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My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 9:37 am
by Ahso!
It's not finished yet and we have kinks to work out, but I'd like a critique on what's there so far. The logo was created by my son-in-law and the site itself is being handled by a special family friend who asked me if she could use it as both a gift to me as well as practice for her business.

Please feel free to criticize anything, that would help us tremendously.

Thanks in advance.

| Wood's Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning |

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 11:16 am
by Bryn Mawr
Ahso!;1408031 wrote: It's not finished yet and we have kinks to work out, but I'd like a critique on what's there so far. The logo was created by my son-in-law and the site itself is being handled by a family friend who asked me if she could use it as both a gift to me as well as practice for her business.

Please feel free to criticize anything, that would help us tremendously.

Thanks in advance.

| Wood's Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning |


I'm no web designer but a couple of comments :-

The row under the picture appears to serve no useful purpose and the truncated text could be frustrating - especially as clicking on the boxes does not link to the pages referenced

First paragraph of page 724 duplicated

You could usefully add a Home link to the bar below the title - it is not intuitive that clicking on the title takes you there.

All in all a good site - I'd use your services if you lived closer :-)

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 11:23 am
by AnneBoleyn
are you rob wood?

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 11:23 am
by Ahso!
Bryn Mawr;1408039 wrote: I'm no web designer but a couple of comments :-

The row under the picture appears to serve no useful purpose and the truncated text could be frustrating - especially as clicking on the boxes does not link to the pages referenced

First paragraph of page 724 duplicated

You could usefully add a Home link to the bar below the title - it is not intuitive that clicking on the title takes you there.

All in all a good site - I'd use your services if you lived closer :-)Yeah, she knows about the duplicate paragraphs and the side links. That's all going to be corrected.

I'll pass along the suggestion about the link under the title. Thanks.

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 11:24 am
by Ahso!
AnneBoleyn;1408040 wrote: are you rob wood?Yes

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 11:27 am
by Bryn Mawr
Ahso!;1408042 wrote: Yes


rjwould himself and in person :-)

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 11:31 am
by Ahso!
Bryn Mawr;1408044 wrote: rjwould himself and in person :-)There's much rjwouldn't do any longer. He's learned much in his later life. :) He still has a ways to go.

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 11:37 am
by flopstock
What's all the stuff in the right hand column? Could you maybe add some pictures of family or someone cleaning on the inside pages? Personalize it a little bit maybe?



Overall I think it has some real potential!:-6

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 11:54 am
by Snowfire
In your FAQs You ask about millage rather than mileage

I would agree with Bryn about the "Home" button

A nice clean, uncluttered website with a fresh look. I know how difficult it is getting things in the right place and proper links etc. It takes a bit of time and work to get it right. My brother and I are in the same position as you and our site is in its infancy. It helps for outsiders to critique, so I will be asking for the same very soon

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:44 pm
by Ahso!
flopstock;1408047 wrote: What's all the stuff in the right hand column? Could you maybe add some pictures of family or someone cleaning on the inside pages? Personalize it a little bit maybe?



Overall I think it has some real potential!:-6Thanks!

She installed Wordpress as the CMS and I think that content on the right side is just preinstalled stuff. She'll be cleaning that all up, I hope....or I will. I've sent her some photos of of jobs as I was cleaning the carpet and I'll see if she puts them up. Of course I'm not in the photos because I can't stomach pictures of myself. But yes there will be more info and photos.

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:52 pm
by Ahso!
Snowfire;1408052 wrote: In your FAQs You ask about millage rather than mileage

I would agree with Bryn about the "Home" button

A nice clean, uncluttered website with a fresh look. I know how difficult it is getting things in the right place and proper links etc. It takes a bit of time and work to get it right. My brother and I are in the same position as you and our site is in its infancy. It helps for outsiders to critique, so I will be asking for the same very soonThanks for pointing that out. I glossed over it last night.

My daughter and i were going to do this ourselves using a different script/program but Mai asked if I'd let her at it. She is very good at certain aspects of web development and is in two businesses where she is the consultant. She wanted to get her feet wet in the actual coding and content so she offered and we accepted.

here's one of Mai's business ventures

She's a very savvy business person.

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:55 pm
by Ahso!
Any comments on the logo? Do you like it?

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 1:09 pm
by tabby
I think it looks good, Ahso! I like the logo itself and I think it would look even better if it were larger although I'm not sure if you can do that and not have it dominate the page. Some of the lighter script is harder for me to read but that may just be me. Overall, I think it's a good job!

What's the dirtiest carpet you've ever cleaned?

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 1:18 pm
by LarsMac
Ahso!;1408069 wrote: Any comments on the logo? Do you like it?


Yes, Nice, clean, and simple.

If you like it, it's a keeper.

Everything that has occurred to me has already been addressed, so far.

