Today I want to post a review of http://www.schoolsinstlouis.com/ which is a website that helps people find schools, colleges, and career training in and around St. Louis, Missouri.

Even for those of you not interested in schools or St. Louis, I figure this review will act as a learning experience about making a website.

The first thing I noticed about the St. Louis schools website is the search engine optimization. You will notice that in the first paragraph the website has various key phrases, and also has the most important ones in bold. This will help both search engines and users easily know the topic of the website.

Another well-placed element of the website is the “For More Information” form. It is in a very noticeable place on the homepage. It is also on every page of the site. It’s not unattractive or obtrusive, but very noticeable. I bet that results in many of their visitors putting in their information. This is a lot better than if the form was hidden on the bottom of a page or even worse on its very own page.

Overall, I think the website own has shown a firm understanding of website users and traffic. People move through the web quickly. Sometimes they stay on a page for only a few seconds. To maximize your earnings and leads, you need to quickly catch their attention, tell them the topic of your website, and get them to sign up.

What do you think?