Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

the site loaded in an exceptable time frame. The graphics are good.

I am concerned that the message and the push for a rfq is not strong enough.

I would develop some thing that pulls the customer in.

Perhaps a page called "10 things you need to know before designing a plastic part" This would move people closer to the RFQ process.

You need to differentiate your company. Unfortunately, this site doesn't do that. Not at all.

You've essentially buried the headline and replaced it with "Welcome". Your first impression needs to command attention while conveying exactly who you are and why your customer needs you. Identify your core message, your unique selling proposition-- not from your point of view but from that of your customer. What essential solution is it you provide? It's not just design and supply of blow injection plastics. They can get that anywhere, right? What separates you from all the others?

How much is your time worth? Your budget may be small. But, you're spending time on this, and that has a cost... think opportunity cost based on your role in the company.

Good communication requires expertise. Creating clear, sticky, understandable, memorable communications that beg your prospect to care and to act doesn't come easily. You need someone who does that for a living. For as little as a few thousand dollars you can likely find someone on this site or near you who can help you craft a message that will effectively differentiate your company. Doing that will make the difference between generating the leads and RFQs you're looking for and not.

Hi there. Congratulations on venturing into the online world. I have a couple of suggestions for you. I hope you find them valuable.

1. Front page: Under the heading "What TLC brings to the table" - You don't actually say what you do to help address the problem. You state that you know containing costs is important but you don't state what YOU do to help the client in that area.

2. I agree with Frank Hurtte (above) that there needs to be a MUCH stronger call to action regarding the RFQ. You need to tell them specifically to contact you about the RFQ and you need to tell them explicitly how them doing this is in their absolute best interest.

3. Your font for your navigation and on your contact page (the "techno-computer" looking one) is non-standard therefore it stands out as being (sorry to put this so bluntly) non professional. Us a standard font.

4. While what your business does and specializes in is good...the customer only cares about the customer. Focus all your copy on how what you do directly impacts the customers needs in a positive way. (Connect features to benefits)

5. LOVE THE COLOR SCHEME!

Please don't think I'm just being critical of what you have produced. I am happy you are bringing your company online. I'm just trying to keep you from making the same mistakes I made! :)

Congratulations again and keep at it!

Let me know if I can be of any further assistance.

Kris

Ladell -- I highly recommend Dreamweaver for editing your pages. This also means you need to have the HTML in place prior to using the WYSIWYG editor.

Your page is nice, BUT it is more suited for a print design than an online design.

Here are some changes I recommend:

Structural Changes
1. Make sure your text is html text. In order to be found by the search engines -- to allow them to index the content on your page, you need to make sure that the engines can read the text. If the text is a graphic, like your front page is now, they can't see anything except that it is a graphic. I can see that the program you used created the page with stlyesheets. This is great, but difficult for a newbie to master. ... If you are not familiar with CSS (cascading style sheets), then an HTML design using a table and background colors can mimic the look you have now if that is what you want to do. You just have to be sure to check it in different browsers to make sure that it's showing up how you want it to -- especially if you are using the table background implemetation. You can check at www.browsershots.org. CSS is always best, but a good CSS artist is not something that just happens. We have a person on our team who specializes in it, and he does all our initial CSS work for us.

Another bonus to HTML text is that someone can make the text on the page bigger if they wanna, with their browser settings, so they can read it.

2. Add META description and keyword tags, use H1 and H2 for header and sub header fonts. Your title is probably the most important Meta tag on your pages. Make sure your title has some key words in it.

Visual Changes
1. Use Verdana in your body copy. Your logo appears to have Times New Roman as the text in it - so use Times New Roman as your header font. The smallness of the current font makes it really difficult to read. This is because of your font choice and verbiage. Verdana is a good, good online font for blocks of text because the x-height of the letters is big, and the kearning (spacing between the letters) is wide enough to accommodate for different browsers and platforms handling of the text (because each computer / browser / platform has the potential to handle the information from the web differently).

