Am I on the right track?

[LazyD]

So, it seems my biggest stumbling block with building any website is the design. Im a programmer by nature and my graphic design skills are absolutely nill...

Ive been told over and over again, the biggest problem with my credit card site is the design, whether it be problematic layout, too monochromatic, you name it, someone has probably said it about my site.

It seems, the current design has gotten a little bit of love, of course, im getting comments like one I had recently where the person pretty much said

The way the page is setup, if you click a link to go to a certain category, they cant tell because the credit card content starts too far down, they may just think its a broken link and they are on the same page

So, to try and aleviate this problem I did some reworking on the template...Please let me know if this one is more...friendly..

Current: Credit Cards for every situation - Browse our Credit Card Offers
WIP: simple document

 

[shaggz]

I popped both of your sites up before I even got into your post. The newer design is much better in terms of information being structured. I immediately got a synopsis of the site from the main area, and the links to more detailed sections were naturally located along the left edge of the page. The original site seemed like a bunch of random crap stuffed into each section.

 

[Aequitas]

One suggestion would be to try and set your focus in your programming, I'm used to using ASP.NET 2.0 so I'll try to keep this generic.

What I mean by that is when I click on a link in the top half say the link "Credit Cards for Bad Credit" why not have the page automatically be scrolled down to the start of the category (Where the credit card offers are) instead of having it just refresh to the top of the page.

I hope you get what I mean, I'm not sure how you would do it in anything other then ASP.NET 2.0 but being a programmer I know there are a ton of tutorials out there, I'm sure with a simple search you could find something.

It might help with the response you quoted.

 

[DomainRealty]

Aequitas: You can do that with HTML

<a href="#myplaceholder">Go lower</a>
<br />
<a name="placeholder">You're here</a>

 

[LazyD]

One suggestion would be to try and set your focus in your programming, I'm used to using ASP.NET 2.0 so I'll try to keep this generic.

What I mean by that is when I click on a link in the top half say the link "Credit Cards for Bad Credit" why not have the page automatically be scrolled down to the start of the category (Where the credit card offers are) instead of having it just refresh to the top of the page.

I hope you get what I mean, I'm not sure how you would do it in anything other then ASP.NET 2.0 but being a programmer I know there are a ton of tutorials out there, I'm sure with a simple search you could find something.

It might help with the response you quoted.

I understand what your saying. I still plan to go the new design because it seems overall, more friendly and easier to navigate. With the new design the cards will be displayed on the right side, maybe with a little blurb about the card category they chose but they will be able to see that the category they wanted loaded pretty easily...

Thank you all for your comments, anyone has suggestions, please feel free to throw them in

 

[Andrew]

I've learned two things:

1) Simpler is better
2) No one can tell you how a design will perform, only the numbers can

Make each page as easy to understand and direct as possible. If someone searches "airline credit cards" minimize the visual impact, or remove completly, references to anything else.

Most importantly, do you have targeted credit card traffic? Can you get it? Don't spend your time doing your design over and over again if the answer is no

 

[LazyD]

Andrew,

Thanks for your suggestions...

Currently I am relying on SERP rankings which is obviously...Tough...

Of course, unless I have tons of cash to shell out, PPC wont help either, with most clicks averaging like $2 a click its hard to compete, especially when im simply driving PPC traffic to my homepage and not to an offer page...

I guess its possible to try 7search or other PPC engines like that but im not sure...