Website constructive criticism

[jeffwoodall]

I posted under another thread as a response, but thought this may be better. I am just starting out this year and so ready to do this and be my own boss after working a high stress job for 32 years. I have a website that I constructed; I had no idea how to do this prior to starting and taught myself using google and help menus.
I would appreciate any comments regarding my site. I already know I need to post some of my pics after I complete jobs. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance:

www.lawnservicejrs.com

[ztuttle7]

I checked out the pricing guide you have. It is very informative, however, I would not put price examples or your overhead. If you want to explain to them how you price it that is fine (personally I wouldn't), but meant it dollar figures.

[wegomow]

Hi Jeff,
I really like your apply for an estimate page. I may borrow that idea and ad that to my own site.
I would recommend a Home page or landing page, that tells the visitor what your business does and the benefits of using your service over others. List your experience in lawn care, affiliations, Ect. Then ad an about page where you tell your story, history, why you like doing your job. I can tell you put lots of time into your wordpress blog site. I tried wordpress and found it was taking too much time to learn. That's just me, not a big computer guy. So I went with a web building website and found it much easier. Best of luck.

[greg8872]

My suggestion would be that if you are going to copy other site's content just about word for word, you at least give credit to the person that originally wrote it to help ease potential copyright infringement claims.

(this message brought to you by someone who once worked for a company that had that issue come up, to which the company ended up spending over $50,000 in legal fees and settlement costs)

Also there is the consideration to the negative effect it will have when it comes to SEO that most of your pages are just about duplicate content to other sites.

[greg8872]

PS. on the "estimate form", when you hover over the "How did you hear about..." it still pops up "How did you hear about Kirk's Lawn Care", need to change the help text (or whatever they call it on JotForm) as well.

[wegomow]

Originally Posted by greg8872

PS. on the "estimate form", when you hover over the "How did you hear about..." it still pops up "How did you hear about Kirk's Lawn Care", need to change the help text (or whatever they call it on JotForm) as well.

Yes definitely need to get Kirk's Lawn Care off that!

[tonygreek]

The best constructive advice I can give is that I would strongly suggest reading through any of the past reviews we've done on here (there are many). It doesn't matter what the site is that's being reviewed. In fact, you don't even have to visit the site. The advice and suggestions will apply to your site.

[jeffwoodall]

Thanks for the comments. I can't believe I did not notice the hover statement on the estimate form. And regarding the content: I don't believe in reinventing the wheel, and I know some of the copyright laws, but my goal is to provide information to my clients so they don't have to look for it/google it. I don't want to represent that the information is totally all from me, that is not the intent. You learn from doing (experience) or reading and applying. I know I have learned a lot from this site. I will rework some of it and give credit at the end as to where it came from. I have saw cards, flyers, etc on here that people use pictures from the internet on, and I do understand how that appears. I will have my own work to do this with soon. I totally believe in being professional and above board. Anyway, thanks again. I still need to figure how this thing about compiling information for my clients to read versus me not being the author. In some ways I don't see a problem with it, as it is available to them on the internet. But then, even though I don't claim to be the author, it may be implied that it is my writings. So, I will go back and figure out at least what site to give credit to. I did get permission to use the estimate form, as it was made available through jotform. Anyway, thanks again. I am learning, but am a fast learner.

[jeffwoodall]

Also, some information is public domain, so there is no copyright infringement, but I will check out the source codes. As I said, I want to be professional and do the right thing. Again, thanks for the comments

[tonygreek]

Originally Posted by jeffwoodall

And regarding the content: I don't believe in reinventing the wheel, and I know some of the copyright laws, but my goal is to provide information to my clients so they don't have to look for it/google it. I don't want to represent that the information is totally all from me, that is not the intent.

Let me cut through the politeness and/or sarcasm of Greg's recommendation to attribute work. It's not the lack of attribution that is the issue. The issue, to be blunt, is that you did nothing more than steal content. In fact, it looks like every word of your site is stolen from other LCOs, The Lawn Advisor, or MSN articles on lawn care. By you "not wanting to reinvent the wheel", you are simply devaluing the original content by replicating it on your site. There is no arguing this or minimizing it. If you want to give your customers the information, you link to it and send them there.

I will rework some of it and give credit at the end as to where it came from.

Unless it's a governmental source (ie, extension offices, etc), you likely have no business or reason to source content from others and then just "give credit" to the originator. It. Doesn't. Work. That. Way.

I still need to figure how this thing about compiling information for my clients to read versus me not being the author.

It's reeeeally simple. Write it and you are the author.

In some ways I don't see a problem with it, as it is available to them on the internet. But then, even though I don't claim to be the author, it may be implied that it is my writings. So, I will go back and figure out at least what site to give credit to

In some ways, do you see a problem with an LCO taking a backpack blower off of your trailer? If they don't have one, why not take yours?

Since you mention this a few times, it tells me you don't fundamentally understand the issue. Go back through the last few pages of this forum and read the various site review requests. You will see the Duplicate Content issue addressed. You'll also want to Google it to understand why it's important.

Also, your animated banner looks grainy because .gif images can't be enlarged without heavily degrading the quality. I would either use it at the standard size or not use it at all.