I need some eyes on my new instructor website

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T

Trebor

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I *finally* got my website up for my instructor business after having the domain for a year.

www.swatacademy.com

I did it myself using a standard template provided by the domain registration company and using their free one-page hosting provided as part of the domain registration package.

So, I need some people to take a look and let me know if there are any problems with any browsers, or any other display problems, or typo's, etc.

I'd also love suggestions from anyone more web savvy on SEO, keywords, etc, to improve the google ranking and hits.

And, yes, I do plan to go to a different web host later so I can do a site with multiple pages and add more info and features, but I needed to get off my butt and get SOMETHING up now, instead of a blank page at my URL.

If any other instructors or students have suggestions on what features to add later when I go to a multi-page site, that would be appreciated as well.

What things have you found useful to drive traffic to your site and improve business? I tried to hit the basics such as prominent contact info, class schedules at the top of the page, descriptions of my two most common classes, and some info about my instructor credentials.

I can't do shopping carts or on-line class registration with my current set up, but that's something I have in mind for the future.

Like I said though, I figure a simple site up NOW, is better then the perfect site up later, especially considering how long it took me to get this one together.
 
Rob, I'm a web developer and I'd like to offer these suggestions:

Add two very important meta-tags in your <head> section:
<meta name="keywords" content="keywords go here>
<meta name="description" content="description goes here">

Add in more keywords into your <title> of your site. Go ahead and put in location information (michigan) and a few other words you think people will use to search and find your site.

Sign up for a free Google account and use their Google Analytics system to track the traffic your gettings, what keywords they are using to find you, etc.

With your free Google account, now add your business for free to the Google Local Business Center system.

External links - or links to your site located on other websites is a huge driver for how well your site does in search results. Try to get your site listed on as many websites as you can - business directories, gun ranges, etc.

Good luck,
Todd
KCWebPlaza
 
Rob,
I like it too...I'm sending a Word document to your email with a few wording tips (they call me the Word Doctor at work)...;)
 
Nice site!

Where will the May 16 course be taught, Williamston?! Count me in! E-mail on the way.

Geno
 
Thanks for the help!

KCWebPlaza,

I'm not sure how to add meta tags to my "head" section. I'm not even sure exactly if I know what you mean.

I built this off a template so I didn't do any HTML coding myself. I'll noodle around on the "build it yourself" site and see if I can figure out how to manually add HTML coding.

I may PM you here if I can't figure it out.

Bcurry,
Thanks for the e-mail. I'll go look for it now.

Doc 2005,

Yep, advanced class is at CCRC in Williamston. I'll check for your e-mail and respond later today (siging off now).
 
I like it -- very clean and uncluttered, all the basic info seems to be there. This kind of web page should help shoppers make a decision (and not confuse them), and yours works well.

One thing I might add would be a little more detail on class start times and duration (something like, "class runs from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm"). Then people wouldn't have to be calling you just to get that information. Also, if you offer classes or other services by appointment for those who can't make the regular schedule.
 
Is this only for advanced shooters, or are newbies welcome? You do menation "newer" shooters, but to me that implies some level of expertise.

If shooters with zero experience are welcome, that needs to be more prominantly mentioned. If they're not, there should be a more explicit prerequisite mentioned.

Good luck!
 
Heron & Karen, Good points. I'll probably incorporate those ideas when I revise the site next.

HeavenlySword, I have someone local who is working on a trade-out deal with me for a spot in a class in exchange for web design.

We just haven't been able to coordinate things yet and I wanted to have *something* up in the meantime, so I did this myself for now.
 
I would take the search bar at the top of the page out. It makes it look cheap. Other than that it looks good to me.
 
It looks good to me. I have a couple of suggestions.

- The 'Swat Academy' title at the top of the page looks very Times New Roman-ish. I think something custom designed would add a lot to the look of the page.
- This is probably something that you can't change but to me the title 'Swat Academy' sounds very mall-ninja-ish.

Just my $.02. Good luck with the venture.
 
To respond to the recent posts:

I will be setting up an e-mail with the domain name. I just need to noodle around in the "build it yourself" site I used to figure out how to set it up. That's my next priority. But, I needed to get my contact info up and didn't want to wait until I had that figured out. Hopefully I'll have that set up in the next week or so.

