my friends website
Discussion
My friend has recently had his website done, Im not so keen on a couple of things i.e the blurryness of certain graphics and I think his telephone number should be clearer and on the front page.
Any experts in here give any advice
Thx
http://www.burtonmortgageservices.co.uk
Any experts in here give any advice
Thx
http://www.burtonmortgageservices.co.uk
I agree.
Please take this in a constructive way, but I think that it looks the same as the other similar companies sites. That may be what he is looking for, but depending on who and how the site will be viewed it may be better to make is a bit 'different'.
It is often better to sell 3, 2 or even 1 service to an area of the market very well than offer a numerous amount of different services. By all means mention the range of services later, but focus on those which get most turnover and specialise and advertise those first.
The second thing I noticed is that the eye is naturally brought down to the first third of the page. On the site, on this key area, the text is difficult to read, and also a bit verbose.
You may only have five seconds to grab someone's attention while they decide whether you are going to be useful or not. I would cut down this text to eight or ten bold words in bullet points or short statements about how the services will directly benefit the potential customer.
The idea is to drag people in nice and easy. The mortgage reminder service is a good idea as it will be catching people at the right time. However, I doubt that people will feel the need to put a reminder on for the sake of it. I will put my neck on the line and say he will get few responses.
Better than that, why not try to get that information a sneaky way that draws people in, maybe in big bold letters:
"30 second mortgage test - How much can YOU save?"
and a few boxes to give what they are paying at the moment, their email address and when their mortgage expires. The calculator then compares what they are paying now compared to the correct best mortgage figures he can put in. Bingo.
Please take this in a constructive way, but I think that it looks the same as the other similar companies sites. That may be what he is looking for, but depending on who and how the site will be viewed it may be better to make is a bit 'different'.
It is often better to sell 3, 2 or even 1 service to an area of the market very well than offer a numerous amount of different services. By all means mention the range of services later, but focus on those which get most turnover and specialise and advertise those first.
The second thing I noticed is that the eye is naturally brought down to the first third of the page. On the site, on this key area, the text is difficult to read, and also a bit verbose.
You may only have five seconds to grab someone's attention while they decide whether you are going to be useful or not. I would cut down this text to eight or ten bold words in bullet points or short statements about how the services will directly benefit the potential customer.
The idea is to drag people in nice and easy. The mortgage reminder service is a good idea as it will be catching people at the right time. However, I doubt that people will feel the need to put a reminder on for the sake of it. I will put my neck on the line and say he will get few responses.
Better than that, why not try to get that information a sneaky way that draws people in, maybe in big bold letters:
"30 second mortgage test - How much can YOU save?"
and a few boxes to give what they are paying at the moment, their email address and when their mortgage expires. The calculator then compares what they are paying now compared to the correct best mortgage figures he can put in. Bingo.
I won't give a critique just yet, but this is IMPORTANT:
The site MUST have the correct legal disclaimers on each page (such as "Your home is at risk if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage or other loans secured on it", "XYZ is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority", etc), otherwise the FSA will get very heavy. Make sure the correct ones are there, and remember - if there is a promotion on there, you MUST have the cost for comparison and be able to justify how you arrived at that figure.
Compliance comes above all else for such websites.
Other than that, sort out the glaring typos.
The site MUST have the correct legal disclaimers on each page (such as "Your home is at risk if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage or other loans secured on it", "XYZ is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority", etc), otherwise the FSA will get very heavy. Make sure the correct ones are there, and remember - if there is a promotion on there, you MUST have the cost for comparison and be able to justify how you arrived at that figure.
Compliance comes above all else for such websites.
Other than that, sort out the glaring typos.
I think generally his website looks great. I know it's early days in terms of what's on there, and he'll pick out the bugs as he goes along. Only a few points:
1. The text on the right is difficult to read. Too light.
2. Maybe fewer headings with a bit more detail to sell the firm. He should avoid going down the "we will help you borrow money" cul-de-sac at every turn.
3. He might want to put staff profiles on there. Solicitors, headhunters, accountants etc do this to personalise what are pretty hard services to market.
4. Maybe include a notes box in the mortgage enquiry form page.
A web developer said to me a while ago that setting up a website is easy compared to publising it. I think this is where your friend is going to struggle, because mortgage advisers spend millions to direct traffic to their websites, and my guess is your friend can't throw that kind of money at his internet page.
Just advice. Please don't anybody bite my head off if they don't agree with me.
1. The text on the right is difficult to read. Too light.
2. Maybe fewer headings with a bit more detail to sell the firm. He should avoid going down the "we will help you borrow money" cul-de-sac at every turn.
3. He might want to put staff profiles on there. Solicitors, headhunters, accountants etc do this to personalise what are pretty hard services to market.
