Website Help!

[APLUS LAWN CARE]

I need some help and/or suggestions for my website. It has been launched but I can still add and edit things on it. The URL is www.aplus-enterprises.com. Please let me know what you think! Any suggestions are appreciated.

[zechstoker]

Looks good to me. Clean and easy to navigate. I'd say, if you can get them, post some customer testimonials on your site. Nothing speaks louder than satisfied customers.

[nightshutter]

looks pretty good. I would suggest on getting better quality pictures. Thats something I need to work on as well

[inzane]

where does that stock image come from? the one on the first page. thats a popular pic, its on two sites local to me now.

[APLUS LAWN CARE]

Originally Posted by inzane

where does that stock image come from? thats a popular pic, its on two sites local to me now.

The stock image came from 1and1, the company I used to host my website.

[Mayor of Mow Town]

If it's possible, I would suggest trying to label the photos in your gallery with a brief description of what services you provided on that site and the resulting benefits.

To be honest, some of the lawns look a bit patchy and weedy in the photos, but that may be because you've provided a service other than mowing. Providing some context may help your audience.

[APLUS LAWN CARE]

Originally Posted by Mayor of Mow Town

If it's possible, I would suggest trying to label the photos in your gallery with a brief description of what services you provided on that site and the resulting benefits.

To be honest, some of the lawns look a bit patchy and weedy in the photos, but that may be because you've provided a service other than mowing. Providing some context may help your audience.

Thanks for the advice. I will check in to that. In all of those pictures, the only service I provide is mowing so I don't have any control over weeds or anything like that. I do understand what you are saying. Unfortunately those are the only pictures I have and I realize they aren't the best... I hope to get some better pictures when I start mowing so I can replace those pictures.

[tonygreek]

Looks like a pretty good start for you...

Here are some thoughts:

You have this as your business name: A+ Enterprises
Which translates to this as your domain name: aplus-enterprises.com

From a customer figuring out how to find you on the web, I think you've created a significant uphill battle with your domain name vs. your company name. First, you have two different versions of Plus and +, and then you throw an oddly placed hyphen in to your domain name. I imagine the conversation will go something like this, when trying to explain to someone how to get to your site.

"Hi, I'm Dustin from A+ Enterprises. You want to see my portfolio? Sure, go to A+ Enterprises.com, but instead of the + sign, spell it out, but you run A and Plus together as one word, then you add a hyphen, and then you add entreprises.com to the end. Got it? Greeeeat."

To add a bit of supporting detail to the domain vs. business name issues, if I Google "A Plus Enterprises", which is your domain name, I get nothing related to your company. If I Google "A+ Enterprises", I find traces of you. If I were you, I would be refining my branding before anything else.

- The picture quality and color definitely needs some work, but in addition to that, I don't know that I would be leading with cemetery photos in your gallery.

- Increase your content font size. 11px isn't doing it, but 14px would be a significant visual and readability improvement. (I just changed the tag to 14px on my end and it's a whole 'nother visual experience.)

- Get a phone number and location up high, preferably in your banner. Same with your footer.

- When I hit the Services page, if I wasn't specifically looking all over the page, I don't think I would have noticed the drill-down menu off to the side. When people hit a Service page, they're looking for the content to lead them deeper. Having a menu, off to the side, isn't accomplishing that.

- Add explanatory content. Simply saying you do "Mulching & Decorative Stone Installation" doesn't tell the prospective customer anything. Why do I need it? What's the difference? What are the benefits? Sell me.

- Read up on the Beginner's Guides to SEO that I've linked in previous reviews.
(Comment #24 http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?t=398557&page=3 ) and apply what you learn to your H tags, Titles, etc.

- Hit Getlisted.org and start claiming whatever citations/listings you need to.

- If you haven't, create a Google Webmasters account and submit your site map, as well as look at any advice it gives you.

[RigglePLC]

Don't bother saying your prices are low--vague--people ignore that.
Need better photos. Mowing stripes should be straight and even. Don't take lawn photos in the sun. It makes them look yellow. Take the lawn photos on cloudy or dark days--the grass looks greener. Early morning on a dark day works nice.
Lots of people are interested in people--especially women. Show a family with cute kids and dogs happily delighted with their lawn. Tru Green does that for a reason. Show your warm, friendly, honest ,dependable face. Don't show much equipment, but if you can show a photo of your truck in front of a yard, its not a stock photo.

[inzane]

the cheapskates won't ignore that though. lol.

Originally Posted by RigglePLC

Don't bother saying your prices are low--vague--people ignore that.
Need better photos. Mowing stripes should be straight and even. Don't take lawn photos in the sun. It makes them look yellow. Take the lawn photos on cloudy or dark days--the grass looks greener. Early morning on a dark day works nice.
Lots of people are interested in people--especially women. Show a family with cute kids and dogs happily delighted with their lawn. Tru Green does that for a reason. Show your warm, friendly, honest ,dependable face. Don't show much equipment, but if you can show a photo of your truck in front of a yard, its not a stock photo.