Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

As soon as I landed on the page I thought,"That looks like a Wordpress blog". And it IS a Wordpress blog. Personally, in this market I would call a spade a spade. I would refer to your site as a blog. Otherwise I'd change the format to make it look not like a blog.

Blogs are not bad. I have a blog atwww.breakingthemarketingrules.com- but I refer to it as a blog so that people do not expect to go there and find a lot of information about what I do as an independent Marketing Consultant or get case studies etc. What they get, are my (random) thoughts on the digital world.

You need another page on your website, which will be your new home page (switching from your Blog(Home) page). Your new home page needs to quickly identify: what key benefit you offer, for whom, and how you're different from the rest. The rest of your website can describe what menu of services you offer, testimonials, etc. The nearest page you have to this is your "What's Marketing?" page, but this page seems redundant - if they don't know what marketing is, they probably aren't your customer.

Steve, I totally agree with Jay. My own website is under construction with Wordpress (seewww.killerwebinars.com) and I'm going to have ONE post that's always on the main page, which I'm calling "Home." I'll probably change that post fairly frequently.

Like you, all of the other content I'm writing is going to fall into different categories, which I plan to post in different pages/chunks. Does that make sense?

For now, you could strip out "My Mission" from your About page and put that on Home. Drop that last sentence from the paragraph, though! It's MUCH more powerful without it.

Overall I think your site has a clean, polished, professional look to it. What theme are you using? Just curious.

Last two bits of advice:

- Get a professional photo of yourself.
- Rethink your tagline.

With a catchy name like Vice Grip Marketing, you need a tagline that supports it. Like, "Get a Handle on Your Customers." Okay, that one kinda sucks, but I think you know where I'm trying to go.

Good luck, and shoot me an email so I can see your updated site later!

Shelley

I use Firefox, and had one minor issue:

The "Grassroots/Customer-Centered Marketing" was partially written over the headings "What’s Marketing?", "Blog (Home)", etc.

Overall, not a bad look and feel.

Copy is good overall. Blog format isn't terrible, but doesn't really look like a serious website homepage. It looks like a blog masquerading as a website. Better if you can keep the blog and the website separate.

And the picture of you should be more professional. You don't need a suit and tie, but it should look like you are a business professional.

One other thing: I find the dark gray/light gray header format very drab and uninviting. Looks like you really didn't consider the visual appeal of the site. It could use some visual interest, some color, and perhaps a professionally designed logo, or at least a distinctive type font.

Overall a good start. And some good copy for the most part. (I do agree with Shelley's comment about losing the last sentence of your mission statement. It detracts from the impact of the previous sentence.)