I will be the first to admit, I don’t like how Burbank.com currently looks. I don’t believe the current site is attractive or would make people jazzed about visiting the city of Burbank, California – a great city with a ton of activities. Don’t get me wrong, the content is good, but I just don’t like how it looks. So, I am doing something about it and building a completely new website.
When I first launched Burbank.com in July, I was under the gun. Every day that I wasn’t live Google links were being lost and the site’s ranking was being impacted. The site was previously a great Burbank online newspaper, but once I purchased it, the owner redirected the links to his new site. I feared losing Google’s trust, and I didn’t want to make it difficult to regain position once the site relaunched. It was also very close to my wedding, so with many things going on then, I essentially built a makeshift site. There are few images on the site, and there are Adsense ads to generate a bit of incremental revenue. This isn’t the idea geowebsite, in my opinion.
After spending the past several weeks working on the new site, I am getting closer to relaunch. I am hoping the relaunch will happen next week or the last week in October. When I do relaunch, I will write another blog post about what I did and why, to help others who may be in my position. So take a look at Burbank.com now so you can get a good before and after comparison when the new site is launched.
Why I Don't Like the Burbank Website
I think Burbank.com looks pretty good in it’s current state. I’d try to find a photo with more impact for the right side of the header. I like the map but the overlay between it and the photo on the right is a little distracting. I’d also try to customize the navigation menu with little touches that make it more “Burbank”. Maybe use one of those little boards they snap just before they call out “action” as a bullet point for the main categories.
I agree with Bill on the photo for the header. Not sure where that was taken, but it’s not a good one of Burbank, if it is supposed to be so. Looks more to be the San Fernando Valley. I also like the map part too. Burbank is a big media center hub, so I’d try to maybe incorporate that angle somewhat more. Elliot, I’m here in the SFV, and lived in Burbank before, so if I can assist you in any way, let me know. (my rates are reasonable!!!) Looking forward to the new and improved Burbank.com!
Elliot
I suggest you take a look at the revolution series, they have a nice city site you can customize, I have no affiliation to them, but have used their sites before and they have a better look than your current layout…
www(dot)revolutiontheme(dot)com/city/
***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
Revolution is nice (developing another site using it) but my new site is much nicer and will be completely unique. If too many people use the same WP theme, sites start looking the same.
I believe that Burbank.com looks very good..like the colors, backgrounds, lay out …But personally believe that name is greater than that look and agree that www(dot)revolutiontheme(dot)com/city would be good for redesign as well.
Personally look forward to the uniqueness and am sure it will be awesome.
Frank
(Secret Hint Worth Thousands To Elliot)
Broey, find someone in the San Gabriel Valley (where i grew up, which incorporates Burbank) who will go around to all the landmarks and hotspots of Burbank and take pics and ID them on each pic. Pay him $5 a pic for 800×800 res and then “caption” all the spots for their locations in a “burbank gallery” section of your site. Put up 100+ pics ($500 expenditure) with about 10 pics a page, with captions and descriptions, and you score big in Google images, and SE placement, because pics with captions have their own way of working your site up the ladder.
If you do this, and it works for you, I’ll meet you at Silicon Valley Traffic 2009 and you buy the beers.
***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
LOL
Good advice – Already done 🙂
i don’t like the current site because the middle content looks like it is for the search engines, not for me. Now I’m not an end user, but get a big picture there, and remove “Online Guide” from Burbank, California (i know it is there for the se’s but it looks clunky).
Also – media capital of the world???
looking forward to the new site.