Website

[M.C.L.C.]

This site has been in the works for a long time, several custom things including an online estimator, let me know what you guys think.

www.michaelscompletelawncare.com

[tdf]

I really like it. What did it cost,If you don't mind me asking?

[M.C.L.C.]

Well i actually got it for free! my best friend since high school is huge into web design so he takes all the pics and designs everything and i take care of all his lawn care/landscaping needs and wants...i think it would be in the 6000 dollar range, especially since he made the online estimator especially for us, even trademarked it lol. so i'm pretty sure im getting the better end of the bargain :laugh:

[kreft]

WOW!!!

Do you own the company?Got any more pictures?

awesome site!!

[M.C.L.C.]

I'm Michael's Director of Operations, we went to high school together and have worked with him ever since then...roughly 8 years. i have more pics, but they are on my office computer, i might stop by the shop tomorrow and post em.

[kreft]

alright, thanks in advance!

[mdvaden]

Decent site.

How do you get the music to turn off altogether?

The estimator looked nice. The photos of people working seem to add a lot.

[M.C.L.C.]

MDVADEN: After the intro which you can skip....In the box along the top of the page there is a little picture of a speaker, click it....you can change the song or pause and not hear any music at all. I have to ask, why is the site only decent in your opinion....i checked out yours and beside a whole bunch of writing that i soon go bored with and closed i didnt see much to write home about. So i'm guessing when you said decent you weren't comparing it to your site. I Hope anyways.....so what would you suggest to make this site a lil better than decent?

[mdvaden]

MDVADEN: After the intro which you can skip....In the box along the top of the page there is a little picture of a speaker, click it....you can change the song or pause and not hear any music at all. I have to ask, why is the site only decent in your opinion....i checked out yours and beside a whole bunch of writing that i soon go bored with and closed i didnt see much to write home about. So i'm guessing when you said decent you weren't comparing it to your site. I Hope anyways.....so what would you suggest to make this site a lil better than decent? The first and most obvious reason is the music, which is a top item that good SEOs warn against using in websites. Second, the "skip" text is tiny and must be sought for. You know where it is, but nobody coming to the site knows where it is. It could be anywhere. Your design person should have dealt with that already. It should not be inconspicuous. Next, the speaker icon is known to you, but is not known to first time visitors. The services scroll at variable speeds, and must be played around with.

You have eye-candy and toys on there that actually make navigation harder. Especially since many people searching for information, need to read it, not play around with it. Not sure about your guesstimation of $6000... But if I was going to go with flash, I'd probably price compare against something like this for about $2500.

http://www.flashmint.com/show-template-1791.html It's from this site http://www.flashmint.com/ (http://www.flashmint.com) At that flash template site, I'd like to take an axe and chopping block to the sound on about 99% of them. Sound should be an option to turn on, not an option to turn off.

Some are more, some less, but about $2600 average to buy-out the unique price. And those are very developed designs. Actually, a lot of those designs could be improvised nicely, from the photography, flowers or web design categories. One drawback on those flash designs - including yours - is the need to find the scrollbars to continue reading.

In other words, the "page size" or potential client's "workspace" is dwindled to a skimpy little fragment. Maybe it fits the design, but its one more bit of work. The purpose of a website is not to make work for people. You are making people work to change music, work to stop music, work to change speeds of scrolling options, and work to read extra text.

So that's why I said you site is decent. Meaning its good. But its not an excellent site. Kill the music, slow the scroll speed, and it will be fairly excellent. You can't really get rid of the tiny text windows with scroll bars, but that's okay.

But I think you are confusing good design with eye candy and gadgets. Nothing wrong with gadgets, but they are simply options, not merit badges.

[mdvaden]

Want to see what an excellent site looks like?

http://www.highridge.com

That company has 100 times more money to spend on websites than the average landscaper, yet they adhere to a quiet, easy to navigate design.

What I really like in theirs is in the about the company part at top, where its easy to find their credentials, and testimonials.

They list their licenses, certifications, degrees, etc.

All that stuff that may bore some landscaper to read, but not for potential clients to read.

Highridge's website should be a study resource for most landscapers seeking to develop a website.

[Bill S]

I tend to agree with a few of M D's points. I don't like the music, it is not for a website. Services is too difficult to navigate for some...KISS. I do like the intro flash but I would like to see the skip a bit bigger, than stop all flash.

