new site review

[ksw]

Hi all,

Just wanted to see what you guys thought about our new site:
Poker in London - Londonpokerguide.com

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Stephen

[MJ]

I love local websites, great start and try adding really detailed content about the casinos like where to eat, entertainment options, even a show schedule.

[checkingout]

Has a nice easy name too. Lots of potential.

[Guerreiro]

Great potential indeed, a nice business looking layout and template. Good start, keep up the good work and this could become a great site!

[Massy]

I also like the site, very good start. Like MJ I would suggest adding more detailed content along the lines he suggests. The site is easy on the eye, easy to move around and very expandable. Well done.

[CK]

Alright here goes mine

To start I would change the link of your homepage to London Poker so the anchor of the link is relevant to the site. Having the button as "Home" does absolutely nothing for you.

Your land based casino listings - I only checked a couple but besides saying what they offer you don't provide other information. For example let's say I come across your website searching for information about Mint Casino. Well which Mint Casino are you talking about. There are a ton of them and maybe I'm coming to your website and want more specific information. If I was a legit visitor I would have left because YOU did not provide me with specifics. Expand your pages and be specific. I know you have the addy listed in the right hand side but your title should be very specific on what your talking about

Something else to think of. If I was a poker player and I came to your site say for the Royal Surrey Casino Im probably looking for information on the next game or what games they have to offer. I would def place game information above the review. You could even do a small summary and leave a link that will take the user down the page to the review should they need it. But I'm guessing if they know of the casino already and they want to play poker, they want to see the info front and center.

Advertising - I would have at least one advertisment for an online poker room on every single cardroom page. Right now I only see links to Full Tilt, PKR etc that are way down the page. Get your CTA's up so people can actually click.

I would also suggest you try out some form of heatmaps to see what your users are doing on your site. The work you put into it is great BUT your going to find alot of people don't always make their way to the bottom of the page. If your online rooms are listed at the very bottom, how are they going to see them.

Linking to pages with images - Its alot better if you could link within the content vs images, Take this page for example http://www.londonpokerguide.com/livePoker/index. I would still have the link on the image but I would also link in between each snippet. So link to your pub poker page using anchor pub poker within the content. The other I would link with london cardroom.

last thing. I would remove the londonpokerguide.com from your title tags. You dont need it to be sitewide and it's really waste of space. You don't need it there.

Just a few things to think about

Also - checkingout - If people post asking for reviews and you reply its nice if you would actually give them some tips or things you see that could help them. They didn't post to hear nice site, nice site. That's lame. Help them as you would expect others to help you.

[Unknown Webmaster]

Really good advice from Kaus and MJ.

I think it would be helpful if you added a page explaining the whole thing about memberships and linked it from the "membership" part of each review.

I don't play much live poker, and have never been to a casino or card club that required a membership. I know there are places that require membership, but if I wanted to go to one of those places I would really like to read a little primer on "cardclub memberships", so I know what to expect.

Maybe you could add something about dresscode to more of the reviews. Where I live some casinos require you to wear a jacket, and if I'm going to play in a new location, I'm always looking for information about whether or not they are going to kick me out for wearing sneakers.

A simple "Dresscode: None/casual" would help me feel at ease.


If you are going to some of the places you review (I assume you are), I think it would be a good idea to write an article about your personal experience that day. It can build a lot of trust, which will help establish you and your site as an authority.

[ksw]

Thanks guys this is really helpful. I've posted this in a couple of forums, but this is probably the first time i've got real feedback. Yeah its nice to hear "nice site" but doesnt really give me much to work with..

The SEO stuff may have to wait as our developer/designer is out of town for a while, but I can get started adding some of the content.

[stacktherake]

I think its looks really good, if only mine could look as nice. Something to reach for I guess...

[addz123]

I like that alot. Not just the looks but the overall content is displayed in a navigational manner.

I'd use it next time i pop down south.