Website review: My turn

mattyh

mattyh

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Matt
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My website isn't performing as well as I'd like, I don't think - I currently have a CTR on Google adwords of around 7%, which is pretty decent, but I'm not getting the enquiries from the site, which leads me to think that something is wrong. :thinking:

Specifically looking for navigation problems, copywriting issues (in terms of text, not ownership of the images, of course), and anything else that would be stopping potential customers getting in touch

The website is www.vibrancephoto.co.uk

Thanks in advance to any replies :)
 
mattyh

For me the images on your initial page are too large. This is in viewable dimension size and also file size.

You have to remember that if the initial page for your site does not load quickly people will click away (bounce) from the site.

It loads quickly for me, but I am on fibre! (Not All-Bran)

I don't know what the majority of your target users are on but I am aware that broadband connections are limited in North Yorkshire country regions.

If you are using your Google Analytics right you should be able to see which pages people are bouncing from.

Another issue with the large images is that people have to scroll down the page. When they do this they cannot see your main menu at the top of the page and the links on the lower part of the page are not clear enough for me.

The descriptions of your packages is very basic telling me nothing but a price. I would like to see a whole page devoted to each package with a sample of the work that each package includes. All you see at the moment is the price and no content.

The idea of the website is to get you the lead so the customer contacts you. You can then give them the attention they are wanting.

Unfortunately your portfolios are in "Flash" which is excluding iPad and iPhone users. These are the ones with the money.

Your contact number for me is in the wrong place at the bottom left. Website users read from the top left first.

A few customer testimonials wouldn't go amiss as well.

I hope this is of use and not too much of a ramble.

Most of these issues can be resolved quite easily within the Wordpress template you are using.
 
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TheTyke said:
mattyh

For me the images on your initial page are too large. This is in viewable dimension size and also file size.

You have to remember that if the initial page for your site does not load quickly people will click away (bounce) from the site.

It loads quickly for me, but I am on fibre! (Not All-Bran)

Fixed this now, nearly halved the size (in both dimensions and file size) to make more readable.

I don't know what the majority of your target users are on but I am aware that broadband connections are limited in North Yorkshire country regions.

Most of my targets are in York, but you're right, pages need optimising some more

If you are using your Google Analytics right you should be able to see which pages people are bouncing from.

I can, and do check regularly :)

Another issue with the large images is that people have to scroll down the page. When they do this they cannot see your main menu at the top of the page and the links on the lower part of the page are not clear enough for me.

The descriptions of your packages is very basic telling me nothing but a price. I would like to see a whole page devoted to each package with a sample of the work that each package includes. All you see at the moment is the price and no content.

Something definitely to work on - Thank you

The idea of the website is to get you the lead so the customer contacts you. You can then give them the attention they are wanting.

Unfortunately your portfolios are in "Flash" which is excluding iPad and iPhone users. These are the ones with the money.

Fixed, and now works on iPad (and I assume, but can't check on iPhone)

Your contact number for me is in the wrong place at the bottom left. Website users read from the top left first.

May integrate this within the header somehow, needs a bit of thought to get it right

A few customer testimonials wouldn't go amiss as well.

Absolutely - I shall add some over the next week or two

I hope this is of use and not too much of a ramble.

Most of these issues can be resolved quite easily within the Wordpress template you are using.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply in depth, it really is appreciated and some of the changes have already been made, with more additions to be added shortly.

:thumbs:
 
mattyh

There is an issue with the background on the portfolio page. I have a white band across the bottom of the page in firefox.

Don't forget to test the site across all browsers.

Get the "Firebug" plugin for Firefox and use the YSlow tester. This will indicate how you can speed the loading up.

You can kill the prices page link on your top menu so that people can only click on the dropdown links. This means they are guided to what they want rather than having to click through too many pages.
This can be done in the menu section of Wordpress by just removing the hyperlink details.
 
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every time i load/refresh the front page all of the slideshow images display down the page.

i always found that a problem with the jquery script to be honest (having a quick look at your code it seems like youre using jquery anyway) as it lists out the images in the code so the larger they are they will flash up and then disapear again as the page loads.

im not on a slow connection either (24mb adsl speedtested at 17mb)
 
I can see the stacking slightly on my 36mb connection.

I had a few sites running large slideshows on the first page and I got rid of them because it killed the loading speed. The issue with this site is that it is selling images so it needs to have those impactive images.

I think there are some more sliders out there that may work a bit better.

neil_g I see you use a flash slideshow which looks nice but it excludes some users. It is a dead site on my iPad. By that I mean I would visit and click away.
 
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Your CTR sounds good, but I would need more information on ad campaign settings, copy and landing pages to really comment any further. Also, you don't say how many ads you're running nor whether you're carrying out any testing to ensure you fine tune your copy. So, I would just say put yourself in the shoes of the searcher. Ask yourself the questions which your ads are promising to answer, go to the landing pages and see whether or not your answers/call to action can be found.

