Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

The biggest problem I see is that, for a graphics-based website, you aren`t showing off anything graphical to the visitor when they first get to the site. You have a bit of text and links on the left, but if your graphics are the heart and strength of your business, show them off!

Think about it .... if you walked into a dealers showroom looking for a new automobile, and when you entered the only thing on display right away were repair manuals, would you really be very impressed with the dealer? You shouldn`t have to ask the dealer to take you out back to see the cars; there should be some on display to get your interest, and more available to browse through.



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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

Good day SuN people!

We are 8 months in to running our own graphic design and illustration business and wish that we had discovered Startupnation earlier, it is a really great community with tons of useful information and sincere personal exchanges!

I would like to ask for some feedback on our site from both professional web designers and other people who might have used or will use graphic design services.

Our studio is based in a remote location in Estonia, soon moving to South of France to another remote area! So the main goal of our site is to get us clients through the web. We need for the site to be effective in getting the customer to trust us from first visit. Of course we hope that they would like to come back again too.
Sova Graphics site

First of all, I would like to say that we do not have a domain but a blog on wordpress, we wonder if this is something that is negative for our business? At this moment we do not have the finances to build and host a proper site.
Could you please have a look at the site and tell me whether it looks professional enough and makes you feel confident that we can do our job?

We used a simplistic template and took time to customized it ourselves to get the information and feel of the site that we wanted to share (clean, straightforward and informative, with thought and creativity). We feel that it is easy to navigate and find necessary information, but what do the users feel when they are there? Please share your experience!

We are happy to provide a bit more insight to get the best out of your critique!

Thanking you for your time.
Kate & Ludo


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Good graphic design for the good of your business.
Sova Graphics

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Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

Yes, you definitely need a new header as well .... my point wasn`t to put all of your portfolio images on the front page, but a few of them so visitors can immediately see samples of your work.


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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

Hi Webline and Roland!

Thanks for taking the time to comment on the site.

It sounds like it might be a good idea to put something on the front page, I am thinking to may be change the top banner and add something more "graphic" to it. Would a banner be a solution?
But other wise I think that to show our work the portfolio page should do that (somebody suggested that a different gallery display might be more user friendly).

I wonder if the website with the information it offers (in text) passes on the message we want to give to the people visiting our site? Our message is that consistent and well developed visual identity is like water to a seed in a fertile ground.

Roland, you were asking about the bold, it`s a sort of emphasis on why a professional visual identity is important (from our experience). Do you think the bold is confusing and the message in fact is not transmitted?

No one else has said anything, I`d like to put the question another way, do you like the web site all together or not? It might be that it just doesn`t work.

Roland, we will move to a registered domain as soon as we have moved our selves to our new home We do realise how important it is, and more flexible... Right now we are really tight, unless a good strong project comes up and we can commission some one else to take on the web site project...

Thanks again guys. Really appreciate your thoughts.

Kate


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Good graphic design for the good of your business.
Sova Graphics

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Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

Hmm...I read the initial topic, then Roland`s and Michael`s comments. I agree with both.

To answer the primary question; from my own perspective the site doesn`t do much at all to attract clients. It looks like a blog. That`s not a bad thing at all, but it doesn`t work as a sales tool.

As said previously, the bold you`re using generally implies a link. When I tried clicking, for example on "Potential clients are primarily seduced by an image," assuming it was an article, nothing happened.

I`m always intrigued by people who get a general consensus in comments during a critique like this, then tell us that "nobody else has mentioned it." :-) Keep in mind that most people don`t have the interest in telling a site-owner about something not working, or not being what they had in mind. They just click away.

But at any rate, the main problem I see is that this isn`t selling anything. Given the prices for hosting, I`m assuming the reference to having too little money to put up a regular hosted site indicates that you lack Web development skills or tools?

My thinking would be to at least try to put together a basic sort of site with an emphasis on selling your services. You`ll have less restrictions than with a blog, and more room to showcase your particular skills and services.

From what I`ve seen with template sites, there seem to be enough choices these days that you could put together a pretty cool looking site, without a whole lot of major expense. At least to get started.

I agree with the rest of the group.  Your design work is beautiful, but people need to see it.  It might work better if you went for the "WOW" factor.  You don`t have to over do it, but adding a few pictures so the front would allow you to entice users and get them to want to spend time looking around the site and what you have to offer.  If you can get site statistics, perhaps through Google analytics, you can monitor all kind of statistics.  One in particular that is good is "bounce rate".  This rate goes up when people come to your site, and leave without clicking a single link on your site.  You want that rate as low as possible.  A site that entices people to keep looking around would lower the bounce rate, and hopefully, more importantly increase sales. The "what is a logo" section is blank.  If you don`t have anything to display there, you should take it down.  If you can, try to utilize the bottom half of the page more.  Hang in there.  Having a beautiful site that brings in customers might not coem easy, but well worth the effort.


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