Will you review my website?

[jamesray50]

Hi everyone,

I have read the reviews you have posted for the other websites and you have offered good and objective advice. That is what I need for my website. I have had other groups of friends look at it and made some changes, but I need people who don't know me or who are not in the same business as me to look at it. I also read the thread on what annoys you all about websites so I feel that you will give me some good constructive criticism.

Thank you in advance and I look forward to hearing what you have to say.

[GoingLocal]

Hi Jo,

The structure is generally good. I'm sure the content is too, but who really reads a webpage? get in, search for info/sign-up, get out. that's what most people do.

few things...

I have a hate on for anything Microsoft. they don't follow any standards and have bloated code. If you want a free websource checkout wordpress.com

When I first go to the site there is nothing that draws my eye, and they glaze over. You need a Title or Headline that gives the reader a place to start.

Unless you think you can make a sale from a first time visitor (err, almost never happens), you need to get people to subscribe to your newletter. Your front page should have an opt-in box for this above the fold (seen without scrolling). You need to give me a good reason to give you my email address, everyone and their mother has a newsletter... without selling me the free emails they'll just collect in my inbox and start getting filtered out.
"Ethical bribes" is the catch term, but any report that makes sense to excite your target audience. Maybe something like "FREE - The best kept time saving secrets that reduce costs with that boring part of every business ($47 value!)" ...or something like that... maybe you have some freeware software you can give away? People sign up for free stuff they don't even want, but once they're in you can do your followup marketing.

For the best Google love, add a "Bookkeeping Tips" tab and add to it like a blog with regular, relevant posts. (optional)

You webpage doesn't have a title (It says "Home" on the top bar of window). You have no SEO of any kind on this page.. this will make it tough to get decent Search Engine Rankings. You need to read a lot or hire someone to fix this. Google "SEO guide" to get thousands of free reports (one per page .
- wordpress does this very well "out of the box"

If this is an independent business, that's not the impression I get. It looks like you're an Intuit affiliate. Was that the goal?

with you're email on the page the way it is you're going to get spammed at lot.

You have 2 like buttons. (why??)

The services page seems a little awkward (column text starts at different heights, etc). I might consider horizontal blocks for this rather then the vertical ones you're using. either that or ensure everything lines up with the other columns so it's more visually pleasing. (surfers constantly look for reasons to find a different page to read)

the 'contact us' form spans the entire page... this looks a little odd.

What are you using for a mail service? Your opt-in box is a little "old" looking. not the end of the world, but something other people will notice, especially when (if?) you move it to the front page. aWeber has a form builder with simple pretty graphics.

[GoingLocal]

oh, the kitty picture is a little cute, but out of place. is this a business page or a vanity page?
make the choice.
Cheers!

[jamesray50]

These are the kind of comments I am looking for. Please keep them coming.

[Spider]

I liked it, Jo Ellen. It was clean and tidy, just like a bookkeeper's site should be. I also liked the colors.

I didn't see the point of the Quickbooks ads. If you are selling this product as an affiliate or a reseller, that is part of the your service and needs to be on an inside page, not on the front page. Don't show your visitors a way to leave - it's tough enough to keep them without showing them a door as soon as they arrive.

I think it is generally accepted that serif font is easier to read on paper and sans serif is easier to read on a computer screen. It certainly is that way for me, and I would have liked to see a sans serif font for your text. The title looked fine in serif font, though, and I liked the modest size.

For emphasis, I would have made the opening paragraph slightly larger or bolder than the column text.

As a potential client, I would have liked to see a little more confidence in your copy. Instead of "we want to take that burden from your shoulders..." I would have preferred, "We will take..." ... "we can pay your employees..." could become, "we will pay..."

Setting your text in columns is fine by me but don't let me scroll down to finish one column then make me scroll back up to start the next column. Make your columns short enough so that doesn't happen.

Altogether I thought it a credible offering.

