Made own Website! No Experience, Thoughts? Feedback?

Ashlinggnilsia

Hi All,

I was wondering if ye could give me some feedback on a website I made for my new business, have no experience in this kind of thing at all, and I don't want to put it out there until I know its perfect and looks professional, If some of ye wouldn't mind having a look and giving me some feedback that would be great.

http://www.TheTechHeads.info

Mozart1986

Make the phone number bigger, redder & under the title

Ashlinggnilsia

Thanks a mil for that will change it right now

Kinetic^

You've got branding for WIX on there. I wouldn't launch a site with anyone else branding on there apart from my own (or an affiliate), looks very unprofessional. If you're not familiar with web design and have 0 budget to get one made for you, try something like wordpress/joomla. You'll need your own hosting. If you don't have the experience then I'd get a budget together to get it built, a poor looking/performing website will reflect badly on your business.


Your site seems very focused on PCs. I'm in the same line as yourselves and probably see 1 PC/desktop for every 20 laptops. Consumers are purchasing mobile platforms such as tablets/laptops once their PC/Desktop dies so you should look at incorporating this in to your business & website.

Ashlinggnilsia

Ok thats great feedback, I have someone working on a website for me at the minute but I want to have something up there for the time being until we can switch right over.

What word would you suggest I use instead of PC that would possibly cover all of the angles because I don't really want it reading

"we can fix your pc/laptop/netbook/tablet in every line?

Kinetic^

PC & laptop or PC and Laptop. I class netbooks as laptops for the sake of my own website.

Ashlinggnilsia

Yeah I just took it out where possible and then put that we do x,y and z. I could pay a bit more and get the ads taken off but I see that as a bit of waste of money when there is one being made at the minute. It will probably take a good while before its ready but I really want something for the meantime and don't want to go drawing potential customers to it until its perfect either.

Thanks so much for all your feedback, really appreciate it

Tangled

I just had a quick glance, one thing I would do is make sure your contact number / address is on every page, down in the bottom footer.

Flimbos

I'd agree with the above advice, if you can get rid of the WIX branding you should, and your phone number needs to be more prominent.

A few other things:

- The colour of Home/ About/ Services etc changes to dark grey when you're in that section (and when you rollover). You could make this a different colour to make it stand out and highlight the part of the site you are in.

- In the contact form, the text a user enters is too small, and is light grey on a slightly lighter grey background, so has poor contrast. Needs to be made bigger and a better contrasting colour.

- The "For business" and "Business packages" pages could be combined, there are prices on one page and info on the other.

- I would get rid of the moving clock on the home page, bit distracting.

Best of luck with your new business.

Ashlinggnilsia

Great stuff guys keep it coming

Ashlinggnilsia

Yeah thats one problem with making a wix website, you actually can't add more to page other than what I have already taken up so I had to do a second page which is of course very annoying and another reason why we are making a different one but the other one we are making we are using wordpress and don't have much experience in that so its taking a bit of time to figure everything out and get things moving. Thanks for the feedback guys

fishy21

flash websites arent search friendly even though wix say they are. If you cant manage wordpress or joomla try out weebly its very easy to use and you can make very professional looking sites.

JDxtra

Get a local number, mobiles look unprofessional. Don't publish your out of hours support number on the site.

Ashlinggnilsia

Yeah I think the same myself about mobile numbers but it will do for the first few months in my opinion don't want to get roped into a big contract with anybody and all these extra charges, trying to keep costs as low as possible. But do agree a landline looks way better.

Oooh cool stuff about the weebly and that, must looking into that more. So glad to see so many people willing to help and I think this is what we need more of. Help each other where we can. Taking 2 min to look at the website and giving feedback is really helping me and I really appreciate it. Thanks all

Kinetic^

Landline number, you need it. Mobiles will make people think twice. Check out the online numbers from blueface or skype and see if they can offer you one with your area code.

tricky D

Flash should not be used for websites in general. It's super for animation, games, streaming and a few other things, but usually bad for regular sites, for a load of reasons. It'll hit your SEO hard which is crucial to your business' success as you are late to market against well established existing local businesses (nenaghpc off the top of the head for one). The clock is a distraction. Some of links when clicked react poorly with delays and jerky changing of the pages.

Wix branding isn't a good idea with mixed logos and favicons. If you're serious about your business, it costs less than €70 to get proper hosting.

