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Dirty Marks Cleaning
My current website needs updating. any suggestions on what it may need for improvement. I look forward to your comments. Currnet website http://www.dirtymarkscleaning.com
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Njones
Well-known member
- Messages
- 387
Before anything else - change your company name.
My mrs saw it, laughed & said "Mark's a pervert then is he?" LOL.
My mrs saw it, laughed & said "Mark's a pervert then is he?" LOL.
Smurf
Well-known member
- Messages
- 20,533
I don't understand that comment to be honest so please explain :Image16:
Njones
Well-known member
- Messages
- 387
After the name change you NEED to get a few things done on your site to get best google rankings and best conversion rates:
1: Update the layout to a responsive one - over 25% of all browsing is done via mobile devices these days, so a site thats easy to view regardless of the device is essential.
2: The colour scheme is bad - in the UK red is subconsiously associated with danger, warnings, stop signs etc. and this will reduce the number of calls you get from the site.
3: "Click" on the menu buttons looks a bit retarded (sorry!) - get rid of it.
4: You need to include your keywords (names of all the areas & towns you work in + names of all the services you offer) in your page titles.
5: Meta tags need to be added (Keywords, description and author) to every page.
6: Social media is a powerful tool for google ranking - if you haven't already, setup facebook, twitter & Google+ pages and then add link buttons or newsfeed widgets to your site.
7: Use photos of YOU - photos of your team, your signwritten vehicles, pics of windows actually being cleaned NOT just photos of clean glass.
There's loads more,.. but I feel I'm being a bit harsh already just with that list!
1: Update the layout to a responsive one - over 25% of all browsing is done via mobile devices these days, so a site thats easy to view regardless of the device is essential.
2: The colour scheme is bad - in the UK red is subconsiously associated with danger, warnings, stop signs etc. and this will reduce the number of calls you get from the site.
3: "Click" on the menu buttons looks a bit retarded (sorry!) - get rid of it.
4: You need to include your keywords (names of all the areas & towns you work in + names of all the services you offer) in your page titles.
5: Meta tags need to be added (Keywords, description and author) to every page.
6: Social media is a powerful tool for google ranking - if you haven't already, setup facebook, twitter & Google+ pages and then add link buttons or newsfeed widgets to your site.
7: Use photos of YOU - photos of your team, your signwritten vehicles, pics of windows actually being cleaned NOT just photos of clean glass.
There's loads more,.. but I feel I'm being a bit harsh already just with that list!
Smurf
Well-known member
- Messages
- 20,533
Think I'm being ingnored... :Image13:
Nothing new there then haha
Anyway onto the OP, almost everything NJones said is absolutely spot on and he's right theres a lot more but first things first you're obviously after commercial work or you wouldn't mention it but the site screams home made, it's very unattractive and I can't see you getting commercial work from it. I know of a couple of cleaners not too far from you with top notch sites, prospectives would look at yours and then theirs and, well you can guess where I'm going here.
Red by the way isn't that bad I finished a site a few weeks ago thats waaaaay redder than yours and it's already brought in a good amount of work I'm told. (hence the almost)
Sorry mate, you asked.
D
Dirty Marks Cleaning
Thanks for the comments guys... More welcome please...
Kips
Well-known member
- Messages
- 566
Hi Mark
I like the 3d guy, he looks really cool. But I'd agree with what the others say about the name "Dirty Marks" - I can see what you're going for, dirty marks as in marks on the windows that are dirty, but the play on words it makes connects with the image of a guy called Mark who is dirty or a pervert. Window cleaners already have a bit of stigma attached to us thanks to movies like "confessions of a window cleaner" and when you have the subconcious suggestion of mark the pervert and then that 3d guy wearing a mask it all starts to get a bit.. rapey. Most customers tend to be women in window cleaning so you really need to cater to them.