4. Maybe include a notes box in the mortgage enquiry form page.
A web developer said to me a while ago that setting up a website is easy compared to publising it. I think this is where your friend is going to struggle, because mortgage advisers spend millions to direct traffic to their websites, and my guess is your friend can't throw that kind of money at his internet page.
Just advice. Please don't anybody bite my head off if they don't agree with me.
I'd say it's a bit forgettable really. There are loads of them like this. I never really understood why they make 'em so that all the (tiny) text is aligned in a narrow strip down the middle of the browser.
They call it web "design", but it think its a bit of a misnomer, myself. The trouble is that a really great website is actually quite difficult to put together - read expensive and time consuming.
Some of the best bits of the web, they're just text, but the thing is that it's unpalatable for the target audience, hence bland sites like these.
Looked O.K. to me.
They call it web "design", but it think its a bit of a misnomer, myself. The trouble is that a really great website is actually quite difficult to put together - read expensive and time consuming.
Some of the best bits of the web, they're just text, but the thing is that it's unpalatable for the target audience, hence bland sites like these.
Looked O.K. to me.
Edited by dilbert on Saturday 19th April 02:06
m3sye said:
What glaring typos are there??
Just on the homepage:- <TITLE> reads "Bare". Is this meant to be "Bury"?
- Independant should be "independent" (at least twice on the homepage)
- Cerified should be "certified"
- Need a 100% mortgage should have a "?"
- "Lenders" needs an apostrophe
- Double full stop after "options"
- Double exclamation mark at end of final paragraph
One other thing: in financial services, "advisor" is usually spelt "adviser". I don't know why, but that's how it is.
I haven't checked any other pages - pm me if you want a full review and analysis. I can provide a mortgage sourcing engine, calcualtors, online case tracking, etc.
People get upset on this forum when poor English is pointed out to them. The truth is that it filters into their business life and adversely affects their credibility.
Long live the spelling police!
dilbert said:
I'd say it's a bit forgettable really. There are loads of them like this. I never really understood why they make 'em so that all the (tiny) text is aligned in a narrow strip down the middle of the browser.
They call it web "design", but it think its a bit of a misnomer, myself. The trouble is that a really great website is actually quite difficult to put together - read expensive and time consuming.
Some of the best bits of the web, they're just text, but the thing is that it's unpalatable for the target audience, hence bland sites like these.
Looked O.K. to me.
I completely agree. They call it web "design", but it think its a bit of a misnomer, myself. The trouble is that a really great website is actually quite difficult to put together - read expensive and time consuming.
Some of the best bits of the web, they're just text, but the thing is that it's unpalatable for the target audience, hence bland sites like these.
Looked O.K. to me.
Edited by dilbert on Saturday 19th April 02:06
It is not often that the 'IT type' person who does web design also specialises in marketing or copywriting. In fact it is rare, and this is often shown in sites which all seem to look the same.
I guess a similar analogy would be to get your bricky to work on the architectural designs for your house. They might be able to put up something similar to what they have done before, but may not know why the previous design was the way it was, or whether any design actually works.
jacobyte said:
m3sye said:
What glaring typos are there??
Just on the homepage:- <TITLE> reads "Bare". Is this meant to be "Bury"?
- Independant should be "independent" (at least twice on the homepage)
- Cerified should be "certified"
- Need a 100% mortgage should have a "?"
- "Lenders" needs an apostrophe
- Double full stop after "options"
- Double exclamation mark at end of final paragraph
One other thing: in financial services, "advisor" is usually spelt "adviser". I don't know why, but that's how it is.
I haven't checked any other pages - pm me if you want a full review and analysis. I can provide a mortgage sourcing engine, calcualtors, online case tracking, etc.
People get upset on this forum when poor English is pointed out to them. The truth is that it filters into their business life and adversely affects their credibility.
Long live the spelling police!
p.s It is meant to be Bare, its a place in Morecambe
Having designed Travel Sites for years my thoughts are:
There is no strapline below the logo to show how your site is unique in what it offers. You've got maybe 5 seconds before a users clicks back to Google.
The top nav links should be in white to ensure they stand out. Don't hide anything.
Always ensure the telephone is visiable all the time. I am half way through dialing the number and it's gone - bye bye
Loose the cheesy graphics such as the stop sign - you're a professional business.
Move the 'cerified' logo up the page to demostrate how 'trustworthy' you are.
Get the spelling right - if your poor at it like me, get someone else to check it.
Add you address details to the footer on the page - if I am going to use you, I'd like to know where you are?
Add a picture of a nice call centre or professional person - you can buy one from iStockPhotos. Women work best. Position the photo in the header.
