website critique

[Ricky Thurman]

okay, my new website is up.

let me have it. I may not agree with you but I'll listen.

I did it myself and have taken a lot of ideas from other cleaners sites, but tried to make it my own. So if you see something that looks familiar, it's probably because it is.



Thanks to Jim Martin for the protector explanation flyer he sent me a year or so ago, and also to Larry Cobb for the UltraSeal graphic.

okay go ahead..

www.stephenvillecarpetcleaning.com

 

[-JB-]

Not fond of the "sounds", but I ain't your client, so....

 

[Terry]

great tile and grout graphic. Carpet * Upholstery.etc on top of page is not very crisp. You don't have any associations/memberships listed! See your still working on it but overall very good.

 

[alazo1]

I like the audio, it's lively, professional and different then the ones you see too often with the animation.

I think it needs to stop after your voice though, after that it just seems like too much of a commercial and too long. I'd axe the voice on the testimonial page and just keep the main one. Have an on/off audio button as well.

Do you have a higher resolution logo?. Reducing the opacity of the background would make the logo pop a little more as well.

Did she say "cum on your couch"

Albert

 

[Ricky Thurman]

Albert-

Both of the audio pages are actually commercials that run on a local Radio station. I like your idea of editiing out the end of the first one with all the phone numbers.

We are actually getting ready to cut a new ad just because of the "gum on the sofa"

I didn't care for that line anyway, and it does sound too much like "cum" Its been a comical conversation topic with some of my light-hearted custys.


I'm gonna work on clearing up the logo. It looked good until it was uploaded.

 

[Jay D]

looks good, just a little tweaking and your done. What did you use to make it. I used a template at doteasy.com but it does not come up on natural search engines. My mistake I should of paid decent money to do it right. BDCC website, mostly for information for my customers. Have a good day Ricky. 8)

 

[Ricky Thurman]

Thanks Jay-

I used Yahoo Webhosting and Yahoo Sitebuilder.


I used the same to build the website for Chief Carpet Cleaning when I owned it ( www.chiefcarpetcleaning.com ). I changed the owner name when I sold and it hasn't been updated since. I was proud of it being my first website, but I think my new site is much much better.

It took a three or four months, but it eventually reached the top of most search engines.

 

[Royal Man]

Rename your contact us into -free quotes and then highlight it.

You'll get more response. If potential clients are browsing at work they may not be able to call you. But it is easy for them to type in their contact information and their cleaning need for you to respond to.


You can eliminate the step of the client having to pick up the phone.

Every less step in the process for the client will increase your response.

 

[joey895]

I think having audio is ok but you should have an option for the person browsing to be able to turn it off. It's kind of difficult to read the info on the sight with someone talking the whole time.

 

[Bruce Humphrey]

Every browser has a stop button right next to the refresh button that they can hit and it will stop the sound clip or they can hit the Esc key on their keyboard , that will also stop it.

 

[joey895]

Every browser has a stop button right next to the refresh button that they can hit and it will stop the sound clip or they can hit the Esc key on their keyboard , that will also stop it.

I use the stop button on occasion but I guess I had never tried it for that. Thanks for the tip.

My advice still stands though because I imagine that if I didn't know to do that alot of customers will not know, so it would be better to have a button placed a little more conspicuously. Just my opinion, maybe it doesn't annoy most people as much as it does me.

 

[Ricky Thurman]

okay...

~pause button added next to the radio station logo (that logo is there because the radio station did the ads for me)

~The station is going to edit out the end of the first commercial to take out all of the phone numbers and email it to me

~Cleared up the font in the heading, but in doing so, the "spot" is distorted. I'm gonna have to work on that some more.

~associations and memberships will be part of the "About Us" page that I haven't finished yet




Any more suggestions are greatly appreciated!

 

[Rob Lyon]

Looks Great Ricky!!



All The best, Rob

 

[alazo1]

Cleared up the font in the heading, but in doing so, the "spot" is distorted

So Rick, you say the original in your computer is sharp and this one is not?. If this is it, how are you uploading your files. I've had issues when doing manual ftp where uploading via an ftp program has helped. You can confirm this by uploading the file to a photo site such as photobucket.com and see if it's sharper.

The weird thing is that even the ones in your links are pixalated. Nothing like your avatar which is nice and sharp. Did you by any chance force the pixel size in your html?.

If you need some help with the spot email it to me and I'll play with it.

Albert

 

[Joe Appleby]

Music is awesome for your tile and grout clip. Nice job!

 

[Tahoesteve]

Overall I really like your site. Here are my suggestions to make it even better:

On my browser(Firefox) your pic runs into the type and the play/pause button is only half there. Bottom half is cut off.

I like the audio and agree with the suggestion to edit it after your intro.

I would move the "Tips and Information" link to the bottom of the home page and replace it with a "Welcome" of some sort.

I would take out the visitor counter for each page except the home page.

The Tile and Grout page took along time to load and I have 100 mbps DSL. Think about your dial up customers.

On the Auto and RV page take out the offer to come to their campsite. I tried that once and the campground manager kicked me out...too noisy.

I especially like the audio on the testimonials page.

Nice job!
Steve

 

[DevilDog]

Overall I really like this site.

Probably would not be my choice of colors but that is a personal deal.

I like the audio but would shorten it up and make it so it could be easily turned off.

I would take the contact us page and turn it into a quote page.

Just a little more tweaking and you have a pretty good site.

I am also not a big fan of the blue splashes but that is maybe just me.

DevilDog