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Website Critique     
 
This question has been closed, and points have been awarded.
Tell Me Which Site Is BetterPremium Member
Posted By: SRyan ;] on 10/12/2006 8:11 PM (CST) 1200 Points
Hi, friends!

Help me settle an argument, pretty please. There are two websites, one old and one new. I'm not telling you which is which, to keep the judging "neutral."

This is for a niche business that is hoping to (a) represent itself effectively when marketing to local consumers and (b) have success with search engine optimization.

You tell me: Which site do you think will accomplish those goals best?

Site One: http://72.18.130.176/~htowzwx/
Site Two: http://216.147.36.40

Thanks, everyone!

Shelley ;]

Posted by: peanutpeanut Accepted Answer
10/12/2006 8:39 PM (CST)
overall i like site one better but there are certain elements that should be added to site one from site two such as:

. where the product is being sold
. the pix on the left and the script are good.

overall site two has an industrial feel and look to it.
 
Posted by: SRyan ;] Author Response
10/12/2006 8:43 PM (CST)
Thanks for the quick response, peanut!

Site one does show where the product is being sold, but if you didn't notice that, maybe it's not prominent enough.

Not sure what "script" you're referring to on site two.
 
Posted by: Danimal* Accepted Answer
10/12/2006 8:47 PM (CST)
As a consumer I would favor the first Site. It is clean, loads quickly and starts to educate me and answer questions I would ask if I were considering a tankless system. The keyword and metatags I viewed in the source on this page are duplicated on the page which will provide you with better page position. The images used are simple, clean and they have a purpose. The other site has too much going on. The graphics hide many of the keywords in graphics so spiders will not pick them up. The photo of the closet on this site looks unprofessional compared to the very clean, nicely illustrated graphic of the systems.

The kids pictures are a nice touch and everyone can relate. I like the fact that you also have testimonials on every page and a what customers say page.

Hands down it is the first site.
 
Posted by: SRyan ;] Author Response
10/12/2006 8:53 PM (CST)
Dan, thanks for making the extra effort to look under the covers on the sites.

I won't comment otherwise, because (again) I'm trying to remain neutral for now.
 
Posted by: coupon man Accepted Answer
10/12/2006 8:57 PM (CST)
Site 1 is better...more professional looking...with one slight modification...i would put the headline...

"With a tankless water heater, you'll never run out of hot water again."

...above the photo instead of below it. This way visitors will see benefit numero uno immediately.
 
Posted by: SRyan ;] Author Response
10/12/2006 9:04 PM (CST)
Everyone, I assigned 1200 points to this question hoping that you'll explore a little bit beyond the home pages of each site before you cast your vote. Thanks!
 
Posted by: KathySmithFilms* Accepted Answer
10/12/2006 9:24 PM (CST)
Hi SRyan,

I vote for the first one. From a consumer point of view there was no question as to what you are selling or generating interest on discovering more and it led me to...I wonder if they sell this in California & how much & when can you install one. Love the pix you chose!!

The second site - on the opening shot in the flash, seeing Takagi & some squares left too much of a confusion and misunderstood as to what is the product & I wanted to route off the site immediately.

The only thing from site 2 I'd place on site 1 is the "100% guaranteed symbol". Awards pull me in being from the film industry. It will be exciting to see which one you end up with but that's my vote.

Kathy
 
Posted by: SRyan ;] Author Response
10/12/2006 9:28 PM (CST)
I love KHE and I love you guys. This is the only place on the planet where I know I can get useful feedback from smart marketers... and my oh my, how fast!!
 
Posted by: KathySmithFilms* Member Response
10/12/2006 9:57 PM (CST)
Page 2 of Site 1 - It's great that the Bayou City Service demo routed back to your site(s). giving more details on your survey: #1
Page 3 I like the headline & the water looked warm. That is a nice take on position it with a child rather than a knock down drag out babe in bubbles.
Page 4 - Does this type of product warrant having a 1-800 number would be the only thing I would ask. There could be a small friendly picture of the guys but none of this is necessary. By this page most are there to contact you.

Lastly, the sidebars to the left are PERFECT, simple and give me enough mass (pix) needed to buy the service and product from you.

