Hello please review my website at https://ahmaa.co.uk

The purpose of the site is to draw new students to my Tai Chi classes and to provide resources for my existing students.

The site was made using Mobirise although the blog is a separate product that I have integrated (fairly poorly).

Many thanks for any thoughts and comments.

Robert.

Aaaaaaagggghhh! Pop ups everywhere! Get me out of here!

Doesn't tell me anywhere on the homepage where you do Tai Chi

The video is pointless - add no value to anything.

On my phone it just says I can learn Tai Chi but then doesn't tell me how to do this.

Great that you are promoting the art (I've been teaching Tai Chi for 14 years) but the website doesn't lead me to finding and joining a class.

Bin the blog - it's not necessary.

Thanks fisicx - I had all the classes on the home page originally but thought it made it a bit too long a page so I moved them to their own pages. I'll consider your advice and see if I can figure out a solution that makes them more obvious without making the page too long.

The video was designed to give an overview of the site - main bits - who, what, where and how much. Again, I will reconsider that.

I like the blog - it holds me accountable as otherwise I'd put the site up there and forget about it

Your comments are much appreciated.

There should only be the one pop-up for the phone (on every page) - but I will get rid of that as I am beginning to feel that anyone who actually wants to phone me will do so - without the free call option.
 

Edited July 27, 20188 yr by RobertAH

Phone call pop-up GONE - only annoying but legally necessary cookie pop-up left

Editing home page - in a couple of minutes it will say: "We run sessions in Northamptonshire in Stanwick, Chelveston, Wollaston and Rushden. Full details on our Group Sessions page or call us at 07771 333 369."

Edited July 27, 20188 yr by RobertAH

2 hours ago, RobertAH said:

Phone call pop-up GONE - only annoying but legally necessary cookie pop-up left

You don't need the cookie popup. You just need a privacy policy that informs the visitor.

The problem with the homepage is it doesn't lead anywhere. Visitors will only ever be on the site because they want to learn Tai Chi. It follows therefore that the only thing you need to out on the homepage are details of where and when you hold classes. You can include a link to the 'Learn about Tai Chi' page but keep the homepage very simple.

The very fact feel you need to include arrows pointing down should tell you there is something wrong.

Good website design should begin with the content. The structure of the site should lead people to the right places then shouldn't need to search for information. The actual layout is secondary to the content and navigation.

Hmmmm "The very fact feel you need to include arrows pointing down should tell you there is something wrong." - I'd say that just shows that I understand that my target audience is not necessarily that computer savvy (Target audience is people from about 40 through to 75+) and so I am making sure they realise that the page can be scrolled.

And that's because of how you have structured the content. If you dropped the hero image and replaced it with details of the classes as I suggested you wouldn't need the arrows.

Look at the site on your phone and you will see why it just doesn't work.

Hi there,

I like to provide a review of your website honestly...

1. First of all the site home page is not looking professional
2. Homepage "you can learn" section background image is very poor quality, you must use a high-quality image there
3. Dropdown menu not good, you may need to develop it more
4. Need to more focus to font size, font weight etc
5. You may increase page speed

Hi Nkm - thanks.

 

Yes I noticed the image quality but forgot to fix it - the image got optimized and then by accident 'optimized' a couple more times - whoops.

I didn't want a dropdown menu but ended up with too many items for a horizontal menu - will revisit it again....

Can you explain about font size and weight - what do you think the issues are?

Page speed is about as fast as I can get it with the technology that I am using. Also, to be honest, I doub;'t that it's a problem for my target market - they are (I hope) not in a rush to choose a Tai Chi class

Re-uploaded a less compressed image - but will have to get the photo retaken - will try and get one with better background colour as well - although at the venue in question that may be problematic. Have also changed text over image slightly, should make the text not obscure faces on smaller screens...

What about the other issue where the homepage doesn’t display the information potential new members will be looking for?

check the site on your phone and you can see the problem

Hi fisicx,

I'm confused - as it now says on the homepage - at the bottom of the 'What is Tai Chi' section :

"We run sessions in Northamptonshire in Stanwick, Chelveston, Wollaston and Rushden. Full details on our Group Sessions page or call us at 07771 333 369."

