Site Review (need suggestions)

[devilzfan300]

First of all, im not sure if this is in the right topic section, forgive me if im wrong, ill change it asap.

At my new website, www.wholesalechecklist.com (http://www.wholesalechecklist.com), on the left side there is a space dedicated to latest news. I do not want to have a news section, so I am not sure what to put there. It is divided into three sections. I know I am going to use the bottom one for testimonials (ill use a random html script to randomly display my testimontials). I am not sure what to use the first two sections for, if I should put something different in each one or combine the first two and put something there. Here were some of my ideas:

A menu bar like the top, but in text (to be SE friendly)
a poll
a customer support link
a link to the purchase page
use the entire (all three sections) for testimonials
a newsletter sign up section(but what kind of articles would I send out??)
some type of advertising (but I think I have enough...)

Please tell me what you think should go there, whether it is from my list or not. Thanks a lot!

[laura]

Personally I would use the first 2 boxes for text navigation. I've always been one to believe in duel navigation, both top and left side, for usability purposes. It will also give the spider's a little more food this way.

[devilzfan300]

Even if I already have links on the bottom too?

[laura]

It's hard to tell what your going to have in the "all the uses" and "advertising section" but if you have multiple pages in those categories you can use the left links to go internal in those sections. I'm not sure if I'm explaining myself the way I would like to, so let me try and show you an example www.dlighters.com if you notice my top menu is unspiderable but my left links go deeper in the navigation.

[devilzfan300]

I see what you are saying.

The All the Uses page is going to describe why you should buy things at wholesale prices, such as for consumers to save money, to resell them on ebay, etc. Should I change the name of the page? What do you suggest that would fit in that button?

The advertising page would have ways to advertise your site on wholesalechecklist.com, such as in the ebook, on the front page text links, in emails we send out, etc.

I dont have much room on the left to go in depth links like you were talking about, but I think I will put the menu on the left as well.

Does anyone else have any suggestions?

[laura]

I would suggest you check out the information on this site: http://www.mydssd.com/wwb/index.asp?r=/wwb/test_index.asp their probably the best in the business your going into. Don't copy anything they have though. They have people that they pay to do nothing but scour the web looking for people stealing their information :-)

[Arizona Web]

[QUOTE=devilzfan300]First of all, im not sure if this is in the right topic section, forgive me if im wrong, ill change it asap.

At my new website, www.wholesalechecklist.com (http://www.wholesalechecklist.com), on the left side there is a space dedicated to latest news. I do not want to have a news section, so I am not sure what to put there. It is divided into three sections. I know I am going to use the bottom one for testimonials (ill use a random html script to randomly display my testimontials). I am not sure what to use the first two sections for, if I should put something different in each one or combine the first two and put something there. Here were some of my ideas:

A menu bar like the top, but in text (to be SE friendly)
a poll
a customer support link
a link to the purchase page
use the entire (all three sections) for testimonials
a newsletter sign up section(but what kind of articles would I send out??)
some type of advertising (but I think I have enough...)

Please tell me what you think should go there, whether it is from my list or not. Thanks a lot![/QUOTE]First let me compliment you on your beautiful design. Looks great. Mousovers on the graphic links would help usability and design. I agree that the left area should be used for navigation. Most of my sites have top, side, and bottom navigation. Makes a site easier to use for sure. Don't forget to use alt tags on your images with the proper keywords (especially ones that are links) and link titles. This is good spider food.

Here is something important to consider. I don't know what program (if any) you are using to produce your code, but I would tinker with the settings to make sure ir produces valid code.
There are a lot of errors (http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.wholesalechecklist.com). I would suggest a very quick read on the importance of XHTML (http://www.seo-guy.com/forum/showthread.php?t=942). It wouldn't be hard to clean up your code, and could mean more conversions for people who hit your site.