Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello all,

It would be great to get some some feedback on our site.  The site is www.MTCKickboxing.com.  The site is positioned to appeal to males 16-28 yrs old. 

We are specifically looking at whether it is easy to figure out what our programs are and if they are informing enough to make a decision on.  Also the class schedule, we get a lot of questions about the schedule but not too sure how to fix it. 

Any and all feedback is appreciated.  Thank you all in advance!

Travis Schefcik
www.mtckickboxing.com




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Travis Schefcik

It took forever to load and I closed the window before it even finished.

Why?  Two main reasons.  The music.  Sites that automatically play music is not a good idea.  It is generally considered a no-no these days in web design.  But I was looking at the page for the sake of a review and I finally came across the hard-to-find music button.  I could not mute it while the page was loading.  And for the approximately 30 seconds or so that I was on the site, it was still loading.  (I`ve got DSL and generally don`t have major load time problems.)  The load time was the other reason I clicked away.  I eventually got impatient.

I`m afraid this is probably going to be a common response to the site and may be the way your target market is responding.

I agree; kill the music! Don`t listen to your website designer when he says its an acceptable best practice (even though he did build you an aesthetically beautiful website) - music is the ultimate website faux pas  I would recommend starting the website up without any music at all, with a button that would allow you to play it if wished for.

As I said, your website is very aesthetic - though, I`m not such a fan of the way you used Flash. Personally, considering your young age group; I would have designed the site for 1024X768 resolution. Today, less than 10% of computer users have 800X600 resolution sites; and that is usually older users who need the larger text in a concession to poor vision. Probably not the person who trains at your gym.

In order to funnel traffic to your class schedule page; there are two ways you can do this. The first, and less recommended way, would be to put a more prominent button above the fold leading to that page. But That would probably mess things up. I think your best bet would be including a hyperlink on your homepage (assuming that is your main entrance page), that persuades users to see the schedules page. Make sure you know how to use hyperlinks correctly before implementing this though. Also, change your grey hyperlinks to something more visible that is underlined. Be aware that underlined blue hyperlinks have the highest click through rates.

When people call you; are they merely inquiring about scheduling problems?  Perhaps you have an information roadblock on your website which is the reason for your calls.. Speaking of obtaining phone calls; I would recommend putting your phone number underneath your companies logo on every page.

Good luck with the site!


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Best Regards,

Victor Wise

Music...Yes, the default setting should be music off.

The website template has a nice design / color sceme.

The logo image file size is large greater than 100Kb, this adds to the reason why the site takes a while to load.

The title tag says "Welcome"... I suggest using s title that is more keyword related.  Your description tag: <meta name="Description" content="place a description for your webpage here" />

While showing latest news "kickbox classes canceled" is important to your current customers, that news may not help add new customers.  The home page should have something about why I should join your program.

While you display a WC3 validation logo...  WC3 says "Failed validation, 22 errors"

~Roland

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

Hi Travis,

It`s a very nice website.

I`d like to suggest a few things to optimize
your website.

1. Home page - Place a subscribe form, including
their name, email, and number for the FREE class
you`re offering. This will allow you a way capture
contact info. Right now you have it hidden away
on the schedule page.
==> What if they don`t make it to the schedule page?
Shouldn`t you capture their attention immediately?

2. Your hyperlinks are very faint. A rule of thumb,
hyperlinks should be the standard blue. The light
gray gets lost into the page.

3. It would be awesome to have a photo of yourself
on the about us page. People and you can agree, feel
more connected when they can see the person. And
it`s something about karate & boxing . . . to see the
instructor.

4. One more key note! Your link to your apparel, should
open into a new window. You don`t want ever have your
vistor to click on a link that will take them away from
your website.
==>Customer clicks on apparel link, how do they get back
if don`t recall your link from Google? They forgot about you
and now surfing on Cafe Press.

 

I hope you find value in what I`ve shared.

Continue to make this the best day ever!

Won`t Be Denied!
C.F. Jackson

Lighting 1,000 Dreams Worldwide!

Good call about the outbound link opening up a new window.  On the other hand, hyperlinks should not be "standard blue".  It is important to make sure they are visible but they don`t have to be blue.  That is just silly.

Did something change? It loaded fast and didn`t play music for me.

Wow! 

What a great response, thank you to all that gave me more direction. 

This is exactly what I was looking for! 

Things done already:

• Links are a different color (easier to see)
• Music is gone
• Apparel link opens a new window
• Error checking link is gone (we will fix all those errors, in time)
• Switched up the Index page, (still in the works)

Things todo in the future:

• We are working to make it full screen site, we changed all the pages to fullscreen, but the index flash is not placed correctly so we changed it back.
  
• We are taking away the flash intro completely.
• Phones numbers will posted more prominently
• Add photos of myself
  

We are getting ready to relaunch this same site under our new name, Spartan Mixed Martial Arts.  Once we do this, I will add pictures of myself and the class.  What would make more sense, to add photo of me teaching a class or a professional picture in workout clothes?

Once the new site is launched we will have a subscribe area on the index page for free classes while we capture their information.  Very good idea.  Thank you.

We are working to generate more sales copy for the index page.

You all are great.  Thank you again for all the replies, I will absolutely be asking for more feedback all over this forum.

Thank you all again!

Travis Schefcik
Spartan Mixed Martial Arts



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Travis Schefcik

I`ve already taken the advice and changed it!  That`s great it loaded quickly for you!!

Travis Schefcik
Spartan Mixed Martial Arts


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Travis Schefcik

In your programs, I`d put the actual age levels in the main headings. For example, "MTC Level 1 Training (Ages 12-14)"

If you have classes that handle all ages, then I`d have the programs broken down by age groups, calling them specific names. In that case, it would be "Beginner," or "Intermediate." Or you could get creative and do something more interesting. But it should be immediately evident.

Reason being that people would want to know exactly where they are right now in kick-boxing, and which specific program they need to enroll in for their particular skill set.

I`d put the price at the end of the description paragraph, and have the skill level or age group in the main bolded headline. Price is important, but not as important as "So where do I fit into this whole thing?"

You should have right in the home page, at the top, that you are located in a single area. It`s a whole lot easier for someone to find your site, see that you`re in Willow Branch, ID, and click away. As it is, you don`t really say anywhere that you`re not a national franchise....unless you are?

I don`t like that your main navigation bar is trapped in the Flash heading at the top of the Home page. When I click "Home," it`s annoying to have to wait the half a minute for the Flash movie to play just so I can see the navigation buttons again.

In the nit-pick department, I don`t get why the Welcome message is an also-ran, hidden to the left under the menu bar, when there`s all that content about "What is MTC?" in the main center of the page.