Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

First impressions:

*It took too long to load. I have a fast connection, but I had to wait for the site (in contrast, Amazon loaded in a second or two).


*The menu buttons with white type on a dark background are hard to read. The yellow is better.

*The yellow type looks better, but when it says "My products", "My account", etc. it sounds at first as if you're talking about yourself (rather than the customer). How about changing it to "you" or "your" instead.

*Your solution is building the web site for me. Instead of asking if I want to build it (presumably your customers don't, it's too hard/they don't know how/it takes too long), offer a benefit. Save the hassles and let us build your site for you.

**Unlimited disk and bandwidth??!! Lots of each, yes, unlimited no.

*Why should I follow you on Twitter? What will you tell me?

*Why would I social bookmark you? The icons on the bottom of the page make me dizzy. There are too many of them!

*I like the top middle section better. Three simple steps, telling me what I get.

*Who is your target customer? You've got bulk transfers, SSL certificates and all sorts of complex services, but you are also selling site building services and ease of use (things that would seem to appeal to beginners or people without a lot of Web expertise.

*Why should your customers choose you over any other source? What makes you better/different?

Jodi

It's not obvious how much various hosting plans cost.
Compare/contrast your offerings to those of the "big guys" (even if you're reselling their packages).
Website Grader score: 87 / 100 (https://website.grader.com/wsgid/2911682/default.aspx)

Bob,

You get an "A" for commitment. Now, all you need is a fresh approach.

This might be the perfect time to step back and consider the front and back ends of your service, what you're offering, how you're offering it, and how much work it's creating for you.

Rather than being all things to all clients, is there a specific clutch of prospects you could serve? Think narrow and deep rather than shallow and wide.

Would your time be better spent offering templates for clients to choose a DIY option from, with the extra option of you taking care of their main website management for a monthly fee if they prefer to have a site but not be bothered with all the tedious mucking about with CSS and HTML?

What about a website builder system? Plug and play, copy and paste for the user, but with you offering all the behind the scenes stuff, all of which could be added to the next idea.

Which is:

Buying into a reseller package from a bigger company, a package onto which you bolt a private label rights "store front". The main company takes care of all the back end stuff, you handle marketing and promotion and take a major cut of the revenue.

Two names that spring to mind here are Godaddy and Sitekreator.

As my potential website and hosting supplier, you need to
provide me with more upfront, instant gratification. How will you offer and instill a feeling that you, AND ONLY YOU, can make me look brilliant online?

The name "CFP Professional Services" might have served you
well until now, although to my ear it sounds like a chartered accountants.

Name, look, feel and imagery all help create aspiration, confidence, and credibility, options that prospective clients
are all looking for and are willing to pay for.

Compare your site to other, similar, more successful sites offering the same kind of service. What tools and visual elements do the home pages of those sites offer that yours doesn't?

What's their monthly visitation like, what keywords are they
using, and what SEO techniques are they using that you're missing? Pull their sites apart and reconstruct your site on
paper based on your findings and move forward from there.

I hope this helps in some way.

Gary Bloomer,
Wilmington, DE, USA