The site has good info, but it looks sparse; there is too much whitespace. From a usability point of view, the red over blue text has to go - anyone with any sight difficulties is really going to struggle, and anyone with dyslexia is going to hate you. The blue on red clash on the hard surface cleaner page will make colourblind people want to punch themselves in the face.
Overall, design wise you could really structure the layout differently and break it down to looking much nicer on the eye. It does look quite home made and the overall design just isn't good is really really bad/terrible. Sorry to be harsh..
In terms of SEO (search engine optimisation) you might run into problems too. Googles webspam team has identified recently a few things your site is doing as things that might get you penalised - although to be fair you are on page one of google for the term window cleaners wolverhampton. (Although not showing up on the map - you have registered for google places, haven't you..?)
If you go to copyscape.com and use it to check your site for copy content, you'll see that a few of your pages have the same content for different areas - Google could in the future penalise your search ranking for this - they're rolling out and updating their 'penguin' algorithm which will change the way it ranks pages quite a lot. You want to avoid copy content or doorway pages as much as possible.
I can't see any links to facebook or twitter. You want to get onto this, I get a lot of business from facebook and it is the no.1 way to have an 'online' conversation with your customers and potential customers. I dont mean like, chat to them, I mean deliver to them updates and news about what you've done, what you're doing / offering that is new and what you can do for them right now.
If it were me (and this is just my opinion) i'd drop the dirty marks name altogether and redo the site myself with a nice template, you can get great wordpress themes now for really good value. Here's one with a video showing you how to do it if you're not sure about wordpress. http://rockstarleadtheme.com/special3/ (not an affiliate link) - the guy has an annoyign accent but bear with it, watch the video.
There are tons of themes out there like that one though, generally they're called lead generation or lead capture themes. Just google for 'em. My site uses one, I can't remember what it's called but I set it all up in like 2 days. www.rpwc.co.uk .
Also do a LOT of research on SEO - google has really changed the game in 2013 with how they rank sites.
Good luck fella
I like the 3d guy, he looks really cool. But I'd agree with what the others say about the name "Dirty Marks" - I can see what you're going for, dirty marks as in marks on the windows that are dirty, but the play on words it makes connects with the image of a guy called Mark who is dirty or a pervert. Window cleaners already have a bit of stigma attached to us thanks to movies like "confessions of a window cleaner" and when you have the subconcious suggestion of mark the pervert and then that 3d guy wearing a mask it all starts to get a bit.. rapey. Most customers tend to be women in window cleaning so you really need to cater to them.
The site has good info, but it looks sparse; there is too much whitespace. From a usability point of view, the red over blue text has to go - anyone with any sight difficulties is really going to struggle, and anyone with dyslexia is going to hate you. The blue on red clash on the hard surface cleaner page will make colourblind people want to punch themselves in the face.
Overall, design wise you could really structure the layout differently and break it down to looking much nicer on the eye. It does look quite home made and the overall design just isn't good is really really bad/terrible. Sorry to be harsh..
In terms of SEO (search engine optimisation) you might run into problems too. Googles webspam team has identified recently a few things your site is doing as things that might get you penalised - although to be fair you are on page one of google for the term window cleaners wolverhampton. (Although not showing up on the map - you have registered for google places, haven't you..?)
If you go to copyscape.com and use it to check your site for copy content, you'll see that a few of your pages have the same content for different areas - Google could in the future penalise your search ranking for this - they're rolling out and updating their 'penguin' algorithm which will change the way it ranks pages quite a lot. You want to avoid copy content or doorway pages as much as possible.
I can't see any links to facebook or twitter. You want to get onto this, I get a lot of business from facebook and it is the no.1 way to have an 'online' conversation with your customers and potential customers. I dont mean like, chat to them, I mean deliver to them updates and news about what you've done, what you're doing / offering that is new and what you can do for them right now.
