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Need review - MexicanRoutes.com + Forum

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maya-zir

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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
I like the site. I am familiar with the theme and have worked with it before. Everything you're doing on the site seems really good. I like the right click protection.

Here are a few things I would do...

- Change top right button to "Contact Us" or make an "Advertising" page so that when you click Advertising, it goes to a different page than Contact Us.

- Mexican flag on footer just reloads the page. (no url attached). I would think about adding a google translator so that users can switch to Spanish version.

- I would add text to the slides. Not critical, but I would.

- Maybe you could add some monetization in the way of plane tickets, tours, etc. I might have even built the site on a Ticketing theme so that functionality is built in.

- Maybe dedicate a page to Donations instead of just a paypal link.

- I would create some type of logo. Branding a logo could be important down the line.
 
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1. I want to finish the English version, then add the Spanish one, with more unique content.
2. Mexican flag in the footer brings you to the up of the page.
3. I will think about adding text to the slider, I thought about it before but didn't like the idea, will think about it again
4. I do have an advertising page: http://mexicanroutes.com/advertise-with-us/
5. I will redo all headers later, it all depends on the logo I still have no idea of what I want to see as a logo.
6. I will monetize the web after I get traffic - but not AdSense, check the "advertise with us" page to see my monetize idea.
 
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I was trying a lot of themes before I selected this simple one.
I tested it for more than 1 year on AncientMayanRuins.com
I just liked the simple idea of the design, it must be simple for mobile surf
but the theme is edited, maybe you dont notice that but a lot of .php files are modified, I added and deleted a lot of lines of code, so the theme is not for auto-update anymore.

the principal idea is no ads.
but if the visitor doesn't see ads it doesn't mean there are no ads.
I just dont want visitors to see all the blinking and annoying ads.
I will add a banner on the right sidebar of related destinations.
Puebla services are just on the Puebla page, Cancun services are just on the Cancun page, etc.
read the "advertise with us" page to see my ad structure idea.
I hid the link to the "advertise" page on the contact-us page because I still have no traffic so still not very important for me if somebody reads it or not
 
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more opinions, suggestions, critics, ideas?
 
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bump, need more opinions, please...
need your suggestions about mobile/tablet/desktop navigation.
is it all UI friendly and if you would use it traveling?
would you change something?
 
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Looks good on my 6s
Awesome job so far
I sent you a message via site, just to test
 
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I have a domain I registered in the early 2000s that we wanted to use for something to do with businesses in that area, but a little broader. Still have the domain, but never developed the business or site. Our business model for monetization was something like the way another large business is doing it today.
 
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I reg MexicanRoutes for 2 reasons:
1. it was available for hand reg
2. it matches with the idea of the website: to create a lot of routes for download or by demand, I mean make itinerary ready for just use it to make travel. after I add more destinations, I will make 7 days routes, 14 days routes, 21 days routes, etc... Mexico colonial, Mayan routes, central Mexico, etc... they are routes, so the name comes from this idea...
I would prefer something like mexico360 but it costs a lot of money, and my budget is reduced just to hand reg :(
 
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True if the idea takes off and you are able to monetize it you could move to a better domain then.
 
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the domain is not so important if you dont abandon the project.
I already have traffic, 2-4 daily uniques from search engines such as google, bing, Yandex, duckduckgo, and yahoo
I have no budget for great domains and domains I would like to use with this project worth from a dozen thousand.
 
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Looks good. I guess you have been working for sometime now on the design. See some good improvements. Good luck!
 
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I really liked the website.

Only thing I can suggest (which is a personal opinion) is: When you go to the categories like Resorts or Towns it might be better to have a full page without the left sidebar ( that starts with Contact Us )

I found it a little bit distractive. For example, if you can edit or remove the left sidebar you can use bigger images which I believe make the pages more aesthetic with the images.

The home page looks just beautiful...
 
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Another thing about the home page is you might want to use the left and right bars without edges, full width - no spaces. Put your fingers on the edges and see how it looks.

Also the Mexican flag in the bottom of the Home page can be centralized vertically.
 
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Also is it possible to centralize the Mexican Travel Guide on the homepage where you illustrated the Mexican flag?
 
