Too much content on your website? (Version 2)

jarred767

jarred767

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So, you guys were a great help to me and gave me a ton of great info and tips when I originally asked this questions a couple months ago in this thread. http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...cars/87301-too-much-content-your-website.html

I took a lot of your advice very seriously and decided to completely scrap almost everything I had and start over. I switched from GoDaddy to Squarespace, built a brand new website, got a new logo and everything. I'd be curious if anyone might have a chance to give the new one a look over and let me know what you think. (It's not 100% done, but pretty close). And don't pay too much attention to the exact pictures as I kind of randomly threw many of them in and need to still go through and make sure I don't have duplicates and put them all where I want and everything.

I'm mostly looking for layout, content, and overall feel of the site advice. Thanks guys.

Here's the old site: Dynamic Mobile Detailing | Home | Kirkland | Seattle (I made a few minor changes before abandoning it, so not exactly what it was when I first asked)

And the new one: Dynamic Mobile Detailing

Thanks a ton guys!
 
Personally, I love the new one. My opinion on websites is that the cleaner and newer your website is, the more likely a customer is to select you. It shows that you are up to date on everything you do. Your new website looks great all and all! One small suggestion would be to see if you can integrate the header and the nav bar and then shrink that down so that the header and nav bar doesn't take up 1/4 of the screen when its at the top. Maybe move your logo to the top of the content area? Just my 2 cents.
 
so, that's great.. you made a nice looking website

but how are you going to get people to visit your site?

I can tell you haven't done proper SEO, you don't have a lead capture form, so I'm assuming you don't have an autoresponder

It's one thing to have a website, it's another thing to have a website that converts prospects into leads and leads into customers

So I would worry about building traffic to my site
 
DetailingByMT said:
Personally, I love the new one. My opinion on websites is that the cleaner and newer your website is, the more likely a customer is to select you. It shows that you are up to date on everything you do. Your new website looks great all and all! One small suggestion would be to see if you can integrate the header and the nav bar and then shrink that down so that the header and nav bar doesn't take up 1/4 of the screen when its at the top. Maybe move your logo to the top of the content area? Just my 2 cents.
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Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions. I've played with a bunch of different options on the top to try and narrow it down as much as possible, but I've got to get into CSS to get any further on it, and I'm still trying to figure that out, it's on my list though, so thanks for confirming that it is something I need to try and work out.

thebamboo23 said:
so, that's great.. you made a nice looking website

but how are you going to get people to visit your site?

I can tell you haven't done proper SEO, you don't have a lead capture form, so I'm assuming you don't have an autoresponder

It's one thing to have a website, it's another thing to have a website that converts prospects into leads and leads into customers

So I would worry about building traffic to my site
Click to expand...

Thanks for commenting. I actually haven't done any SEO as of yet, first step is to build the site and it's still not done, just functional to get up an running. As I mentioned, I'm just looking for opinions on content, style, and overall layout/feel of the site.

Nothing is leading customers to the site yet because I'm not open for business in the new location (all of my stuff is leading to the old site in my current location where I'm currently actually detailing cars all day). SEO is my next big hurdle, don't worry:xyxthumbs:
 
Like the new website a lot. I'm looking at it on my phone and it looks much nicer than almost any business page I've seen. Great job.
 
Huge improvement. Keep up the good work. Very professional.

Make sure you use your original URL because the other one is not good from an SEO, marketing and remembering stand point. It's much easier to remember your business name, than your current URL. Consistency is key. :)
 
dsg03gt said:
Like the new website a lot. I'm looking at it on my phone and it looks much nicer than almost any business page I've seen. Great job.
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Wow, I doubt its that good, but thanks. A lot of mornings waking up at 5 to get a couple hours in before "the day" starts.

Scott@IncrediblyDetailed said:
Huge improvement. Keep up the good work. Very professional.

Make sure you use your original URL because the other one is not good from an SEO, marketing and remembering stand point. It's much easier to remember your business name, than your current URL. Consistency is key. :)
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Thanks Scott! Really appreciate the comments and suggestions. Your site is awesome, so you obviously know what your talkin about.

