Hi folks,
I am asking for an opinion on my web site at http://www.vlaanderen-flanders.org.uk.
It is a bilingual (Eng/NL) web site, all about Flanders (what or where that is, you will have to find out on the site).
It is a good opportunity for Flemings who have moved abroad (like me), or foreigners of Flemish origin, who still feel a bond with the land of their ancestors, or even for foreigners who want to get to know Flanders better (as it is quite popular with tourists and well worth a visit).
It also gives the Flemings at home some useful information and current news, and, to be quite honest, it is Flemish nationalist inclined, so in a way it is there to help my fellow Flemings in their fight for independence.
It has quite a bit of information on it, among others a page about famous Flemings (this one is constantly under construction and new information is to be added regularly), there is a page "About Flanders", which outlines the country culturally, historically, geographically, ethnologically and politically, this page too, is constantly under construction as some of the information there can be very complicated to gather, needs a lot of research and is the most complicated one to set up (lots of typing and adding of images required).
It is also an accusation against the Belgian state, for keeping Flanders and its people in slavery for 177 years now, and as the media often show or write reports about actions which could lead to Flemish independence in the way it suits them, or do not mention them altogether, the proper news has to be shown somewhere.
There is also a Forum, completely bilingual, where people can do their own discussions and polls, and there is a page with sights from flanders, to show the world what a beautiful place it really is. There is also a media page with music, video, presentations and the likes.
Now, about the critique, the contents might not appeal to everyone here on the forum, or some people might not really understand what it is all about, but I am asking people to have a look at the way the site is constructed, if they think certain things could or should be changed, or if they can offer further advice, of course, people who want to comment on the contents itself are also very welcome to do so.
It is also a site policy that people who can offer advice, or who think they can contribute to the site, eg. by submitting news articles or anything else, are more than welcome to do so.
Anything relevant and/or suitable will certainly be considered for publication.
It is a tough job holding up a day job and keeping up with all the news and improvements (especially since there is a government crisis at the moment and independence looks closer than it has ever been before, so the news does not stand still for a second), but the love for my country and my people makes me feel i owe that to them.

Please go and have a look, and all help and advice will be much appreciated.

Thank you very much in advance.

 

 

 

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nice site. i can tell you put a lot of time in to it. i didn't browse your entire site. but i'll give some suggestion to improve it(my opinion only)
i'm a biggie on knowing what i am going to look at before i look at it. i am also a biggie on seo. again, your site is good. i would like to see more of a general overview of what your site is about and what i will see when i click on your main links. nobody needs instructions where your menu is or why you have a guest book etc... everyone already knows what a home page, guest book, forum, and email is. the other links need to be explained more in detail to get the user interested in clicking on them. the pictures in the slide show need to be explained more. i got through two of them and didn't really know what i was looking at or why. what's the history in the first picture and why is it important? who died in the second picture and what was his importance? i didn't recognize the name so a little history would be good to keep me interested in continuing on to the other pictures and reading about what i am actually seeing. i'd like to see some image tags so when i scroll over a picture or a picture of a symbol, i want to know what it is. what's it's meaning?

your doorway page is the link you posted. when i am in the english version of your website, http://www.vlaanderen-flanders.org.uk/eng.htm. THAT should be the home page from now on whenever i click "home". the way you have it right now is that your home page is actually a doorway to your main site depending on which language a person chooses. you need to change your home pages. you should have 2 home pages for the two different languages. a home page should contain all the text links to guide the visitor. a doorway page just needs one or two links(normally just one) to enter the site. hope you understand this part. flanders, people, news, pictures, media, ecards?!?, etc....need to be explained on your main page(i was about to call it your home page, but you have it set up backwards) i want a little taste of what i will be seeing when i click on a link BEFORE i click on it.

i still don't know what a flander is and i am not going to search for it. it should be on your main page.

now these suggestions will make your site a little more user friendly it will also give your site more relevant content, better keyword positioning and density and will eventually improve your site rankings in the search engines naturally. it also looks like you are using the same keywords and description for every page. don't. use keywords that are relevant to the page. use 2-3 main keywords, stick those keywords in the description, use a heading with 1 or two keywords in there and start your first paragraph with all your keywords in it. doing this will force better search engine placement.

i don't want to overwhelm ya so those are my suggestions for now. but i like what i see, you state on your main page that this is only the beginning and you welcome comments so this is why i went in to some detail. great job with the site. it really does look good. websites take a lot of time if you want it just right.

one last thing and this is important! if you didn't already know, google has already indexed the web page at the address you had us link to. google isn't recognizing your other pages. first, you need to update your pages REGULARLY adding more and more content. now that google has recognized you, you want google to lose interest in your site. you also want to creat a site map. with all the javascript code you have copied, i'm sure you'll have no problem creating a site map or researching how to create one. you need one. forgot one thing. put your javascript in a file and have your webpage access that file. search engines don't normally like a ton of javascript code pasted within your htmal. a little is ok, but you have alot. don't get rid of your scripts just because i said that. just put it in a seperate file in your public directory.

 

 

 

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As anwii said, i can tell you took a lot of time to make it to this point.

In my opinion, there is lots to read but not a lot to look at. I'd recommend investing in a good web designer to create a nice, professional look to go with your site. After that the site would look absolutely amazing (depending on the look)!

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I agree with bgdesign. First of all the website is not in English so I can read it lol. I was hoping to critique the website design but it doesn't have one. You don't necessarily have to hire a web designer. The internet is crawling with free web site templates. Google for some today

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