Website Up - Thoughts and Critiques?

davisautodetail

davisautodetail

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Just finished getting the first revision of my website up and running. I'm a developer, have been for 15 years, so it's nice to not have to pay anyone for this.

I'm pretty happy with the look and feel, but I might be missing something since the detailing business is new to me.

I'm particularly interested in my detailing info:

Car Detailing

My prices are set and packages offered based on local competition as well as Renny's book. I am still a little unsure on the whole "maintenance" plan thing, so would love comments there as well.

I have not done a full review for spelling errors, doing that now.

Oh...I'm still working on getting some more pics up as well, so that page is basically empty.
 
Hi Kevin,

If I were a customer, I'd be looking for a glamour shots of vehicles to see what kind of work you do. Some photos might help you a bit.

Best,

Steve
 
1953hogan said:
Hi Kevin,

If I were a customer, I'd be looking for a glamour shots of vehicles to see what kind of work you do. Some photos might help you a bit.

Best,

Steve
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Working on some now, and will have some more tomorrow to put up. I haven't really released the site yet, just getting some insider critiques at this point.

Do you mean on the actual content pages, beyond the photo gallery?
 
I think a picture of yourself would be better than a cartoon charter. Just my .02.
 
lol no that page IS empty.

Im far from an expert but not a fan of the clip art guy. The site overall is clean and good use of white space. There are some brokern links, an easy fix. Restoration page monthly maint plans & Detailing page the add on services link broken.

Why not add a picture of your shop? Or a pic of you in the About Me? Or in the About Me post a couple pics of what a Cobra looks like or what you invision it to be or the work in progress etc.

Over all very clean. You obviously know what you're doing.
 
rmagnus said:
lol no that page IS empty.

Im far from an expert but not a fan of the clip art guy. The site oevrall is clean and good use of white space. There are some brokern links, an easy fix. Restoration page monthly maint plans & Detailing page the add on services link broken.

Why not add a picture of your shop? Or a pic of you in the About Me? Or in the About Me post a couple pics of what a Cobra looks like or what you invision it to be or the work in progress etc.

Over all very clean. You obviously know what you're doing.
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The "guy" is actually a hand drawn rendering, not clip art, but I know what you're saying.

My thought was this...branding. I wanted something that people would remember, even if not everyone likes it, when you see the "monkey" you remember him.

I actually went back and forth on doing the traditional high end car look vs. something a bit different. This is what I ended up with, but I'm definitely interested in hearing more. I can dump the monkey, having ordered my other marketing materials, signage, etc. yet. I've been doing this a while, but always open to suggestions!

Thanks for the heads up on the broken stuff, and the other suggestions, I'll check and fix, and implement...I'll add some more cobra pics and shop and me on the about us page.
 
The website looks great, just get some photos up there of work you have completed and you will be golden(which I know you are working on). Also promote your Facebook page as well, believe it or not I have actually received more business out of my Facebook page then my website.
 
extmobiledetail said:
The website looks great, just get some photos up there of work you have completed and you will be golden(which I know you are working on). Also promote your Facebook page as well, believe it or not I have actually received more business out of my Facebook page then my website.
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Definitely on the facebook stuff. I have a vacation rental too, and get lots of stuff from FB. I'm hoping to get my facebook page "released" tomorrow. It's setup, just haven't pushed it out yet.

Keep it coming, love the feedback! Thanks!
 
I think you need more car photos. Not just in the photo gallery but on all the pages. The written info is good but the visual stuff(car pics) is lacking. I was your first "like" on your FB page. Boy would I love a garage like yours. Good luck.
 
rustytruck said:
I think you need more car photos. Not just in the photo gallery but on all the pages. The written info is good but the visual stuff(car pics) is lacking. I was your first "like" on your FB page. Boy would I love a garage like yours. Good luck.
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Thanks!

I just liked your page too!

I agree on the photos, I wasn't sure if I should just put up "stock" photos of nice clean cars or if that would be misleading? I will continue to add cars that I detail, including my own rigs (which I'm doing this week), but I don't have many pics available like that right now.
 
davisautodetail said:
The "guy" is actually a hand drawn rendering, not clip art, but I know what you're saying.

My thought was this...branding. I wanted something that people would remember, even if not everyone likes it, when you see the "monkey" you remember him.

I actually went back and forth on doing the traditional high end car look vs. something a bit different. This is what I ended up with, but I'm definitely interested in hearing more. I can dump the monkey, having ordered my other marketing materials, signage, etc. yet. I've been doing this a while, but always open to suggestions!

Thanks for the heads up on the broken stuff, and the other suggestions, I'll check and fix, and implement...I'll add some more cobra pics and shop and me on the about us page.
Click to expand...

Guess I'm suggesting the viewers get all or as much as possible in one place. Many people will not spend the time to click on all the links. Your shop is killer, the Cobra project the same killer, I'm sure you have examples of your work. The passion you verbally describe is what you want the viewer to SEE. Your about me is a great place to have a picture of you in front of your shop detailing a car. A short video might even be better.

Gotta say I didn't even know that was a monkey drawing, see many just don't spend time reviewing things that aren't important to them. Scratch the drawing on each page and include pictures of revelant stuff on that page.

You don't need to go all high end. Keep it simple. That works.
 
rmagnus said:
Guess I'm suggesting the viewers get all or as much as possible in one place. Many people will not spend the time to click on all the links. Your shop is killer, the Cobra project the same killer, I'm sure you have examples of your work. The passion you verbally describe is what you want the viewer to SEE. Your about me is a great place to have a picture of you in front of your shop detailing a car. A short video might even be better.

Gotta say I didn't even know that was a monkey drawing, see many just don't spend time reviewing things that aren't important to them. Scratch the drawing on each page and include pictures of revelant stuff on that page.

You don't need to go all high end. Keep it simple. That works.
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Great advice, and I'll definitely take it. I'll get some pics in front of the shop detailing, another good idea. Probably ought to get some detailing an RV as well.

I'm just finishing one of the cars that I'm doing a "dealer prep" on. I actually bought it, did a full cylinder head/timing belt job, pdr, wash, wax, seat repair, etc. plus new tires, windshield, etc. It'll make me some pretty good profit, and the before and after pics are killer (I'll put the afters up later tomorrow, assuming it's not snowing. ;->)

I definitely agree with the monkey comments, I can still accomplish my branding ideals, but by moving him up and to the left of my logo (actually then making a logo out of him with the words.)

I can use that space better to make the pages wider, and add more pictures, as well as video, as you described.

Again, thanks so much, this has been really helpful!
 
davisautodetail said:
Hey there again, what survey app are you using?
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It is actually an APP on WordPress, that is what I used to design my website. All it is, is a simple form, but just changed the fields. Just google Form Creator and you should be able to find some type of code.
 
Im far from a spelling "Ace" but you have a few misspelled words

One of my favorite things to do is to take a car that desparately needs cleaning and restoration and bring it back to its like-new glory.

Just thought I would point it out before your customers do
 
Dougw4355 said:
Im far from a spelling "Ace" but you have a few misspelled words

One of my favorite things to do is to take a car that desparately needs cleaning and restoration and bring it back to its like-new glory.

Just thought I would point it out before your customers do
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Isn't it funny, after all this time, there are certain word that I just can't freakin' spell! desperately is one, maintenance is another. I misspelled both of them in this post. ;->

Thanks for the reminder, I need to do a word-by-word audit of the text.
 
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