Ensure you have the legal right to all photography on the site - it could cost you over £15,000 if you do not have the legal rights
Get rid of the poor pop out menu system - you need clean simply navigation.
Add a bread crumb to the site.
Finally go and buy a copy of 'Design Patterns' for website from Amazon.
There is no strapline below the logo to show how your site is unique in what it offers. You've got maybe 5 seconds before a users clicks back to Google.
The top nav links should be in white to ensure they stand out. Don't hide anything.
Always ensure the telephone is visiable all the time. I am half way through dialing the number and it's gone - bye bye
Loose the cheesy graphics such as the stop sign - you're a professional business.
Move the 'cerified' logo up the page to demostrate how 'trustworthy' you are.
Get the spelling right - if your poor at it like me, get someone else to check it.
Add you address details to the footer on the page - if I am going to use you, I'd like to know where you are?
Add a picture of a nice call centre or professional person - you can buy one from iStockPhotos. Women work best. Position the photo in the header.
Ensure you have the legal right to all photography on the site - it could cost you over £15,000 if you do not have the legal rights
Get rid of the poor pop out menu system - you need clean simply navigation.
Add a bread crumb to the site.
Finally go and buy a copy of 'Design Patterns' for website from Amazon.
I agree with Johnbear wholeheartedly except the following
Other points would be that the blue is AWFUL! But the banners look quite good.
I would say its obvious to me that it has been designed by a programmer and probably cheaply but prob not to the general public.
So 4/10 on that.
johnbear said:
Loose the cheesy graphics such as the stop sign - you're a professional business.
I thought the give way sign was ok - even though there doesn't seem to be a reason behind it.johnbear said:
Add a picture of a nice call centre or professional person - you can buy one from iStockPhotos. Women work best. Position the photo in the header.
I agree but don't use 'obvious' stock photography as it will just look cheesy. And to be honest the 'pretty call centre girl' is so over used and if this is ment to be a local friendly company then it could make them look faceless corporation like.johnbear said:
Add a bread crumb to the site.
Gah - no - dont bother. The current menu is a godawful dropdown affair and is useless so definately sort this out but I feel having seperate navigation is a bad thing (in fact the only thing I dislike with the PH site. Just give me a decent menu instead!Other points would be that the blue is AWFUL! But the banners look quite good.
I would say its obvious to me that it has been designed by a programmer and probably cheaply but prob not to the general public.
So 4/10 on that.
I don't think a breadcrumb would be a bad idea.....
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/breadcrumbs.html
The thing that makes the menu really bad is that the baloon for the menu item, appears on top of the automatically deployed child menu window. Since the baloons on the menu don't actually add any useful information, I'd ditch them completely. In addition, since only one menuitem in the list has a child menu, I'd make it's menuitem slightly different from the others. Where those arrows are, make them bullets, and then have the arrow on the menu item where there is a child menu.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/breadcrumbs.html
The thing that makes the menu really bad is that the baloon for the menu item, appears on top of the automatically deployed child menu window. Since the baloons on the menu don't actually add any useful information, I'd ditch them completely. In addition, since only one menuitem in the list has a child menu, I'd make it's menuitem slightly different from the others. Where those arrows are, make them bullets, and then have the arrow on the menu item where there is a child menu.
Sorry - I got the book title wrong
Just found in now in the bookcase. It's the Design of Sites, see
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Design-Sites-Patterns-Crea...
Just found in now in the bookcase. It's the Design of Sites, see
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Design-Sites-Patterns-Crea...
Why do people want to spend fortunes on websites? Unless you need a bespoke element that is.
I did this in about 2 hours:
http://www.flex-finance.co.uk
that gets plenty of business combined with other marketing.
I did this in about 2 hours:
http://www.flex-finance.co.uk
that gets plenty of business combined with other marketing.
playerone said:
Why do people want to spend fortunes on websites? Unless you need a bespoke element that is.
I did this in about 2 hours:
http://www.flex-finance.co.uk
that gets plenty of business combined with other marketing.
How would someone who knows nothing about web designing do that?I did this in about 2 hours:
http://www.flex-finance.co.uk
that gets plenty of business combined with other marketing.
JustinP1 said:
It is not often that the 'IT type' person who does web design also specialises in marketing or copywriting. In fact it is rare, and this is often shown in sites which all seem to look the same.
I so agree with that, I've always recommended that. I'm an IT guy & in the past have created quite a few websites but the difference a graphic artist\designer can have is amazing..Take a look at these two similar sites to see the kind of difference we are talking here:
The IT\in house one: http://www.simpleway.co.uk/
The one which was 'designed' & put together in the same way: http://www.simpleway.co.uk/
Cheers,
A
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