How do you make a website appealing to potential customers?
I would appreciate any feedback on my website. I receive some traffic to it but it doesn't seem to turn into many leads/business.
Any feedback would be appreciated. www.tfgboise.com
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Aug 7, 2014
I would say, delete what you had right now and start from the scratch.
At first you should define your mission and why are you doing what you want to do, than you can start building the identity, design, brand, website, traffic and finally customers. From my point of view, your website doesn't communicate me any sort of message. Maybe, because i am not the target audience or there is lack of attention zones.
I spend last years working on User Experience feedback based on brain-neural feedback. Its very good and interesting scholl revealing mindset of customers. You should definitely find some company around - doing this and try to find a way "how to sell" ...
good luck!
Jul 28, 2014
By connecting to your ideal clients (do you know who they are? If not, find someone who can help you get clear about your niche). When you know your ideal clients, and speak empathetically to and about them in your website before you ever talk about yourself and your services / products, you are rolling out a red carpet that will make your ideal clients want to hang out, rave to others about you, and buy what you're selling.
Blessed be.
Jun 26, 2014
Hi
The traffic to a website is a complex term to define . In your case the business model you have has niche target audience . I believe in spite of targeting huge number you should target convertible audience , You can start Email and Social media marketing to reach out your target audience . You can do various experiments to see the effectiveness of your strategy . Most Importantly competitive analysis , In spite of reinventing the wheel you can look out what the other websites with your business model are attracting audience. And who are your competition . Latter you can target Google SEM also .
Regards
Jun 25, 2014
Hi Mark. Great job on keeping the site at least simple. There have been many fantastic recommendations so I wont repeat them.
The secret of the internet is that it is a tool of convenience. Its our job to remove the steps required for visitors to quickly consume what it is we provide. So if they want to buy something, give it to them right away, and make the buying process so stupidly simple that they do it again and again. Many people including design companies dont get this.
If you havent already sorted this out, I would be happy to give you a quick site audit over Skype no strings attached. Add me on Skype ID: taner.kilicarslan and Id be happy to chat with you to help.
PS: my specialty is online buyer psychology and conversion optimisation.
Take care. Taner
Jun 20, 2014
I suggest you to get your landing page optimized as a poor landing page is the real cause of dropped sales.
Remember-
"Before buying, people compare
Before comparing, people judge"
This proves true while coming across a website for the first time, online users skim through it quickly, and if it doesn’t meet their expectations, it is abandoned within seconds.
I have a blog post about How to Make Your Website Sell, visit http://www.fatbit.com/fab/101-actionable-points-to-make-your-website-sell for detailed information.
Jun 20, 2014
Ahhh, a very good question, Mark.. Answer don't try, it should first appeal to your senses, Go to ffiver.com, find a graphic designer of web and landing pages, it's relative inexpensive. After checking out a few, chat with one or two who have had success projects. Get their input.. give them a time limit to complete your needs after they understand what or whom it is you are trying to connect with. They will surprise you. If you think it is a massive let down so will your customers, on the other hand (that's the appendage on the far extreme of your lower arm, with the fingers). You like it first, put it out there for others to see, check out its conversion rate, tweak, stretch, dissect, and put it out there again. Your web site is a living entity, and unless you plan to go static, you'll be charging it quite a bit in it's use. The critique,[ loose the head, if it is something you need to show shrink it into an upper corner somewhere with a title caption. Embed a video, where the head now sits, It could be an explanation of your core concepts, a how to segment,or a great endorsement of your work]. Get some life into your pages, these are what captures clientele, and interests the public.
Jun 19, 2014
Firstly, your website is fine. Look and feel are important but as long as it doesn't look terrible, and made by a 3yo - customers generally won't get too caught up on the look and feel - We all fall in love with different people because we all have different tastes...
The main issue I see is CTA - Call To Action - I got to the site and thought "What do I do now?"...
- Where is the phone number ?
- What do you want me to do next? (My thoughts are - just browse the site)
- You need a big bright form that covers 30-40% of the page - get rid of the big head and replace it with "Get your free consultation now - Name, Number, Email, Comments..."
