Critique my new website please!

[Welchyboy]

Hi all

Just got my new website live just wanted a bit of positive criticism if you get 5 minutes

http://www.pdwelectrical.co.uk

Much appreciated

 

[brman]

waited for ages but nothing loaded......

 

[robsparky1975]

Looks good,but did you realise that a full landline number is missing?

 

[Guest123]

Just seems to be an awful lot of nothing around the sides & bottom.

Can it be adjusted to fill more of the page or something???

 

[james the spark]

looked good to me just the landline number missing i liked the customers comment a couple more wouldnt be a bad thing

- - - Updated - - -

Also how much did you pay to get that done as im in the process of having mine made

 

[Octopus]

Like it, very professional.

 

[alarm man]

the instead of a one off job quote might put people off,as the one off jobs lead to more jobs and the building of work relationships,just a thought..otherwise not too bad

 

[Strima]

Might be an idea to put some rough prices up for customer guidance, i.e. cost of an EICR on a 3 bed property, price per circuit etc.

Looking good though, not much crap dancing around the screen and easy to read.

 

[Welchyboy]

Looks good,but did you realise that a full landline number is missing?

Yes mate need to get that updated thanks

 

[cbw]

I like it.

I dissagree with putting your rates on the site as I would not want the local competition undercutting my prices.(I look at all my competitors sites)

 

[Welchyboy]

looked good to me just the landline number missing i liked the customers comment a couple more wouldnt be a bad thing

- - - Updated - - -

Also how much did you pay to get that done as im in the process of having mine made

Was£350 for 5 pages but ended up with 8 was £420 I think , wanted to put in a few more testimonials but meant going onto page 9 and didn't want it too long

 

[james the spark]

ok cheers i think mine is going to end up about the same didnt want to get myself ripped off

 

[SPARTYKUS]

Its good.

 

[snowhead]

Fell asleep half way thro' the 1st page.

then again thro' the 2nd page.

then again thro the 3rd page.

A pattern forming??

However, Generally nice and clear, just too many words.

Our Company
When you Need a local, reliable and professional electrical service,

We aim to be the only service you'll ever have to deal with For all your electrical installation, testing and maintenance requirements?

Most of our customers are from recommendations or repeat business

Just about all our clients and customers are from repeat business or have contacted us through personal recommendation by friends, neighbours or business associates.

We offer a personal and tailored service built up through a long term relationship
Instead of just a one-off job, we prefer to build a long-term, ongoing relationship with all our customers, offering them a personal and tailored service.

PDW Electrical Services is an NICEIC Approved contractor, which is acknowledged throughout the electrical industry as a sign of excellence and is an accreditation that is required as standard by Councils, NHS, Government, Insurance companies and most major contracts and specifiers. as a mark of quality, so You can rest be assured you are working with a fully qualified, competent and experienced electrician

Contact us today for more information on our range of services.

 

[Welchyboy]

Fell asleep half way thro' the 1st page.

then again thro' the 2nd page.

then again thro the 3rd page.

A pattern forming??

However, Generally nice and clear, just too many words.

Our Company
When you Need a local, reliable and professional electrical service,

We aim to be the only service you'll ever have to deal with For all your electrical installation, testing and maintenance requirements?

Most of our customers are from recommendations or repeat business

Just about all our clients and customers are from repeat business or have contacted us through personal recommendation by friends, neighbours or business associates.

We offer a personal and tailored service built up through a long term relationship
Instead of just a one-off job, we prefer to build a long-term, ongoing relationship with all our customers, offering them a personal and tailored service.

PDW Electrical Services is an NICEIC Approved contractor, which is acknowledged throughout the electrical industry as a sign of excellence and is an accreditation that is required as standard by Councils, NHS, Government, Insurance companies and most major contracts and specifiers. as a mark of quality, so You can rest be assured you are working with a fully qualified, competent and experienced electrician

Contact us today for more information on our range of services.

Ok thanks snowhead this is the first attempt if you like, so I take your point and will look into making it a little more brief and to the point when I update it

This is why I wanted other people to take a look as its difficult to judge by yourself

 

[snowhead]

Like the big boys do in adverts, get straight to the point.

Plain white background is good and all the logos etc.

You only get one chance and people soon move on

 

[Midwest]

Not wishing to be harsh and I'm no expert, but if I was surfing the web (can you use that phrase still) and come across your front page I would probably just delete, and go to the next site. The Home page looks abit plain, and all the icons about 'JIB, PartP, City&Guilds are unnecessary. I think unless you have a large company, you don't need all those tabs. Perhaps some direct links to some photos to some of your work from the homepage, not a picture of a CU or socket, but a finished room a kitchen for example. Definitely a landline number. If your using the internet, make sense to show your locality, unless you don't mind travelling the country. Being rather picky, but that's just how it grabs me with first impressions.

 

[sjhall]

Main page could do with telling people where you are based and areas you cover, looks good though ...

 

[Swicade]

Looks professional and gets all the key points across very well.

Admittedly i think the home page needs alittle polishing up to 'get to the point' easier.

I also found it very clinical with many of the images used....needs afew personal touches added. As an example on the call outs page rather than a generic test meter i'd have my sign written van (sort of man with van ready to serve kind of thing)

On the home page i'd put smaller logo's giving room to add photo's of finished job's....maybe even add photo's of work in progress somewhere on the site aswell (just avoid the photo's of everyone stood around drinking tea/coffee ;p )

Overall though it looks good.