[jamesray50]

GoingLocal - I have gone over what you wrote. First of all I don't understand why I would use WordPress. This is not a blog and I thought WordPress was for bloggers. I did look at it and it appeared that it was for bloggers and not for just a regular website. Besides, at this point I would rather not start over, but try to make what I have better. I tried several web builders before I settled on this one, and I liked the ease of use and the templates available. Maybe it isn't the best one to use, but it was what I could do and afford. I also realise because it is free it doesn't have all the bells and whistles and maybe when I can afford to upgrade I will.

On my service page I know the center column is not lining up correctly and I'm not sure why. I have worked on it. All the fonts are the same but for some reason the line spacing is off. I'll keep working on that. I like the vertial columns so my visitors can see my services without having to scroll down the page. I think I have fixed the SEO stuff, I wasn't sure what you were talking about. Someone else had also mentioned that to me, but I think I figured it out. If not, please let me know.

The mail service is through Office Live. I haven't decided if I will move it to the front page. The subscribe to and contact us are their forms that I just added to my site. As for the cat, it is just a background image and I am going to leave it. But I do appreciate your comment on it.

[jamesray50]

Frederick - thanks for reviewing my website. I had all the fonts in serif font, which was the default, but someone suggested that I change it to Times New Roman. So I did and thought it looked okay. I need to rethink my affiliate link for QuickBooks. I am an affiliate for QuickBooks, but you are right, I don't want visitors to leave my website before they have a change to see what I will do for them. Should I have a separate page for the affiliate links? I hope you don't mind if I take you up on your suggestions about changing my content to sound more confident. That was a very good suggestion, just what I am looking for. The other suggestions I will work on. Thanks again.

[Spider]

Times New Roman is a serif font, Jo Ellen. Serif refers to the little embellishments to the characters - look at the 'm' especially - see the little feet. Now look at the 'm' in this forum - no feet! Sans serif is French, I think - sans meaning without. So with a serif font, the characters have feet, sans serif (without serif) means the characters have no feet.

Serif fonts - Times, Times New Roman, Courier, Georgia, Baskerville....

Sans serif fonts - Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Tahoma, Trebuchet....


What to do with Quickbooks? If, as a bookkeeper, you don't do balance sheets and then you decided you could do balance sheets without breaking the bookkeeper-accountant divide, how would you handle that? Do the same with the selling Quickbooks software - it's an added service, just the same. I would be inclined to add it to your services page.

[KristineS]

Jo Ellen,

This is a good basic site. I think there are a few things you can do to make it better though.

I agree with Frederick that you should lose the Serif fonts. Most web sites don't use them because they are a bit harder to read. Also, make sure your font is uniform. Some of your pages use one font and a bigger font size than the others. Font type and size is one way to pull your site together.

Another thing you need to do is tighten up your copy, particularly on the home page. Your home page is the first glimpse a lot of people will get of what you can do. It needs to sell you a little better.

Take, for instance, the text in black type at the top of your home page. It doesn't really grab me right now. It needs to be shorter and to the point. You want that text to be a hook that draws people to read further. I'll mull it over and see if I can come up with an example of how I would rewrite that text.

Also, you might want to consider dividing your page text with headlines. Use headlines and questions to lead the reader into the next section of text.

[jamesray50]

Frederick - After I posted what I did about the fonts I googled it and knew I was wrong in what I had written. I am going to change everything to Arial. I have already started and it does look better. I have also added a page for the QuickBooks products and will remove them from my other pages.

KristineS - I am going to work on changing the content on the home page. I am not a very good writer, even though I know what I want to convey, I don't know how to put it into word. I do like the idea of the titles. I am going to make the service page shorter and will probably use some of the content from that page for my home page. I am also going to remove the QuickBooks links and in the third colum add a bookkeeping tips colums that will be something will be changed frequently.

Thank you for your help and suggestions and I will let you know when I am through with these changes so that you can review it again if you don't mind.