Need advice

chris199

New Member
Hi, guys! I am done redesigning my website. What are your thoughts about it? How are colors, animation, navigation, etc?
Please give me your suggestions. I really appreciate your opinion.

https://under-the-open-sky.com
 
Last edited by a moderator:
No specifics about design of the website - I'll leave that to others as they would examine code etc - but I'll weigh in with that you should have a email other than gmail.
 
  • Remove the newsletter pop up. It loads twice every time I view a page. These actually stop people doing the thing came to your site to do – read your content. Remove it and put your subscription form somewhere else that's easy to find.
  • Don't disable right-click functionality, some people need this functionality for screen readers or accessibility reasons.
  • You're lacking any description about what the site is about. I know it's about outdoor activities but what specifically is the purpose of the site? Is it just reviews? Tell me as soon as the page loads.
  • You're lacking basic stuff like semantic HTML mark-up too. Why are your headings inside a span tag instead of the relevant H1, H2, H3 etc tags that they're designed for? You'll struggle to rank without mark-up search engines can read.
  • I'd also change a lot of the microcopy. What does "Discover Category" mean? Why not something logical like "View all outdoor clothing"
  • Your navigation links are a bit too generic too – "Hunting, Fishing, Camping." Something like "Hunting Guides" might be better. Give users context about what they're going to find on that page before they click.
  • Your plugins are loading A LOT of CSS files into the header. This can really slow down you load speeds
As niche sites go, I'd worry that there might be too much focus on the reviews and pushing affiliate links. You might want to balance out the reviews with more advice and guides to attract traffic.

The animation and graphics are very nice though and you've got some strong imagery.
 
It's an affiliate site and is therefore very misleading. I expected to see proper reviews, instead I see a 'Check Price' thing that lakes me to amazon.

Bin the homepage animation it add no value at all.

Get a proper email address.

Bin the newsletter popup

The code is horrible and you have a load of unecessary plugins, scripts and styles.

I can see what you are trying to do but the execution is off. Don't suggest it's a review site when it's not. This will annoy everyone who visits the site.

I suspect however you aren't really interested in a review, you just wanted the linkdrop. Especially as you have gone to great length to hide who you are.
 
  • Remove the newsletter pop up. It loads twice every time I view a page. These actually stop people doing the thing came to your site to do – read your content. Remove it and put your subscription form somewhere else that's easy to find.
  • Don't disable right-click functionality, some people need this functionality for screen readers or accessibility reasons.
  • You're lacking any description about what the site is about. I know it's about outdoor activities but what specifically is the purpose of the site? Is it just reviews? Tell me as soon as the page loads.
  • You're lacking basic stuff like semantic HTML mark-up too. Why are your headings inside a span tag instead of the relevant H1, H2, H3 etc tags that they're designed for? You'll struggle to rank without mark-up search engines can read.
  • I'd also change a lot of the microcopy. What does "Discover Category" mean? Why not something logical like "View all outdoor clothing"
  • Your navigation links are a bit too generic too – "Hunting, Fishing, Camping." Something like "Hunting Guides" might be better. Give users context about what they're going to find on that page before they click.
  • Your plugins are loading A LOT of CSS files into the header. This can really slow down you load speeds
As niche sites go, I'd worry that there might be too much focus on the reviews and pushing affiliate links. You might want to balance out the reviews with more advice and guides to attract traffic.

The animation and graphics are very nice though and you've got some strong imagery.

You are right we need to remove pop up. Already 6 people said that it is horrible.

I specifically disabled the right-click functionality since other sites steal from us the content :(

Thanks for the advice, I'll be thinking about how to improve it all.
 
Disabling right click achieves nothing useful. All I need to do is save the page and I’ve got all your content.

However the biggest problem is still that you suggest it’s a review site but there are no reviews. It’s simply an affiliate platform.
 
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