- Big text in a sentence or less that explains your value proposition... People don't want to read...
Look at one of my favourites: http://mailchimp.com/
- I line value proposition at the top
- Big button to sign up at the bottom
- Simple, effective - if people want to know more, they can go searching, but when you arrive - you are clear on:
a) what value they offer
b) how to get started
Jun 19, 2014
Ha. I spent months completely redesigning a clients website to be in step with the latest developments. It had animated rollovers, content depth, and embedded videos. A few months later, client reverted to his bland, original site which did nothing at all to improve his situation for years, but he felt it made his enterprise more personally ego satisfying. You can't please everyone.
To answer your question, however, it's not so much what you do as how well it actually works. You have to ask a lot of questions, for example, does it show how to contact you? Does it cover the full ranges of products and services? Do it give current pricing? Is it easy to use? Do you come off as expert and friendly at the same time? Do all the links work? I hate a site that has "under construction" after any tab. Is site an ad or point of sale? Do you need a secure page to accept credit cards or hide buyer information?
Websites are like fruit, ripe for a short while. You have to constantly maintain them, frequently review, and update content. Plus you have to preflight on every platform so they always work. You have to consider stuff like smaller screens on cell phones and IPads. This could be a full time job for someone.
Jun 19, 2014
Web site like any other form of advertising has no guarantees. It depends on your target market , competition and value. If your products/services are in line with the competition, you need some satisfied customers that will give you recommendations to post. It takes time. .
Jun 19, 2014
Hi Mark,
Your logo looks too generic and the young man dominates the page. I am looking at your website on my iPad, your code is not responsive. I had to switch to a desktop mode to see it.
I am Graphic Designer, you can see samples of my work at uniqueivy.com . I you are interested I can give you links to websites I just finished. I can help you to tweak your site.
Ivana
Jun 19, 2014
Hi Mark,
Along with the other comments, I would suggest
SEO
------
you need to get traffic to your site so it must be searchable by the big G.
a) Have you registered it and then gone onto the webmaster tools & analytics (looking at your site it uses old analytics scripts to me!)
b) you ain't got a meaningful tag (its the #1 info source for keywords!!!)
c) you need to populate the headings etc with titles that people look for ie services -> CFO services etc (its the #3 info source for keywords)
d) put cfo services as your html page name (its the #2 info source for keywords)
d) you haven't got any meta keywords anywhere? (#4 source)
so - you have some big and basic strucural issues from an SEO point of view but they are easy to fix.
CONTENT
--------------
Need to bulk out content and refresh - blogs etc. Your facebook etc links are dummy - I think that google really downranks sites that do that and conversely upranks those that have linkedin and facebook company profiles. And need the real people not just dummies.
AND ON THE SITE ITSELF ONCE SOME LANDS
------------------------------------------------------------------
Personally don't like it as does not have a Professional Services look and feel. That big face is childish (no offence to who's ever face it is).
Need more quotes from people who used you. Professional qualifications.
Just lacks depth. Don't put style over substance. Also need to srive people to contact you - need to put your contact details on every single page. Repeat every single page.
Anyway, could go on.But these are a few things to add to your list! Hope you take constructively. Some of my sites I have re-written many times and still not happy. But using the analytics to help steer what is working and what is not..... but lots to do without even getting to that point.
Get working on it!
Jun 17, 2014
Hi Mark
There are multiple responses that would have helped you in drawing out the picture to the next level. Let me take the chance in adding up my suggestion, thinking that it could help you as one scenario to leverage your website design.
All I wish to put here is the "deliverance". The one main aspect that every customer looks into the business site is the objective of your business being delivered the simpler and effective, with no clumps.
Focusing the fact, the home page design makes it the best to bring in the visitors, leads who can then opt your service, later. Try synchronizing the objects and make the banner more visible with the key elements that you really want to portray. Simple words, effective fonts and the color makes it.
Besides, you can move ahead with the other prominent option of "responsive design". Wherein, your customers / visitors would gain the access of your website in the devices they use. Indeed, this is an other interesting thing!
