Feedback appreciated for my website

Macca206

Hi, my website (www.drivinglessonsdublin.ie) is up and running and Id like to have as much honest feedback as possible plus whatever tips you cabn give. Im happy at the presentation etc of it but am thinkign I may be biased and would like toknow what others think. A friend designed it and he can make whatever changes poeople suggest.

Mainly Id like to know what can be done to get it higher up the google ratings though it has already been optimised so not sure if changes to the content would do anything.

All thoughts greatly appreciated

TPD

Personally, I would lose the italicised font and the ! icons before each paragraph, maybe make the text justified rather than centred.

Macca206

Thanks, yeah I hadnt noticed that till you mentioned it

tricky D

+1 on the italics and justification.

Also try to get your offerings more in the form of: Problem, Solution, Call to Action e.g. Test coming soon? 'Need a refresher, we have... get in touch'; or 'On a budget, we have flexible packages at competitive rates, fill in our form and we'll tailor some lessons for you'. Display these in the form of a list or short snappy paragraphs at the top of the content area - more digestible and memorable.

Personally I think the flash banner is superfluous (looks purty but does little bar distracting the eye from other content) and the text in it is repeated at least twice on most pages. Instead I would have the test centres listed in all pages, on the right hand side, but narrower and with a map (linked to a bigger one if reqd) of areas in which you deliver lessons. The rhs column would be smaller or the page wider.

I don't think the 2 L-plates add much when you could have something more useful there. Your tagline 'Pass with Pinnacle' is very catchy and would be much better here but is lost further down. It's also suitable for being left in italics

Provide a feedback form.

The typography should be simplified a bit, there's a few too many fonts of different sizes, bold, underlined without good enough reason and inconsistently.

The titles, meta keywords and description are ridiculously overpopulated/spammed and will be ignored at best or more likely probably penalised. Jamming in loads of keywords just doesn't work anymore. Use each keyword in keyphrases a max of 3 times including stems in the meta tags - once or twice in titles. Your keywords should be more naturally occurring in the page content. You're unlikely to get near top rankings for terms like 'dublin driving lessons' as the market is already well established. So, you've correctly invested in some AdWords, pricey but a smart move. You could also get more keywords working properly for you if you have a page for each test centre where you can sprinkle the placename keywords in without going spammy. Another useful SEO strategy for you to now adopt is getting links in to your site. Currently you've no signature with links on boards, make your sig now and put the link in and that tagline, address, etc, Google will pick the link up in time. Repeat and rinse for other sites, forums, blogs, friends' sites, whatever...

Your developer is much better off using css for design, layout and typography instead of tables and html font-formatting and sizing.

Your FAQ questions should link to their respective answers.

gotta go now,
hope that helps
\r

Darragh29

TPD wrote: »

Personally, I would lose the italicised font and the ! icons before each paragraph, maybe make the text justified rather than centred.

+1. I originally thought that it was just too much green text but now that the italics have been mentioned, I think that is what's bugging me about it...

The only other thing I noticed which is probably down to your budget is that I can't book a lesson through the website, which I would kind of expect to be able to do... I'd usually avoid using the info@.... mail address because I'd have it in my head that the mail wouldn't be answered, but if I could book via the website, I'd be more inclined to use your service...

p

It's poor. The text is hard to read (centered!!), the imagery and typography are cheesy. Why the dodgey 'oirish font' and generally it doesn't appear professional.

I would suggest you hire a web designer or buy a webdesign template.

mneylon

The text is hard to read - due to the alignment, positioning, font and colour

What's with the green?

zardette

I like this site its clean and easy on my eye and there is information which is good!

as for booking on line not for me its a personal service which requires personal conatct.

Macca206

Thanks for all the feedback.. the italics will be changed as well as Pass with pinnacle beign featured a little more prominently.

psycho8itch

Only problem I see (as a potential customer) is that i actually can't read the green italics without squinting. Literally have to squint, and i don't normally have poor colour vision.

maryo'dee

hi why not join a forum that is aimed at webdesign and optimisation.
eg the Irish Webmasters forum. just google it and it appears #1.
Also you don't seem to have your prices anywhere which is very annoying IMO.
you probably will have a hard time getting up the rankings on 'driving lessons' but if you concentrate on an area like 'driving lessons dublin' you should get to page 1 no problem.

Macca206

Im first for "driving lessons dublin" in the search. Also the prices are featured in the middle of the screen though you do need to scroll

browler

This looks like the efforts of a mate who knows a bit of html. A worthy effort if that is the case !, if however this was done by anybody with a qualification they should be ashamed of themselves.

If you are relying on the website as a means of penetrating the market I would definately consider spending a few hundred euros on a professional website design which might include a booking engine including current availability. Discount if booked online etc. You get the idea.

However if you just want to have a web presence for your business card/on car advertisement or word of mouth then a few tidy up jobs might be worthwhile and easily achieved by your mate while your deciding if you need more. In particular regrouping the information which is very cluttered into a FAQ or knowledge database heading. Three key areas for your consideration.

About us:qualifications, areas covered etc.
Contact us: email, phone, contact form/feedback
FAQ: The Test | Technical Checks | What To Do | What Not To Do |

The colouring schema is fine as it matches with your images but I suggest playing around with a few font sizes/styles once the information is reorganised.

Hope this helps without being over critical.

Good luck.

S.M.B.

ugh!

There's quite a bit wrong with the site imo.

kmart6

S.M.B. wrote: »

ugh!

There's quite a bit wrong with the site imo.

Care to elaborate on that?!

Axwell

browler wrote: »

The colouring schema is fine as it matches with your images

The colour scheme is awful, green text is hard to read and is a terrible choice of colour. You will put people off even scrolling down the rest of the pages if they cant read the first paragraph. If you changed that alone it would improve the site slightly before looking at making some of the other suggestions.

browler

Axwell wrote: »

The colour scheme is awful, green text is hard to read and is a terrible choice of colour. You will put people off even scrolling down the rest of the pages if they cant read the first paragraph. If you changed that alone it would improve the site slightly before looking at making some of the other suggestions.

When it comes to colours that it can often be the reason clients disagree on a perfectly well functioning websites. A good rule of thumb is to go with the colours in the usually pre-existing corporate logo (or some with some variance). By pointing out the colours of their logo it silences the personal colour preference people.

Axwell

Using existing logo colours is fine for headings and the background colour of areas of the site etc but using green text isnt in my book. Also considering the logo was probably desinged with the site it shouldnt fall into that category where you have to work with previous colous. The dark grey/black of the writing in the logo would have suited better if you were going to follow your rule of thumb. Green for a heading maybe but for the whole content text definitely not.

S.M.B.

kmart6 wrote: »

Care to elaborate on that?!

Well quite a few sugestions have been given already. The green justified italic text being very off-putting especially.

Most the information on the individual pages seems to be just randomly arranged with very little thought put into it. I don't think the 2 column layout being used does it any favours.

The information displayed above the fold on 4 of the sites pages is far too similar imo. It's not even obvious that I've gone to another page say after going from What to Do to What not to Do.

The Flash banner while being fine in itself doesn't really do anything for the site and this space could be better utilised.

There is a slight movement in the navigation and banner when going to/from the FAQ page.

I'd actaully be very interested to hear what sort of designer created the site just out of curiosity.