wejo wrote:
Post away in this thread or use the feedback form at the link above.
I've had a day with the "new" site to gather pros and cons:
Pros
- Now responsive. Critical for ANY site. My sites are no longer "also good on mobile" but are instead mobile-first. Our sites officially passed the 50% mobile/desktop threshold a few months and that ratio will continue to grow.
- CMS. Looks like you're powered by Wordpress now, and that's a no-brainer. Benefits of a CMS with the best open source community around.
Cons
- You did nothing to attract new users. You may have appeased the existing community, but the site homepage is still a jumbled mess of words with weak categorization . Categories should be visually linked in a way newish running fans can comprehend: Pro racing news, College racing news, Training Info, Off-LR News, etc.
- Zero dynamic added to the homepage. Do you not seeing scrolling dynamic leads, carousels and sliders across every other content site on the web? Do you think we run those just for kicks? Reconstructing the homepage exactly as it was is one of the poorest decisions I can think of. At least enlarge your lead story thumbnails for some visual interest.
- Zero brand improvement. In the hands of a capable designer, you could have delivered a refashioned logo that kept the feel of your silly nostalgic joke of a logo in place (reminds me of Mountain Bike Action) but brought it to a place of quality. But you instructed your guy to just reset it, and it shows. Amateur typographic work and poor branding vision that will continue to turn younger users away.
- Almost zero ad revenue improvement. You're in this to make money right? Or at least have it not be a labor of love? Why do you continue to use the third rail for content and not for widgets and ads? Where is the leaderboard? The page-bottom leaderboard? Advertorial spots in the content well? Mind you I'm not even suggesting interstitials, video interstitals and other intrusive ad spots that annoy users, but simply monetizing the page that people are on. Pay an ad sales consultant $400 for a report on what your audience analytics can generate.
I hope you're just getting started here, because the changes are so under-the-hood that it seems silly to market it a "new and improved LR." I know I had the opportunity to help and passed on it, but I also know you can do more. Good luck, guys.