The Now Play It website provides easy online methods for learning to play several of the most popular songs on the market using the instrument of choice. Visitors to the music tutorial website can select their instrument such as guitar, drums, keyboard, piano or bass. The Now Play It website provides several exciting features such as videos, downloads and tutorials to help people master specific songs in their own time. The website analysis will show whether the website does fulfil its purpose and how well it does in terms of proper website design, interactivity, content, and search engine optimisation as part of its Internet marketing strategy.

What makes the Now Play It website unique is the provision of real music, artists, and tutoring methods. The site caters for new comers to the music world and those who have mastered advanced techniques. The idea behind the provision of real artists to learn from is that there is no better tutor than the person who wrote the music piece or song and who performed it.

The Now Play It website provides three types of tutorials ranging from Full, to Lite and then In House. The Full option includes a video tutorial with a one on one with an artist shot at specific location and can be up to 25 minutes with loads of detail and also recaps. The Lite version includes two parts that of playing through and then the recap while the in-house versions feature in-house artists instead of the original artists. Previews of the tutorials can be watched before the user proceeds with downloading.

The website design makes for a clean and much focused site. The background is white, but although it should make for easy reading, the text size is extremely small at some pages. Side-scrolling may be required depending on the screen resolution setting. This can be a bit annoying at times, but fortunately the most important information does display in the screen without the need for side-scrolling. There is a lot of white space which has not been used properly, which leaves the impression of page layout that needs a bit of improvement.

The navigation through the Now Play It website is however, fairly easy facilitated through a well organized menu on top featuring the main categories. The logo displays throughout and through repeat features on all the pages, the theme is coherent. The home option forms part of the main navigation menu which is important for hassle free navigation. Titles of the pages are displayed throughout which also enhances the ease of navigation. The pages load fast even with all the videos included.

Flash videos are present on the homepage which may have an influence on page rank. The videos are relevant and make for immediate interesting features. Images have alt tags and descriptions. It would however, improve navigation for users who have their image loaders disabled, if there were to be text links for each of the image links on the home page.

The search facility is displayed on top and is extremely easy to use. Downloading assistance is provided at the help/faq page. Downloads are available in mp4 format and Windows Media Video. It doesn’t feature a separate contact page; instead email enquiries can be made by clicking on the email links at the bottom of the pages.

Interactivity is provided through the Community forum where questions can be asked and opinions shared. An excellent feature of the Now Play It website is the free content which has been added recently where users can obtain free downloads. Interactivity can be further enhanced through a blog and feedback options. A refer a friend option and newsletter subscription option at the home page will also ensure more return visits and thus aid in Internet Marketing.

In terms of search engine optimisation the website analysis done May 28, 2008 shows that the Now Play It website already has a solid 5 Google Page Rank which indicates that their Internet Marketing strategies have paid off well. By improving the incoming link total from Google and Yahoo it will quickly rise to a Page Rank of 6. This is a website well worth noting as it will grow in credibility as the domain ages. The domain was registered in April 2006 and is thus still fairly young, but already the website attracts attention from music lovers around the world. The fact that the domain name can also feature as keyword also counts in its favour. It also includes a Metatag with description, title and keywords which is important for SEO purposes. The inclusion of a site map and more wording on the home page will enhance its placement at the search engines.

Overall the Now Play It website offers excellent tutorials set in a simplistic lay-out with easy navigation. It is well worth visiting for anyone interested in learning to play or improve on their music skills. The website analysis shows that the focused website does well in catering to the needs of the users and you should get that guitar out of the closet, as you will have the opportunity to learn new cords at the site.