I haven't worked on my site in a while, and I am looking to update my sites design/theme. Please critique my site and let me know what I can do to help update the design and maybe change a few things around. http://www.playflasharcade.com Play Flash Arcade
Hey Robo, really nice design you have there already. WHat I would suggest is deploying increased font sizes for headings. Recently Played Games, Latest Games, Arcade Games, etc. The reason why is I find that all these blend in to much with other text. It just looks like a whole lot of letters packed in. Increase the font size on your headings and give a little space around them.
Colors: I think the colors look great. mixes well, easy on the eyes. seems like i can read everything content is well placed. Content/ADs: Please don't put an ad on that left column , i feel like it takes away from the website making it feel narrow. if i saw an ad, my eyes would ignore the entire left side of ur website. mix it in with the games and content so it doesnt draw out the page too much. great when playing a game, you have A MILE LONG WHITE SPACE UNDERNEATH! advertise more games!! like a "recently played list" or just fill it up in general, potential ad space there Overall i give the website 6.5/10. needs to work on a few things as far as content goes. perhaps a new flash banner that mixes red/black together would give it a little more sparkle.
Alright I have directly addressed a few of the issues that people have brought up. I have created new headers using my logo font for the left sidebar. I have slightly enlarged the for for the regular headers. To address the too much white space underneath, whenever a visitor joins the site then the white space is filled with user-only functions. I would like more reviews as well! Keep them coming!
Great looking site great content, however since your asking for a critique here is a couple of points Note though that this critique is only useful for you if you are planning to maximize revenue from your site, if its done as a hobby then ignore the following a) I have never so far had any(and i mean any) success with the google search bar on the site i blame it on i) That people generally search either by putting google in the address bar or by using their bar built in to their browser. ii) when they do search something the search result page looks alien to them. Point being, since google restricts u to 3 ad spaces u might wanna get rid of the search box and embed normal ad box instead. b) Your adsense is too isolated. I think try to embed it in the middle of your content as appose to maybe the top right corner or the left navigation bar. anyway my 2 cents....but i have to command you, beautiful looking site...gl mate
Hey! It's cool that you've already acted on our feedback. Site is looking better, keep up the good work.
I think the ad should be below the Search and the popular game box. Otherwise visitors will have to scroll down in order to see those. Also putting popular game box above will increase the exposure of other games as well.
Thanks for all the reviews and critiques! I really try and please my users and it looks like it's paid off. chosenlight: Google lets you place 3 Ads, 3 Link Ads, and a Search Box on every page, so the Search Box isn't obstructing any current ads, only maximizing the total. Also, I actually do earn from my Search Box, usually about 10% of what I earn from the regular ads. To address your other concern about my ads being too isolated, I have now moved the ads around some, trying to better blend and maybe see if I get different results. Thanks for the tip, hopefully it will pay off. The ads may take a bit to come into effect. Zoomer: Thanks, I'll keep on trying to improve. The more users posting here the better! garyc40: I may be moving the Popular Games box above the top ad, but I will have to contemplate the decision, as well as make sure I track my results to know whether or not the ad was negatively affected. BigCeege: Thanks, simple but sweet. Keep these reviews, suggestions, compliments, and critiques coming! Nothing is too small! (Hey, it will add to your post count too...)
There is still lot of white space bellow games. If you do not want to crowd it with ads or other games, you could write text description of the game the user is playing. That is also a good content for search engine. Adsense above the game itself is to close to the game, and clicks to that ad can be seen as accidental clicks which google do not like. Try to ad hr or something bellow it.
its nice but the logo cannot be ready immediately. maybe you can reface the font used and add more colors?