I will add haveing not done my own webpage (does a oneman band in cabbage munching country really warrant one?) i'm by far no expert.

 

[Welchyboy]

Not wishing to be harsh and I'm no expert, but if I was surfing the web (can you use that phrase still) and come across your front page I would probably just delete, and go to the next site. The Home page looks abit plain, and all the icons about 'JIB, PartP, City&Guilds are unnecessary. I think unless you have a large company, you don't need all those tabs. Perhaps some direct links to some photos to some of your work from the homepage, not a picture of a CU or socket, but a finished room a kitchen for example. Definitely a landline number. If your using the internet, make sense to show your locality, unless you don't mind travelling the country. Being rather picky, but that's just how it grabs me with first impressions.

Thank you midwest, i do agree about including my own photos this was allways my intention from the begining, and as soon as i get a few i will be including them when i update it

to be honest i only had a rough idea of what i wanted to start with, and the web designer i used said not to wait until i got it perfect to make it live otherwise it will never be finished, put it up there and get peoples opinion of it and then review it yourself every month or so

there was so many details i have been thinking of, that i wanted to put up there, but without boring the pants off people. also it seems so obvious to me now its been pointed out that i didnt even include the area that i work in.....DOH!

 

[Midwest]

It's better than mine, cos I ain't got one! Probably good advice to start with something and build on it. Your site name comes as a 10th listing in Google, which is good. Have a look at some other sites, by typing 'Electrical Services' in your search engine. Have a look at your competitors sites in your area.

 

[Richard Burns]

Just a had a quick look through, still no land line number, only an area code.
I like the being able to access all sections on each page of the website, easy to navigate.
Generally looks good and easy to use, telephone number on each page is also good, don't delay the customer getting hold of you!
Do have a look at your wording and see if it can be improved / clarified / condensed.
I did notice you state you are a specialist in almost all 3 phase areas; can you be a generalised specialist?
You also offer emergency call outs on a commercial basis, you need to be sure that you can actually provide this at the level expected otherwise when someone calls to arrange 24/7/365 cover with 1 hour response time and cannot get it they are disappointed, do not offer more than you can supply, but do make what you have sound good!
Agree with the wasted space but make sure you do not go too big, however white space (space within a page) can make things clearer.

 

[SW1970]

Hi, nice and simple. A few ideas:

- install google analytics tracking - you'll be able to see how many people are using your website, which pages, where from, when, etc. (your web chap will need to put code in for you if you're not familiar with html

- your keyword density is low > choose your keywords and put more of them in

- the website doesn't appear to have any search engine metadata in the header, hasn't used headings and doesn't have a site map > all these things very important for coming up higher in search engines

- there's very little geographic info, the only areas mentioned are on the callout & maintenance page > mention areas covered

- searching for "electrician benfleet" doesn't list your website in the first several pages on google > submit to search engines and obtain followable back links

- the C&G logo is a bit dominating (a bit like C&G).

Good luck.

 

[Welchyboy]

Hi, nice and simple. A few ideas


- the website doesn't appear to have any search engine metadata in the header, hasn't used headings and doesn't have a site map > all these things very important for coming up higher in search engine

Good luck.

Hi SW1970

Thanks for these very helpful pointers I am speaking to my web designer next week to do some updates, could you elaborate on the above for me so I could get this in place?


Im not very knowledgable in this field and would like to cover all my angles


Many thanks

Paul

 

[SW1970]

Metadata is code at the top of a website (the viewer can't see it) that tells search engines about the website. Headings are the same as you might use a paragraph format heading in Microsoft Word. Search engines use words in headings to help categorise a website better. A site map is a small file that lists the webpages. It goes on the server holding the website. Search engines will list and re-list your website faster if you have one of these. Here's the power of an optimised websites: See the link in my signature about vintage port? Hover over it and see which website it links to. Then go into google, type in vintage port chart, and see which website comes up at or near the top of the unadvertised list. With a little bit of effort and experimentation, and without spending loads of money on search engine consultants, you can, for specific search terms, get your website near the top.

 

[Welchyboy]

Metadata is code at the top of a website (the viewer can't see it) that tells search engines about the website. Headings are the same as you might use a paragraph format heading in Microsoft Word. Search engines use words in headings to help categorise a website better. A site map is a small file that lists the webpages. It goes on the server holding the website. Search engines will list and re-list your website faster if you have one of these. Here's the power of an optimised websites: See the link in my signature about vintage port? Hover over it and see which website it links to. Then go into google, type in vintage port chart, and see which website comes up at or near the top of the unadvertised list. With a little bit of effort and experimentation, and without spending loads of money on search engine consultants, you can, for specific search terms, get your website near the top.

Should he have included these in my website from the start?, or If not would they be
Very expensive to put in?

Also adding keywords is this something I can just write into my homepage etc as words in my company description?


Thanks again for your help mate

 

[SW1970]

Probably should have asked you what you would be expecting customers to be typing in, and then built these terms in. Yes I would have expected that to be included by a quality web designer. The site map takes 1 minute to produce, so yes again. Header metadata is derived from these points, and again take a few minutes to put in. Have a look on google for "introduction to search engine optimisation" and there's loads of material out there. You could ask him in the revision to include all of this. I would not expect to have to pay for a one off straightforward fine tuning of a simple website if I have paid a web designer to create it.

 

[Welchyboy]

Ok will put all this to him, thanks for your help