Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

Dear Paultheirish,

To improve your site, consider changing the masthead image and editing your home page copy.

My initial, two second impression of the image was "Huh?".

Then, when I read your text the image made a bit more sense. However, this took time and the point of your home page is to make an INSTANT impression, not one your visitor has to work at, even if it is for a few seconds.

Tell people UP FRONT where you are and which areas you serve. Once I'd figured out where you are I Googled the term "window cleaning minneapolis", and you came up number 1 in an organic search.

This is fantastic. Well done.

你将如何维持这种?你多久updat吗e your site? Make updates once or twice a week via a blog and you'll help maintain your gOOGLE spot. Many small companies gain a number one spot on Google and then they relax, thinking they'll stay on number 1. Wrong. The key to local SEO is regular updates to your site.

So, freshen things every week. Or every day. How about a self updating weather feed? Or a breaking news feed? Or a link to the local paper?

Every time a spider sees a change on your site the site gets a "fresh content stamp" and hey presto, up the rankings you go. You probably already know this, so apologies here if I'm preaching to the choir. But many small business owners don't know this.

Your home page copy might benefit from tweaks that reflect the area you serve. To be honest, although it might be nice for you that you tell people who you are and how wittily your company
is named, what your customers want to know upfront is what you can do for them.

So, benefits FIRST, would be more helpful for your customers, not who you are. Sadly, only your family and your granny care about you. Your customers? They care about them.

New masthead images on every page will help too. Show your staff doing their job. Show happy, satisfied customers. Show before and after pictures. And on every page, consider showing testimonials from happy customers.

At the moment your testimonials are hidden on another page. Consider sprinkling them throughout your pages, but always in the same spot. This way, the real estate remains fixed, but the message changes. This draws the eye and anchors a page element so that people instinctively know where to look. Place this near your "Sign up for more information" or "sign up for a quote" and you'll build your list.

Go towww.istock.comfor good quality, cheap stock photography.

Also, consider a free offer, something to pull people in. A window treatment that blows people's socks off? I don't know, but something to freshen the image of window cleaning.

On your "Selling a home?" page you've got a box WAAAAY at the top of the page to ask for more information. This needs to be on EVERY page of your site, top right, but a little below your masthead.

If your SEO is as good as you say it is, this one change will help build your list.

There's a paragraph about a small company having its drawbacks.
Hmmm. There are WAY too many negatives in this paragraph.

One cure for this (and any verbal green thumb), is to print out all your website, that's everything from your ENTIRE site (every page), and then read it OUT LOUD, and get a trusted friend or family member to do the same.

Huge pain I know, but only then will you HEAR, the weak points. You can't fix these things until you hear them as someone else will hear them.

Put your feet in your customer's boots. Fill their shoes, fix their problems, meet their needs.

And finally, tell people the area you serve (on every page), and on your contact page, give a street address, an e-mail address, and a cell phone number.

I hope this helps.

Good luck to you.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE USA