Can I get some feedback, too?

OnlineSidingJamesOnlineSidingJames subscriber Posts: 2
edited August 2006 in Website Critique
After reading Seth`s post I thought it would be good to get some opinions on my new site. I launched version 5 last week.

http://www.onlinesiding.com/

I look forward to some honest feedback. Thank you!
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Comments

  • OnlineSidingJamesOnlineSidingJames subscriber Posts: 2
    Hey TJG,

    Thank you for the feedback!

    I designed the website myself. LendingTree had no part in the design, they are just our lending affiliate for our customers who need project financing.

    It is my goal to continue adding more articles & resources. We will also be opening a store in the fall.

    James
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  • promisepromise subscriber Posts: 0
    Feed back.
    Clear easy site.
    Love the concept, in the UK we have checker-Trade when the work is complete the customer scores the work.
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  • rossbrossb subscriber Posts: 5
    James -First of all - GO BEAVS!Second, is Woodstocks Pizza still around?Third - Oh yeah, this is suppose to be about your site huh?!?!  OK then, on to it!My first impression was good.  It`s clean, great use of white space and easy to navigate.My suggestions are purely subjective and emanate from my own likes and dislikes so take them for what they`re worth...Make the image on your homepage a little smaller, add a border to it like you have on the other images and maybe throw in a drop shadow for some depth.If possible, on your menu, create some contrast between the buttons and the blue bar behind them, again to create a little depth.White space doesn`t always have to be white.  Give your background a REALLY soft hue - just enough to make it easy on the eyes.  Maybe even add a very gentle texture.Use a serif font for your title or headlines, like Times or Georgia.  It will add a lot to the visual impact of your site.On your home page, put a box around the free owners guide offer and bring in the left and right margins (only on the offer) to further emphasize it a bit.Again James, I think your site is currently better than probably 85% of most other sites out there.  These are just things that might add a little more "visual" appeal.  These tend to be some of the hardest things to offer suggestions on because the return is so hard to measure.  It has a lot to do with that little extra.It`s like when you compare two things and one of them you like better, but not because there is something that is just an obvious difference.  You can`t put words to it, there is just "something" about it that you like better.  These are the kinds of things that my suggestions may help with.  Then again, maybe not!  How`s that for a philosophical twist!R-
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  • OnlineSidingJamesOnlineSidingJames subscriber Posts: 2
    Hello everyone,

    Thank you for all of the feedback and advice!

    Jeff: I have taken your suggestion and will be working on developing our content to clearly show all of the siding that we support. Thank you for catching that!

    MiteyMite: You and Brian both touch on the same issue about the home page which is red flag to me. I will be either reducing or breaking it into small images to highlight our content more (maybe a link to a feature article, etc.). That is a very good suggestion, and I believe it will benefit the site very well.

    Promise: That sounds interesting. Is that from one company or a common, uniform practice in the UK? We follow up with the home owner after the contractor has finished their project. This helps get an idea of the contractor`s work and the overall satisfaction of the home owner.

    Brian: As I told MiteyMite, I will be re-working the home page to show off more of our content. I will also consider making the Guide available to newsletter subscribers who may turn into customers down the road. That is something that I had never considered, and something I obviously overlooked!

    I didn`t want to write a long, long post so I did touch base with a few over Private Messages. I wanted to give everyone a response, to show my appreciation for your taking the time to give me feedback.

    Thank you again, I am enjoying the feedback!

    James
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  • LynnLynn subscriber Posts: 0
    Hope I`m not too late to put in my two cents... First of all, I`m impressed that you did the site yourself; it looks very clean and professional.  A few suggestions: 
    My screen resolution is pretty high (1280 x 1084) and at this high resolution, your site appears a bit squished to the left.  Of course, most people don`t have such high screen resolution, so it might not be something you want to deal with, but I thought you`d like to know in any case.
    Secondly (and more importantly), the first paragraph on your homepage seems somewhat disjointed and could pack more punch.  The first sentence of the paragraph talks about windows and siding and then the second sentence is suddenly addressing home improvement more generally with no transition.  I`d work to make this intro paragraph more cohesive as it will probably play a large part in determining whether folks read on or leave.
    Finally, although the content is "fine", in general, it could use some tightening -- less words, more action -- to really get your message across.
    I`d be happy to provide specific examples of how the content could be tightened up if you`re interested.
    Good luck!
     
     
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  • OnlineSidingJamesOnlineSidingJames subscriber Posts: 2
    Hello everyone,

    Just a quick update...

    I took everyone`s feedback into consideration and made some changes to the website. Please take a look and let me know what you think!

    www.onlinesiding.com

    Thank you again for all of your feedback, I certainly appreciate it!

    James

    PS: Special thanks to Lynn for helping with the content re-write, as well as Brian and Ross for the design suggestions!
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  • gderniegdernie subscriber Posts: 1
    Hi there James
    As a visual designer i would suggest putting everything into a table that is center justified against the entire screeen. then maybe adding a color to the background. a nice earth tone color will work great, like a olive green pr off white/cream. ofcourse keeping the saturation of the colors to a minimal so you won`t blind your viewers. you can check out my site to see what i`m talking about. by adding the color background it will also give your site a little color making more welcoming.
     
    http://graphicdesign-s.com/</A>
    http://www.yocar.com/</A>
    http://www.pontiacsolsticeheaders.com/</A>
     
    The fuctionally and simplicity is great! good job.
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  • SethSeth subscriber Posts: 2
    James,
    Please consider a second business of designing websites. Your site is crisp, clean, easy to navigate and very informative. What are you currently doing for Search Engine Optimization?
    By the way, does siding help keep the bugs out?
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  • OnlineSidingJamesOnlineSidingJames subscriber Posts: 2
    Sorry this is so late, I have been really busy!

    Ernie,

    Thank you for the suggestion! I will be looking into this for the next round of updates. I agree that this will look better since our site has a lot of white.

    Seth,

    Thank you for your comments. I will not consider a career in site design, but I do freelance work from time to time...If you are ever interested, let me know. It`s more of a hobby, so I charge next to nothing compared to others.

    For SEO, I am not doing anything fancy. In fact, I really have never looked into it. I try to keep the Google crawler up-to-date (using Google Sitemaps, etc.) and this seems to work. I also use Google AdWords (mixed results, but enough traffic to keep us using them). If I am missing something, please let me know!

    James
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