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 1:30 pm
by AnneBoleyn
What tabby said about it being hard for her to read is important ahso. It should be bolder, the word Specialties, etc thru Contact Us. Too pale. I think the logo is nice. The site is too laid back for me. I didn't care for your designer's site at all, I see she used the same design for you. Hers froze when I clicked & I wouldn't have patience for that. The logo is the nicest thing. You did want me to be frank.

When I find a business online that I need, I check around for more personal references. The ones you provided could have been written by you, so I don't go by those. Since the business owner can also anonymously enter references in other online websites, I look for patterns. Then pray I made the right choice. If a neighbor or friend recommends, I go by that first & foremost. You can offer a customer a future discount for referring other clients. You could put deals on your site, like that one. Entice me.

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 1:42 pm
by Ahso!
tabby;1408071 wrote: I think it looks good, Ahso! I like the logo itself and I think it would look even better if it were larger although I'm not sure if you can do that and not have it dominate the page. Some of the lighter script is harder for me to read but that may just be me. Overall, I think it's a good job!

What's the dirtiest carpet you've ever cleaned? That's difficult to say. I mainly specialize in rentals for realty companies and commercial carpets, so I've seen some pretty dirty carpets.

Here's a couple of jobs I recently did. In both cases the owners were surprised at the actual color of the carpet. :)


My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 1:43 pm
by Ahso!
FG, please fix those photos. Sorry!

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 2:01 pm
by Ahso!
AnneBoleyn;1408074 wrote: What tabby said about it being hard for her to read is important ahso. It should be bolder, the word Specialties, etc thru Contact Us. Too pale. I think the logo is nice. The site is too laid back for me. I didn't care for your designer's site at all, I see she used the same design for you. Hers froze when I clicked & I wouldn't have patience for that. The logo is the nicest thing. You did want me to be frank.

When I find a business online that I need, I check around for more personal references. The ones you provided could have been written by you, so I don't go by those. Since the business owner can also anonymously enter references in other online websites, I look for patterns. Then pray I made the right choice. If a neighbor or friend recommends, I go by that first & foremost. You can offer a customer a future discount for referring other clients. You could put deals on your site, like that one. Entice me.Thanks for the input, I appreciate it. Honestly though, you don't have to be frank - you can continue to be anne. :)

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 2:06 pm
by Ahso!
LarsMac;1408073 wrote: Yes, Nice, clean, and simple.

If you like it, it's a keeper.

Everything that has occurred to me has already been addressed, so far.I like what he did by combining a "W" and the shape of a carpet cleaning wand in the symbol. Very creative, my SIL. He's an artist and graphic designer. His work is amazing.

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 2:11 pm
by AnneBoleyn
Thanks for the input, I appreciate it. Honestly though, you don't have to be frank - you can continue to be anne


Thanks, I will :yh_rotfl

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 2:58 pm
by Bruv
Can I slip into my summary mode..................and be totally honest Robert ?

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 3:06 pm
by Ahso!
Go ahead.

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 3:42 pm
by Bruv
Ahso!;1408102 wrote: Go ahead.
I like it ....but.

Like the logo, might be better a little bigger, the navigation bar a little smaller, shallower.

The heading should be shallower, and higher, try to get everything you want to be seen above the crease (Not everybody has big screens)

There are duplicated instances of links 'About us' 'Reviews' etc.... or they look as if they should be links but you have go to the link in the changing image...... too complicated/clever......and not intuitive

I would drop the four box sections across the top page......because they are doing nothing much, only changing the images, they could rotate on a timer.

I would then have four lower sections across the page (they are currently only three) as they are now, but have them linking to the pages that the navigation bar links to directly..........



Does any of that make sense ?

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 3:47 pm
by Ahso!
Yes, very much so. I'm going to ask Mai to take a look at this thread soon so she can get all the input. I do appreciate your help. Thanks.

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 5:22 pm
by chonsigirl
I think it looks very nice-I have no input about websiting and how to make it look spiffy. I think you stated the facts nice and short, something a consumer would look for. I think it is a good website.

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 6:18 pm
by Ahso!
chonsigirl;1408126 wrote: I think it looks very nice-I have no input about websiting and how to make it look spiffy. I think you stated the facts nice and short, something a consumer would look for. I think it is a good website.I think I recall someone telling me once that the first 20 seconds a person spends on a website is the most critical and many will leave before that 20 seconds is up if the site appears convoluted in any way.

Thanks for the input.

My Business Website

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 7:31 pm
by LarsMac
On the contact page, instead of having an email address that is "scrambled" to prevent bots from spamming you, I suggest setting up a link to a page where people can leave a message, and it will forward that message to your email.

It is easy to add a small app that will force some sort of active user response, Like enter the following numbers or characters that prevents bots from launching an email to you.

Here is an example of some of the options your web developer should be able to use.

Top 7 Captcha Scripts For Your Blog/ Website | Business Leads Organically Generated