Review for TheBlazon.com

[jdab]

Would anybody care to review my news/reviews/tips website "The Blazon"?

The domain is www.theblazon.com - the site has been up since March 2014 and we have about 1,000 articles on the site.

Many thanks!

 

[Charles Sweeney]

Had a look at it. No idea whatsoever what it's about. Had a look at the title for a clue, didn't get one, saw "The Blazon". A more informative title will help your visitors and google. Okay, maybe it's not aimed at me, I don't know what "The Blazon" is.

Took a long time to load.

 

[jdab]

Had a look at it. No idea whatsoever what it's about. Had a look at the title for a clue, didn't get one, saw "The Blazon". A more informative title will help your visitors and google. Okay, maybe it's not aimed at me, I don't know what "The Blazon" is.

Took a long time to load.

Thanks for the feedback.

Do you feel we need some form of tagline? We're a news and reviews website, centred around tech, entertainment and various other bits like sports.

a "blazon", has a few different meanings, but one of the traditional ones is someone who spreads news, like a town crier.

In regards to loading speeds, the site loads in less than 2 seconds for most - what's your DL speed like?

 

[Charles Sweeney]

Hmmm. I had another look at it to test the speed, this time in Firefox (first time was Opera) took a while then I got a notice saying I needed to download bitorrent to use the site, which I hit cancel to and got a blank screen.

Why do I need the bitorrent thing?

"News and Reviews" in the title or as a tagline would be helpful. Though it's a bit vague, so you could have Tech News and Reviews if that's your main thing.

I think you need to make it cleaner and simpler.

 

[jdab]

Hmmm. I had another look at it to test the speed, this time in Firefox (first time was Opera) took a while then I got a notice saying I needed to download bitorrent to use the site, which I hit cancel to and got a blank screen.

Why do I need the bitorrent thing?

"News and Reviews" in the title or as a tagline would be helpful. Though it's a bit vague, so you could have Tech News and Reviews if that's your main thing.

I think you need to make it cleaner and simpler.

It said you needed BitTorrent? Can you provide me with a screenshot please? That sounds like it could be an issue on your end rather than site-wide.

 

[Charles Sweeney]

Forgot to say, I'm on 4G mobile wifi.

 

[Charles Sweeney]

It said you needed BitTorrent? Can you provide me with a screenshot please? That sounds like it could be an issue on your end rather than site-wide.

It only happened in Firefox (Opera, IE ok). When I refresh the page I still get the blank page. You might be right, it's a fresh install of Firefox, might have been for something else.

Now I'm getting it when I refresh! Deleted all the history cookies etc, went in again and got it ok. Was quick enough too.

 

[jdab]

It only happened in Firefox (Opera, IE ok). When I refresh the page I still get the blank page. You might be right, it's a fresh install of Firefox, might have been for something else.

Now I'm getting it when I refresh! Deleted all the history cookies etc, went in again and got it ok. Was quick enough too.

Odd, sounds more like a virus than anything else. I use Firefox and don't get this, as do a lot of my work colleagues who read the website.

 

[Loro]

Site loads somewhat slowly. You can use this tool to check your speed: http://tools.pingdom.com/

Fix your page title. Take a look at these examples

• http://www.theblaze.com/
• http://www.cnet.com/
• http://en.softonic.com/
• http://www.bodybuilding.com/

Notice how they summarize what their site is about in the title?

The google plus link at the bottom of the page is broken:

• https://plus.google.com/+TheBlazonBews

I'd rework your about page. Here's a great resource on how to write a very effective about page:

• http://amylynnandrews.com/how-to-write-an-about-page/

Mashable gives their traffic statistics on their about page:

• http://mashable.com/about/

So does Buzzfeed:

• http://www.buzzfeed.com/about

It provides social proof to readers as well as value to potential advertisers.

Just my 0.02 cents! Good luck!