#2 Page 1, the closet shows the product & I like would want it on page 1 at a position where I don't have to scroll down. Next to save's space (insert pic) then the other words. A black small frame will make the picture of the closet "pop" more against the tourquoise...
a minor detail I learned on a Dreamwork's project. The girl in the shower didn't route me to anything. The tag with her would be good
by taking off the "remember" and start with "The".
Page 2, 3 & 4 are perfect. On the rebate page the "buy now" may have passed but I would push the rebate without a date. I would write what the policy is briefly from the other service & give %.
Hot Water News & About the Guys -- My suggestion is to put those two pages then put the Contact Us after we get to see more about the guys & the products. The testimonials are good and give a word of mouth type close. I would put the red underlined tags at the bottom if needed. It was distracting to be reading, click & lose where I was reading. All pages after this were fine except... the recommended sites pix had question marks so I didn't see them.


Hope this helps. I still vote for 1.
Kathy
 
Posted by: SRyan ;] Author Response
10/12/2006 10:23 PM (CST)
Gotcha, Kathy!

And punny people like you are immediate friends. ;]
 
Posted by: Matt* Accepted Answer
10/13/2006 12:29 AM (CST)
I agree: site one wins by a country mile. Many of the reasons have been well-stated by others, so I'll add just a couple of suggested changes to make site one even better.

The sidebar question "Why is it better than a traditional water heater?" brings you to a page with four reasons listed under the question in the sidebar, each linked to a page of explanation. But the image is the same for all four reasons, only the captions change. That is both confusing and boring, because at first glance after clicking on a reason, it seems that nothing has changed (the image dominates the captions). If you are going to use images, then use different images for each reason, e.g. a simple comparative graph for "saves energy." Otherwise, wouldn't one table convey all that information more directly? Rows are the reasons, first column for old way, second for new way.

Additionally, the page answering the cost question is confusing. The real cost is...water? The image of the showerhead dominates the page but doesn't illuminate the answer. The benefit here is overall cost savings. A simple graph might be best, along with photo of a happy couple looking at their now lower bill.

For the "What Customers Say" page I'd suggest the headline "Our customers are thankful to be tankless..."

Best of luck,
Matt
 
Posted by: SRyan ;] Author Response
10/13/2006 12:35 AM (CST)
Excellent observations, Matt! No arguments here. ;]
 
Posted by: brookedingler Accepted Answer
10/13/2006 1:50 AM (CST)

From a web surfer's point of view I think site #1 is very easy to view. It looks neat and clean and to the point. The graphics and colors are not too overwhelming or distracting, and I love that most of the font is the same. However, I almost didn't realize that I needed to scroll down. Maybe if the writing was before the picture you would read it at first glance and even if only half of the picture is showing it would make you want to scroll down and see what it was. I don't like the set-up of "4 ways.." Once again it requires me to scroll down to read the info then scroll back up to click another reason, then scroll back down to read it. The picture is too big and repetitive. The small points on the left should be large on the right screen for the reader to get a quick general idea of the info described. If the font wasn't so large in those areas all of the info could fit on one screen.

Site #2 looks tacky to me compared to the way site 1 looks professional. I hate the numerous fonts and the multiple colored boxes are distracting. It reminds me of a school newsletter. The name of the company is not clear. It should be centered and clearly defined as the company name. I get lost watching the changing graphics instead of reading the info, but there's nothing pleasant to see. The simple bubble bath on site 1 makes you feel relaxed and draws you in.

Site # 1 Wins!!!
Hope I've been of some help.
 
Posted by: AndrewS Accepted Answer
10/13/2006 4:36 AM (CST)
Hi Shelley, well I haven't put it through my whole 65 usability checks, but http://72.18.130.176/~htowzwx ticks most of the high level and basic boxes (but I think you knew that already),

The more important ones are:
3 second rule
Tested with 256 colours and web colours
Navigation
Clear Access Points
Form confirmation
Trusted Site
Good Clear Content

Well done, if you would like a more formal usability audit then please get in touch :-)

Hope this helps
 
Posted by: AndrewS Member Response
10/13/2006 4:48 AM (CST)
Haven't had time for huge analysis on this either, but the SEO looks really good too on this site :-)
 
Posted by: slightadvantageracing* Accepted Answer
10/13/2006 5:26 AM (CST)
Site one looks very clean, crisp and quite refreshing. Which highlights water. The picture of the bath tub, looks very inviting, which is perfect for the home page.
The colours are blues which again work well for water. If you have heating, go for warmer colours. However overall red and blue on a white background work really well.

