How can I make the home page better?

[lukasz]

Overall I feel that the design of my home page is not terrible however I feel that one section of the home page is not being used wisely.

Please look at my site (http://www.astretchout.com/) especially at the section called "savings are only a click away". You will find that I don't have anything useful there except for the Facebook ad that doesn't do anything.

Since it's a transportation business I could use that section that create step 1 of the quote request form however I feel that people will be hesitant requesting a quote from the home page without knowing more about the company/prices/vehicles, etc.

Please send any ideas on how to revamp that section of the home page. What would be more beneficial than having a Facebook ad?

Thanks for any ideas.

[vangogh]

My first thought is why feature that section so prominently at all. I assume the main goal of the site is to get people to reserve a limo so why not have that be more prominent. Move the "savings only a click away section" further down the page or into the sidebar since it seems secondary.

Overall I think the home page could be reorganized. The more important content seems to be what's further down then page. I'd move "savings only a click away section" into the sidebar so the real content is more visible. I'd also take Facebook and Twitter out of that section since they're different than everything else in the section. They belong somewhere else, though also in the sidebar.

Right now it comes across like you're adding things to that section just because there's space to add more. You have to think instead about what's important to meet the goals of both the site and the people coming to the site. Presumably that's to reserve a limo for both site and visitors so that's where the focus of the design should be.

[lukasz]

Thank you very much. I'll definitely take your advice of reorganizing the home page.

Thank you again.

[vangogh]

Glad to help.

[Dan Furman]

do you have limos in new york? I read your copy, but I'm not certain...

Just teasing, but I hate that style of web marketing. "New York Limousine Drivers"??? Who talks like that? But hey, if it works for you and you're good w/ the site's performance, that's fine.

To answer your question, I feel that prime area really should address the visitor and why they came.

[KristineS]

I would have to agree with the suggestion to rearrange things. What people want to know when they visit your site is what you can do for them and how much it's going to cost. The video is helpful, the fresh deals box is useful, I would agree that the Facebook thing could be moved.

I can also tell that your copy was written with SEO in mind, as you've really dumped a bunch of keywords in there. Keywords are fine, but the first thing you need to do is convince me that you have what I need and why I want to rent a limo from you. I'm not sure the current text does that.

I'm also not sure what's up with your FAQ page. Most of those questions could be answered in one or two lines right on the page, without making people go through the extra clicks and all the stuff they don't need. Not to mention, the FAQ page has no link back to the rest of the site. If it were me, I'd revamp that page.

[billbenson]

Out of curiousity, what is the tag below. I've never seen it used before??


<meta name="google-site-verification" content="4k1AtsCGbKBqVLW0gVSktxl-wgJw7MXlXUk55qaKGD0" />

[kerrylinux]

Out of curiousity, what is the tag below. I've never seen it used before??

It comes with Googles webmaster tools, a service you can use to check whether or not your website meets certain standards. To enable Google to check that you actually own a website one method of authorization is to place a random looking sequence (provided by Google) in a file in the root of the webserver. Another is placing it in a meta tag of your homepage.

For details see this explanation from Google : Meta tags - Webmaster Tools Help (http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=79812)

[scottish]

nice layout and design. I would be very wary of putting so many things that look like adverts and filler statistics on the top of your webpage as it's the first thing the visitor sees. At first glance it looks like an advertsing website, which no one ever searches for.

[MackTeck]

One of my clients is a high end limo company that specializes in weddings and proms. I have been working with them for many years now and we have tested many different design ideas. The one that we found to have the best reaction from visitors used a large main image that transitioned between many images of brides in front of the company's limos. Since the company has been around for 20+ years they had good relationships with most of the photographers. The photographers supplied them with large high res pictures. The site has about 12 images that transition automatically.

Basically the site immediately allows the bride to relate to the company/limos and they want their pictures to be just like the ones on the website.

SO, maybe redesign the front page a little to make a large image the focus of the homepage.

[vangogh]

I can see that working. I'm not a huge fan of swapping images, but as long as it happens slowly and has a nice transition I think it can work well. Most sites change the images too fast for my taste with a sudden transition.

Easy to see how it could work on a limo site. The image immediately communicates what the limos are like. It gets the bride to picture her wedding day while looking at the limo, etc.

[technowonder]

How about adding "prices from $..." on the front page so people instantly have an idea of your costs for your best deals?

[vangogh]

That's not a bad idea. I'd imagine price and the images of the limos are two of the main things people are looking for when landing on the site.