Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

what's the website?

Melissa, the amount of copy on your homepage is overwhelming. Cut out 95% of the words/thoughts and put them somewhere else. And if there is a call to action, it's completely lost. I have no idea what you do or what you want me to do once I get to that homepage.

You might also consider more images/graphics on the site. Other than the one on your homepage, I don't think the site has a single picture. And with heavy, dense copy on almost every page, you really need some visual relief.

Perhaps the place to start is with the objective of your website. How are people going to find it? What do you want them to do when they get there? Too much information and not a clear action path. Or is the website designed exclusively for the search bots?

Michael's given you some strong (and good) advice.

Not sure what a frog on a nose photo is supposed to represent.

There are too many paths you're asking the reader to explore. Simplify the menu structure (the rolling cubes, visit our blog, etc.)

Not sure why your Twitter feed is on your home page either.

Dear Melissa,

"If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there."
So sang George Harrison.

I've no clue where you site is taking me as your user, so off I toddle to the bar, or to buy a newspaper.

A website ... any website ... must communicate its primary aims and solutions in ten seconds or less.

Otherwise, it's toast.

Logo: moves to top left
Swirling cubes? Gone
Girl with frog on nose? History.
800 words of verbage? Toasted to 40 words.
Twitter feed? Unnecessary.

Tell me up front what you're selling and how it can solve my problem right now. Give me a reason to remain loyal. Give me something to take away in exchange for my e-mail address so you can build your list and market to me to build a relationship.

Give me videos. Give me slide shows. Give me short, bite-sized chunks of text that bullet core benefits so that I can make an instant and informed choice on where to dig deeper.

让我参与。让我觉得聪明。勾引我。妈ke me trust you, like you, and want to buy from you. Make my visit memorable and make my experience one I want to repeat rather than dread.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

Overall this site is far too busy with way too much copy.
It needs to be simplified. Realistically, not many people will take the time to read all the copy on this site or understand what it is that you do. I suggest going through a strategic branding exercise and decide on your core positioning and messaging. Who is your target audience? Once you have determined this, it will be easier to cut down on the amount of copy. Hire a good, experienced web copywriter. Go for a cleaner simpler design-lead the prospect to where you really want them to go and provide fewer menu options. The site could benefit from more visual, graphic elements to communicate your messaging.
What do your web stats show you? Study those and find out where people are going on your site.

Hope this helps
Linda Whitehead
Zuz Marketing

ah! back to the days of the web as brochure!

Ideas:

topline menu gets lost but is much easier to navigate than your twirling boxes. I would move this menu bar down to make it more apparent.

pageheaders: too many lines...too cluttered. to the right side of the page all that blue striped stuff is just wasted space.

homepage: should have some key message or a few messages front and center about what you are GREAT at. You need to add more visuals. EVERYTHING on the front page should fit in the window..meaning that you should not require that people scroll to see the info....think of it like watching TV. People like to move through content on websites like we click through TV channels....we don't like to have to scroll around everywhere. Yes. most of us will need to have content pages that people need to scroll through we do at oshyn.com - but not the homepage.

Whitepaper: I clicked through...there's no download..its all there! And you are doing nothing to capture prospects.

Content pages: same thing....to much text .You need some links. Even on the case studies page you could use the client's logo to click through.

How are you managing your content? Before you embark on a website redesign you should also think about whether you are getting what you need from your Content Management System (CMS). If you are not then you definitely need to get some advice on that .

Melissa,

I have not had time to read all of the comments above so I will give you some of mine.

你的主页很忙。你问的visitor to your site to do too many things when they first get there. You need answer the question "What do you want me the visitor to do when I get to your site?' What path do you want them to take? I got an overload feeling from your home page and most of your interior pages as well.

Pick one to two things you want the visitor to do and make it easy for them to do it.

Search Engines love content so having a lot of content on your home page is not bad, it just needs to be content that is easy to scan. People scan websites they don't read word for word.

The photo of the women with the frog on her nose is the first item that people will see when visiting your site. Is that really the image you want people to associate your firm with? You will love the results must be your tagline. I would move the logo to the left hand side of the page, Along with your tag line. Move the navigation to the right and get rid of the Linked In white paper. It's not really a white paper if the content is in HTML. You want a name and email address before you give them this article. White papers are rarely read, so why not call it
Best Strategies for Getting the Most Out Of LinkedIn.

Move the news at the bottom of the page to a NEWS page.
You could have a news box if you feel you have news that would be of particular interest. Maybe a featured project would be better.

Your logo looks lost being on the far right, especially on your interior pages.

Give the reason to visit your blog first. Then link them to your blog. You have 3 posts in the last month, so I would look at doing more postings. This will bring people back more often.

A lot of these suggestions are again because you have so much going on with your site. You need to focus on a clear message and a clear path for your visitors.

One last tip - put a client testimonial on your client list page instead of Ralph it will go a lot further.

I hope these tips along with the ones above me are helpful.

Brian Bearden
Houston, TX