Site two, looks like a bad publisher effort with poor quality pictures. Does not say 'master crafts man' to me.

I purposely looked at each site for about 10 seconds. I was reading the BBC site saying recent research shows that people make a first impression of a web site within one second of seeing it!

Where that is ture or not, i could not say. However if i logged onto to site two I would not hang around.

Jason
 
Posted by: skoobie99 Accepted Answer
10/13/2006 7:32 AM (CST)
Shelley,

A quick comment from me as well - site 1 is by far superior.
Love the degree of detail available to those who want it (sequentially taking you "deeper" to pages with more information rather than throwing everything on a single page) and the clean appearance.
The copy is very smooth and minimalist but gets to the point.
The images are very appropriate and of high quality (and taste).
I'll close with a question: how do I get one installed in my home in Pittsburgh?

John
 
Posted by: AndrewS Member Response
10/13/2006 7:42 AM (CST)
I hope Shelley put the first one together! :-)
 
Posted by: cureforpanes* Accepted Answer
10/13/2006 7:58 AM (CST)
Site one is far more viewer friendly.

What is missing from #1 that #2 has that is important?

The Guarantee and the BBB logo. It is an easy add on and helps elevate the company stature... at least for me. I hate to give my competitors even a slight advantage. Since the company belongs to the BBB and has a great guarantee- point it out.

There is obvious areas of font color that are an issue on #1, but all in all- very easy to find information and clean.

hope this helps

Paul
 
Posted by: Frank Hurtte Accepted Answer
10/13/2006 8:56 AM (CST)
http://216.147.36.40/ is my favorite
it is more alive and more professional looking

The picture of the tub on the first one is a thing of beauty and i would fine tune the wording on a couple of points but other than that I would list this site as a solid 8and half out of 10
 
Posted by: SRyan ;] Author Response
10/13/2006 10:30 AM (CST)
Wow, what a wonderful surprise this morning!

Brooke, Andrew, Jason, John, Paul, Frank... I'm so grateful that you took the time to check out the sites.

I'll leave this question open a while longer today to see if anybody else wants to add feedback or vote. You've all made some excellent points so far.

Shelley

p.s. I'll also divulge the inside info when I close this. ;]
 
Posted by: cpsmith Accepted Answer
10/13/2006 4:04 PM (CST)
My answer is short and sweet. Site 1 made me want to go further - and I did. Site 2 did not.
 
Posted by: SRyan ;] Author Response
10/13/2006 4:44 PM (CST)
Okay, so far 11 of 12 of you prefer site one. (But reading Frank's comments, I'm not sure he pasted the correct URL in his response -- maybe he really meant site one?)

I like the fact that a couple of people expressed interest in a tankless water heater after viewing site one! More than anything, that tells me that it's doing its job. :)

Now, to satisfy your curiosity: Site two was the original website, built by a search optimization consultant. The owner replaced it with site one, which I built. I'm delighted that I'm not the only one who believes that it is, um, let's say an improvement. (Time will tell how it performs with Google, though.)

Thanks to all of you for sharing your thoughts! I'll be implementing many of your suggestions soon.

Shelley
 
Posted by: dminenko* Member Response
10/13/2006 4:48 PM (CST)
Shelly,

Site One is a winner, second site looks outdated right away. But you need to put more pages on site One so it will look more professional (more links, more info to read).
 
Posted by: SRyan ;] Author Response
10/13/2006 5:03 PM (CST)
Dmitriy, thanks! I'm sorry I had already closed this question before you posted your response.
 
Posted by: KathySmithFilms* Member Response
10/13/2006 5:19 PM (CST)
I voted for site #1. What needed to be improved as to why I wasn't accepted?
Thanks,
Kathy
 
Posted by: SRyan ;] Author Response
10/13/2006 6:23 PM (CST)
Kathy, your first answer was accepted! When people post multiple responses, I award points to only one of the answers. Thanks!
 


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