If it were me (and this is just my opinion) i'd drop the dirty marks name altogether and redo the site myself with a nice template, you can get great wordpress themes now for really good value. Here's one with a video showing you how to do it if you're not sure about wordpress. http://rockstarleadtheme.com/special3/ (not an affiliate link) - the guy has an annoyign accent but bear with it, watch the video.
There are tons of themes out there like that one though, generally they're called lead generation or lead capture themes. Just google for 'em. My site uses one, I can't remember what it's called but I set it all up in like 2 days. www.rpwc.co.uk .
Also do a LOT of research on SEO - google has really changed the game in 2013 with how they rank sites.
Good luck fella
D
Dirty Marks Cleaning
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I know I asked for feed back and I know that I don't need to defend anything but the name thing has come up in most replies so far so I just wanted to update you all on that.
The name Dirty Marks is a play on words and is intended to play on the stigma created by such films as 'Confessions of a window cleaner'. My name is Mark so it really is about poking fun at myself. When I walk down the drive of lots of customers (men and women) they say "Dirty Mark is here" I did intend to change the name about three years ago and the customers all said that I was mad. They all think that the name is really funny. I thought that a different name would appeal to commercial customers, however the director of one of my largest commercial customers phoned me and told me to keep the name as people could remember it. One of my customers even phoned in to a radio show discussing funny names to talk about my business, what better PR can you get? as one of my customers said VIRGIN works for Richard Branson!
I do appreciate all of your other comments and I would love more feedback.
Also if anyone knows any more about the new google rules then please let me know. The SEO has worked quite well giving me as many free visits per year as YELL.COM did for £800 per year!
Keep it coming guys....
The name Dirty Marks is a play on words and is intended to play on the stigma created by such films as 'Confessions of a window cleaner'. My name is Mark so it really is about poking fun at myself. When I walk down the drive of lots of customers (men and women) they say "Dirty Mark is here" I did intend to change the name about three years ago and the customers all said that I was mad. They all think that the name is really funny. I thought that a different name would appeal to commercial customers, however the director of one of my largest commercial customers phoned me and told me to keep the name as people could remember it. One of my customers even phoned in to a radio show discussing funny names to talk about my business, what better PR can you get? as one of my customers said VIRGIN works for Richard Branson!
I do appreciate all of your other comments and I would love more feedback.
Also if anyone knows any more about the new google rules then please let me know. The SEO has worked quite well giving me as many free visits per year as YELL.COM did for £800 per year!
Keep it coming guys....
D
Dirty Marks Cleaning
Thanks mate, With the new site I will be using Joomla to give it a cleaner look.
I get about 1 google referral per day I dont look at hits robots etc just domain and search eng. referrals. As far as enquiries all I can say is that I dont advertise anywhere else now. I am not really looking for any more work just keeping the round topped up as people move, die etc...
I get about 1 google referral per day I dont look at hits robots etc just domain and search eng. referrals. As far as enquiries all I can say is that I dont advertise anywhere else now. I am not really looking for any more work just keeping the round topped up as people move, die etc...
Smurf
Well-known member
- Messages
- 20,533
got a pic of your van?
D
Dirty Marks Cleaning
Will have more pics on the new site (the van etc)
Smurf
Well-known member
- Messages
- 20,533
just wanted to see how it looked with dirty marks on it :Image13:
D
Dirty Marks Cleaning
Ha ha ha... that is just the sort of pun that makes Dirty Marks such a great name. I be you will remember Dirty Marks name this time next year, can the same be said for crystal-clean-bright-shinny-wonder-window cleaning (Bristol) LOL
Smurf
Well-known member
- Messages
- 20,533
Indeed... I think it's a very clever brand name myself
And I was being serious about seeing pic's of the van with dirty marks branding on it
And I was being serious about seeing pic's of the van with dirty marks branding on it
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Dirty Marks Cleaning
cheers mate..
tonylephard
Active member
- Messages
- 27
The name has grown on me the more I read this post. The only recommendation I would have is to update your insurance policy.
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