My new web site.First attempt at web building

« **on:** February 11, 2008, 02:51:37 pm »

Here is the link have to cut and paste into your browser.Have i gone into too much detail ? what are your thoughts .All welcome good and bad as it`s my first go

http://www.carpetcleanerscambridge.com/index.html

« **Reply #1 on:** February 11, 2008, 03:07:35 pm »

Hi Mark
I have some comments about your website
1. Your portraying yourself as a one man band which i feel is not good when trying to secure commercial work.
2. You have to many personal comments i.e " i don't believe in credit", "owners of truck mount cleaning machines harp on " this is not good for a professional image.
3. A lot of your text is in the first person, once again portrays a single person rather than a company. Only my opinion of course.

I hope i don't sound too negative but i found peoples comments helpful when building my site. I just feel it is better to portray a larger image to secure the more profitable contracts.

Regards
Karl
kARL

« **Reply #2 on:** February 11, 2008, 03:45:29 pm »

Sorry Mark, prefer your current site over the propsed one.

Suggest you take a look at some of the websites of your fellow professionals on this forum for some tips.

« **Reply #3 on:** February 11, 2008, 03:46:26 pm »

Thanks guy`s will amend it..
Changes made don`t want to upset anyone on here

« **Reply #4 on:** February 11, 2008, 05:18:43 pm »

why mention you havent got a truckmount, there really is no point, the customer

normally is none the wiser any how, and what you are doing is feeding them

negatives about your business rather than saying what the positives are!

Regards
steve

« **Reply #5 on:** February 11, 2008, 05:22:53 pm »

Hi Mark

Get rid of the intro, it's just an irritating distraction.

Also spell Peterborough properly as the search engines will not pick it up.

Is there such a place as Huntingfordshire ?

Cheers

Doug

« **Reply #6 on:** February 11, 2008, 05:28:06 pm »

My personal opinion Mark,

its looks a liitle dark to me, a few spelling mistakes , ok easily reedemed,
but what I did find a little annoying was the way you portrayed the hoovering, ie we use industrial hoovers " i would suggest the words vacuum and vaccuming ,

oh yes , make sure you alter the hovering

Geoff

« **Reply #7 on:** February 11, 2008, 05:30:54 pm »

Rodger d getting there slowly

I said twin motor professional hoover ?
but that`s easily changed ,will have another bash later or tomorow as been sitting here since 8.30 am and my back is killing me.
My wife will also be killing me if i don`t cook something for dinner :

« **Reply #8 on:** February 11, 2008, 06:10:16 pm »

My www.ecocarpetclean.info site is my own diy job but my www.strakercleaning.co.uk was done by Mark Roberts. Will never get my diy one to the level of the other but i try to emulate as best i can.

Someone said not to mention minus points ............ only sing your own praises and always refer to yourself as we or us

« **Reply #9 on:** February 11, 2008, 06:14:30 pm »

Anyone got a contact number for Mark. Need to get my site SEO'd. Have had it done but the guy was obviously useless.

Pete

« **Reply #10 on:** February 11, 2008, 07:06:32 pm »

Mark recently did mine and I am over the moon with the results and his services are excellent value for money.

My google rankings shot up overnight.

Stop messing about and get Mark on the job.

Mike

« **Reply #11 on:** February 11, 2008, 07:11:22 pm »

Its really important to get your link pages sorted out, with some software that invites relevant sites to link with you.

Regards

S

« **Reply #12 on:** February 11, 2008, 07:33:44 pm »

OK Mike I'll stop messing about if you give me his number.

Pete

« **Reply #13 on:** February 11, 2008, 07:58:06 pm »

Pete

Wasn't singling you out in particular

try emailing him

markroberts1973@gmail.com

« **Reply #14 on:** February 11, 2008, 08:29:27 pm »

I know Mike. Just that no one seems to have his number. Have emailed him

Pete

« **Reply #15 on:** February 11, 2008, 09:17:23 pm »

my number is top secret

« **Reply #16 on:** February 11, 2008, 09:21:20 pm »

Hope that's what the customers Don't think!

