Does my studio website suck? Gainesville, FL

[moathouse]

i can't afford to splurge on a pricey web designer, so i learned about some html code, found a decent template, and just let it ride. i've seen some amazing websites for studios. i'm just curious if mine is shitty to the point of scaring off possible projects.
if you are bored enough to check it out, lemme know what sucks!

Moathouse studio in Gainesville, FL

PT Mix3
Trident 65 + lots more

www.rehasher.com/moathouse

thanks all!

[Snarl 12/8]

I only spent about 60 seconds looking at it, but I like it. It's got personality in a good way. Good gear photos. Enough nav. Looks to me to be on a par with most studio sites I see.

One thing you might want to look into is Search Engine Optimization. If your site never comes up in relevant searches, it might be kinda useless. Although it seems to me most studio business comes from word of mouth and referrals not cold searches on the interwebs.

I was a web developer for about 14 years.

[moathouse]

awesome, snarl! thanks for your time--

[Brian]

I like it, & the view of the swamp is inspiring.

Snarl, tell us more about search engine optimization.

[jakeao]

one quick comment. The listings on the left hand side look like Google ads. I would maybe change the layout of that. Looks good otherwise.

[Snarl 12/8]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization

Basically, you can do about 80% of your optimization very, very easily and the last 20% is a total headache. So you ought to at least cover the first 80%. For me, it boils down to 2 things.

First, make sure that the phrases that you want people to have used to find your site appear somewhere on your site. (D'oh!, but people overlook this all the time.) Like make sure the words "recording", "analog", your town name, etc., etc. appear on the page. Then make sure that those same words appear in the title and the keywords on the page. Also, make sure that you have a H1 tag somewhere on the page.

When I worked for a local college, one of the dept. heads came to me complaining that when you searched google for his dept. they didn't come up in the first 10 pages of results. Turned out that their home page didn't have their department's name clearly displayed, all together, in any one place on the page. They thought it was obvious since all the text danced around the subject. They made that one change and were on the first page of google results within 2 weeks.

So, if you'd like for your site to pop up when people search for "Analog Recording Studio in Albequerque" You want that phrase in the title tag, headline tag and in the plain text of your page. Also, optimize different pages on your site for different phrases, play up the gear on the gear page, your people skills on your contact page, etc.

The second thing is that you need to try to control the way other people link to your site. So, the actual phrase used *as the link* to your home page (in the above example) should be something like "check out this great *Analog Recording Studio in Albequerque*". (Asterixes are enclosing the phrase that would be the actual link text) What google is looking for is web pages that are "good citizens of the web". If your page says that it's about "Analog Recording Studio in Albequerque" and it has those words on it, and people are linking to it as that, then google starts to think, maybe this page is a pretty authoritative answer to that search query.

That's the basics, for me anyway, it can get way deeper than that in a hurry. Make sure that every link back to your site (in your sig here on TOMB, for example) has the phrase you want in it. Make sure that when people follow that link they come to a solid web page that rewards having faith in that link. That's about all you can do easily, IMO.

[Snarl 12/8]

one quick comment. The listings on the left hand side look like Google ads. I would maybe change the layout of that. Looks good otherwise.

I'm sorry, but I respectfully disagree.

I personally hate google with a burning passion, but I wouldn't necessarily stop doing something on my site just because Google is doing it the same way. In fact, you could argue the opposite. Google almost certainly has the biggest army of eggheads trying to figure out the best way to do things on the web. Google's design choices have become the vernacular on the web in a lot of cases.

Don't be different just to be different. You want your web site to stand out based on your content (Trident console, etc.) not your quirky design decisions that force people to take 10 seconds to figure out what's a link and whatnot.

Just my $0.02. Most people disagree with me on stuff like that.

[jnTracks]

this is all good feedback

my only comment is: the bright green on gray? it looks like a gaming web site of some kind and it's pretty harsh on the eyes.

try a color scheme that goes with the vibe of the studio that i see in the photos.

