Hockey Website

[Hokietalk]

It's not new, but I improved it with more content and added a lot more links.
I'm still not real happy with it.. seems to be too clutter or something.
Any suggestion or comments will be most appreciated.

www.ColoradoHockey.Info

Hokietalk :)

If anything, look at the video "Inglewood Jack" it's a real crack up.

[rogueusmc]

Knee jerk reaction to a quick visit:

Come of the cells don't line up and a couple of things overlap. The first page's title overlaps the cells below it.

It is a low stress site for me because most everything is symetrical...that is one of my quirks.

You might think about an offwhite or a light gray background to cut down on glare.

Lee

[ryanchurchill]

it is cluttered and things do not line up. You might consider adding one more color to the mix white and blue is ok but another accent color might be just what you need. I also suggest you get an invisible stat counter or use one provided by powweb. They look amateurish. I think you are trying to cram to much in one page. Spread it out, but keep it simple to navigate. Your meta tag needs some updating, you only have 1 keyword. Also it is a good idea to make it search engine friendlier by putting your <style> tags in to an external css. Even though you say you have a lot of content it is all links to other peoples sites. You are more like a directory. Also I would be careful who you link to. Try your best not to have more then 20 external links per page otherwise the links will not be given merritt and search engines will treat your site as if it was a link farm. also your little paragraph at the bottom repeating your description will not help you in fact it will probably hurt you with rankings. I suggest you move hockey links to a different page or a few of those boxes and type in there a welcome message, that includes some of the things a visitor might find, what makes your site unique. Right now it isn't all it is, is a collection of links to other peoples sites and content. It is like you took 4 links pages and squeezed them all into one. You have a good start, but you need a lot of work to compete with the big boys. Keep with it I am sure it will turn out great in the end.

[Hokietalk]

Okay.. maybe I should of said "best looked at 800X600 IE 32 bit color".

It looks a bit off cause I tried to make it look good for IE and Firefox.

What you said about all them links must be true. I got lower rankings
on googles, I use to be bottom of first page now it's top of third.
MSN search still has me at second spot first page. Yahoo has it seventh
place on first page. I think my solution is to add pages with relevant links
and just point there from front page.. What you think???

I will experiment with the background colors and see, maybe won't need
to add colors after that, or if you have some color configuration you like to see
let me know.

As for hanging with the big boys.. I don't have the time, money or resources.
I wish I could, but as you can tell.. it's nothing but a lot of links. This website
started when I moved here two years ago to Colorado and I couldn't fine to much
information about Colorado hockey. My kids play hockey and we are a hockey
family. So I put it all on a page and everyone in the hockey community here thanks
me for doing it just to let you know.. I get about 40 to 50 hits a day and 1/3 of
them are return visitors the rest are from search engines. Which I'll admit I pay
one dollar a day for advertising. (I need a sponsor)

Also I will look into a different hit counter and see what's up with a transparent one.
Didn't know Powweb offered one.

So give me some time and you'll see changes, maybe you can help me fine tune it.

Thanks for the advise.
Hokietalk

BTW, rogueusmc..
Your battle site is the bomb !!
USMC 73-77 Semper Fi

[Hokietalk]

Okay..

I changed the background color and got rid of the hit counter.
If you like to see different colors, let me know..

I will be changing links soon and adding page to accompany them.
I'll be making changes to the test website first and transfer them
when complete. This way we can compare and see what's better.
I already like the new background.

Take a look.. :eek:

http://www.coloradohockey.info/index_copy(1).htm (test site)
http://www.coloradohockey.info (original)

Anyone else have a comment or suggestion, feel free to let me know.

