Website Critique - 2010-11
Written by Hank Castello
Nov's Sucky Site
Does your website have these problems?
Will reading this website critique lead you to improve your website?
Here is a nice-looking website with a simple layout. What could possibly be wrong?
Website Aesthetics
It passes the first part of our test - Aesthetics. Studies have shown that visitors will decide whether a site looks nice enough to risk a glance, in a fraction of a second. This one is worth a glance. The simplistic, blog-style web page tells visitors that this is a rather casual site, perhaps for budget-minded visitors.
Attention Grabbing
Next, does anything grab our attention and make us want to investigate the content on this page? I vote "No".
The business name stands out and looks nice, but it doesn't make me more interested. And that's OK, because the business name isn't designed for that purpose. But SOMETHING should be designed for this purpose.
You might say, well that pretty first-frame image of the video should grab your attention. Fair enough, let's investigate that claim.. Flowers. Pretty, but not exactly attention-grabbing. People are more interested in other people, not inanimate objects. And there should at least be an attempt to grab our attention and make us want to investigate further. Attention-grabbing is the second rule, after aesthetics, (in Hank's book) of web-marketing.
OK, a big, red 'X' for lack of attention-grabbing!
Frontpage Content
What purpose is being served with these words: "designed to be shared with your family and friends"?
Did the writer assume that his website visitors had not thought about this possible use of a wedding video? He apparently felt that these words were so important that they must be in the very first line on the very front page of his website. But perhaps the writer needs a new scale for weighing the words he uses on his front page?
With use of the business name and 'we', the writer has referred to HIMSELF five times in the first two sentences. He refers to the reader not at all, though he does toss in 'your friends' and 'your date', one time each.
Not only can we see that this writer is being ego-centric, but the reader will see that also, even if sub-consciously. In fact, it is that sub-conscious, uneasy feeling that this website may be more concerned with its own best interests and not a bit about our own, that will likely have visitors clicking away in search of a more friendly and seemingly more trustworthy website.
Now, to be fair, this website owner has a ton of company in his errors. Many big corporation websites and most small business sites make these same mistakes - "We are the greatest!"; "We are the best because..."; "We do this..."; "We do that..".
But unless your own mother is the one reading these words, it is unlikely that the website visitor really gives a damn about your claims to being the greatest, or what you do or what you focus on. Can you imagine, someone sitting at their computer and thinking, "Let's do a search to see what Naperville Wedding Memories is focusing on."?
Ah, but now I've got you thinking in the right direction! Do put yourself in the visitor's shoes. What is he or she thinking? Why are they searching? What are they searching for? What is their motivation? What problem do they want solved?
Let's go back to that 'word scale' for a moment, shall we? This front page has the business name at the top of the page in huge letters. So, why repeat the business name in the beginning of the first sentence, even if we did want a boasting front page that put all the focus on ourselves and none on the site visitor, this redundancy seems to be a waste of words in an area where page real estate is at its highest value.
The front page should motivate the visitor to want to dig deeper into the website. Does this front page accomplish that goal?
I vote "No". The words don't make me want to go deeper and the flowers, though nice, don't motivate me to click that 'Play' button.
And that brings up an interesting question.. Should there even be a video on the front page?
The owner needs to decide whether his words can grab attention AND motivate visitors to go deeper into his website, AND still give up that much real estate to the video.
Perhaps reduce the space for video and include several thumbnail-sized clips that link to a page with a full-size video. This would accomplish a couple of things -
1. it gives more page real estate for the text to accomplish its goals (perhaps with images also).
2. it offers several chances to interest visitors in a video, rather than just one. This could be helpful since we are all a bit unique and motivated differently.
Remember - every single part of your site must serve a purpose. You must consciously plan and decide what each page's purpose is, and then craft your content to achieve the page's goal.
Call To Action
The web owner got his call to action in! It's absolutely amazing to see how many websites fail to "go for the close". This one not only has a call to action, but does it with a "no obligation" claim.