[moathouse]

this is all good feedback

my only comment is: the bright green on gray? it looks like a gaming web site of some kind and it's pretty harsh on the eyes.

try a color scheme that goes with the vibe of the studio that i see in the photos.

yeah,that is my fear.. i feel like its' too "bold" or something.. thanks for taking the time...my html skills will not allow me to change color schemes easily, but i'll work on it!
thanks for you time!!

[Jay Reynolds]

I think it's good. But, since you want input, here are some things:

On the home page, I wonder what it would look like with the photo of the control room above the text "Welcome to MoatHouse Website"? On my 13' macbook I had to scroll down to see it.
And why welcome people to the website? Why not welcome them to MoatHouse Recording?

Also: Isn't it Langevin instead of Langavin?

And I don't know about that hit counter. It's 2009, not 1999

Photos: I'd throw in more pix of the control room and tracking room(s). From what I can tell, they're very cool and vibe-y. But you really only have two of each. Is there a lounge? What does it look like? Are there any other cool spaces in there?

[moathouse]

I think it's good. But, since you want input, here are some things:

On the home page, I wonder what it would look like with the photo of the control room above the text "Welcome to MoatHouse Website"? On my 13' macbook I had to scroll down to see it.
And why welcome people to the website? Why not welcome them to MoatHouse Recording?

Also: Isn't it Langevin instead of Langavin?

And I don't know about that hit counter. It's 2009, not 1999

Photos: I'd throw in more pix of the control room and tracking room(s). From what I can tell, they're very cool and vibe-y. But you really only have two of each. Is there a lounge? What does it look like? Are there any other cool spaces in there?

dude, you totally rule,, thats totally helping,, i need to get some more photos when i'm home from tour, and i kinda like having a counter ( i think i'll move it) but really, thanks! got me staring at html code again, but thanks!!

[Mr_headphones]

QUICK GLIMPSE FIRST IMPRESSION from a Younger Musician. I think you have a real TACKY header. I don't like the design and the color for that matter; the vibrant green is just kind of off-putting and sends out that stale early 90's internet vibe....


I'd also loose the counter, though its cool & useful to know how many people have visited or whatever, it also has its down side as well and screams amateur; If you really want usefull demographic data & such their are companies online that set up that sort of market packet stuff for your site.

All criticism aside though from the pictures and gear it looks like you have a pretty nice studio with competitive prices & since a lot of studios are being forced to become more and more cut throat with pricing, it probably wouldn't hurt to shell out the extra $$$$'s to make your website shine and stand out.

Keep up the good work though!

[svbsound]

Have you worked in photoshop at all? Because it's pretty easy to lay out your basic design (background image, logo, image links etc.) in there and then slice up the image and save it as HTML for editing in Dreamweaver...don't know if that's too much work for you but having a custom design does help you stand out from the pack.

[sad iron]

I'm a guy who doesn't really go to a studio site to read text. I want to look at pictures. I really dislike have to open and close a window every time I want to go to the next pic. A big PITA and I usually navigate away from the site after a few seconds. Also, I don't like thumbnail pics that only show a little of the pic. It's easy to think that there's nothing but the side of a drum. Why bother to click. I've seen the side of a drum before.

While I'm on the subject, a lot of your pics are closeups of the gear. That's cool if you're trying to sell the gear, but if you're trying to sell the studio, folks want to get a sense of what the room looks/feels like so they can envision themselves in it. This is what you want. Put up more contextual pics.

And finally, I think the sidebar with the different sections is cool, but maybe there's too much text. It reads like a news site or a blog, which might have been what this particular template was for. Just provide the link and get the reader deeper into the site. It's best to put the in the same font as your logo or to remain consistent with the header fonts throughout. People recognize these cues when they read and are looking for them to help them navigate.

I think it's pretty cool so far, but a few tweaks will really make it sing.

[jakeao]

I think the sidebar with the different sections is cool, but maybe there's too much text.

This is what I was getting at. I didn't even realize it was a listing studio stuff. I thought it was a Google ad. My wife was reading over my shoulder and commented on it, other wise I never would have given it the time of day.