I can't get rid of the "search this site or search the web" feature. It's part of the template I used and, as far as I can tell, can't be removed.

The font for the "Swat Academy" page name was also part of the template and, so far at least, I can't figure out how to change it either.

Those "can't change things because of the template" issues will go away once I get some outside hosting set up and work with my local web guy about putting up a new site. As long as what I have up now is actually live, looks half-way decent, and has my contact info and schedule up, it'll do for now though.

As for the "Swat Academy" business name itself, that was the name of the existing business I bought from another instructor. I mainly wanted his referal lists and his business phone number. I do get A LOT of referals from his former students and that phone number was quite well circulated by him previously.

I have been thinking about changing the name. I have been waiting until I used up the exisitng stocks of printed publicity materials I got with the business. Now that I'm almost out of the brochures and flyers, I may do a name change this year. At that point I'd get a new domain name as well and do a redirect from the Swat Academy name to the new name as well.

Edit: Btw, thanks for all the help and suggestions everyone! I've gone in already and made several changes suggested here and elsewhere. I'm making a list of what changes I want to make for the next edit based on the continuing suggestions I've received. I think it's close to being as good as it's going to get for being the simple one-page site that it is.
 
Last edited:
Rob, I'm a web developer and I'd like to offer these suggestions:

Add two very important meta-tags in your <head> section:
<meta name="keywords" content="keywords go here>
<meta name="description" content="description goes here">
Click to expand...

In addition to KCWebPlaza remarks... Description meta tag works better when places immediately below Title meta tag. Two sentences in the Description is the max used my most search engines and directories. Do not repeat keywords and list them in order of importance like
<META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="handgun, training, Michigan, concealed, carry, class,">
Listing in order assures those most important are read by all spiders.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, go to www.dmoz.org and browse to the area you wish to be listed and add your URL there. DMOZ shares their database with all other search engines and directories and is the quickest way to get listed in Yahoo.

External links, as KCWebPlaza said, are very helpful. Limited use of bold text can also help.

Cutsie crap with Java scripting on your gateway page [home] can hurt your ranking.

Alt text properly used will give you a slightly higher ranking... Your image of the pistol uses this:

<img alt="KahrPM9.JPG" border=""
But would be more correct and give you that 0.1% boost if it used this:
<img alt="Image of a Kahr PM9 semi-automatic pistol." border="0"

Once you have a good ranking, the easiest way to keep it is to not become stale. Make frequent updates to the text on your gateway page. Simply updating your schedule will help in this respect. An often update News paragraph will keep you ranked highly.

I started doing this for a living in 1991 and would rather be homeless than do it for money again BUT I can't ever seem to keep my techy opinions to myself ;)
 
The font for the "Swat Academy" page name was also part of the template and, so far at least, I can't figure out how to change it either.
Click to expand...

Firstly, fonts are viewable only on computers which already have that font installed. Do if you change the font, your neighbor may see it differently than it looks on your machine... That said, this is the line you would edit:
<p><font face="Times New Roman,Times,serif" size="7" color="ffffff"><b>Swat Academy</b></font></p>

Using Arial is done as:
<font face="Arial,Times New Roman,Times,serif"

The browser will display "Swat Academy" in the first font of that list which is installed on that particular computer.

I can't get rid of the "search this site or search the web" feature. It's part of the template I used and, as far as I can tell, can't be removed.
Click to expand...

Delete all of this:

<p>
<!--gem:tlx.tlx.websearch-->
<!-- Start Gem Search -->
<form id="websearch1" name="websearch1" method="post" action="http://search.web.com/searchresults.aspx" target="_blank">
<table cellpadding="0" width="100%" border="0"><tr><td align="center">
<input name="query" type="text" size="30">
<input type="submit" name="Submit2" value="Search" id="Submit2" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:12px;"
/>
<input name="searchtype" type="radio" value="site" checked="checked" />
<span style="text-decoration:none;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:11px;" target="_blank">This site&nbsp;</span>
<input name="searchtype" type="radio" value="www" />
<span style="text-decoration:none;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:11px;" target="_blank">The Web&nbsp;</span>
</td></tr></table></form><!-- End Gem Search -->

<!--end gem--><!--"''"-->
</p>
 
twoclones,

Thanks much! When I have some time I'll go in and poke around the HTML and see if I can make those changes work.
 
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