Launching a New Website!!! Feedback Wanted....

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Hey everyone, I'm launching a new website, same business name, just different domain name and would like to get everyone's honest feedback with pro's and con's.



The video section is not quite up yet, but I'll get it up and running soon enough, other then that it's pretty much complete. Let me know if you find any spelling or grammatical errors too.:wall



LINK REMOVED AS I AM REVAMPING THE SITE AFTER SO MUCH FEEDBACK....



Please let me know what you think.



Thanks, Josh
 
I think most younger people will like it, older people might find it hard to navigate. My current site (new one in a few weeks will be up and running) is pretty basic and my 50+ clients have said how easy it is use. Anyone under 50 say it is too basic. :lol



Sometimes you just can't win.
 
Diesel, thanks, sorry it takes so long to load, mine loads up immediately, hopefully others will not have the same issues, but that's the kind of stuff I want to hear about so thanks for the feedback.



Josh
 
I'm sorry to say this, but your complicated site is asking your visitors to do a lot of work.



The average visit is about 90 seconds. They want to find out three things, and find them out quickly:



1. What do you do?

2. What does it cost?

3. Why should I hire you?



A lot of visitors are just going to give up on your site and move on.



Imagine yourself as a busy 50 year old man w/ a Porsche needing a detail. You visit this site:

Show Car Productions by Ottmann Detailing



Then you visit this site:

Atomic Mobile Detailing | Detailing at Home, Work, or Anywhere Else!



Who delivered those 3 critical pieces of info (what, how much, and why) quicker and more clearly?
 
602rwtq said:
I'm sorry to say this, but your complicated site is asking your visitors to do a lot of work.



A lot of visitors are just going to give up on your site and move on.



Imagine yourself as a busy 50 year old man w/ a Porsche needing a detail. You visit this site:

Show Car Productions by Ottmann Detailing



Then you visit this site:

Atomic Mobile Detailing | Detailing at Home, Work, or Anywhere Else!



Who delivered those 3 critical pieces of info (what, how much, and why) quicker and more clearly?



Honestly, your website is just as difficult to navigate as mine, the difference is you have a big bright red scroll bar that's kind of in your face like, mine is more suddle. I went right to your pricing page and could not find your pricing easily as you suggest. you have 5 packages, 7 add ons and then a whole other "correction" add ons? I was a bit confused as to which was which? I have 7 or 8 easy to view packages that are all inclusive.



Guess we all have our opinions. My site is not designed for price shoppers it's designed for car enthusiasts.

I do appreciate your input though. thanks, Josh
 
i like the gallery, looks very nice to see before and afters next to each other. loaded fast, but i personally hate intro clips. i just always click skip and move on what i want to find. i will say i dont like the colors much, just seems kind of blah. looks like you use some template type software. when my sight was up thats what i wanted to change most. now that my web host decided it would be funny to remove my site instead of just changing my package, i guess i can redo it.



i give it an 8 out of 10
 
JoshVette said:
Honestly, your website is just as difficult to navigate as mine, the difference is you have a big bright red scroll bar that's kind of in your face like, mine is more suddle. I went right to your pricing page and could not find your pricing easily as you suggest. you have 5 packages, 7 add ons and then a whole other "correction" add ons? I was a bit confused as to which was which? I have 7 or 8 easy to view packages that are all inclusive.



Guess we all have our opinions. My site is not designed for price shoppers it's designed for car enthusiasts.

I do appreciate your input though. thanks, Josh



No problem. I understand that you're targeting enthusiasts who are more likely to spend a longer time on your site than bread and butter detail shoppers.



Atomic Detailing is not my site, but I do like its ease of navigation and simplicity of design. You are right about pricing. He does bury pricing in sub-menus and that's probably the least well organized area of his site.





