Bike store websites - why all the same?

bryanska said:

Look at bike shop websites in the Twin Cities:
[...]
Why all the same design??

It might be related to the identical

<meta name="CREATOR" content="[...]">
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="[...]">

tags in their HTML. Just a hunch...
--
Darin McGrew, [email hidden], http://www.rahul.net/mcgrew/
Web Design Group, [email hidden], http://www.HTMLHelp.com/

politician n. one who double-crosses a bridge when he comes to it

bryanska said:

Look at bike shop websites in the Twin Cities:
[...]
Why all the same design??

It might be related to the identical

<meta name="CREATOR" content="[...]">
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="[...]">

tags in their HTML. Just a hunch...
--
Darin McGrew, [email hidden], http://www.rahul.net/mcgrew/
Web Design Group, [email hidden], http://www.HTMLHelp.com/

politician n. one who double-crosses a bridge when he comes to it

In article <[email hidden]>,

bryanska said:

Look at bike shop websites in the Twin Cities:

www.eriksbikeshop.com

http://thehubbikecoop.org/site/intro.cfm

http://penncycle.com/site/intro.cfm

So I was like, "what"?

Then I looked at an Illinois site:

www.millrace.com

Why all the same design??

hmmm... I dumpster dive Millrace every night on the way to work. I'll
ask them in the morning on the way home. I need some road tubes anyway.

..max

In article <[email hidden]>,

bryanska said:

Look at bike shop websites in the Twin Cities:

www.eriksbikeshop.com

http://thehubbikecoop.org/site/intro.cfm

http://penncycle.com/site/intro.cfm

So I was like, "what"?

Then I looked at an Illinois site:

www.millrace.com

Why all the same design??

hmmm... I dumpster dive Millrace every night on the way to work. I'll
ask them in the morning on the way home. I need some road tubes anyway.

..max

Each contains the same creator META:

<meta name="CREATOR" content="SmartEtailing, Inc.">
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="http://www.smartetailing.com">

They were all designed by the same company or share a common template.

Probably an enterprising web hosting company decided to go after several
bike shops. They designed the template for one and figure it was an easy way
to make some more money off the effort that went in to creating the first
design.

Good tactic too (assuming the businesses aren't in the same geographical
area...otherwise it's just a [censored] to the retailers to have the same site
as their neighbor ... 🙂

C.

"bryanska" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Look at bike shop websites in the Twin Cities:

www.eriksbikeshop.com

http://thehubbikecoop.org/site/intro.cfm

http://penncycle.com/site/intro.cfm

So I was like, "what"?

Then I looked at an Illinois site:

www.millrace.com

Why all the same design??

Each contains the same creator META:

<meta name="CREATOR" content="SmartEtailing, Inc.">
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="http://www.smartetailing.com">

They were all designed by the same company or share a common template.

Probably an enterprising web hosting company decided to go after several
bike shops. They designed the template for one and figure it was an easy way
to make some more money off the effort that went in to creating the first
design.

Good tactic too (assuming the businesses aren't in the same geographical
area...otherwise it's just a [censored] to the retailers to have the same site
as their neighbor ... 🙂

C.

"bryanska" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Look at bike shop websites in the Twin Cities:

www.eriksbikeshop.com

http://thehubbikecoop.org/site/intro.cfm

http://penncycle.com/site/intro.cfm

So I was like, "what"?

Then I looked at an Illinois site:

www.millrace.com

Why all the same design??

I've seen these same template sites for several different bike shops. I
wonder how many they've done, and who's doing them. Here's another one, I
couldn't remember any of the others that I've seen.
http://spokesmanbicycles.com/site/intro.cfm

"bryanska" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Look at bike shop websites in the Twin Cities:

www.eriksbikeshop.com

http://thehubbikecoop.org/site/intro.cfm

http://penncycle.com/site/intro.cfm

So I was like, "what"?

Then I looked at an Illinois site:

www.millrace.com

Why all the same design??

Quoted message said:

Why all the same design??

Most bike shops don't have the time nor expertise to put up a reasonable
website, so smartetailing (www.smartetailing.com) delivers pretty much
turnkey solutions (meaning nearly all of the work is done for you) that give
you a polished, professional appearance. It's a good idea, but it's still up
to the shop itself to try and make their site look a bit different than
others. Personalization options exist, but are most often not used because
the shops either aren't aware of them or simply don't have the time.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

"bryanska" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Look at bike shop websites in the Twin Cities:

www.eriksbikeshop.com

http://thehubbikecoop.org/site/intro.cfm

http://penncycle.com/site/intro.cfm

So I was like, "what"?

Then I looked at an Illinois site:

www.millrace.com

Why all the same design??

What's so amazing about all of them, is that none make it easy to
browse the bikes.

Go on, try and find the right link.

Even if the link says BIKES it's still in the same font and size (and
buried along with) COUPONS and LOCATION/HOURS.

bryanska said:

Look at bike shop websites in the Twin Cities:

www.eriksbikeshop.com

http://thehubbikecoop.org/site/intro.cfm

http://penncycle.com/site/intro.cfm

So I was like, "what"?

Then I looked at an Illinois site:

www.millrace.com

Why all the same design??

There are some other decent standard formats out there. A user friendly
one I see a lot has a sub menu for bikes by brand, bikes by category,
etc. so you can narrow your list to taste. Another helpful thing is to
put the msrp on there so the user can at least have an idea of what the
tire kicking price is on these things.