CALA Academy - how does it `feel` and does it support our plan?

CALAAcademy

Hi, sorry if this post seems long but I wanted to abide by Dean’s sensible suggestions for soliciting feedback J

http://www.calaacademy.com/

We run a Spanish and English language school in Las Vegas. Demographic trends have led to many instances where people struggle to communicate; employee/client relations, employee/management relations, etc. As a company, our key differentiators are: 1. We focus on no-nonsense business needs and tailor our curriculum to the industry-specific needs of the client 2. Cultural awareness is also an integral component of our training (our name is: Cultural Awareness & Language Acquisition Academy, or CALA Academy) 3. Our programs are accelerated (5 week courses) to fit in with busy, working people’s lives.
We’re training with individuals and organizations; but in order to really grow and achieve our model, we need to focus more on larger organizations with lots of employees who will benefit from learning another language. (government agencies, large companies, etc)
We want our site to appear prominently in organic searches for Spanish & English language lessons and services, but right now we don’t. We`ve been live 1 month. Current analytics: 5.62 pgs/visit, 4:30/visit, 14.7% bounce. Once people arrive at our site we want them to feel our site portrays professionalism, they can easily find all the information they’re looking for, and they also enjoy the experience (insert suggestions on the look & feel please J).
We contracted out the work on our site, but worked with them to design the look and feel of the site.

googleguy

Hello,
 
I agree with Craig, you have chosen some very attractive colors, it works well. Here are some observations.....
 
You have too much white space on the home page, it is distracting. Why not move the very good offer of "1 free lesson" to the top of the page? It will definitely be better served higher on the page instead of burried at the bottom.
 
Also, you could use one of the excellent Success Stories quotes on the first page. They are also burried and very hard to find. Highlight them on the home page by using some of the colors on the header...bright green or yellow would look great. This will help establish some credibilty.
 
I would add a "register now" button next to the options on the pricing page. This should help your conversion rate.
 
If you are looking for higher search engine rankings, consider hiring a professional.
 
Overall....great start!
 
Best of luck and GO GET IT!!!!!
 
 

www.searchmarketingsystems.net

CALAAcademy

Thanks for the great feedback! Let me talk about a few of your comments...
 
1. I`m glad you like the colors - but Craig, they are not based on the Mexican flag, which is green, white and red.  We did want some vibrant colors though, such as you find in Latin culture.
2. I agree with a little too much white space. We`re working on adding some stuff.
3. Craig - the `cultural awareness` term actually refers not necessarily to language at all, but to those cultural norms which differ between the US and what other countries` citizens are used to. For example, in Latin cultures it is normal to begin a meeting with discussion about family, etc. and lead up to the details, while here in the US we often get straight to business with no niceties.
 By being familiar with the differences we can more easily build rapport and avoid uncomforable situations. A more descriptive term may be `intercultural communication`? I hope that clears it up a little...
4. We did add the title tags on each page (we had overlooked them) and it has already helped our SEO - thx!
5. As far as the blog page, we added a link to our blog (we`re working to get it added directly to our site - of course now I need to blog regularly
6. Craig - we`re going to better emphasize our key offerings. great point
7. We will move a success story or 2 to the home page - good idea
 
thanks again!!
CALAAcademy8/27/2008 9:03 PM