Shaun

« **Reply #17 on:** February 11, 2008, 09:21:24 pm »

It has taken me 3 years to get my rankings with my current site first page on google and about 4 or 5 instances,been getting loads of work from it over the last week , best it`s ever been.This new site has been created using templates from 123.reg.co.uk that`s why i am limited in some of the colour schemes and top banners 3 choices per template so it`s a bit limited.It will take me a while to get up the rankings but this site has cost me a grand total of £36. to do so even if i get 1 job it`s paid for itself

« **Reply #18 on:** February 11, 2008, 09:35:49 pm »

I often swap templates on my eco site and that cost £34.99 in total :

« **Reply #19 on:** February 12, 2008, 12:34:25 am »

The first picture that you have on your home page is of a company that was named Steaming Sam from Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham. The Guy holding the wand is Mark & the guy spraying is Neil. They venue was the Ritz Nightclub in Birmingham & the TM they were using was a Prochem Performer 800A. I know all this useless info because i used to work for them......They had a load of photo shoots done for their portfolios which were pretty good......also for when they started in the Franchise stuff.

Richie.

« **Reply #20 on:** February 12, 2008, 08:38:03 am »

Ha Ha quality ! they are famous ! Need to get myself a decent digi cam as am using my n73 .

Re other reply about templates..There are about 200 to chose from or if i upgrade to the pro version it`s over 400 . just down to messing about and finding the right 1.
I have the NVU web sitte software not sure if i can edit it with that ?
New to all this web site stuff grand total of 5 days experience

« **Reply #21 on:** February 12, 2008, 09:06:11 am »

Hi Mark
My website cost me £99 www.rodesign.co.uk.
Not saying its the best (thats subjective) but saved me a lot of time when I was busy.

it took me a few hours to get some wording together.I looked at what other good website were saying, pinched a bit here and there, made it my own, emailed to rodesign. They did the rest.

The £99 includes 1st year hosting and SEO

So you dont have to spend hours playing around - but thats what you may like doing.

« **Reply #22 on:** February 12, 2008, 09:14:11 am »

Yeah spare time really ! if i need to make any alterations to my other site i have to contact my web bloke in cardif,and try and explain what i want him to do,usually takes just as long trying to get exactly what i want just moving text around ect.My cyrrent site has had a few changes recently but it`s taken over a week to have them implemented ,and it`s still not 100%
Removed new local business from site and put established date and also put the bit about the turbo blower which turned up yesterday.Didn`t realsie just how big they were !
not as scary powerful as i was led to beleive my cats didn`t like it but it didn`t destroy my house

« **Reply #23 on:** February 12, 2008, 09:50:04 am »

if it`s a case of liking your old site but you want to be able to mod it your self, then get your ftp password and username from your web guy and you can make adjustments directly to the html yourself.

« **Reply #24 on:** February 12, 2008, 04:30:29 pm »

Changed colour and layout , looks much lighter.Lost the sentance under the top logo though need to find code to change it to black ,so it`s visable

« **Reply #25 on:** February 12, 2008, 04:34:14 pm »

Nice one Mark is i had designed that i would be well pleased, well done.

« **Reply #26 on:** February 12, 2008, 04:37:50 pm »

Thanks much appreciated.Steep learning curve but i will get there in the end ! next step is to get linked to stuff.

« **Reply #27 on:** February 12, 2008, 04:39:06 pm »

Some cleaning companies provide a tired system of cleaning we only provide the one.

The above is on your carpet cleaning page - I think you are referring to a tiered system of cleaning.
But why put it in - you are referring to what your competitors may offer and they may say I would like to be offered a tiered system. Let them know what you do - not what your competitors do.

« **Reply #28 on:** February 12, 2008, 04:46:00 pm »

Ok changed in a sec

« **Reply #29 on:** February 12, 2008, 04:57:51 pm »

One other minor point i noticed mark,

you say "you will clean to the best of your ability

to me , that sounds a little negative , as if it could be cleaned better by somebody else, buts you will do the best you can do.

I would say something along the lines of ," Results that cannot be surpassed" or giving a superb clean"
if you get my drift.

geoff

« **Reply #30 on:** February 12, 2008, 07:38:43 pm »

Point taken will fire up and get it ammended.Cheers for all the input folks .Need the business to start making me some propper £££ hoping the extra kit and site will help..I am getting stupid amounts of hits on the first site but only ever get a few enquiry`s from it that`s why i am doing another site to compare..Use a tracker stat counter so i can see whats going on

« **Reply #31 on:** February 12, 2008, 09:36:42 pm »

Mark

I think there have been some really useful pointers for you. I've not looked at many sites so I'm no expert but what I really liked was the way you walk the customer through the job. It's like you are becoming their friend and answering their questions before they have even thought of them and in a friendly, chatty way.

