? Quijada's? ... and no, "ALL" is not an acceptable answer.


    <meta http-equiv="cache-control" content="max-age=0" />
    <meta http-equiv="cache-control" content="no-cache" />
    <meta http-equiv="expires" content="-1" />
    <meta http-equiv="expires" content="Tue, 01 Jan 1980 1:00:00 GMT" />
    <meta http-equiv="pragma" content="no-cache" />
    Code (markup):
    99.99% of the time the LAST thing you want to do is say the above on a content page -- screwing around on cache control should be done 1) on the server not in the markup, and 2) only on static files like images, scripts and stylesheets! Should not even be in your HTML.

    <div id="dvScript" runat="server" style="z-index:1000; position:fixed; top:30%; left:35%; width:auto;height:inherit;background-color:#ffffff;border:1px solid #ffffff;">
    Code (markup):
    Static style in the markup, a type of bloat that these days can result in some search-engines de-ranking you. Basically NOTHING in that style="" has any business in your HTML. The FICTIONAL "runat' atttribute reeks of someone using Visual Studio and ASP.NET without understanding how to use HTML.

     <table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0"  width="500" class="smlfont" style="border:1px solid #101010;">
        <tr class="SubHdr"><td width="90%">Message</td><td align="right" ><span onclick="$('#dvScript').hide();" style="cursor:pointer;">[X]</span></td></tr> 
        <tr><td align='left' colspan="2" id="tdScript" style="color:red">Your browser does not support script. Some of the advance features will not work. 
        Please enable script and access this website.</td></tr>
        <tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="noscript.html" target="_blank" style="color:red">Click here to learn how to enable script for your browser.</a></td></tr>
    </table>
    Code (markup):
    Tables for layout... guaranteed to make the page more bloated and slower, get de-ranked by search since they include that in page quality rankings now, and of course this is a warning for something that you shouldn't have a warning on... Unwritten rule of JavaScript; if you can't make a page that works without scripting FIRST, you likely have ZERO business adding scripting to it!

    <form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" action="" >
    <div style="float:left;width:100%; vertical-align:top; background-color:#ffffff; vertical-align:top;" >
    <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" class="smlfont" border="0">
    <tr><td width="80%">
    <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
        <tr valign="bottom"><td width="150px" rowspan="2"><a id="lnklogo" href="" target="_blank"><img src="images/logo.png" style="border:0;vertical-align:middle; " alt=" " width="120px" /></a></td>
    Code (markup):
    There is rarely a legitimate reason to put a name attribute on a form, the empty action does NOT actually default to the same page on all UA's, that DIV and outer table have zero business on any website after 1997 and again is possibly getting you slapped down by search. Attributes like width, cellspacing and target have ZERO legitimate place on nay page written after the 1990's either.

    That's one giant mess for what should probably just be:
    <h1><a href="\">Ashiro</a></h1>

    NOT joking. That's it, that's all that should be. You apply this utter and complete ignorance across the rest of the page and it's again shocking if the page is listed by search engines whatsoever, much less actually usable to anyone. Same with things like this:

    <option value="House">House</option><option value="Townhouse">Townhouse</option>
    Code (markup):
    If the value is the same as the content of the tag, you don't have to say the value, in fact doing so can get you slapped down by search for duplicate content and/or keyword stuffing! Value on option is for when the value is DIFFERENT!

    Your site is a fixed width so it's inaccessible on smaller displays. It's got non-semantic markup with zero graceful degradation so it's inaccessible to users who don't have that perfect mix of browser capabilities. As such it flat out ignores the best advice we were ever given on SEO, "Write for the user, not the search engine" -- since that's what accessible design IS.

    You basically have 24k of markup doing probably 4 to 8k's job!

    Admittedly, MOST of that looks like you are blindly trusting Visual Studio or Web Expression or some other "tool" to do the work for you -- and the result is what one can typically expect from blindly letting such software turn you into the tool.

    If that's too "critical" for you, just pack it in now and go flip burgers... as at that point you clearly have ZERO interest in being successful or building websites.
     
    deathshadow, Jan 29, 2016 IP
    KangBroke and malky66 like this.
  8. MyLaunchKits

    MyLaunchKits Member

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    #8
    SEO Expert has given you some very valuable advice and you would do well to listen to it. He's not being mean, he's being thorough and approaching things from a technical standpoint.

    If you want it in more layman's terms:

    Your website could definitely stand to look better. There is a lot of negative (white) space that is being underutilized. Don't be afraid to use it.

    All of the margins and spacing seem off. Your site was clearly not designed by a designer and the result is it looks unprofessional.

    The two random pictures on the right side seem out of place and thrown in there.

    There is nothing of value on the main page other than a search field- try to enhance the overall content of your site by providing content to people. Give them a reason to trust and use your site. As it is right now your site looks like some kind of scam and not a valid, professional website.

