Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

I wasn't really sure which site I arrived at because you placed an image before the dot com instead of the name of the site. I don't think the internet world is really ready for that kind of design styling yet.

I concur with Levon. An image in front of the .com everywhere is a bit too avantgarde and confusing and frankly unnecessary. It's unintuitive and not optimal for SEO.

You also have a ton of content and links on the homepage which makes it difficult to navigate. Some of it seems irrelevant to a travel site - specifically, the "Quotes" section and the "Latest Media" section.

I'm also wary of clicking unknown sites that aggregate random links from the web since I'm unsure what's really going to come up if I do.

I would find a better organization scheme, like "Articles by Country" or by "Region", try to add some original content and remove unrelated fluff sections so you can keep your site simple, easy to understand and easy to navigate.

The navigation is hard to understand. Menus across the top. Menus down the left side. An article cloud across the bottom.

Presumably you're hoping that someone that arrives at your website is looking to purchase some vacation tour package from you. So make it obvious what you're selling, to who, and why they should trust you with their money/vacation planning.

Wow, everything seems to compete for my attention within the site at once. Time for a homepage/site audit.


The shadow effect on letters also makes it hard to read.

You may have some Real Pearls here but they are hard to see right now.

It's very hard to guess what exactly you're offering to your visitors in terms of benefits. If you're not a traditional travel agency, then I would suggest explaining what exactly your business model is to your visitors on a clear, uncluttered homepage. Good questions to answer are:
- what is a "vanity tour"?
- why did global travel change and what does it have to do with me?

As it is now, I look at the site and get overwhelmed by all the links, and I feel a strong urge to click away. Especially because it is unclear where all the links will take me.

Some links on the top (horizontal) navigation menu seem to be the same as the links in the left hand (vertical) navigation menu ("Flights", "Hotels", "Vacation Rentals"...). On the other hand, the horizontal menu has a "Vanityblog" and something called "vSpot" which presumably offers a different kind of content than the 'Flights'/'Hotel Deals' links.

You have 'Travel Options', 'Travel Specials' and 'Travel Specialties'. Not only are they overlapping categories, but they are also too numerous, to the point of making the 'specialty' claim unbelievable.

If I were you, I would try to turn the navigation around. As your site is now, it starts from all the different things you offer. Maybe you should think about how a customer approaches your site. I'm guessing that people who visit a travel website have a destination or a type of holiday in mind ("I want to go to Rio" or "I want to find a cheap skiing trip for this winter").

I would suggest offering your visitors a simple question like "Where do you want to go?" Then, in a drop down menu, you can offer destinations. Alternatively, you can ask them "What kind of holiday do you want to experience?" with a drop down menu offering "Active hiking in the mountains"/"Shopping in a cosmopolitan atmosphere"/"Leisure on the beach"... listing all the different types of vacations people can book through you.

I agree with what Jay Hamilton-Roth says: it's also very important that you convey a good reason why customers would trust you with their holiday budget. As it is now, your site does little to inspire confidence. Invest more in artwork and design/branding.