The logo is bizarre in an almost discomforting manner, too complicated and won't work at scaled down sizes.

You shouldn't need to tell your users to press a navigation tab, it should be obvious (and it pretty much is).

Left align blocks of text for readability. Centre aligning list text is OK but still probably better left aligned.

Need endorsements from happy customers.

I'd rearrange some of the services and pricing content. It's better to not have pricing and services seperated.

Email address is not a mailto.

Typography is inconsistent.

©The Tech Heads 2011-2012 - attention to detail!!


Despite the above this is a great effort for a first outing. You have done a helluva lot better than most people do when making their own website. However, as priorities, using Flash is a big mistake and the logo needs to be completely redone keeping it simple and relevant.

hth and gl

EIREHotspur

Out of the box websites are just awful.
I would have held off until I had the Pro one setup.
What you do is very word of mouth in the early days anyway.

Your prices are very reasonable and the add ons like fixing consoles should be given the same prominence because there are a lot of stay at home people now with games consoles.

I agree about a landline number, I would never deal with anyone in any shape or form without a landline number....it just speaks cheapo/dodgy.

* Data recovery cannot be gauranteed (should be guaranteed)

There are some things I would do if I were building your website.

- Modern Web design

http://s3.envato.com/files/1343315/example1.html
- Rotating banner (like above) on the frontpage with services.

http://www.flashloaded.com/flashcomponents/flashtweets/
- Tweet Reader on home page with Latest Deals/Advice

- When you are up and running, Big up your stats (95% data recovery to date)

- Find some common everyday problems people may have with their PCs and give it away for free as a Tutorial from time to time to bring people to the website.

A website that doesn't bring back visitors is useless.

Pity you were not in the midlands...I could have used your expertise last year.
Great scope there for you to well......Best of Luck!

was.deevey

I hope the site is under maintenance, its not loading at all apart from the wix logo here although i can view the source code.

Mac OSX / Safari 5.0.3 / Flash 10.2 (beta).

fishy21

you should definitly check out weebly, its very simple using drag and drop. Have a look at these three done on weebly.

www.twoscompany.ie
www.cupcakedesign.ca
www.ebizrepublic.com

Ashlinggnilsia

Ya see im totally confused now, and have decided im only going to make the changes i agree with because there is something things that some people find fault with that others do not and you can't please everybody.

Data recovery cannot be guaranteed it is impossible to guarantee data recovery when you do not know what the problem is that is why it is there, you won't find any company giving a guarantee on that and it would be idiotic to do so.

Didn't think the website was as bad as it appears to be from what i have been reading. Partly thinking about scrapping the whole thing.

The logo is fine when scaled down. Think I will keep the logo.

Thanks for everybodys help once again.

way2tall

I thought it had a nice feel to it and well thought out .. but agree with some of the comments about implementation ..

- definitely have a local phone line / address .. if you are selling to businesses in the clonmel area they will probably want the confidence that they are dealing with some one local ..

- call to action - first page could be more action oriented - people who have a broken pc will land on that page .. you want them to do something contact you, e-mail you, look at your services .. so I like the idea some one mentioned of common problems .. types of issues and prices ... self diagnostics etc.. how tos.. give people a bit of a reason to trust your service - testimonials etc ..

- Definitely get something hosted .. it really doesn't have to be expensive - you could build a very similar site in Drupalgardens (my favourite at the moment but wordpress could do the same) and point your domain to it - the product template DrupalGardens might work particularly well and all of the information architecture you have built could be reused very easily .. I think to have a custom domain is around 13 or 14 $ a year but I could be wrong - if you then want to extend your site you can export it and host it locally

Good luck ...

Ed

Ashlinggnilsia

We have hosing got but just waiting on cert from cro so that we can get the .ie one. We definitely intend on getting a local phone number asap.

I think we will take our time working on another website one that isn't flash as that seems to be a big problem with everyone. I didn't realise that was a problem at all.

But do ye think it would be ok and do until then? Really want to get a website out there.

ramsmobile

I agree with most of the comments.

Again, as mentioned by other posters, avoid using Flash as the "backbone" for your site.

Your site needs separate URLS (e.g. http://www.thetechheads.info/contact.htm) to aid Search engine Optimisation.