    Grammatically your site could stand a makeover. If you are trying to appeal to an English speaking audience you may want to have a native English speaker edit the wording and phrasing.

    On to your question about SEO and Ranking - SEO Expert gave you a lot of information and it is good information.

    But again, in layman's terms...

    SEO is generally made up of three different things:

    1. Your Site Traffic - How popular your site is
    2. Your Site's Code - How well made your site is
    3. Your Backlinks - How many other sites link back to your site

    There's more involved but those are the basics that you have some control over. SEO Plugins will help a little bit of course but if you don't have someone on your team capable of writing coherent, clean, SEO friendly, SEO optimized code you're not going to help yourself. If your site was cleaner (code-wise) you'd help your SEO. At this point you really may be better of scrapping and starting from scratch because just judging by your source code that I can see and what SEO Expert posted- you have a LOT of things to clean up.

    Backlinks are a great source of enhancing your SEO but not all backlinks are created equal. If you can get listed on some real estate websites, search directories, etc you'll be more on your way towards improving your SEO.

    Your site traffic and popularity will increase if you fix the first two and all three together will make for a good SEO strategy.

    But SEO is not a quick fix. There's nothing you can do- either on your own or by paying someone else that is going to instantly make you rank better. SEO is part of a long-term strategy, it's not a quick fix. It will take time and effort to fix what's broken but in the end your business will be better off for it. That may entail paying an experienced design/development company to overhaul your site but it's something that you absolutely must do if you want to improve your site and improve your rankings.

    That being said- just be aware that even if you hired the best designers and the best SEO firm in the world- it may be weeks or months before you really start to see any measurable changes.
     
    MyLaunchKits, Jan 30, 2016 IP
  9. gamblingdomains

    gamblingdomains Active Member

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    #9
    This design is not easy on the eyes and doesn't relay a sense of trust.

    You are missing content on the site if you want to help your SEO.

    You are using serif fonts everywhere which is not normal for websites today.

    It doesn't appear to be responsive either.

    Highly recommend a redesign
     
    gamblingdomains, Feb 23, 2016 IP
  10. udit14may

    udit14may Greenhorn

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    #10
    you should hire SEO Expert@
     
    udit14may, Feb 23, 2016 IP
  11. BRicha

    BRicha Greenhorn

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    #11
    User Interface designs is missing, Must add content, Can improve the design part of the website, You can also add the listing of all the property in one page because its hard to find the property by adding them. Must improve SEO keywords.

    thanks
     
    BRicha, Feb 26, 2016 IP
  12. hashmi syd muqtadeer

    hashmi syd muqtadeer Greenhorn

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    #12
    your advertize panel need modification
     
    hashmi syd muqtadeer, Feb 27, 2016 IP
  13. Globeadsdat

    Globeadsdat Greenhorn

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    #13
    I don't know which SEO tool you used but what is the point of looking for a good SEO result when you don't have proper content in your website?
    Try to add more relevant keyword and your search is a bit complex. And the structure of your website isn't proper. Hire an SEO expert in your locality.
    Do check your competitor's websites you'll get more Idea.
     
    Globeadsdat, Mar 22, 2016 IP
  14. heftzwecke

    heftzwecke Member

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    #14
    A short look on your page: Sorry, but it looks creepy! It looks not trustworthy. Who are you? Why is the font so big? Why aren't there photos of you? Why do you want a forum - I mean a forum is a place for people to discuss - who would return more than once (usually for a complaint). Why is there no street address? Sorry, but I agree, the design, I just don't like it.
    I think you need to write about you, how long are you in business, who are you, why people can trust you...if you are new you write why you are doing what you are doing, what is your intention, what are your ethics....
     
    heftzwecke, Mar 22, 2016 IP
  15. Aprioriuser

    Aprioriuser Member

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    #15
    1) In size 1024x768 not full view.
    2) Maybe need use open graph or schema tags?
    3) Meta description too short
     
    Aprioriuser, Mar 24, 2016 IP
  16. Ahsan Abrar

    Ahsan Abrar Greenhorn

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    #16
    No Graphics no attraction for users....
     
    Ahsan Abrar, Mar 28, 2016 IP
  17. Lucy Barret

    Lucy Barret Member

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    #17
    A few things that I noticed is the UI and lack of content. You should improve your UI design and add a bit of content on your page that would be good for your site even for SEO purposes as well.
     
    Lucy Barret, Mar 29, 2016 IP
  18. mmerlinn

    mmerlinn Prominent Member

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    #18
    How do you expect search engines to index NOTHING? You will NEVER get indexed until there is CONTENT to index.

    And NONE of the buttons work, although the associated links DO work.
     
    mmerlinn, Apr 2, 2016 IP