My First Website Design!

[Shane Deubell]

and maybe my last....

To me it looks pretty good, some garbage text is jabbed in there while i figure this out and yes Rob videos, too bad. Some technical details i am still working on also.

Overall i like it, but what is your opinion?

Click Here

 

[Mikey P]

I don't like all the quick movement of the text.

You (bad) logo is way too small

I don't see any description of your company.

your blog entries are boring and the photos suck.

pricing is way too low

your contact form is confusing

it appears your only specialty is pet odor, which you devote a page to yet have nothing to say about..?

NO TESTIMONIALS!!


other than that, it blows.



Sorry.

 

[GCCLee]

Ker Pow just like in the cartoons wow

 

[Coup]

and maybe my last....

To me it looks pretty good, some garbage text is jabbed in there while i figure this out and yes Rob videos, too bad. Some technical details i am still working on also.

Overall i like it, but what is your opinion?

Click Here

The auto play video is annoying as hell, but the responsive theme is pretty cool.

 

[Coup]

The auto play video is annoying as hell, but the responsive theme is pretty cool.

http://themes.cmsmasters.net/?theme=increase

On 2nd thought, what did you actually 'design''? LOL

 

[jcooper]

The most important thing a client can get from your website???

Phone number! They are going to click on your page and look for a phone number, then call. Must be at the TOP of page and much BIGGER!
Yes, you do have it next to your links, but not the best spot and not big enough. Put all that goofy facebook & twatter stuff at the bottom and have the phone number in that spot.

Don't worry about other pages, spend most of your time on front page. That's all most will see.

I agree w/Mike about the photos sliding all over the place and text. Not needed, distracting, just too much(imo). The photo's are moving to fast.


Also, I clicked the phone number and it sent me to a page to fill out info, the boxes to put info are very hard to see. Call today and contact page are the same.

Your off to a pretty good start.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I like it, just slow the movement down a little and it should be fine. Very good for your first try, heck second or third try!

 

[Shane Deubell]

Thanks for the encouragement....

 

[TomKing]

Shane
For such a busy guy why are you not hiring a professional to do this?

The logo is bad to small, poor resolution
The contact form is not easy to find
the phone number is to small
I have to scroll down to find out what you do? services
Why would you ever put prices on your site. You have now made it about price not service and quality.

All of this needs to be above the crease in the page. You need to see it without scrolling.

Plus your site looks terrible on my smart phone. YOUR MOBILE SITE is a fail.

Why spend time doing this when you can get a good site for less than $1k in less than 4 weeks?

Just my thoughts.

 

[Mikey P]

Hire Tre.

 

[Mikey P]

poor Shane, I hope Tom and I didn't make him go fetal...

 

[Shane Deubell]

Are you kidding mike ?

I love being in business, love working on side projects like this, reading about it, talking about it, posting about it. This isn't work to me, enjoy learning about all the hyper-technical details of small business. The day this stops being fun is the day its time to get a job or go golf or something, oh wait i hate golf....

The only parts i find boring are payroll, taxes.

 

[Derek]

way, way better than i could do. i like the moving stuff. is it bringing in any calls yet?

check out Joe Bernich's site for a lot of useful free tips.

 

[Shane Deubell]

Ok i fixed the heading, is this any better?

Click Here

 

[jcooper]

Why spend time doing this when you can get a good site for less than $1k in less than 4 weeks?

Maybe he enjoys learning new skills, this is knowledge he will use for the rest of his life. Not like the internet or SEO is going away anytime soon...

And Yes, Shane... It's a little better! lol!

 

[Hoody]

If you really want good feedback have 20 women tell you their opinion. Since others have commented I'll give my two cents. However I would certainly take any suggestions Tom King gives and take them into huge consideration.

I would stretch the header the length of the menu bar, or center it to the menu bar. I would also center your "tabs" of your menu bar within itself, or keep it the way it is, and move your social media area down to on the menu bar and change the colors so it stands out. I agree with tom to make your logo bigger with a better resolution. The automated video thing shouldn't be automatic. Its very intrusive because you hit stop and it starts back up, got annoying after 5 minutes.

 

[tmiklethun]

I am surprised that Fred has not commented yet. He is always so fun, when ripping website apart. I speak from experience.

Here is my humble opinion. I would not consider your website to be a "Marketing" site. You are missing several key components.

You don't have a USP, a call to action, a way to capture leads information, social proof and your social media buttons at the top right don't work.

You have a real nice looking van I would put a picture of that with a USP in your header, instead of a stock picture? of a order taker. Shrink down the size of your hero pictures and get rid of the animated video. It didn't kick on for about a minute after I got to the page and it actually freaked me out a little.

You have some nice videos on the services pages but I would add one to the home page. Record a video for first time visitors and put it on the front page with an opt in form for a new client special offer. If you are going to list prices, which I don't think you should, you need to list all your prices. When you offer multiple services and then only show prices for carpet cleaning I think it diminishes the other services.

