Comments on: A Quick Site Audit

By: Kavita

Kavita — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 10:32:52 +0000

Hi Donna, enjoyed reading your post and bookmarked to Digg as I thought it is worth to be on Digg. The giant phone number is very much visible. One simply cannot miss it.
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By: Donna

Donna — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:55:42 +0000

Interesting insights into more details, Jon. I bet you’re right in that much of the issues come from just not spending time configuring the default out-of-the-box WP settings. A little time could probably go a long way on this one.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:50:31 +0000

They maybe could do with a better server. Took me 4 attempts to load the page. Maybe this blog is giving them a lot of traffic that they cannot handle?

I notice that they have a “Report This Post” after each post, which is a bit strange too. As if their designer used a default multi-user blog theme to start with. Strange.

What this is really is an interesting example of how any bricks and mortar business can use WordPress to build a simple but effective website that gives a little more than the tradition static html pages. The tags (ingredients) is a great idea.

As for the SEO, the All In One SEO Plugin does default to block tag pages (and cat pages too I think). So that explains that. They do have that installed. Another example of a web designer not configuring the settings to the best advantage for the customer.

The top level nav is too basic (just the home and about page – the default settings in WP). It really could do with the menu as well. Very easy to do, only laziness on the part of the designer keeps it as bare as it is.

By: Donna

Donna — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:08:15 +0000

Good point, Jill. I can see the usefulness of it in that situation. I’m not sure I’d give it that much prominence, but you’re right. It has a usefulness.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot

By: Jill Kocher

Jill Kocher — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:57:37 +0000

Ha, I like the ingredient tag cloud! Yeah, maybe not useful all the time, but there really are times I can remember when I’ve been standing at the counter at the Chinese place craving an ingredient (like that yummy black bean sauce for some reason) and want to know which dishes I can get it in. Great, now I want shrimp with black bean sauce. Mmmmmm….
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By: Donna

Donna — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:20:07 +0000

Good catch, Bob. I was looking at it from a marketing point of view and didn’t do an SEO audit on it at all, but certainly if they have unintended noindexes on pages, that’s not good.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot

By: Bob Gladstein

Bob Gladstein — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:31:07 +0000

A number of their pages have robots meta tags set at noindex, follow. I don’t know if that’s intentional (and if it is, I don’t know why), or that might be one of those WordPress quirks.

But I like the site, for the most part. It’s not your standard-issue restaurant site, and it makes great use of customer reviews.

By: SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 29, 2010

SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 29, 2010 — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:12:28 +0000

[...] A Quick Site Audit, DazzlinDonna [...]

By: Donna

Donna — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:08:35 +0000

That’s a good point about the logo color not contrasting enough with the header background, Cindy.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot

By: Cindy

Cindy — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:39:40 +0000

I thought the Oriental Cuisine heading is kinda funny too… and their header image probably needs to stand out more instead of using a slightly dark red text on a red background.
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