2. You page is a little dark. It feels dark and droopy. Your product is innovative and useful. Make your site present that image. You can present a professional and trustworthy image without being dark. This sort of reminds me of how, in the 80s and 90s, women were encouraged to wear "smart suits" - grey, navy, black -- to be taken seriously by their male counterparts. Must ... lack .... color ... (best said in the style of Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise)

Consider a more modern color palette. https://kuler.adobe.com is just about the best color site I have ever seen, and it helps artistically-challenged people such as myself to get a feel for what colors go together and ... well, you just have to see it for yourself, it's pretty neat.

Content Changes
1. What do you want people to do when they go to your site? What do you want them to do first? Second? Third? Use this opportunity to get people to do ... something. Give them a call to action, a message that tells them they should be purchasing these bottle tops (or whatever?) through you instead of Joe Smith Industries down the street. At the very least, have a form on your page where you can collect information from interested people in a way that is easy for them.

2. Make a "home page." People are used to seeing "home." Make it easy for them to find. Usually, the "About" page is an internal page, rather than the home page. Maybe a new home page would be just the ticket to solve #1 here, and then use the about page as an internal page?

3. Make sure your site copy is not just a mirror image of your brochure or printed materials. The look of all your publications should have the same feel, but the content should be different. Writing for the web takes a different approach than writing for print because:

• It is more difficult to read from a screen.


• Web users tend not to read full articles but rather short chunks of the page in search of what they need.


• Readers tend to be impatient and want fast access to information.

The reason for this is the nature of the media. With print (linear medium), we generally start to read at the top left and continue to the bottom right. The web is non-linear, we expect hyperlinks and jump frequently, both within pages and to other pages, reading what we need and then moving on, often very quickly.

Overall, your site does look professional but I would recommend that you check out your competition online --- to see what their websites look like, and then make sure yours is better (simple enough, right? LOL). Seriously, though, some of the best sites I have had a hand in creating came from a plethora of ideas collected from other sites, and put into one mega solution. Because that's what web sites should be, not just a page, but a solution ...

Anyway, that's the short version, but I hope it helps. If you ever decide to hire someone to design your site, of course I would throw my hat in the ring, however, considering your budget constraints, I would recommend that you try a site like RAC (https://www.rentacoder.com); you can probably get a design created and sliced for under $300 from very talented people just trying to get started in the business. You'll have to take it from there, to input your content, but once you have a template, you'll be in tall cotton.

Take care and best of luck to you in your online efforts! In a way, I envy you because I know where you are and all the exiting online stuff you will be learning and going through as you continue to improve your online presence. (I'm such a square.)

Jennifer P.
XPRT Creative

agreed. you need your own domain. www.godaddy.com to help you.

5 points to keep in mind:

1. Use an effective marketing principle AIDAS

A - Attention - attract the attention with good design
I - Interest - raise the interest of the client by demonstrating features, advantages, and benefits
D - Desire - convince customers that they want and desire the product or service and that it will satisfy their needs
A - Action - lead customers towards taking action and/or purchasing
S - Satisfaction - satisfy the customer so they become a repeat customer/user and give referrals to a product or service

2. Experiment with few colors
Black and whites are passive alone, vibrant colors used correclty can highlight specific elements of the site which you'd like to point users' attention to

3. Strive for balance. take a look at the apple.com website iit is one of the best examples of symmetrical balance. especially when dealing with engineering a product and reflecting quality, your site needs to follow strict design standards

4. Strive for clarity. both in layout and presented information. leave no room for a chance misunderstanding in navigation or presented information.

5. Address your users needs. comfort your visitors and provide them with sufficient clues for seamless and intuitive navigation. know your visitor and their profile.

also, your logo needs to stand out more for branding purposes. lose the drop shadow on your text. as noted above, bring in some color to separate ideas or to produce a flow of hierarchy for ideas to be portrayed.

better wyswyg editors: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/05/06/25-wysiwyg-editors-reviewed/

also take inspiration from these sites:
https://www.thebestdesigns.com/

here is a great css editor as well:
https://www.csstypeset.com/

and some nice free templates:
https://www.oswd.org/

when i think plastics, i think clean and modern. keep your site simple and clean. i would introduce whites and other colors rather than black.

i noticed your text is actually an image file. this will not help you in search engine ranking. you need to have "live" text so that the search crawlers can reference the text and weigh it against your keywords. keep in mind your titles of your pages too.