Criticize this! Need site review

Posting this one in "open air" because I need as many inputs and eyes as possible on this one.

Finished this one up today when I had to get my eyes away for a while from my main work. (Sorry Judy, needed to straighten my head up LOL)

Well.. Finished.. It's not finished but it's quite close to what I want.

Having serious thoughts to make this baby my #1 site and let the others rest aside.

Here we go!
Site: Casino Games


Please find things I might have missed and give me real critic, I want to know what I need to change.

(I know that I probably will get some whipping from a certain someone, but I don't give a rats a** about that, we don't try to rank for the same words.. )

/Hakan

First impressions...

No branding. What's the name of the site? I guess, from reading the description that the site is called "Casino Games". How will your customers remember the url?

The purple link color is too hard to read. Why are the links in different colors? Consistency is important.

I would get rid of the superslots banner and replace it with a logo. The logo needs to include a reference to the url. Something like this:

Casino Games
by GamesNCasino.com

Your top 5 listed casinos should be the first ones listed in the Reviews section of the left navigation column. If I was looking for the best casinos to try, I would want to read the review for it. Why are they the best? I don't see any links to the reviews for those casinos.

I like the template/color scheme.

Terry beat me to a lot of the big points :eyebrow:, but from a purely aesthetic point of view, I think the red/grey colour-scheme works well, but I'd use images that compliment this if possible (especially on the homepage), and keep the images on the same alignment and size range so the users are given a smooth ride around your site.

A logo of your site name would give it a professional look - and if you are going to have banners, I'd use a skyscraper banner on the pages so it doesn't obscure the site's branding or distract from any of your buttons along the top.

If you need any content tips or copy for the site, give me a shout and I'd be more than happy to help.

Thanks Terry!

I will try to answer.

I have a friend who is creating a site logo, it's going to be Casino Games. But he hasn't finished it yet. It will be a floating div on top beside the clock and jackpot text.

I can't use Games n Casino since the owner of a similar site don't want me to use the domain I got, actually that owner forbid me to use the "branded name" LOL
But just to not get in deeper trouble I will not use games and casino as branding. I think Casino Games works just fine and I will rely on SE and direct links just to see where it all ends up in the beginning.

Link color, Yes I have seen that too on other screens, I will find a better color for that.

Good point on reviews and top list. Thanks!


/Hakan

Quote:

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Originally Posted by thepokerkeep

First impressions...

No branding. What's the name of the site? I guess, from reading the description that the site is called "Casino Games". How will your customers remember the url?

The purple link color is too hard to read. Why are the links in different colors? Consistency is important.

I would get rid of the superslots banner and replace it with a logo. The logo needs to include a reference to the url. Something like this:

Casino Games
by GamesNCasino.com

Your top 5 listed casinos should be the first ones listed in the Reviews section of the left navigation column. If I was looking for the best casinos to try, I would want to read the review for it. Why are they the best? I don't see any links to the reviews for those casinos.

I like the template/color scheme.

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Tables on the left need a bit of colour. Maybe make them the sames as the top 5 which looks really good BTW. A sharp logo at the top will compliment the overall slick design of the site.

I'm not a fan of this design. It might look attractive when you first saw it but I think from a conversion point of view it's not the best one to use. There are too many things trying to get the users attention. The large image only distracts and it's a poker image as well. Less banners more logos. I personally think darker sites convert less than a light or whiter site that's easier to read and adds an element of trust.

SEO needs a bit of work as well. The page is littered with code which might slow it down a touch and I think the images are not properly named and the alt text uses 'casino games' too much for different images.

I'm sure more can be done but I would reconsider the design for another template and map out the structure of the site. Be aware of what your users would type to find you and what they would expect to see and do on your site when they get there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hakank

I can't use Games n Casino since the owner of a similar site don't want me to use the domain I got, actually that owner forbid me to use the "branded name" LOL

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Is 'Games n Casino' trademarked? If not, you have the .com so why not use that as your branding. Branding yourself as something as generic as "Casino Games" without the domain to back it up (ie: casinogames.com) means that nobody will remember your domain name.

Hakank, you know my stance on this, you are trying to divert my type-in traffic.

I have offered to buy the name from you and have not heard back.

I have not taken steps as yet because of your connection to Casinobonusguy, but if this indeed goes live and steals my traffic, you will be hearing from me.

After seeing Dominiques domain the issue makes a lot more sense now (my simple brain didn't notice that 'n' could also be written 'and' - it's been a long day....).

Is the domain of any particular value other than the branding that has already been created? (eg: ages, indexed etc..?). If not then you could swap it with Dominique for an equally brandable name?

Dom,
I know..

This is going to be my only reply to this..
If your visitors don't know how to spell "and" then I don't know..

I saw the offer on buying the domain, but I'm not going to sell unless you can offer me the same amount as they're asking for casinogames.com if they will sell that.

You had the chance to buy this domain since it was released in 2007.
It's now 2010.. Sorry, but you didn't search and saw that.

Don't bother if I work with Judy, she has nothing to do with this.
This is my own domain and you know that you can't do anything about it.

/Hakan

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dominique

Hakank, you know my stance on this, you are trying to divert my type-in traffic.

I have offered to buy the name from you and have not heard back.

I have not taken steps as yet because of your connection to Casinobonusguy, but if this indeed goes live and steals my traffic, you will be hearing from me.

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Gamesncasino has no value except that it is a clone of my well branded, 8 year old domain that lives primarily off type in traffic because of the many years of branding I put in.