On-site copy is a bit weak i.e. there's nothing distinctive to grab and hold my attention. Home page, for example, above the fold we have the animated image banner. The photos are nice, but the animation is distracting me away from the copy. I can clearly see the headers, but the paragraphs just appear a bit too wordy i.e. font size is a bit small on my 27" screen due to fixed sized fonts and line width is about 20-30 words. I would aim for 6-8 words per line and make sure you emphasise the most important bits.

AIDA is a simple marketing acronym which I always find useful as a guide. On each page, ask yourself where's the Attraction to the viewer? What's there to hold their Interest once I've got their attention? Is there enough information to create Desire? Is there a call to action in easy reach?

Does your contact form really need a subject field? It's not a mandatory form field. So, I'd bin it. The easier you make the calls to action, the more likely the visitor is going to use it.

How about some client testimonials? It costs you nothing and yet helps to reinforce a positive perception of your services. There's also the added SEO bonus of relevant, unique content.

You have some PHP errors on some pages e.g. home and blog pages.
 
DigitalRelish said:
Your CTR sounds good, but I would need more information on ad campaign settings, copy and landing pages to really comment any further. Also, you don't say how many ads you're running nor whether you're carrying out any testing to ensure you fine tune your copy. So, I would just say put yourself in the shoes of the searcher. Ask yourself the questions which your ads are promising to answer, go to the landing pages and see whether or not your answers/call to action can be found.

On-site copy is a bit weak i.e. there's nothing distinctive to grab and hold my attention. Home page, for example, above the fold we have the animated image banner. The photos are nice, but the animation is distracting me away from the copy. I can clearly see the headers, but the paragraphs just appear a bit too wordy i.e. font size is a bit small on my 27" screen due to fixed sized fonts and line width is about 20-30 words. I would aim for 6-8 words per line and make sure you emphasise the most important bits.

AIDA is a simple marketing acronym which I always find useful as a guide. On each page, ask yourself where's the Attraction to the viewer? What's there to hold their Interest once I've got their attention? Is there enough information to create Desire? Is there a call to action in easy reach?

Does your contact form really need a subject field? It's not a mandatory form field. So, I'd bin it. The easier you make the calls to action, the more likely the visitor is going to use it.

How about some client testimonials? It costs you nothing and yet helps to reinforce a positive perception of your services. There's also the added SEO bonus of relevant, unique content.

You have some PHP errors on some pages e.g. home and blog pages.
Click to expand...

Strangely, I've just this second binned the Subject field on the contact form as it's not needed...

I shall increase the font size slightly to make it easier to read too - I will be adding some testimonials in the next week or so, as you say, it costs nothing and has a lot of benefits to it.

I've fixed the PHP errors now (hopefully - they're not appearing for me anymore) - I was trying something out that didn't work :s
 
TheTyke said:
mattyh

There is an issue with the background on the portfolio page. I have a white band across the bottom of the page in firefox.

Don't forget to test the site across all browsers.

Get the "Firebug" plugin for Firefox and use the YSlow tester. This will indicate how you can speed the loading up.

You can kill the prices page link on your top menu so that people can only click on the dropdown links. This means they are guided to what they want rather than having to click through too many pages.
This can be done in the menu section of Wordpress by just removing the hyperlink details.
Click to expand...

This is on the list of things to change - I use a menu plugin for my menu generation, and I'm just waiting on the dev fixing the error on their plugin to allow me to exclude the pages, then that will be done, which will fix all of these issues.

neil_g said:
every time i load/refresh the front page all of the slideshow images display down the page.

i always found that a problem with the jquery script to be honest (having a quick look at your code it seems like youre using jquery anyway) as it lists out the images in the code so the larger they are they will flash up and then disapear again as the page loads.

im not on a slow connection either (24mb adsl speedtested at 17mb)
Click to expand...

TheTyke said:
I can see the stacking slightly on my 36mb connection.

I had a few sites running large slideshows on the first page and I got rid of them because it killed the loading speed. The issue with this site is that it is selling images so it needs to have those impactive images.

I think there are some more sliders out there that may work a bit better.

neil_g I see you use a flash slideshow which looks nice but it excludes some users. It is a dead site on my iPad. By that I mean I would visit and click away.
Click to expand...

This is a bit of a PITA - Going to try and look at a few alternatives over the next few days to see if there's something better out there... I've dumped all the flash on my site now so everything works on iPad's and the like, which is a bonus...
 
mattyh said:
This is on the list of things to change - I use a menu plugin for my menu generation, and I'm just waiting on the dev fixing the error on their plugin to allow me to exclude the pages, then that will be done, which will fix all of these issues.
Click to expand...

Wordpress does not really need plugin for the menus if you have an up to date version. ("Edit" or so I think!)
 
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Hi Matt.

FWIW I think your site is great. I am a real novice as far as website construction is concerned, you only have to look at my sad offering (no don't!), and I am getting too old to learn a lot more.

But that said I do believe in first impressions, which brings me back to my opening comment. I like it.

(When I did a photo course with the OCA we were required to maintain a learning log on line. I tried Wordpress and got into an awful pickle when I made a ham fisted attempt to personalise the template. Everything went out of whack and I spent hours trying to recover my stuff!)

Brian
 
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