Critique for new Landscape site

[pammac]

I'd like to have any feedback on my new site.

http://www.improveyourlandscape.com

Thanks,
Pam

[pamz]

Your ads really blend in with your color scheme and I really do like the layout alot.

I did however, notice that I have seen most of the articles on other sites. You may want to create some of your own to be unique. Since they link to other sites, they will be the ones that get page rank, not you. Especially since most of the articles are from the same source.

Even if your articles are just a few lines each, you'll see a big difference in your traffic.

[pammac]

Thanks Pamz for the info. I'm not sure which articles you are referring to since the text on my site is somewhat unique. I'd be interested to know what sites you saw these same articles on if you have a few minutes.

[pamz]

I did though have a better look around and it looks like you only have some duplicate content on the front page from dreamsalive & ARA. (Is dreamsalivemagazine yours by chance--if so, WOW)and the rest of your content is unique.

Why not put unique only on the front and the ARA on a page further back? I had a misconception about your site, others may also.

I also have a gardening site (but it's a datafeed site so it has much different style and focus--I have 0 talents as a webmaster so datafeeds are easier for me).
I think that you site should do extremely well as it definately looks really good.

[Bobette Kyle]

I like the looks of your site, too. :)

(Note: If you get compensation from dreamsalivemagazine or it's your site and one of your primary goals is to send people there, then ignore everything that follows. :) )

I think you may be losing a lot of traffic to dreamsalivemagazine. The "up and front" article blurbs seem to link to them. Based on the places I looked, people have to go off improveyourlandscape to read some of the most prominent content, which takes away any potential AdSense income.

On the front page, I would replace the two article blurbs with blurbs from articles on improveyourlandscape. That way, when people click to read the article, they are still on your site.

I clicked on the "Articles & Links" button because I was looking for articles. Again, there is a link to dreamsalive...another prominent place where you are sending traffic directly to the other site, instead of through AdSense.

I would separate those out...make an "articles" button and a "links" button. Under articles, make every link on that page lead to another page on your own site or AdSense. I bet you would see an improvement.

[pammac]

Thanks Bobette for a very helpful critique. I am going to make the changes you and Pamz suggest about the front page. No, I don't get compensated from the Dreamsalivemagazine articles and actually just put them on the front page because it is new content that I thought would be helpful for return visitors. However, I do see how I am losing people to this site and will fix that.

Thanks also for the idea of splitting the Articles and Links pages into 2. Will do that and link to articles within the sit, great idea.

[Bobette Kyle]

You are welcome, pammac.

[LFNNS]

Hi Pam,

Not much to add other than the website pictures seemed on the small side. Thats great for page load times but it might help to throw a larger picture in every once in a while for detail of the landscapes. I really like your header design. Very eye catching and attention attracting!

Eric