Once you're properly up and running and have developed your social media presence, highlight these on all pages of your site.

Consider putting a photo and bio on the contact page for the main employees or just yourself if it's a one-Woman show - adds a personal/human touch to the site and helps alleviate fears people might have about whether or not they are dealing with a legitimate business.

The Wix.com advertising is a big no-no - despite the reasons for it at the moment.

All the same, great first effort (I've seen a lot worse from so-called professional designers) so well done. I think the logo/head is great - just maybe consider adding in a couple of brighter colours (perhaps as phase 2, complimenting your new design).

As regards taking this site offline until your new one is ready, I would base this decision on how long it will take to have your new site ready. If the new site will go live in the next 2-4 weeks, then I would hold off on promoting your present site. It's a bit disconcerting if you launch a new site and promote it, only to launch another one a few weeks later.

Best of luck with your new business!

Ashlinggnilsia

ahhh ok that makes a lot of sense now about the flash the way you explained it there, hmmm i really don't know how long it is going to take, i feel like if we had this one up we could take more time at it and make sure its perfect and the way we want it but if we didn't have anything up I would say the new one would end up rushed. Hate waiting around for things like this.

Ashlinggnilsia

Ok so I was looking at the weebly one and its actually quite good. Would that one be ok to use instead of wix? Would it create the links like ye were saying with the

www.thetechheads.info/contact thing?

ramsmobile

I haven't used Weebly myself but I'd be fairly certain it will separate your pages into distinct URLS -like Wordpress and other content management systems.

By the way, EIREHotspur had some great ideas there, especially the free tutorials.

Not something you'll likely consider in the short-term but, once you're up and running, I''d definitely consider writing, say, a monthly tutorial.

Do it in a blog format (great for search engines), with links at the side and and at the end of each post to related services you offer.

A high percentage of traffic to my site is often people looking for something (which I have blogged about previously) -some of these then go on to view other sections of my site.

Also, if as you suggested you're planning on changing your site to a .ie domain, I would hold off on marketing your current site until that is ready.

the_syco

HTML works with any browser. Not got flash installed, problem with flash (heck, they may be getting in contact with you because of this), they won't be able to access your site.

Also, it's slow. So slow, I've nearly given up. Other will just goto your competitors.

E-mail: info@TheTechHeads.biz
Website: thetechheads.info

Dodgy mobile number. I tend to avoid businesses that don't have a landline for certain business.

Get yourself a .ie domain. It "looks" Irish.

Ashlinggnilsia

Well you see all we would have to do is re route it so it should be fine. Yeah we were planning on doing that anyway. We were going to give free daily tips which will automatically post to our facebook page and twitter account and have a second section on the blog for interesting topics such as the release of new software and the likes just to give something back and we are going to offer it like say once a week or something that we would answer a question that people can submit something that would require a bit of detail too it so that we can keep up with everyone. We are also giving away free prizes to once we get our 500th, 1000th, 2000th, 3000th, 4000th and 5000th "likes" of facebook. Each prize will be better than the one before. Obviously the big ones will be a way off but I wouldn't undermine the power of facebook especially when your offering free stuff. People love free stuff.

Ashlinggnilsia

Yeah the whole actually trying to get the page up was some hassle we bought .biz and hosting and then tried to make it go to wix but wix won't allow external hosting and well we didn't really know what we were doing and were having problems getting the .biz to switch so just got .info for the minute and the .biz came with email .info didn't. All in all we are going switching to the .ie anyway as soon as we get our cert back. Hopefully that will be any day now.

So basically going to get rid of the wix one now all together and work on the weebly one. They are actually way cheaper. Don't think the website turns out looking as nice but sure feck it like twill do I suppose.

You spelt guaranteed wrong.

On the business page do the prices include VAT?

Ashlinggnilsia

Thanks for that sorted.

omerin

No price given on your "For Home" page for -

Custom Built PC's - From

Your logo doesn't look great. Sorry.


For convenience could you put your company address on the home page. I don't think anyone fills out a Contact Form.

Always feel better myself when a company gives a land line, as a company you will be taking people's property and a mobile phone number doesn't cut it especially for a new business.

You could state if your Business Packs are inclusive or exclusive of VAT and the % rate.

Best of luck.

Kinetic^

omerin wrote: »

For convenience could you put your company address on the home page. I don't think anyone fills out a Contact Form.

