Critique my site please?
Discussion
Viewing on Firefox:
On your front page the words "Get a quick quote now" come off the orange background onto the grey.
At the top on the black banner the word "Tel" is being blocked by the Facebook and Twitter buttons.
At the bottom of the front page you've got your telephone, email and mobile phone information but the last 3 digits of your mobile number are on a new line. It's not a dire problem but it does look untidy.
I'd also get a family member (or do it yourself) to go through all the text with a fine toothcomb as on the front page alone I've noticed extra spaces before commas, missing a space entirely, and at least one bit where you've started a word with capital letter even though there was a comma before it rather than a full stop.
I know I'm coming across as a pedant but there WILL be customers out there who judge you on this kind of thing.
On your front page the words "Get a quick quote now" come off the orange background onto the grey.
At the top on the black banner the word "Tel" is being blocked by the Facebook and Twitter buttons.
At the bottom of the front page you've got your telephone, email and mobile phone information but the last 3 digits of your mobile number are on a new line. It's not a dire problem but it does look untidy.
I'd also get a family member (or do it yourself) to go through all the text with a fine toothcomb as on the front page alone I've noticed extra spaces before commas, missing a space entirely, and at least one bit where you've started a word with capital letter even though there was a comma before it rather than a full stop.
I know I'm coming across as a pedant but there WILL be customers out there who judge you on this kind of thing.
Again, All excellent feedback thanks, really appreciated...had over 700 visits from PH to the site since posting this !
My plan is to sit down over next week or so and try and implement/change some ideas. Some Ill manage myself, some perhaps for my designer.
Slightly concerned with the formatting on different devices/browsers, not sure how easy this is to fix.
More opinions welcome ..
My plan is to sit down over next week or so and try and implement/change some ideas. Some Ill manage myself, some perhaps for my designer.
Slightly concerned with the formatting on different devices/browsers, not sure how easy this is to fix.
More opinions welcome ..
Edited by Jamster123 on Sunday 29th December 21:13
Jamster123 said:
Again, All excellent feedback thanks, really appreciated.
My plan is to sit down over next week or so and try and implement/change some ideas. Some Ill manage myself, some perhaps for my designer.
Slightly concerned with the formatting on different devices/browsers, not sure how easy this is to fix.
More opinions welcome ..
its a complete fMy plan is to sit down over next week or so and try and implement/change some ideas. Some Ill manage myself, some perhaps for my designer.
Slightly concerned with the formatting on different devices/browsers, not sure how easy this is to fix.
More opinions welcome ..
ker tbh.most designers give up on the old browsers like ie6 and stuff.
the best way to decide is to use Google Analytics or similar .(which you really should be using) to see what people use to view your site.
for my wife's event site it works out as:
26.8% firefox
21.5% chrome
15.6% safari
11.5% android browser
etc
which can then be broken down further. I know that only 1 person has eve viewed her site from ie6, so I don't give a monkeys about that one!
there are a few free sites that will help you do this like http://browserling.com/, also some applications you can download to test them all, including older versions, and javascript/flash enabled/disabled etc.
Working out why something is wrong in one and not enough is a lot trickier however. for a first shot, try here: http://validator.w3.org/ and see what parts of your code aren't great. very hard to do through wordpress though, unless you are comfortable playing with the code.
Jamster123 said:
yeah got google analytics just been messing around trying to figure things out. My ability on wordpress only really stretched to changing text and images etc at the moment , so will pass on other parts to designer.
it's not rocket science, but it can be painstaking and annoying 
I did my wife's myself, but it took me many many weeks devoted to working on it every night, and it's not even that complicated a site!
Im just doing some thinking tonight and wanted to come back to this.
Im doing quite a bit of advertising on adwords. On good days I'm getting around 100 views on the site although this equates to around 10-15 unique visits ( I think, still learning with this ). This is for terms such as "electrician glasgow". Of 15 for example lets say 10 are just browsing and 5 are genuinely needing an electrician at that point in time. If my estimates are way off please correct me, as I said still learning. Id expect at least a few calls per day but at the minute I'm getting maybe 3-5 per week.
So, are my figures off or are people being put off my site for one reason or another?
If they are, I come to this...
Its been suggested that I look quite young
( I'm 30 this year so only now am I taking that as a compliment! ) but looking at my site do I look young and is this potentially putting customers off as they presume lack of experience?
Feedback was massively appreciated last time and again if anyone can help..
www.jrcpropertysolutions.com
Im doing quite a bit of advertising on adwords. On good days I'm getting around 100 views on the site although this equates to around 10-15 unique visits ( I think, still learning with this ). This is for terms such as "electrician glasgow". Of 15 for example lets say 10 are just browsing and 5 are genuinely needing an electrician at that point in time. If my estimates are way off please correct me, as I said still learning. Id expect at least a few calls per day but at the minute I'm getting maybe 3-5 per week.