You have one further, major problem. Your site is programmed in flash and will do poorly in search engines. Here's how Google sees your homepage:



"<html>

<HEAD>

<title>

Show Car Productions by Ottmann Detailing</title>

<meta name='keywords' content='detailers detailing detail cleaning washing cars automobile vehicles dallas houston fort worth texas '>

<meta name='description' content='high end car detailing and car care services'>

<body bgcolor='#000000' TOPMARGIN='0' LEFTMARGIN='0' MARGINWIDTH='0' MARGINHEIGHT='0'>

<div align='center'>

<table width='100%' cellspacing='2' cellpadding='0'>

<tr>

<td height='4'>
</td>

</tr>

</table><script src='domain.js'></script>

<script src='site.js'></script>


<div align='center'><table width=84% align=center cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td><div align=center><h2 style='color:#cccccc; font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:12px; font-weight:100;'> Show Car Productions by Ottmann Detailing 214-709-0665 [email protected] Dallas, Ft. Worth, Houston, OK City </h2></td></tr></table>



<table width='98%' height='25' align='center' valign='middle' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0'>

<tr>

</tr>

</table>



</body>

</html>"



Your homepage is exceptionally short on words because it's essentially a presentation of images (thus, flash).



Google does not like to recommend brief, image-intense web pages at the top of its search results pages. You should add at least 100 - 200 words describing your business, your accomplishments (top 9 detailer per AW), and why customers should choose you to the very front of your website.



You did mention the cities you service in your meta keywords tag, but Google largely ignores this field now. Those cities should be mentioned, as text, at the bottom of your page. Then your site can appear when Googlers search for "fort worth car detailing" "oklahoma car detailing" and "houston car detailing." Won't be found as you have it now.



Your primary keyword (i'd assume, "Dallas Car Detailing") should be in your title.



Thus, change your title to "Dallas Car Detailing by Ottman Detailing".



Your description tag currently says 'high end car detailing and car services.'



It should read as a complete sentence, as this appears in Google's search results below your title. I have highlighted the description box area in the image below:



descriptionb.jpg




A good description can entice a searcher to click on to your website. In the above example, do you see how much better Autobella's description is that Detailsbymark.com?



In your case, I'd suggest: "Providing high end car detailing service to Dallas, Houston, Oklahoma City, and Fort Worth. National award winning detailer with 14 years of experience."
 
602rwtq said:
No problem. I understand that you're targeting enthusiasts who are more likely to spend a longer time on your site than bread and butter detail shoppers.



Atomic Detailing is not my site, but I do like its ease of navigation and simplicity of design. You are right about pricing. He does bury pricing in sub-menus and that's probably the least well organized area of his site.





You have one further, major problem. Your site is programmed in flash and will do poorly in search engines. Here's how Google sees your homepage:



"<html>

<HEAD>

<title>

Show Car Productions by Ottmann Detailing</title>

<meta name='keywords' content='detailers detailing detail cleaning washing cars automobile vehicles dallas houston fort worth texas '>

<meta name='description' content='high end car detailing and car care services'>

<body bgcolor='#000000' TOPMARGIN='0' LEFTMARGIN='0' MARGINWIDTH='0' MARGINHEIGHT='0'>

<script type="text/**********"><!--

var _gaq = _gaq || [];

_gaq.push(

['_setDomainName', '.autopia.org'],

['_setAccount', 'UA-1388584-4'],

['_trackPageview']

);

(function() {

var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/**********'; ga.async = true;

ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';

var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);

})();

//-->

</script>



<div align='center'>

<table width='100%' cellspacing='2' cellpadding='0'>

<tr>

<td height='4'>
</td>

</tr>

</table><script src='domain.js'></script>

<script src='site.js'></script>


<div align='center'><table width=84% align=center cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td><div align=center><h2 style='color:#cccccc; font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:12px; font-weight:100;'> Show Car Productions by Ottmann Detailing 214-709-0665 [email protected] Dallas, Ft. Worth, Houston, OK City </h2></td></tr></table>



<table width='98%' height='25' align='center' valign='middle' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0'>

<tr>

</tr>

</table>



</body>

</html>"



Your homepage is exceptionally short on words because it's essentially a presentation of images (thus, flash).



Google does not like to recommend brief, image-intense web pages at the top of its search results pages. You should add at least 100 - 200 words describing your business, your accomplishments (top 9 detailer per AW), and why customers should choose you to the very front of your website.