Where 'Group Sessions' is a hyperlink to the full details page.

What else do you recommend?

Thanks, Robert.

 

See my earlier post:

"You don't need the cookie popup. You just need a privacy policy that informs the visitor.

The problem with the homepage is it doesn't lead anywhere. Visitors will only ever be on the site because they want to learn Tai Chi. It follows therefore that the only thing you need to out on the homepage are details of where and when you hold classes. You can include a link to the 'Learn about Tai Chi' page but keep the homepage very simple.

The very fact feel you need to include arrows pointing down should tell you there is something wrong.

Good website design should begin with the content. The structure of the site should lead people to the right places then shouldn't need to search for information. The actual layout is secondary to the content and navigation. "

Images are good but not at the expense of good content. Remove the hero image, the link to the video and the introduction to Tai Chi.

Think on it like this:

If you have searched Google for a new sword and found a result for shop where you can buy a sword you would expect to land on a page that sells you a sword. If the page began with a history of sword making you wouldn't be best pleased. That's what your homepage does.

Edited July 28, 20188 yr by fisicx

Hi fisicx,

Thanks for the explanation - I will think about what you said - My feeling is that people are not sure that they want to learn Tai Chi they are interested but want more details hence the info side of things...

If I was selling from the site or had a response form then I'd A/B test it - but with asking for a call or a visit to a class it would be much more difficult to see if your idea converts better.

Hmmm will have a ponder...

 

So you have a big button at the top of the content:

’find out more about Tai Chi’

or:

’How Tai Chi can help you’

if people wanted to know about Tai Chi they will search Google. You don’t need these people.

If they want to find a Tai Chi class in Kettering they will search Google. This is were you want to rank. You don’t want people looking for information about Tai Chi, you want visitor who want to join a class.

In fact each class needs its own page. Google can then rank you for each location.

This is why I suggested in an earlier post that you need plan and organise the content before building the website.

Instead of thinking about how you want it to work, develop the content to meet the needs of a prospective student. It’s not easy but if done right you will rank well and more importantly get better conversions.

 

Hi Robert,

Do you notice that your home-page all section paragraph texture font-size, line-height and weight is not same? I think it's a not eye-catching

And the site page speed is corrently medium range, you may increase it.

Thanks Nkm - will look at both of those issues.

Hi fisicx - think I understand more now

Originally there were class details on the home page but once we went from 3 to 4 classes I moved them - I'll look at moving them back.

I like your idea of a button to allow - find out more...

The individual pages are already there - the group page: https://ahmaa.co.uk/groupsessions.html leads to individual pages like: https://ahmaa.co.uk/class-stanwick.html - if I move the group-page info back to the homepage then they of course would be linked directly from the homepage - which I assume would be a good thing?

Many thanks, Robert.

Yes.

And you can make it look pretty by using a CSS grid to display to 4 (or more classes). That way you can have different images without losing the key messages.

Imagine this sort of thing: http://tradesman-theme.co.uk/

Intro and links at the top, your contact number on the right and the classes down below. Really simple.

Edited July 29, 20188 yr by fisicx

And....

its not just about making the groups page to the homepage. It’s about properly planning the content, managing information paths, logical flows, calls to action and so on.

The actual layout you use isn’t that important.

Not going to upload it yet but have revised the website - Have tried to standardise the text font and size - although there was a reason why it varied originally - I have also gone with a slightly different colour scheme (haven't changed the blog yet). 

Will need to have a few more hours of checking and tidying up (probably tomorrow if I can spare the time away from the 'day job') as - as you know - when changing a website... one thing leads to another.

Well decided to work through the evening and have uploaded the new version of the site.

Still some more things to do (but they are not urgent) in particular the look and feel of the blog and the booking system. 

Downloaded the complete old site before uploading the new one so if there are any major issues will have a fallback version

Please let me have further comments  

Thanks, Robert.

Something is awry as it’s taking forever to load and I see white text on a white background.

You still have the hero image and the video link. Get rid of these, they add no value.

Get rid of all the black background. Black text on white is much easier to read. But if is looking much better.

>Something is awry as it’s taking forever to load and I see white text on a white background.

