PDA

View Full Version : New Website - Could use a critical eye.



AmyAllen
10-24-2010, 07:04 PM
I just got my website up a few days ago, and am hoping to get some constructive criticism. Full Gospel Choir - Web Work that Sings (http://www.fullgospelchoir.com)

I haven't done anything SEO-wise. (I see that you guys have all posted some great links on that topic, so I'm going to start working on that this week).

So mostly, Looking for feedback on the design, copy, layout, overall impression... whatever else you've got.

Thanks ahead of time for the help. -Amy

Spider
10-25-2010, 08:57 AM
I thought it was a nice, clean arrangement.

I was confused, though, by the name - Full Gospel Choir. I thought the site was for a church organization. Perhaps if it had been Full Gospel Choir Web Design, or something like that, I might have been on board from the start. Which goes to say you might have some SEO challenges to overcome.

I liked it. It conveyed an air of professionalism.

vangogh
10-25-2010, 12:14 PM
I have to agree with Frederick. The name does throw me off. The immediate impression is the site is going to be about a church or church organization. Once I start reading it's clear what you do, but some people may never get that far. For example if another page links to Full Gospel Choir I may not click even though I need design related services.

Not that you have to change the name at all. Just something to be aware of. On the site maybe add the word Design somewhere prominently near the top in a color contrasting with everything else so people know right away what you do. You do have "web work that sings" as a tagline which naturally connects what you do with gospel and choir. It doesn't seem to stand out enough. Maybe having that line in a reddish color would make it more prominent. Maybe that's all it needs to quickly show what you do.

The copy reads fine. Obviously there's not a lot of it at the moment. I think your about section would be better talking about you instead of Facebook. Are you thinking in time of expanding beyond the one page format? I'd recommend that to compete with other freelancer sites, though a single page site can certainly work.

Overall it seems like a nice job.

AmyAllen
10-25-2010, 12:31 PM
Thanks for the look guys! I was worried that the name might give a false religious impression, so it's good to hear that is definitely the case. I like your ideas for making the tagline more prominent (Vangogh) - I'll see what I can do in that direction.

I haven't filed my d.b.a. yet (I just do a few side projects here and there right now, but am hoping to grow it into a full-time job) so it wouldn't be inconceivable to change the name at this point. I think it's clever, but it seems like it will be hard to take advantage of internet marketing.

On the other hand, I'm a one person shop and can't take on too many clients. I expect to get most of my work from tapping my personal network, directly bidding for jobs on Craigslist, and freelancer sites. I guess this is a secondary question, but -- How much should I worry about link-building and SEO? Is it enough of a concern to back-track on my business name at this point?

I would like to build out the site a little over time by adding prices and fuller service descriptions, maybe a blog.

vangogh
10-25-2010, 01:34 PM
Glad to help. And again the name itself doesn't need to be changed. It just has to be prominent what you do. Ideally within a second or two anyone visiting the site should know what you do. There are plenty of sites with names that don't really reflect what they do in and of themselves. Just make it obvious what you do as quickly as possible.

For example think Google or Apple. Neither name tells you what the company does. We know now because we know the companies, but the name alone didn't tell us what they do.

As far as seo that's up to you. You don't need search traffic to have a successful business. It's simply one way to gain traffic and reach potential clients. However it is a pretty good way to reach those potential clients. People searching are actively looking for something and if you offer that something and listed in the results it's one very big step toward closing a sale. At the same time web design and similar are highly competitive so it's unlikely you're going to rank well for a phrase like "web design" without effort and time.

Backtracking on the name is really up to you. It's not that your name can't work. It's more that there are pros and cons and you have to decide which is more important to you. For example full gospel choir is pretty easy to remember and spell, which is a good thing. If you meet someone and tell them the name there's a good chance they're going to remember it later when they're at a computer. The downside is someone reading the name doesn't know what you do.

