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Website Review

albxalbx subscriber Posts: 1
edited June 2007 in Sales
We have been working on revising our website because most times we service our clients first and our website falls behind. Not to mention, its harder to critique your own site.
I would like any feedback that you may have on our site. Is the design good or bad? Is it easy to navigate? Is the marketing message clear? What does it lack?The URL is www.albx.com</A>. Thanks!!
-Peter

Comments

  • onlineeateronlineeater subscriber Posts: 16
    The site was a bit boring to me but possibly interesting for someone looking for your services. I am a firm believer of facts tell but stories sell. Since you have some real estate available on your front page why don`t you have some flash images of your testimonies rotate on the front page. Hope it helps,John
  • albxalbx subscriber Posts: 1
    nhgnikole...what do you mean by a crackup? I guess that stock photo of the girl got everyone`s attention, hopefully they looked at her and saw right away that we are "Information Technology Consultants". I have her in my profile because its branding. I paid to use the photo, so why not use it in muliple branding messages? albx2007-3-1 22:5:1
  • albxalbx subscriber Posts: 1
    i have offered my opinions and my time to speak with people on the phone in other forum posts. i don`t see how that is blatant advertising...i`m offering my knowledge, which is of value. if i talk to someone on the phone, i am going to listen to their needs and give them my technical feedback.
    as a matter of fact, in this post, i have asked for feedback on my site and unlike the others, you have decided to diverge by contributing unconstructive bashing related to my other posts, which is worse than someone doing blatant advertising. my company has 800 clients nationwide and a 98% client retention rate over the past 10 years since its inception, so i`m qualified to give technical advice, which is done most effectively over the phone. now please, back to the topic at hand.
  • daleyfla99daleyfla99 subscriber Posts: 1
    I agree with Nikole, good greif, what gives with that girl?  Not relevant and if I am the typical middle aged executive making a large dollar decision might make me think twice.  Anyway not withstanding the girl, the type font is too small, which as a middle aged decision maker I HATE.  Also you have committed the cardinal sin of web design in my opinion, which is I had to look for your phone number.  At least with you it is on the front page, but you have to use a microscope to find it.  Make your thumbnails a bit bigger too on your client`s page, good grief, if you are a web designer, impress me!  I am sure you are excellent at what you do, which by the way is????
    As I have said her before, put yourself in your customer`s shoes.  Completely.  What do they want from you/your company?  Then answer the why am I here question on the first page with enticing tidbits to get me to drill down....like see what wonderful work we have done by clicking here type of thing...
  • CustomsBrokerCustomsBroker subscriber Posts: 1
     The Forum is like the Howard Stern Show.
     Everyone is entitled to submit their opinion.
     if you disagree stongly then you write a rebuttle.
     if you choose not to participate then don`t
     But , in the end I do not think you can tell anyone what to do!
    And i would like spell check!!
  • Victor363Victor363 subscriber Posts: 2
    Interesting article.  We played around with this issue about a year ago trying several different formats and watching the analytics.  We found that if we used a young woman facing our �Order CPS Now!� button that more people clicked on it.  We don`t really know if there are more males or females clicking but it definitely increase people clicking on it.  You can see an example on our home page at http://www.harveysoft.com.  I really think this only works when you know the demographics of your visitors though.Bert, what did your `add to cart` button look like before the image was added there? I have seen alot of research and case studies showing that a more prominent, eye catching, `add to cart` button can often increase sales. In some cases by 300%On that note, the reason the woman`s face may improve your conversion rate is because it is drawing more attention to your `add to cart` button. I would recommend conducting a split test to find out for sure.I remember reading a case study several years ago by a bank regarding stock photography. They had a picture of a woman on the homepage. By including below that picture `janet smith, customer service`, they raised conversions something like 200% (i read the article a long time ago). But the point being, the picture became relevant, instead of just some extraneous garnish.Anyways, that was a great read from marketing Sherpa (they always have the best articles). I do believe the open access for that article is limited, so I would recommend everyone reading it asap.
  • Victor363Victor363 subscriber Posts: 2
    You can`t tell if she is using a phone, or using the internet, or has just taken some extasy and is higher than my cell phone bill. LOL Thanks showing us that article steve
  • bertbert subscriber Posts: 12
    To answer your question, our initial button was just square button that said `Order Now!`.  Since all of orders were coming in by phone I decided to change them to a button to see if that was the problem.  I created graphics that all said the same thing with four different people on them; a woman shipping, a man shipping, a man taking orders and woman you see now taking orders.  We made it so they randomly changed with each page view for a period of one year.  The one you see now won.  We don`t know why it did; it just worked so we stuck with it.  I really think this could be different for every business and this was not all that great of a test.
  • Victor363Victor363 subscriber Posts: 2
    Hey Bert,So I took a better look at your website, and your discordant checkout; and can see why that type of button works so good for you. It appears that most of your items sell for over $2,000; combined with the fact that your checkout is lengthy and your site doesn`t look tier 1 professional - driving phone orders is probably your best bet. Not that I`m an expert in your industry or anything. But I guess you are already doing everything optimally. How does that saying go.... `if it ain`t broke, don`t fix it`?One recommendation: include your phone number on your `order now` button. Also, buttons tend to work best when they appear to pop-out of the screen. Some people may not realize that your `order now` button is pressable. Perhaps adding a shadow via photoshop could fix this (I`ll do this for free if you wish, as it would only take 5 seconds).
    victor3632007-6-13 12:11:42
  • Victor363Victor363 subscriber Posts: 2
    Sorry Steve, thats a made up word by myself. I was trying to say that the site looks a little homegrown; but in a polite way.Never the less, to answer your question, sites like macys.com; amazon.com; proflowers.com have a different feeling them to them which inspires more customer confidence. Well, maybe amazon is a bad example. But I stand by my assertion that the site looks a little small time.No offense Bert; it sounds like you have a very sound business running - one that has been very successful for you.
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