How can i make this site better...?

[crashtestmac]

Guys,

I have got heavily involved with a local Taekwondo club and am trying to help increase interest and help make the place better.

I know that a lot of the info and pics/videos are old and they need updating but what else can i do/add. They have not had anyone that can help out before and i want to do the best i can for them.

Also how can i get them further up google as we are about 10th, there are even some in Halifax that come above us when you search Huddersfield Taekwondo in google.

www.huddersfieldtaekwondoclub.org

Any help will be greatly excepted.

Thanks
Mac

[big man]

1) lose the splash page. Just get rid of it.
2) remember that people will visit your site in resolutions different to the one you designed it in - the header only appears on the left of the page for me
3) sort out your header. At the moment it's just a massive, ill fitting graphic with no navigational purpose or information
4) get rid of the background - use a plain colour that complements your scheme
5) pay attention to the styling - it breaks in chrome (not badly, but looks unprofessional)
6) personally i don't like your colour scheme - grey menu's on a grey background - everything disappears

To improve your google ranking, read up on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

I'd also look through all the threads in this forum as these questions have been asked again and again

I'd also suggest getting rid of the tables in your code - seriously bad form

Hope that helps mate

[BBK]

Spot on advice Big Man

[crashtestmac]

Cheers for that BigMan.

For the record, this is not my work it was done believe it or not by a design company.

I will have a good look at it all and see what i can do with it......
Web pages are not my forte....

[fin23]

pretty much agree with comments, one thing that i hate with a passion - are sounds that play on a web page when it loads.. Absolute NO NO, a button offering to play the sounds - maybe. First thing i did when i went to the home page was close it because of the annoying sounds!

agree about the banner, its not too pleasing on the eye.

To improve SEO you need to recode your page symantically, e.g instead of your banner image you create a <h1>Huddersfield Taekwondo Club</h1> and style the header with a background which gets displayed and shoot the text it self right off the page using a -vlaue text indent (like -5000)

The spiders from search engines look for items on your page in order, so after a few meta bits it looks for H1's the H2's etc, you images have not got ALT attributes, another thing needed for improved seo.

Seems to be me that you have no keywords at all on your home page, its all Joomla tags. I dont know joomla so maybe there are keywords tagged somewhere else but i could not see em.
far as i can see, your google bot sees you page with joomla open source as key words.... :/ (which also means your web agency just banged out a template for your bucks)

i think you need to start from ground up personally, but then i seem to enjoy doing stupid things like that

[Raptor]

so so many changes needed to that m8.

as its a content driven site you may want to look at something like wordpress. Easy to get into - tons of support and addons and lots of nice skins to try. Joomla is great also and there are a TON of addons available - you seem to have chosen the worst lol

I wouldn't even think about SEO at this stage - that is something you can easily attack once you have your design sorted. fin23's advice is spot on - however it can be simplified if you are confused so dont panic. (this is a good joomla seo site http://www.joomlaseo.net/ )

First step is to find a CMS app that you can work with and then get an idea of what design you like. Clean, simple and fresh is always the way to go. The web 2.0 look is quite in atm (thats what ive done here at DF in the last day or so) - the beauty of web 2.0 is that its very simple and clean but looks the part.

Check these out for an idea of how you can easily make the site look - http://www.templatemonster.com/joomla-templates.php

Let me know if you want any help / pointers.

[big man]

First thing i did when i went to the home page was close it because of the annoying sounds!

Jeez - i had my speakers off when i clicked it otherwise that would have been number 1 on the list !


Sounds like you've got plenty of advice on what to start with now mate

Good luck with it

[crashtestmac]

Sorry for the delay in replying been off the grid....!!!!

Cheers for the pointers, looks like i may start again from the ground up then take it to the company that are hosting it and get them to make the swap.

I have to admit that the sound does do my head in.

The Instructor wants to make that even more "impact" when you click on the site but i will have a word.

Cheers guys will update with my progress when i get chance...

[crashtestmac]

Help....

do i need both Joomla and wordpress or can i just learn one or the other.

Which one is easier to get started with...?

And is the CMS app i need actually wordpress or joomla...?

Cheers

[crashtestmac]

Ignore me...

I have installed Joomla on my QNAP to have a play with, going for content first using that then as far as i can see it can then add word press to include some blogging and other shizzle like that at a later stage.

Thanks for the pointers again chaps, i have got some serious reading to do now...!

[fin23]

The Instructor wants to make that even more "impact" when you click on the site but i will have a word.

if you want me to come round and slap it into him gimme a nod.. he don't sound to hard

Seriously, sounds are a huge no no, link to play sound - maybe, forced sound YUK.

If he wants impact it needs to be with great images, good looking headers and colours.

I would get a nice cam and get some quality shots of your man doing his thing - remember good lighting and your iso speeds and things.. i would ask in the photographers forum for tips and live action shots to impress.

I have never used joomla so cant help there.