Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi All,

I`m new to this site and love that you have this section. So my site is finally up and running and ready for an opinion or two - or three...

www.remarkable-design.com

A friend built the site for me but I did all the copy and final layout design. I`m very happy with the colors and the overall look of the site, but if enough people disagree with it I would consider changes.

My biggest concern is the copy:
    * Does it make sense
    * Am I speaking over your head
    * Is there to much information
    * Are the Helpful Hints helpful
    * Spelling (yes I spell checked - but you know things can be missed)
    * Does this site "Sell" the service or scare you away

As a designer I`m use to all kinds of critiques so let me have it.

Robert

 

Nice simple look, personally I like the design. The one large white image is placed in some unusual spots, and I don`t quite get why; to me, it throws a few of the pages out of whack.

The main problem in your message is that, on the main page, I have no clue what you actually do, until I see the really small tagline at the top, and it still isn`t very clear. I think you need to get some type of information on this page telling me why I`m here, and how you can benefit me.

The main problem in your site, though, is SEO. Your pages are nothing but images; no text for search engines to read. No meta tags that are doing any good. Large page size with absolutely no readable content. If you are going to rely on search engines for getting potential traffic and customers, don`t get your hopes up.



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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

BIG ditto to the previous response on the SEO aspect.

No content whatsoever, your search engine traffic will be ZERO.

Aside from that...a few critiques.

The site is pretty attractive, BUT it`s pretty slow loading, so some web-optimization on the images are definitely needed.  One other thing is the navigation buttons.  Maybe a simple rollover effect would make it much easier/attractive.

But your kitchens do look great, and you`re somewhere in South Jersey, right over the bridge so that`s always a plus for me!

Good site, just work on putting some text on the page, and get some web-snap going on, and you`re good to go.

I did a quick look at the site, and one thing struck me right away (besides not knowing what you are selling).  Where *are* you?


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Steve Mann
Internet Videographer
MannMade Digital Video
My Email

Thanks for the reviews so far - greatly appreciated.

The search engine I sort of understand. We came up with a list of key words (would those be the "meta tags") for yahoo and google search, but I don`t know if he did anything with the list yet. I know he did everything in Photoshop and loaded  it all to Dreamweaver  - so yes it`s all images.  Is this a bad thing  for reasons other than search engines? Does this make for the slow downloading?

And I guess getting some text on the home page about why your here is a good idea. I thought once they got to the about page that would take care of it.

Thanks

content is king for search engine ranking.  meta tags mean next to nothing these days (aside from title of cousre)

So yeah, the negative is really search ranking + slow page load.

I agree as well that having all your text in an image may look pretty with guaranteed fonts, but it means nothing at all when it comes to being found by search engines. Aside from that, the layout of the text in your About page wasn`t all that great. It could use some line spacing.

Biggest issue for me is content. I see you`re a kitchen and bathroom remodeling company. Great, except the only way I know that is by going to your About page. That should be your landing page introduction.

My problem: I want a new kitchen. I don`t know what exactly I want.
Your problem: How can you convince me that you have lots of ideas, they match my unknown dreams, and that you`re better at this than some other company.

The Web site`s problem: None of this comes across.

I really don`t think remodeling a kitchen is all about stress. If it were, then I`d likely go to a physician for some sort of pharmaceutical solution, being a Chile of the Sixties. :-D And yet that`s your prime selling message....that I have a lot of stress.

Is that really what you`re selling? I`m guessing, probably not. I already know I have lots of questions. I don`t need more from a site, I need answers. That`s where the content is a bit skewed, see?

Your picture gallery does nothing for me, I`ve seen all that in magazines. Instead, why don`t you have before-after pictures? (The fades, by the way, between images are off-putting to me. Maybe not everyone, just me.)

I`m in FireFox 1.x, likely going to upgrade any day now. When I went to the Gallery, I couldn`t get back to your home page. No menu items, and the company logo wasn`t clickable. I had to use the "Back" button. Not elegant.

Your company name is "Remarkable!" What`s so remarkable about what you`re showing me? The "Process" content is so cramped, I got tired looking at it. This again, is a function of graphic text versus actual text that could be formatted.

All in all, it`s a cool graphic design, and I like the colors. This is a sales job problem, not a design problem, excepting the conversion to actual text. You need a clear mission statement, and content to pump some life into that statement.

Let`s say I give you a 1-minute spot on the National Network News, tomorrow night at 10pm. You`ll be part of the main feed, going out to everyone watching the number one news show, that night. You get 1 spot only, 60 seconds.

What would you say?

you definitely need some SEO and better content. I suggest getting set up with a CMS like joomla or Drupal and start updating more content.


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