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@atinc
thanks for your review and suggestion.
you are right, the left sidebar makes it difficult to concentrate.

check this: http://mexicanroutes.com/towns-cities/
but then maybe will be better 4 in a row for the desktop layout?
 
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Also is it possible to centralize the Mexican Travel Guide on the homepage where you illustrated the Mexican flag?
I didn't get it.
Do you mean to move the title of the page MEXICAN TRAVEL GUIDE to the center?
Now it is on the left.

The small Mexican flag at the bottom is the GO UP button, but I see it is not too clear for visitors, I need to think about how to let to know to visitors that by clicking on the flag they will go to the beginning, to the header.
 
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well, for Archeological Sites, Colonial Towns, Resorts and Towns I removed the left sidebar.
But I preffer to use a sidebar with Magical Villages and the rest of banner-like menu from the Homepage.
Because all these pages have also content and just then a grid with images.
But I will think about left sidebar in category pages because it really distracts
 
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I didnt get it.
You mean move the title of the page MEXICAN TRAVEL GUIDE to center?
Now it is at left.

The small mexican flag in the bottom is GO UP button, but I see it is not too clear for visitors, I need to think how to let to know to visitors that clicking on flag they will go to the beggining, to header.

Yes, the title of the page.

I didn`t realize the Mexican flags function. It is cool but should be descriptive in my opinion.
 
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Yes, the title of the page.
I didn`t realize the Mexican flags function. It is cool but should be descriptive in my opinion.

the rest of elements use float:left
so if i put the title in center it will look different, I preffer keep it at left.

yes, the flag function is not clear for visitors, so I need to think how make it more explicative, I could remove the eagle from the flag and put there an arrow but then it will looks like italian flag :(
 
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Nice looking site and love the images.
Only things I can really suggest visually is a logo/branding..

Some of your pages have big blocks of text which can be hard for mobile phone readers, http://mexicanroutes.com/mythology/ especially (one I picked out).

For SEO, you can probably do with some interlinking - ling to related pages within your site. I had a look at a few of your articles and none of them linked to other pieces of content.

This not only helps with SEO but gets people on your other pages which also keeps them on your site longer.

While I'm on SEO, your title tags can use some work as well. These days click-through rate (CTR) is big with Google. So, write meta title tags that capture the eye rather than keyword stuffing.

http://mexicanroutes.com/aguascalientes/ for example has this as your title:
Visit Aguascalientes | Online travel guide | Mexican Routes

Something like:
Aguascalientes: Everything You Need To Know About This Beautiful City
or
Aguascalientes: What You Need To Know Before Travelling (Travel Guide)

^ These are just quickly made up and possibly a little long, but you and you can put more effort and time to make them look more appealing but it does look better than (Visit Aguascalientes | Online travel guide | Mexican Routes).

These are just a couple of things but other than that, looking good and your site looks to be a good resource for people who want to travel to Mexico.
 
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Only things I can really suggest visually is a logo/branding..
I still thinking about the logo, I have too much ideas but dont like any of them, but the site will have the logo for sure.
Some of your pages have big blocks of text which can be hard for mobile phone readers, http://mexicanroutes.com/mythology/ especially (one I picked out).
But I use toggles and they help not to get lost in a long long texts.
I edit all content now, by the moment I stopped to add more destinations and began to edit the existing content.
I delete some useless info or resuming it, making all more compact but informative.
But I cant reduce all text until a few lines.
I also tried to use accordion instead of toggles but the problem is when I opened the second accordion, the first one was closing and jumping upper and I had to find where I was reading before, so I decided to use toggles.
Anyway, later maybe I will edit the toggle code converting it in accordion and making to close one section when I open the second one.
I cant use toggle inside toggle, it will looks ugly.
Let me know if you have any idea of how resolve "long text" issue without reducing the text itself.
So, write meta title tags that capture the eye rather than keyword stuffing.
http://mexicanroutes.com/aguascalientes/ for example has this as your title:
Visit Aguascalientes | Online travel guide | Mexican Routes
Something like:
Aguascalientes: Everything You Need To Know About This Beautiful City
or
Aguascalientes: What You Need To Know Before Travelling (Travel Guide)
You are right. Will rewrite all this snippets.
Luckly I dont have to do it with all posts, I did it with just some of them to test and see the result.
 
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Nice looking website. I liked it. Best of luck
 
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