You did mention the cities you service in your meta keywords tag, but Google largely ignores this field now. Those cities should be mentioned, as text, at the bottom of your page. Then your site can appear when Googlers search for "fort worth car detailing" "oklahoma car detailing" and "houston car detailing." Won't be found as you have it now.



Your primary keyword (i'd assume, "Dallas Car Detailing") should be in your title.



Thus, change your title to "Dallas Car Detailing by Ottman Detailing".



Your description tag currently says 'high end car detailing and car services.'



It should read as a complete sentence, as this appears in Google's search results below your title. I have highlighted the description box area in the image below:



descriptionb.jpg




A good description can entice a searcher to click on to your website. In the above example, do you see how much better Autobella's description is that Detailsbymark.com?



In your case, I'd suggest: "Providing high end car detailing service to Dallas, Houston, Oklahoma City, and Fort Worth. National award winning detailer with 14 years of experience."



Thanks for the insight, this is the kind of info I needed thus the reason why I posted up for feedback. I'm not computer literate at all so this helps. I was wondering what all that "meta" info was about, I had no clue obviously. I'm making the changes you suggested, thank you very much, hopefully this will help a bit more.



Josh
 
advs1 said:
i like the gallery, looks very nice to see before and afters next to each other. loaded fast, but i personally hate intro clips. i just always click skip and move on what i want to find. i will say i dont like the colors much, just seems kind of blah. looks like you use some template type software. when my sight was up thats what i wanted to change most. now that my web host decided it would be funny to remove my site instead of just changing my package, i guess i can redo it.



i give it an 8 out of 10



I timed the intro, it's roughly 8.5 sec long. I'm not crazy about the colors either but the website builder I'm using has a very limited selecting for automotive businesses, everything else was pretty easy to put together and I know nothing about computers.



thanks for the feedback.



Josh
 
Josh,



Don't make a person scroll within a page to see what you have written.



The little noise when you scroll over, is too much if you spend time looking at your site.



KIS--Keep it simple



takes a bit to load on a 2mps download hook up.



Sell them on your first page why they need to use you.



Do whatever it takes to make your page show up on the top of search engines.



Cheers,

GREG
 
I am an enthusiast as well as a detailer and it was hard to focus on any one thing. Imho, there's too much going on.
 
First thing i noticed is that initial image shows a dirty, rustic interior and doesn't speak well at all for the message. Also, it's 2010 man, flash is no longer the hip cool thing it used to be 10 years ago. People don't have the attention span to watch your nav bars load up and expand/transform. This is the era where data and info are accessible in the blink of an eye. Redo the whole site in HTML/CSS and if you want some flash, add it in the gallery or as a header graphic.
 
I don't consider myself old but I do find it quite annoying to navigate. Almost ADD like. I think you would turn away more customers then it would attract.



1. Far too many flash transitions and site jumps. Very beginning intro was good but then when it jumps to the 2nd page ..

2. Not very professional in appearance.

3. Not very cohesive in design. You have page links at the top, then transition to the side.. repetitive information being move all around the page.

4. THOSE SOUNDS...oh those sounds. Made me not want to even review the site because those link sounds are horrible and no need for them.

5. Tag line.. Perfection is in the details.. what's with those 2 red images of a house and folder? why? also, seems odd to hide part of the words of your tag line with them.



Sorry man. Just didn't find it a very nice site.
 
Ok, so I appreciate all the feedback, but I can only take so much criticism at once. I am going to revamp the entire website, I found out how to upload my personal pics to use as a background instead of that dude driving the beater. Some things I cannot change though like the buttons making noise and home and contact icons in the upper corner, but I'll see what I can do. I'll keep it more simple as well.



Thanks, again, I will start another thread when version 2.0 is ready and probably have this thread deleted out of shame.... ;)

Josh
 
don't be ashamed-think of what would have happened if you DIDN'T ask us. Might I add, there is a site called guru.com which you can find freelancers and college kids who will accept low $$ to make nice stuff so they can improve their own portfolios.
 
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