I am a long copy guy so a lot of people will disagree with me, but if someone goes to my webpage I want the page to answer the majority of their questions so that when they call they are simply looking to schedule. I would say go a little deeper on the info.

All of that being said when I listed a webpage a week ago it got critiqued pretty hard so take my advice only if it makes sense to you.

On edit: I missed that you had upholstery prices listed. But I still think you should remove the prices all together. It makes it to easy to price shop you. Make them call you for price so you can build value my explain your cleaning process then give the price.

 

[Mikey P]

I would toss that tile video of Rob soaking the baseboards asap.

using a Rotovac to spread sealer. lol..

most homeowners will think that he/YOU are applying a topical sealer based on his comments.


f'n rookie.

 

[FredC]

I am surprised that Fred has not commented yet. He is always so fun, when ripping website apart. I speak from experience.

I've been busy.........

to be fair I just ripped on a squeeze page...if I was to rip your site apart I would just send Howie a critique and hope it trickled down to all the people that have your exact same site more or less........

but...

Shane that really really sucks! First as fence/coup (rip) said you didn't design anything...you slapped some shit into a theme. A theme that is pretty piss poor for your niche.

Like others said auto play vids are one of the most f'n annoying things on the web..............especially since the music is annoying....if you are going to have an autoplay vid at least hire a voice over talent...think radio commercial

Everything is too big and blocky...this is a common problem with most responsive themes out there...of course constraints can be applied

BUT

many factors on the site indicate that you have no knowledge of html/css/php ...do your customers? NO...but they know your site looks like shit.

any real content is way below the fold...............mistake...

stock images are poorly chosen

you have no empathy for epileptics......

I could go on and on but there is really no amount of advice I could give that can fix that....leave it up and create a site with a more appropriate theme.....and get feedback BEFORE it is live

 

[Shane Deubell]

Thanks for all the compliments ...
I really do appreciate the technical feedback from fred/steve as i clearly am a rookie and have no clue. Also been told to compress the photos they are too large?

For a town of 30K people this will be fine after fixing a couple things. Over last 6 months me and one of my friends have put up 6 other sites and 2 videos in various suburban towns to the #1 or #2 position. Yeah they ALL suck but the bottom line is they are all producing income for peanuts in cost, the return is actually awesome money wise.

 

[TomKing]

You may be getting some results but what are you doing to your brand long term?

What sort of quality are you modeling to your employees?

This is not the thing to cut corners on.

Thanks for all the compliments ...
I really do appreciate the technical feedback from fred/steve as i clearly am a rookie and have no clue. Also been told to compress the photos they are too large?

For a town of 30K people this will be fine after fixing a couple things. Over last 6 months me and one of my friends have put up 6 other sites and 2 videos in various suburban towns to the #1 or #2 position. Yeah they ALL suck but the bottom line is they are all producing income for peanuts in cost, the return is actually awesome money wise.

 

[Shane Deubell]

Yes, but not until the end of the year. Trying 4 different themes and will decide based on facts and not what 5 carpet cleaners on the internet think...
This is fun and all but in real life i will continue to test different strategies, ideas etc.

 

[Royal Man]

Where to start. Like most are saying that auto play/flash is annoying and takes up too much valuable top of fold real estate. The sound will be an other annoyance for those that want to discretely check your site while they are at work. The services should be up higher. So, they get read. (Remember a lot a viewers don't scroll) They want enough info to make an decision and an appointment in a second or 2 without scrolling. NO TESTIMONIALS!! that's freaking crazy. Your clients should be doing your selling for you. If you want a site that brings work instead of just looking pretty. Change your " Contact us' To FREE QUOTE" and highlight it. I had $900 of work sent to me today on a Sunday. From my free quote button. Also, don't forget to get a USP and look at your site from your prospects position. If you make it easy for them to do business with your company. Your company will have more clients. Now work to make the process super easy for a rushed prospect that has more to do in their lives than to go though and entire flash presentation, to flick to an other page or even to scroll just to book a freaking appointment.

 

[Shane Deubell]

Thanks Dave!

I appreciate the honest feedback.

 

[FredC]

Can we see the other "themes"? Is the current plan really to put up similar (shitty) sites and pick the best performing? This is the prettiest dump I've ever taken?



People always look at me crazy (yes...I can see through the phone...thanks NSA/FFCs) when I ask "yeah but how many people aren't clicking on your site"..............which normally leads to an explanation of A/B testing. An explanation that does not include the statement "we'll put up a few really shitty sites".

 

[jburnich]

Hey Shane, not bad for a DIY. Here are my thoughts on effective design (in order of importance)

1. Nice obvious phone number and a contact form on every page
2. Call-to-action(s)
3. Personalization especially for a one-truck operation - photo, video, message from the owner, etc.
4. Obvious services in the form of clickable pics or menu items (or both)
5. Guarantee
6. Testimonials either on home page or easy to find link
7. Mobile friendly

Most everything else is just eye candy and will either do little to convert or distract from important stuff. Nothing wrong with moving pics, but they need to be more subtle and not dominate the page.

Hope that helps.