Our website review for February was with Ryan Parker of Mod Paint Works in Denver. We had the hangout last Wednesday and today I see Ryan has already made changes based on the suggestions given! Tess Wittler was unable to join us and we were fortunate to have Heidi Nyline of Warline Painting fill in to help Darren Slaughter share their combined insights.
Home Page
Darren suggested some improvements on cleaning up the header images and adding a bit of content to the logo to make it clear what service he offers. Darren discussed the fact that the site does not render well in all browsers, use Check Browser to view. He also suggested ways to improve the navigation menu by changing Font Size and colors.
There was quite a bit of discussion on the sidebars and the info boxes and gave some detailed tips on how reorganize the home page. Heidi discussed the importance of less is more when it comes to displaying photos.
Footer
There was more discussion of improving the look and content, especially have a strong call to action.
Social Media
Social Media should drive customers to your site, remove links that lead customers off your site.
Content
Heidi had some great suggestions on how to create a “pitch” to be a starter for content. More was discussed about using galleries effectively. Ryan has some great niche work displayed on his site, I am sure Tess would have encouraged him to do Project Spotlights.
Images
Again, tagging photos properly was a big part of the discussion, find out how you can bring customers to your site via Google image searches.
About Us
“Think speed dating” says Darren. Tell your prospective customers who you are. Answer the “Who, What, When, Why and Where”.
What is missing?
Darren brought up the point that the Denver area is “health conscious” and there should be some content on environmentally friendly practices. There was also no information on RRP Certification.
The Blog
There is some great information for consumers, but it will get buried by listing it in a blog format. Darren suggested some ways to use that content.
Navigation
More on the flow of navigation.
Contact Page
What should be on it? What shouldn’t be on it?
Online Directories
Can you rank above Yelp and other directories? Probably not, but what can you do?
Thanks to all for participating!
Thanks for sharing the website review.
In the video I didn’t hear a mention to unique visitors, or pageviews. What kind of traffic does a site like Mod Paint get?
Thanks for commenting Mike. That might be a good topic for a future hangout. We don’t ask or get into analytics much, as I feel that it is so unique to each site. There are so many variables involved, it would be interesting to see how the bounce rate and page view changes after an owner makes some of the suggested changes to the content. I’ll look into adding that to future hangouts!