As for the URL, I was planning on forwarding the old one to the new one, but you bring up a good point. I guess I should make the new one forward and transfer over the old URL (full biz name) to be the primary on the new site. That's what you mean, right? The new URL is much shorter and will fit on my car much easier, so that's it's main purpose. Thanks the tips, really appreciate it.
 
jarred767 said:
Wow, I doubt its that good, but thanks. A lot of mornings waking up at 5 to get a couple hours in before "the day" starts.


Thanks Scott! Really appreciate the comments and suggestions. Your site is awesome, so you obviously know what your talkin about.

As for the URL, I was planning on forwarding the old one to the new one, but you bring up a good point. I guess I should make the new one forward and transfer over the old URL (full biz name) to be the primary on the new site. That's what you mean, right? The new URL is much shorter and will fit on my car much easier, so that's it's main purpose. Thanks the tips, really appreciate it.
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Look up 303 re-direct and see if that solves your problem. I can't remember off hand but I believe that should allow you to "point" as many URLs to another URL. Meaning you type in coloradoautodetailing.com could point to (or re-direct) to your business name URL. I went to college for computer science and similar stuff, so I know a good bit of theory but I'm not sure if there are easier applications available.

I would honestly never use the url your new site is pointing to and maybe purchase relevant URL(s) to your location and job (what people might search for when looking for detailing in your area) and point to your business name page. I honestly don't know how well this will work for SEO and search engine ranking, but in makes sense logically, unless google discourages this behavior, which will hurt you in the rankings. Research this thoroughly before you do it.

If you have any questions feel free to PM me, I'll do my best to help I'm fairly well versed in web design, usability, etc.

Steve Krug is the man when it comes to this stuff. He has a couple books (probably will be at your library).

Here's a video by him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QckIzHC99Xc

I think it will help guide your design choices because you get to see how he thinks about solving web design "problems".
 
Thanks again Scott, I really appreciate it. I liked DMD-Bend.com because DMD is obviously my initials and Bend is the city I'll be working in. I know that there's no detailing or anything in the URL, but figured all people have to remember is three letters and the city they live in. I'll do some more research on that though before finalizing anything.

Anyone else have any more thoughts or suggestions on the new site: Dynamic Mobile Detailing Thanks!
 
I really dig the new site from what I clicked through. On the contact page, it has a completely different layout (full screen background and no nav bar). Wondering if this was intentional since you have to hit the Back button on your browser to access anything else again. My only recommendation: drop the "spotlessly" adjective from your window cleaning description. It's not a common one and by looking at your work, there's no doubt you're going to a do a meticulous job--it's not necessary. Other than that, I like it a lot. I'm curious as to what your gallery layout is going to look like.

David
 
g35_coupe said:
I really dig the new site from what I clicked through. On the contact page, it has a completely different layout (full screen background and no nav bar). Wondering if this was intentional since you have to hit the Back button on your browser to access anything else again. My only recommendation: drop the "spotlessly" adjective from your window cleaning description. It's not a common one and by looking at your work, there's no doubt you're going to a do a meticulous job--it's not necessary. Other than that, I like it a lot. I'm curious as to what your gallery layout is going to look like.

David
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Thanks for the response, it is really appreciated. I added the "spotlessly" but it never really felt like it fit to be honest, so it's good to hear that. It's one that can probably be deleted.

As for the contact page, I've gone back and forth with it a bunch. I figure that if people want to contact me (usually the only time someone clicks on a contact page) they have made up their minds and will choose to either email or call me. I wish there was a way to add a third button to go back to the home page, but it won't let me with the template design. I might do a little more researching to see if I can find a way, as I like the option of the full-screen images on there, but I do agree that the usability kind of suffers from it, especially if they decide that they don't want to contact me after getting to that page (again this seems unlikely, but aaahhh I don't know lol)

Thanks again man!:props:
 
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