I'm afraid what really jumped out at me were the spelling mistakes, lack of punctuation and I think the grammar was a bit "wild" in places. (Grammar is my least strong point out of those three observations.)

Your font is different on the upholstery page to the other pages.

The list of chemicals I think is a nice idea as it identifies that there is no magic one stain-removal chemical available (unlike what TV adverts would have us believe). Not sure if powdered de-foamer is relevant to a consumer, though.

What about adding after the list of chemicals that smaller, consumer bottles of many of them are also available to buy?

I hope you take all this is in the spirit you requested at the beginning of the thread.

Roger

« **Reply #32 on:** February 13, 2008, 08:25:41 am »

Thanks roger yes my spelling and punctuation is terrible ! got chucked out of my english lessons at school for pratting about all the time .Sort of regret that now :

will get my wife to go through it.Will also sort out the different text styles.One thing that i may change is where i say about the 3 different sorts of client i have not sure that having the bit about the cheapest possible clean is good !
Got a big job this morning so will be back later to amend it....Cheers

« **Reply #33 on:** February 15, 2008, 11:39:34 am »

Here is the script you need to change the colour of your text, you`ll have to change the font face to whichever you are using.

<font face= "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" style="color: 000000;">

« **Reply #34 on:** February 15, 2008, 06:07:49 pm »

Hi Mark
If you copy the text from your website and paste it onto a Mircosoft word document,that will sort out all the spelling and grammer errors,then in future you could write your web material on a word page then copy and paste to your website.
Mark

« **Reply #35 on:** February 18, 2008, 04:13:22 pm »

Just made my first site too, any thoughts please?

www.liverpool-carpet-cleaner.com

« **Reply #36 on:** February 18, 2008, 06:11:37 pm »

Wow very high tec and informative ! Nice work

« **Reply #37 on:** February 18, 2008, 06:25:03 pm »

Dave

A bit sycadelic, but as a first attempt its better than some others Ive seen so well done. Just curious where did you get that 'excellence as standard' tag line at the bottom??? where have I seen that before....hhmm let me think!

Also I notice you have the NCCA logo - are you registered? I couldnt see you on their site? If not the NCCA may take action if they find out. If you are, get onto them and let them know that your not listed as you could be missing out on some work

Cheers

Kev

« **Reply #38 on:** February 18, 2008, 07:04:43 pm »

Im not registered as i have just changed the company name and its not advertised anywhere yet, will sort tomorrow.

Excellence as standard.. must have seen it somewhere and it stuck in my head

« **Reply #39 on:** February 18, 2008, 07:08:42 pm »

Kev, how did you get the moving before & after image on your site?

« **Reply #40 on:** February 18, 2008, 10:13:28 pm »

With a GIF animation programme Dave (loads of em about)

« **Reply #41 on:** February 19, 2008, 09:32:53 pm »

davep

Your site looks good, but you will have trouble ranking well in the search engines as it is all in flash, which means that none of your content can be read by the search bots it also took over 30 secs to load, which means the bots will just skip it altogether anyway.

You would be better off building a normal site which incorporates a bit of flash if you want to rank anywhere in the all important search engines.

either that or leave your site as it is and pay for sponsored listings.

Nice site though,

« **Reply #42 on:** February 19, 2008, 09:39:56 pm »

mark

The hits you said you are getting on your previous sites are just that, Hits not actual visitors.

Hit counters will count everything including crawler bots so although it looks as though you are getting plenty of visitors to your site a large percentage of them will be just bots and not actual people,

« **Reply #43 on:** February 19, 2008, 10:39:06 pm »

http://www.info3h.com/

I don't have a web site yet ,but I think this one is pretty good.

Rob

« **Reply #44 on:** February 20, 2008, 10:14:32 am »

Thanks for the advise Mr Gleam, doesn't sound too good, im not the best on pc's so will try and get some one to help me out

Good rankings is what i need..