With links you don't have to use the name as the clickable text (the anchor text). There's no reason why a link somewhere can't say "web design services' and still link to your site. If you look at my forum signature at the bottom it says "Custom WordPress Themes." The link doesn't point to customwordpressthemes.com. It points to a page on my site and nowhere in the site name do any of those words appear. Many people who link to you will grab your domain name so you would lose out on the benefit of anchor text, but there will be many times where you can control the anchor text and still get the words you want in the link.

I hope that makes sense. SEO can be very confusing at first, but if you spend some time reading up and learning the basics really aren't so hard to grasp.

Building out the site will be good. Search engines tend to favor larger sites. Blogs can be especially great to market your businesses. In fact I think they're the best way you can market a small business online. If you do decide to add a blog to your site I recommend WordPress. You can even have your entire site running on WordPress, not just the blog itself. That's how my site is set up. The whole thing runs on WordPress.

AmyAllen
10-25-2010, 01:44 PM
Thanks again for taking the time to respond to this - The feedback is priceless.

I'll give this all some careful thought and see what I can do to make my tagline more prominent on the site.

KristineS
10-25-2010, 01:58 PM
I like the Full Gospel Choir name - there are so many ways you could play with it. "I'm an evangelist for your business" and so on. I think it is definitely a workable name and it is unique. You may have to put a bit more effort into getting people to remember it, but once they learn it, I'm betting they won't forget it.

I definitely agree with Vangogh that the site does need to grow. You've got a good start here, but when you're selling web services, your site is very important. If you have a one page site, I'm probably going to be a little skeptical that you can handle my multi page site.

I'm also not totally enamored with your About Us blurb. I get where you're going, but chances are if Facebook really replaced a company's receptionist there years ago, they're already web savvy. Plus, I don't think it's necessarily about looking good online, although that's important, it's about being effective online. The company that can make me a site that is both attractive and effective is the company that will win my business. What I want to know is how you're going to do that for me, and what your qualifications are that make you think you can do that for me. Your portfolio page is a good start, and you do beautiful work, but even that I'd like to see expanded. Tell me what you were given to start with and how you developed the finished piece. It doesn't have to be a saga, but that sort of thing gives me a sense of your qualifications.

Overall I think you've got a good start.

Spider
10-25-2010, 08:40 PM
...the name itself doesn't need to be changed. It just has to be prominent what you do. ...
For example think Google or Apple. Neither name tells you what the company does. We know now because we know the companies, but the name alone didn't tell us what they do...Incidentally. Google was a name change. The technology was named "Pagerank" but the search engine itself was called "Backrub." They changed the name to Google some time prior to incorporation.

Apple ran for its first thirty years as Apple Computer Inc. and only changed to Apple Inc. in 2007.

ADDED: The company name that usually tops the list for "meaningless" name is Amazon. Even that was a name change. The company was originally named Cadabra, Inc.

vangogh
10-26-2010, 01:11 AM
I had forgotten that about Google. I remember Apple being Apple Computer, but couldn't remember if that was their official name or not. Amazon is a good example. I guess I see the connection they were going for. The Amazon usually makes you think of big and they were trying to be the biggest ecommerce site. But it certainly doesn't make you think of books or there other products.

dojo
11-13-2010, 12:48 PM
Certainly not the design I'd expect for such a site, but the theme is excellent and the branding too. You've nailed it nicely. The only thing I'd change would be the link colours. I don't like that default blue. Should use the blue you already have and also have a different colour for the hover links, so that you can also get a nice rollover effect on mouse hover. Other than that, I love it ;)

SiteSciences
11-13-2010, 08:39 PM
As mentioned, the title completely threw me off
Your page doesn't have a 'description' meta tag, which is incredibly important.
Choose either fullgospelchoir.com or www.fullgospelchoir.com-- you'll be penalized for duplicate content (one should be forwarded to the other) http://bit.ly/Edypa
Add Google Analytics so you can keep track of your site's statistics and how it's being used.

AmyAllen
11-14-2010, 11:41 AM
Thanks to everyone for the tips! I am hoping to do a re-design based on all of this advice this week.

vangogh
11-15-2010, 11:16 AM
Glad we could help. Don't forget to let us know when the new design is live so we can all take a look.