They do, I get many enquiries via my own.

Saruman

One very simple thing.

Check your spelling. The very first thing I noticed* on clicking was the American spelling of specialize. We do not usually use Z over here for words ending in ise so the spelling is specialise. Change your spell check settings.

A number of other words have Z instead of S and since your target customer base is in Ireland, you should use our own spelling.

Also the menu spacing is all off. The space between each item should be the same.


* Seriously, for some reason I saw that before I even saw the logo.

RATM

Ashlinggnilsia wrote: »

Yeah I think the same myself about mobile numbers but it will do for the first few months in my opinion don't want to get roped into a big contract with anybody and all these extra charges, trying to keep costs as low as possible. But do agree a landline looks way better.

Oooh cool stuff about the weebly and that, must looking into that more. So glad to see so many people willing to help and I think this is what we need more of. Help each other where we can. Taking 2 min to look at the website and giving feedback is really helping me and I really appreciate it. Thanks all

www.blueface.ie for landlines. 9.99 per month ex-vat, unlimited national landline calls

Saruman

He already has a skype account. Add a landline number to it.

Ashlinggnilsia

Saruman wrote: »

He already has a skype account. Add a landline number to it.

He is a she, ha ha.

Was just looking into that there. Have a nice little template on that weebly thing, think I will use that all together change the colours and the likes and I doubt I will have as much problems as I did with the wix one.

Yeah I know there is no price for that one just waiting on the figure to put it in.

Re the logo, getting mixed opinions on it and so I think I will just leave it as it is as it seems it would be difficult to get one everyone agrees on, want something interesting not something boring, plain and dull.

Saruman

Ashlinggnilsia wrote: »

He is a she, ha ha.

So you are....

jimmmy

Ashlinggnilsia wrote: »

Hi All,

I was wondering if ye could give me some feedback on a website I made for my new business, have no experience in this kind of thing at all, and I don't want to put it out there until I know its perfect and looks professional, If some of ye wouldn't mind having a look and giving me some feedback that would be great.

http://www.TheTechHeads.info

as others said, a landline gives more credibility than a mobile.

also, in my humble opinion, a .ie website address is better than .biz or something. Other than that, the website looks great + best of luck. Fair play.

Ashlinggnilsia

Thanks for that. We will be getting the .ie as soon as we get our cert back from the cro which should be in the next few days. Way prefer the .ie also getting a landline now through skype very good value only thing is they don't have a local number for our area only have like dublin cork and galway or something none for Tipp the other guys ye suggested don't have a clonmel number either so what would ye thing if the number was 076 ?

howamidifferent

See this?

" As time goes by we hope to increase the number of offered to our customers."

Ashlinggnilsia

yup I did, I am currently using that weebly thing now trying to edit the html on it and then will be bringing text and the likes over to it and as soon as i have the "look" of the new weebly one done ill put it up here and then put over the text and edit that. Was getting very annoyed with the fricken website but slightly less stressed now cos the weebly one seems to be doing what i want it too.

wylo

not really pushed on the logo either tbh, bit cheesy and messy but that wouldnt deter me from personally using the service if i was considering it.

What would deter me is the prices though, collect and return should be free imo, or a fiver or something insignificant. You may be potentially throwing away a customer that would be worth 50 for the sake of an extra 15.
And while I think 50euro for service isnt the worst, you really have to be very competitive these days, because the % of people that are clueless about the very basics of computers is dwindling,(im talking antivirus/malware updates, basic cleaning up of the computer),and the people left that dont have a clue generally know someone that does, not to mention , dare i say the word, recession!!:). anyway sorry I know this thread is just about the site, but just thought id mention it.
Best of luck

Ashlinggnilsia

No bother, almost finished the new website now anyway. I think im guna keep the logo to be honest. Had a professional graphic designer look at it and they said it was good to go. Also its not something boring like four squares like the normal logos. And there is a whole branding plan behind it. We wanted a little character guy.

Also re pricing we a the cheapest in town by a mile. So far the cheapest we have come across from our competitors is €79 for a service. So even if you include the cost of collecting we are still cheaper. Plus most people will probably drop it in. We have chosen a location that is not in the center of town so they won't have problems with traffic and no parking problems. The town is a mental place to be trying to look for parking.