Now, I would suggest that this offer be tempered with a requirement that the date is at least 'x' days in advance, and I would want the form, after capturing name, email and date, to open to one with a few more fields, namely - phone and address. This new page would also promise to send a sample video. The fine print about lead time, etc. could be reserved for this second form page also. I think I like the word "Reserve" better than "Save", especially if this is for a more upscale offering.
Other Pages
Contact: The contact page actually gives up the owner's email address. This mistake means that within a few weeks, or months at most, this guy will be getting hundreds of spam emails each day. Yes, you can counter these with server-side solutions like SpamAssassin and client-side solutions also, but unavoidably, you will either spend hours each month reviewing these spam messages before deleting them or you will risk throwing out a few good client messages with the spam.
You should never, ever include your email address on a web page nor even hidden in the html or javascript code, since spam-bots harvest these daily. Your email address should be server-side where spam-bots can never find it and visitors never see it.
Samples: I clicked the 'Samples' menu link forty-five seconds ago and am still waiting for anything to display beneath the heading 'SAMPLES'. (OK, it's been more than a minute now and still waiting..) Not many people are that patient.
True, if you live in a big metro area, you may have fast enough bandwidth that this isn't a problem. We live in the country and have DSL and pay for their fastest service, yet it's two minutes now and I am still waiting for this page to resolve. That is unacceptable. There should at least be an option for those with lower bandwidth to view the samples. Three full minutes now and still Vimeo hasn't come across! This page is destined to become his big "bounce" page.
Request DVD: Here's a hint - most weddings are on weekends, right? Assume any "wedding date" that falls on a weekday is a competitor who just wants to see your work (and is too lazy to look at a calendar and choose a Saturday date). I know many professional wedding videographers who never send samples for Mon - Fri wedding days, which tend to make up about half of their dvd requests.
Packages: Yes, it's good that you allow them to reserve their date, but why not accept a deposit? Payment forms are a snap using PayPal or Google Checkout services. Why do you want to prevent people from paying you? After all, they are on your site and may well have made the decision to "pull the trigger", but you give them no way to do so. Setup a deposit form and accept something - $250, $400, something that locks them in, if they're willing to do so.
Of course this will cause a problem with your 30 day no obligation, "save your date" form, but it is worthwhile to come up with a solution.
SEO
What do you think potential clients will be typing into Google to find wedding video services in the Naperville (or whatever areas he's covering) area? No matter which keyword phrases you come up with, I'll bet that you won't find a single web page that is optimized for it. Sure, anything with "naperville" in it is bound to get this site, since that is part of his domain name.
Naperville is a rather small town, so let's try a neighboring town, Aurora. Neither "wedding videos aurora" nor "aurora wedding videos" finds this site in the first 100 listings. This means that only his neighbors and his mother will be able to find his website, and unless "mom" will be remarrying soon, this does not spell good news for his financial prospects.
Branding
I didn't get a clear sense of what brand this business is positioning itself for and what niche they occupy in the marketplace. Are they trying to be everything for everybody, or catering to budget-minded brides or what?
Other Items
Naperville appears to be about thirty miles west of Chicago. So, if I live in Chicago and am on this site, do they serve my area? What if I live in Lombard? I didn't see anything on this site that explained geographical limits of its service area. That means I probably won't bother filling out their form or even contacting them, unless I live in Naperville proper. So I guess it's a good thing that Chicagoans won't be finding this website anyway!
If you do add "naperville" to your search, this site shows up in the listings with a dark circled question mark if you are using Nortons Safeweb or other web safety app. The owner needs to register the site with Nortons Safeweb, and others or many people will be fearful of clicking their link.
SUMMARY
Nick, (the owner of this site who was so kind and so brave as to allow us to throw stones at his beautiful website), has some decisions to make - decisions that go all the way back to the possibility of rebuilding the site from scratch in a non-blog style.
Publications like Website Magazine and books like "Web Copy That Sells" and "The New Rules of Marketing & PR" might be helpful.
Two practices that I find useful are -
- Put yourself in the shoes of your prospective customer. What are they looking for? What do they want?
- Have someone who isn't particularly geekish go through your website as though they were a prospective customer, while you watch.
ASIDE
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