Suspect you need to clear your cache.- I always test by loading a private window in Opera as well as clearing images etc in Chrome.

>You still have the hero image and the video link. Get rid of these, they add no value.

No the image has gone. (Unless you click on the button - but that is going to be moved soon)..

>Get rid of all the black background. Black text on white is much easier to read. But if is looking much better.

I have made a design decision to stay away from black on white - yes it may be easier to read but it's darn boring.

 

12 minutes ago, RobertAH said:

Suspect you need to clear your cache.- I always test by loading a private window in Opera as well as clearing images etc in Chrome.

OK its loading now. But still very slow (it hangs on all the external scripts).

12 minutes ago, RobertAH said:

I have made a design decision to stay away from black on white - yes it may be easier to read but it's darn boring.

Boring is good. Boring is effective. Boring works. The site isn't for you, it's for potential students. Build it for them.

Get rid of the cookie popup. It's annoying, gets in the way (especially on a phone) and is totally unnecessary.

But the whole site is coming together now.

Edited July 30, 20188 yr by fisicx

Hmmmm - different sites say different things but https://whitefusemedia.com/blog/law-cookie-notices-and-cookie-consent seems to agree with you that I can avoid the pop-up. However page 11 of https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1545/cookies_guidance.pdf seems to suggest that you do need a pop-up... I'm confused?

11 hours ago, RobertAH said:

Hmmmm - different sites say different things but https://whitefusemedia.com/blog/law-cookie-notices-and-cookie-consent seems to agree with you that I can avoid the pop-up. However page 11 of https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1545/cookies_guidance.pdf seems to suggest that you do need a pop-up... I'm confused?

You don't need a pop up, in fact ico don't use a pop up and pop ups have accessibility issues and require js. What you do need is a fall back for non js visitors else they will never see the cookie policy so you never technically told them.

Hi 'BrowserBugs',

Thanks for the info but as you say: "What you do need is a fall back for non js visitors else they ..." - for me that makes it more confusing...

If I don't have the pop-up then what do I do to refer people to my page: https://ahmaa.co.uk/terms.html - Yes it's available to everyone (from virtually every page) as it's part of the bottom menu but my understanding is that you have to TELL people and it's not good enough to assume that they will have read the darn (and totally stupid) thing !!!

Unless I can find an official (read government or NGO type body)  reference source that clearly and authoritatively explains what to do, then I'm sticking with the pop-up as it at least shows that I tried to complete with the rules and regs.

I normally use a css div fixed bottom as most people see, I then use javascript to insert the message and ok button with a noscript form fallback which would post to the consent accept cookie.

<?php if(!$cookieok) { ?>
<div id="cookieok"><noscript><form method="post" action="/cookie-accept.php"><b>This website uses cookies</b> for analytics and functionality, see our <a href="/privacy">privacy policy</a> for details.  <button type="submit" value="1" name="cookieok" id="cookieno">Ok</button></form></noscript></div>
<?php } ?>

and the js ...

<script type="text/javascript">
var cookiebanner = document.getElementById("cookieok");
if(cookiebanner){
cookiebanner.innerHTML = '<b>This website uses cookies</b> for analytics and functionality, see our <a href="/privacy">privacy policy</a> for details. <button type="submit" value="1" name="cookieok" id="cookieno">Ok</button>';
}
</script>

... so now you can use js to post the consent to the cookie set, or if they have js disabled then the form would achieve the same task, for example I use jQuery for this;

$("#cookieno").click(function(event){ event.preventDefault(); $.post("/cookie-accept.php",{ cookieok: 1 }); $("#cookieok").hide(); });

 

21 minutes ago, RobertAH said:

...but my understanding is that you have to TELL people and it's not good enough to assume that they will have read the darn (and totally stupid) thing !!!

No you don't. You just need to have a privacy policy and a link to that policy.

But...

You are supposed to gain consent. The ICO says this doesn't have to be explicit but you must tell people how to opt out. This is how I've done it: https://aerin.co.uk/privacy-cookies/

Hmm, forgot the opt out method, thanks for the tip. I went for the open handed "what they do" aspect.

Thanks guys, more for me to consider