Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

I get a feeling of "happy days". I didn't read the front page. You have five "happy" photo's run by but the copy doesn't change. I saw the phone number at the top right and asked myself "why call". also I did not know where the 713 area code is.

Joe you have a nice looking site, but your story didn't jump out at me and there was no specific reason for me to call, no compelling call to action or offer.

If you contact me off forum, I think and can help you.

Steve

The first four images look like happy seniors, but not necessarily because of your services - they look active and don't seem to need your help. The fifth image gives a image of someone receiving care.

Your home page gives a list of basic in-home services, but it's not until I get to your About Us page do I realize that your service is really intended for dementia patients. Therefore, why not focus your home page message on your target audience: the family members of at-home dementia patients?

Dear Joe,

At first, I couldn't tell because your site didn't show up on Google.
I tried Safari and Firefox and your site was invisible on both. But
the site did show up on Yahoo.

Is your site sticky? Not as much as it could be. OK, so you've got the happy seniors and all that, but when I'm old, I don't want to be reminded of age and infirmity, I want to retain my quality of life, even if I'm ill or if my general health prevents me from getting out and about and caring for myself and those I love.

On your home page body copy you talk about yourself twice as much as you talk about the people you'll be serving.

Your customers don't want to know about you, they want to know how you'll help them. The difference between the two is night and day.

You site has a nice layout but might it pull its weight more by doing away with the scrolling images of seniors and adding text that tells people what you offer, who you offer it to, and where and when.
Generally, text is more search engine friendly than an image, more so when it uses the kinds of key words or phrases that your audience is looking for and searching for information with.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

Why not put the 40/70 rule and the cost calculator at the top? Those are much more interesting and promise to provide help for some of the problems faced by people with aging parents.

The two column list is way too long. It all just becomes a big blur of type on the page. Consolidate it into 3 or 4 categories, with a button on each to get more detailed information.

This may be just me, but the name happy days in-home care conjured up an image of an aging Fonzie and Ritchie Cunningham in an old age home.

Lastly, I think there are some words missing in this sentence:

While HAPPY DAYS IN-HOME CARE [cannot replace] the love and support of an elderly person's family, our caregivers provide helpful and necessary services needed to brighten the day, lighten the workload and ensure peace of mind.



Jodi

First impression without reading content:
Slow down the flash slide show and DON'T loop it. Play it one time and be done with it. The buttons 1-5 next to the slide show images don't do anything and are distracting. So why are they there? Suggestion-Instead, have 6 images that are represent your 5 pages. Assign one image to each page and save the slide show for the home page. And don't play the show on the other pages.