[ryanchurchill]

I would be happy to help you out a little, but not as much as I do my clients, but just the same I will point you in the right direction. Your best stats flashy stats thing is what to me looks bad. Go to ops and then packages then I think stats and set up awstats. It will give you way more information and also be completely invisible. I do still think you should have some original content at the very least a table box that is at the top that has a welcome message. I recommend all pages have at least 200 words minimum. (that are not links) I think it is great you made that site and I am sure the community appreciates it. Like I said I think your site will do just fine. It is like bringing your car to the mechanic, sure it ran, but after you get this all fixed it will be like putting a hemi in it. :) Lastly even though it is best viewed at 800x600 a majority of people have larger resolutions. You can design your tables on a % base rather than a pixel base this will help your page adjust to any size of resolution. One other thing you should look into is rss feeds from yahoo. I think you can set them up to feed you hockey scores.

Try not to be discouraged, you are doing a great job and it will only get better. Email me if you want any more advice or have questions. Let me know when you get that hemi in it. :)

[Kitchensink108]

Test site:
-The hockey player in the upper left looks too much like a clip art.
-Same thing with plyerwthbag.gif
-I don't like Ball2.swf
-Just get rid of resolution.gif entirely. It has no real use and looks bad.
-I don't like how the color of the banner stops abruptly on the right. I don't like the whitespace on the right at all (even if it's gray)
-The four cells on the main page are not the same width and are slightly off in alignment
-The text "Colorado Hockey Information" is redundant. Setting that as the alt of the banner should suffice.
-The text of the banner is a little jagged and looks low quality.
-Your headers are a mixture of images and text. I suggest using ONLY images or ONLY text for them. Keep it consistent.
-Get rid of all the freebie MSN stuff (search and weather)
-Is there really a purpose to:
Colorado hockey information you'll find Colorado youth hockey to NHL hockey to Colorado College hockey. There is hockey links to Colorado hockey tournaments, ice rink maps and hockey schools. Colorado Avalanche Hockey NHLers site and Colorado Eagles hockey as well as ice skating rinks. Also Denver Pioneer hockey, DU hockey and Colorado College hockey links. Colorado girls hockey, Woman's hockey It looks out of place, plus there's a typo in the second sentence ('is' instead of 'are').

-You used Frontpage or Word, I think. I suggest not using either of them.

[ryanchurchill]

yeah the tag said he used ms office ewwww. yucky html from them

[rogueusmc]

I try to keep my first page to the bare minimum of scrolling. I try to keep pages short anyway but the first page is a big key. Think of it like a resume, anything more than two pages will usually get thrown in file 13.

BTW, OOOOHRAHHH GIMME ONE OOOHRAHHH!!!... :) Where did you serve and whith whom?

[Hokietalk]

Alright now.

I did a lot of deleting and fixing.
Kitchensink I hope it meets your approval.
It really does look better, thanks for the advice.
And no.. I did not get rid of the ball, I like it to much.

Check and see our progress.
http://www.coloradohockey.info/index_copy(1).htm (test site)
http://www.coloradohockey.info (original)

So.. OK, who else wants to help fine tune this website.
I'm starting to not like the blue banners.. any tips on what to do??


rogueusmc.. I was with Communications 2nd Battalion 1st Marines.

OOOHRAHHH!!!... :D

[ryanchurchill]

might consider leaving the back ground but put the background of the 4 cells white.

[Kitchensink108]

I like the improvements. It's a little more cohesive now. The "Avalanche news" header is about 15px too low, though (in relation to how far the other headers are from the tops of their boxes).

As for the blue, I don't have an opinion either way. Do what you think looks best.

[Hokietalk]

I want to thank all of you for your help and support.
You really got it looking good, more than I imagined.

Again thanks!!
Hokietalk

www.ColoradoHockey.Info

[Hokietalk]

Well.. it's been a month or so since I was critique and the wisdom some of the posters gave me helped my website make it to the top on some of the best web search site.
I would never have imagine that it would rank 4th on googles or 1st on MSN... but it did.. and I want to thank all of you for your great advise.

Hokietalk

ps. if you go to googles or MSN and type in "Colorado Hockey" you will see I am not kidding.

Thanks again. :)