The estimator option is great, I think it is a great concept. Do yourself a favor, I entered the estimate section without giving my name number or address...make it mandatory that these fields are entered in order for the estimator to work. Now you have potential contact info that you can follow up with! Have all this info go to your email address so you can follow up with the clients in a few days with a postcard or a phone call, whichever your preference........even an email address so you can do some free mass advertizing.

[M.C.L.C.]

Ok, thats like comparing my house to that of Hulk Hogan. Your right it is an awesome site, AWESOME. But come on, they have 250 employees, we have 20. They are probably in the top 100 companies list put out by lawn and landscapes, we make 1.5 million a year they probably make 10x's that much. As far as the "skip" button...you dont need to skip anything to roam around the site so im not seeing that as a huge issue, though i do see what you are saying. Most people know that a up arrow makes the text scroll up and down arrow makes it go down. So im not sure how we could fix that, this site has all kinds of boxes that you have to scroll with, still pretty easy to use. Thanks for your input but its kinda like comparing apples and oranges

[mdvaden]

Ok, thats like comparing my house to that of Hulk Hogan. Your right it is an awesome site, AWESOME. But come on, they have 250 employees, we have 20.......Thanks for your input but its kinda like comparing apples and oranges

Sometimes it feels like apples and oranges comparing sites. That's why I scrapped the article on my site about getting high web page ranking, and left the article about making a clean site - having fun with it to get something that's "you", that you like.

By the way, I use "decent" in my vocabulary for things that are good to very good. So that was more of a compliment earlier :).

[Turf Troll]

Hey Brett,

How long has the site been up?

www.360wichita.com/Landscaping/LawnAndGarden/MichaelsCompleteLawnCare.html

I see what you mean by a lot of fertilizer, the little video of the fertilizer was neat ,

Results 1 - 10 of about 464,000 for lawn care Wichita

theres not that much competition and you have two linked sites on the first page you just need to have your site there now.

As long as your getting calls from it then it is money or trading for a value.

[M.C.L.C.]

Troll, hey thanks for pointing that out. I actually forgot about our 360 site ha. Yeah need to get our actual page put on there. Thanks!

[M.C.L.C.]

MDVADEN: Glad to hear we agree on something lol, and im glad to hear decent is a good to very good thing to you :) Thanks for posting!

[WJW Lawn]

Its the best looking LCO website Ive seen...period. And yes...YOU are getting the better end of this deal!!!! Just dont tell him that, and send your crew over when he snaps his fingers lol

[elite lawns]

wow it looks really good man i need one

[CustomKare]

MD...pretty critical of Michaels website so I was excited to see what yours was like.....nice but no different than anyone elses out there.

[mdvaden]

MD...pretty critical of Michaels website so I was excited to see what yours was like.....nice but no different than anyone elses out there.

Not critical - but the facts.

As far as mine, I don't brag about it. But just the facts. Its the number one website in the entire state of Oregon for landscape design and arborist combined. It also has over 100 separate pages in it. Seen any commercial sites with 100 pages in it recently, with most of them originally posted for client's use?

One page alone, brings so much referral work for another arborist, that he pays double my year web hosting expenses. The site brings in over $100 a month from Google advertising. And it brings in multiple customer contacts per week and thousands of dollars worth of work for my business each year.

One video alone in the albums, brings another business thousands of dollars worth of decorative rock sale, not to mention kickbacks.

The design ain't grand, but there's nothing like it in the Pacific Northwest. If you see no difference, guess its time for you to really start paying attention to content.

In other words, my site is producing thousands of dollars worth of income for at least 5 businesses. Mine, another arborist, a decorative rock company, and referrals for 2 other landscape contractors.

The money it's making, and the kickbacks I'm getting, are far outside your scope of awareness. Its a site designed for results, not eye-candy.

Its doing its job, even though its only getting 470 visitors per day and 900 page views.

[Dirty Water]

If anyone wants a non flash based price estimator for their website, send me a PM.

[mdvaden]

MD...pretty critical of Michaels website so I was excited to see what yours was like.....nice but no different than anyone elses out there.

For "kicks", let us know whether you think there is a difference or not, starting with a single page - "testimonials" (background)

What differences and similarities do you detect between the content?

[M.C.L.C.]

Hey M.D. How bout you just let it go? So my page doesnt have 1000000 pages worth of stuff....yeah we get it, your the best, blah blah.

[mdvaden]

Hey M.D. How bout you just let it go? So my page doesnt have 1000000 pages worth of stuff....yeah we get it, your the best, blah blah.

Wasn't talking to you.

But was keeping the other guy in the fold of discussion.

Figured as long as he was trying to make comparisons, I'd give him a chance to explain his position with something that can be compared.