So, are my figures off or are people being put off my site for one reason or another?
If they are, I come to this...
Its been suggested that I look quite young
( I'm 30 this year so only now am I taking that as a compliment! ) but looking at my site do I look young and is this potentially putting customers off as they presume lack of experience?Feedback was massively appreciated last time and again if anyone can help..
www.jrcpropertysolutions.com
With Adwords the most useful thing for me is to look at the "matched search term" in Google analytics. This shows the exact search term that brought the visitor to my site. Quite often the broad keywords used in Adwords can go off in all sorts of tangents! At that point I usually add some negative keywords or consider wether the keyword should be a broad or phrase match.
It's the kind of thing that can only be refined with time in my opinion. The end result should be adverts that get more and more targeted and that lower the bounce rate.
It's the kind of thing that can only be refined with time in my opinion. The end result should be adverts that get more and more targeted and that lower the bounce rate.
I know it's old school but a leaflet drop really worked well for me (general property maintenance). I was amazed how many people actually kept them and called a long time after the drop. Print is dirt cheap these days.
I'd recommend a business card attached on a removable glue dot printed on one side with something like "You may not need us now but why not save this card in case you do in the future" and your contact details and services on the other.
I'd recommend a business card attached on a removable glue dot printed on one side with something like "You may not need us now but why not save this card in case you do in the future" and your contact details and services on the other.
Thanks, Ill keep at at adwords..Im still learning but getting there slowly.
Don't get me wrong we have plenty of work, Im just curious why some folk may not be following through after visiting the site.
Leaflet drop is something Ive never done purely because I was under the impression the conversation rate was very low. I usually deliver a drafted letter to all neighbouring properties when we finish a job. We get some hits from this but also a lot of wasted time.
Don't get me wrong we have plenty of work, Im just curious why some folk may not be following through after visiting the site.
Leaflet drop is something Ive never done purely because I was under the impression the conversation rate was very low. I usually deliver a drafted letter to all neighbouring properties when we finish a job. We get some hits from this but also a lot of wasted time.
I like the pictures, as others have said, they add trust that you didn't set up yesterday and have happy customers behind you.
Adwords can be an expensive waste of time and money if you don't know what you're doing, and sometimes even when you do. A few points to help you get the most of your campaign:
Target users by location, so you don't get clicks from people too far away.
Keep control of your bid amounts, adjust weekly.
Being in position 1 is not always best, it's expensive and can attract people who will look at a few sites before buying from the 3rd or 4th one. Some of my best campaigns have been when I've lowered bids to aim for position 3 - 5
HAVE AN OFFER! Just saying I'm a sparky isn't enough, you need to give customers a reason to call YOU. Doesn't matter what it is, guaranteed work, 20% discount after first hour, free callout - whatever, just something to make you different.
Check keywords and add as negatives any that arent relevent.
Run 2 ads together. After a couple of weeks look at the click through rates, tweak the wording on the worst performing one and rinse and repeat. Try moving your keywords out of/into the headline, capitalising first letter of keywords,
Use mobile ads alongside desktop ones.
I hope you find that useful.
Adwords can be an expensive waste of time and money if you don't know what you're doing, and sometimes even when you do. A few points to help you get the most of your campaign:
Target users by location, so you don't get clicks from people too far away.
Keep control of your bid amounts, adjust weekly.
Being in position 1 is not always best, it's expensive and can attract people who will look at a few sites before buying from the 3rd or 4th one. Some of my best campaigns have been when I've lowered bids to aim for position 3 - 5
HAVE AN OFFER! Just saying I'm a sparky isn't enough, you need to give customers a reason to call YOU. Doesn't matter what it is, guaranteed work, 20% discount after first hour, free callout - whatever, just something to make you different.
Check keywords and add as negatives any that arent relevent.
Run 2 ads together. After a couple of weeks look at the click through rates, tweak the wording on the worst performing one and rinse and repeat. Try moving your keywords out of/into the headline, capitalising first letter of keywords,
Use mobile ads alongside desktop ones.
I hope you find that useful.
Just to add, I didn't relaise there would be customer reviews on facebook until I had looked. If you can get your customers to add good feedback on facebook, it's much more credible than just copy and pasting to your website, which you could have made up yourself.
You've got great reviews on check a trade etc. Why did I only find them by mistake? Shout about them!
You've got great reviews on check a trade etc. Why did I only find them by mistake? Shout about them!
Edited by WilliamWoollard on Wednesday 19th February 09:39
Such a helpful post last time, would appreciate any thoughts on a new site Im working on. Still rough at moment...
http://macwebsolutions.co.uk/clients/jrc/
http://macwebsolutions.co.uk/clients/jrc/
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