How would you improve my auto repair shop website?
My father and I have an auto repair shop in Plainfield, IL. Our website is www.LastChanceAutoRepairs.com. I've spent a lot of time creating it. It is a never-ending, very addictive, ever-growing job that I love to do. What can I do to make it better? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
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Jun 19, 2019
Hi Corry,
Great to know you love what you do. Passion is the key to success. I visited your website and here are a few recommendations. Hope you find them useful.
UPGRADE THE OVERALL LOOK OF THE DESIGN
These days, looks matter. Focus on changing the aesthetics of your website design to match the contemporary trends or the current visual taste of your target market. Give the web design a modern and minimal execution so that the main content is not lost underneath. Also, it’ll help to remove the background texture from your website.
IMPROVE THE STRUCTURE OF YOUR CONTENT
If you are pleased with the existing content then spend time curating it a little better. Although I will advise you proofread all the text to make sure there are no basic errors.
- Shift the ‘about us’ write-up to another web page by linking it on the top navigation menu bar with a section of its own.
- Select better and bigger images to accompany your text. Try to humanize some of the images by using ones that include people.
- Align the text in a way that it looks visually pleasing. You could also create a pattern for alignment of each text for the sub-headings or sub-sections. For example, left-align one paragraph and then right-align the other and so on.
- Highlight the following questions either by making them bold or using them as a sub-title in a separate line from the other text.
“Is it time to change your brakes?”
“Need an engine repair near you?”
“Need a transmission repair?”
“Having suspension problems?”
“Need a towing or roadside assistance service?”
These are your catch-phrases so don’t bury them in the long text. Bring them out to the front.
ADD A SLIDE SHOW ON YOUR HOMEPAGE
You need to have two slideshows or carousel on the main page:
1) The top of the home page can have two to four feature images with your tagline and a call-to-action button.
2) The recommendations can be displayed in a carousel form to save space and make the design look clean and organized.
ADD VISUAL ELEMENTS FOR INTEREST
Videos are the trend these days and they are here to stay. Instead of writing about “Years Of Auto Service History You Can Trust”, turn it into a video. If that is challenging for you then make an infographic for this content or a better yet turn the different milestones into separate images.
DESIGN A LOGO FOR YOUR BUSINESS
A custom logo design will look nicer on your website instead of just your name. You can either make the logo yourself or you can hire someone to make it for you. The logo can then be used on all the marketing activities that you do.
Good luck.
Cheers!
Jun 19, 2019
I saw there is a lot of PBN backlinks and you're getting down.
You have to disavow all those low-quality PBN backlinks and create authenticating backlinks.
And some other basic tasks.
May 24, 2019
Great website! I can see many hours have gone into making it.
I may be mistaken (sorry) but there seems to be an obvious one - a useful and often included page that I can't see.
A simple, obvious and advantages page that your site is missing, is an "About Us" page.
An about us page gives your potential customer better insight into what your business is and who the real people are within that they will likely be dealing with.
It can be a valuable page to allow them to know you before they pick up the phone. While this information is spread throughout the site, a link to it will go well near your call to action phone number top-right. For your type of business, you will do well to have a google map location in that About Us page. I'd also put street photos so they recognize it when driving by. Information about the family behind the family business (eg. what role they play in the business) will help them to know you and feel like they trust you.
You can simply call it "About" in your menu, so it doesn't take up more space than necessary, but then title it "About Us" on the page itself.
It is another place to explain the locations you serve.
I wanted to keep this answer simple and only give 1 tip. However, there is another I must suggest. Your call to action top-right is an image of what looks a little like a business card. It has many small text details.
I'd remove all the small text in that image. It will be hard to see for some people. It might confuse people as well. Being an image it (the small text) gives no more SEO value than the label of the image itself.
If you click the image it just shows the image. You can do better than that. For example, you can take them to your new About Us page for example, by including a hyperlink in the image details.
Even better - I'd make the phone number clickable so that when someone looks you up on their mobile phone they can click/tap on the number which starts the phone call. This is a much faster route for them to call you. Make it as easy as possible for them.
I'd also suggest removing the payment options from the image also. It is useful to explain somewhere on your site what payment methods you accept. But I'd suggest that reminding them of hitting their wallet at the same time you are trying to get them to call you is a conflicting idea. If anything, at this point you want to be giving them the confidence they will get what they need by calling. Car fixed. Car serviced. Noise removed. Whatever is common. How about something more like the following? "It'll drive like new -Call now!"
All those payment option images reminded me of one of those sites where you pay for something online, like an e-course. This is not what you want at this point on your site. Don't distract people from calling you!
Good luck!
May 24, 2019
Hi Corry,
Good question! This is one we hear a lot when talking to small business owners. I'll share a few quick tips.
1. I'd start by reading two pieces on Business News Daily, which is Business.com's sister site.
10 Tips for Building an Effective Business Website - https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/9811-effective-business-website-tips.html
5 Steps to Designing an Effective Business Website - https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2046-web-design-data.html
These articles will give you a quick run through of things a good business website should include. They're a good starting point in the process of updating the website.
2. I might try to make the website simpler in a few areas. There's a lot of text on the home page and many of the other pages have a good deal of text as well. Being simple and concise is normally the best way to go because it will help your customers quickly find the information they're looking for. Normally, users aren't looking to spend too long on a website.
I also think it might be beneficial to group some of the services your shop offers. The sheer volume of options under the "services" tab might overwhelm someone who isn't familiar with auto repair.
3. Ask your customers what they think. Judging from the reviews of your customers, you have a loyal group of supporters. It would be a good idea to ask your customers if they'd be willing to use your website for 5-10 minutes and then fill out a survey about the site. It's hard to make helpful changes to your website if you aren't sure what your customers think of the site. Asking for feedback from your customers will give you better guidance about how to make it better. Given the loyalty of your customers, I think many people would be willing to fill out a survey to help out.
4. There are also SEO elements such as using page titles, meta descriptions, etc. that come into play when building a website. Here's a link to our most recent article on SEO best practices: https://www.business.com/articles/top-seo-tips-smb-authority/.
Hope this helps!
May 23, 2019
The pictures are pretty nice. Personally, I would not center the text, but align it to the right, it is too hard to read.
You might want to consider cutting down on the text, it's too much to read for the average customer.
Keep up the good work!
Regards from Switzerland
Patrick Della Santa
CEO Daily Flowers
Jeff, great answer! I can see why you have transitioned into training, coaching and mentoring others. Thanks for being an excellent part of our community. Keep up the good work! We hope to see more answers from you in the near future.
Thanks,
Haley - Community Manager