Obviously, these (removing the other website errors) could help you experience the better.
Good luck!
Jun 16, 2014
Thanks to all of you for your feedback. It has been most helpful.
I guess the bottom line here is that I need some professional help on this.
Jun 16, 2014
I'd say so Mark, unless you've got the time to learn it, that would save you money in the long-term, it would be an investment in yourself.
Jun 16, 2014
Dear Mark:
Your web site is done in HTML, I recommend using Wordpress to have a traffic-control activities.
Best Regards
Atte.
Juan Luis Ortega H.
Designer with a major in Visual Communication
Bachelor of Design & Advertising
Web Design / E-learning / Multimedia / Print / Advertising Photography
Jun 15, 2014
I agree with Dave that the banner on the right doesn't work for you. It's a distraction from the background image. Also, for the header, when I click on the questions, nothing shows up beneath to provide an answer.
On a note regarding content, your site feels a bit cool and clinical despite the engaging graphics. I feel no connection with you as a service provider. Today, business is all about relationships. Finding a way to introduce yourself to your potential clients is key. Why would they choose you over another agency? What do you offer that is unique? Who is your client and what do they need to know about you?
Jun 15, 2014
The key to what everyone is telling you is the site looks like an amateur designed your logo and your Website template. The key to a professional brand, logo and Website is to hire a professional. A designer wouldn't think to try to do what you do, why would you think you can do what a designer can do..
Jun 15, 2014
Hello Mark,
As we see you website need some improvement and also we suggest that if you can offer some free consultation or call us now section so it will encourage potential clients to contact you.
Besides you can start google adwords and other promotional steps to target potential clients. Email marketing is also a way to keep constant contact for clients.
Hope this helps.
Thanks
Jun 14, 2014
Mark,
The other experts have done a really great job of explaining some of the outward issues with your site. I did some technical investigating and ran a few audits on your site, as well as a pretty stringent performance test, and your site didn't do so well with either of them.
Here are a few key points (from the technical side of the house) to keep in mind:
+Your site has expired cache allowances for nearly every piece on the website
+Each of your assets are serving cookies along with their presence, with an average of 1.6kb of cookies being introduced with every page load. When you do your redesign, make sure these static assets (photos, static files, etc) are being served from a "cookieless" route
+Although just static html files, it doesn't look like any of your files are actually minified/gzipped for performance consideration. This is when a program takes your files of markup (HTML files, for example), and removes all of the comments, whitespace, etc. in order to produce the smallest file size possible. Always very necessary.
+Each page of your site has, at best, 26% of your CSS rules being unused. At worst, it's close to 40%! This happens when your code rules aren't written precisely enough to share attributes amongst each other. Basically, it's adding a ton of fluff to each page load.
I hope this helps you. If you want to discuss anything further, don't hesitate to send me a message.
Best,
CG
Jun 14, 2014
I agree with what most people are saying but
1. The logo is the most important thing. That is your brand.
2. The menu layout is good. You can keep that. But you have to fix the browser issue. All the pages disappear when I click on them e.g. Why
3. Nobody mentioned about call to actions. These are clear spaces/boxes where you encourage visitors to contact you.
4. There isn't any text on the home page. You should give the visitor enough information to get their attention on the home page.
Now whether you need a new website depends on how you plan to market it. If you want to get traffic via search engines, you sure do need a new website. Otherwise, just fix the above issues and market your services otherwise.
Jun 14, 2014
For me (on Firefox on a Mac) the pages take so long to load that I gave up on most pages long before any text appeared. On the one page where text finally did appear the text boxes weren't big enough to hold the text and sentences/words were cut off.
There have been some good comments about the look and feel, but you need a site that works correctly in all major browsers (and maybe even on mobile phones, depending on your audience) and that loads fast enough that people stay to read it. You need those things more than you need a nicer design. And I'm a designer saying this, not a programmer.
By the way, there is SEO software that pulls your site from oblivion to top dog on search engines. Part of a site's appeal is being able to be found. Appearance is important, but clarity, content and functionality rule.