Question

Topic: Website Critique

Please Review Website Of Residential Architect.

Posted by Anonymous on 9/24/2009 at 4:16 PM ET 250 Points
Hi,

my name is Steve. Our website has been reviewed once before at MarketingProfs. Our web designer wanted to get his point across, and your reviews really helped us embrace his view.

Nevertheless, our website is a site of many compromises, especially due to the nature of our target audience. However, we have implemented some of the most popular suggestions that were offered here on the forum.

With that in mind, could I ask you once more to review our site in order to make sure that we implemented your suggestions correctly and now have a site that is focused on converting the visitor to client in the most effective way?

Thank you so much for your efforts,

Yours sincerely,

Steve Chambers.

Our site: https://chambersarchitects.com/
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 9/24/2009 at 4:43 PM Accepted
    Overall, a nice, clean design. I want one of those English Cotswold homes!

    A few comments:

    1) What is the box at the top left for? (type and hit enter). To search the site? Add a label that says so.

    2) The home page talks about you too much. It should be more client-centric. "..Steve ...focuses on your dreams"; "Every...home..starts with listening to you."

    3)The heading "new-historical references" is confusing. The two terms seem to contradict each other.

    4) I like the case studies idea, but they are too wordy and repetitive.

    A few suggestions (based on the Texas Regional Modern house, but applicable to all the case studies).

    --Cut down the background to emphasize how you tailored the house to fit your client's wants: good design, room to entertain, sustainability, etc.

    --I have no idea what you mean by regionalism, not sure if your non-architect clients will either.

    --Edit the solution section. Put the benefit up front, rather than repeating 'used...", "used...". It's too repetitive, hard to find your place, and well, gets kind of boring.

    -- Replace "Used materials and businesses in the locale of the home site to reduce energy and transportation costs." with "Cut energy costs with locally sourced materials"

    5) The blog: good idea, but you're asking for sharing and the subscription before you've told me why. What will I get from reading your blog?

    -- Put the vision in an about page instead of on the top.

    -- Move the sharing and subscribe tools to the side.

    -- Refocus the content. It should be about ME, the potential client. Why would I want to conserve water? Will it help the environment? Save me money? Make me feel good? Tell me "Five Ways to Cut My Water Bill by 25%"

    --Tell me about interesting architecture (that I might use as a model for my own home); show me how elements from classical buildings can be incorporated into a unique modern home.

    -- Share tips on how to choose an architect: 10 Questions to Ask Before You Choose an Architect - and a Good Answer to Each."


    Jodi



  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 9/25/2009 at 8:48 AM Member
    The wording on the home page is too generic. I would expect that any architect would specialize in "client-centric design" and would "listen to their clients". You already let your images speak for you, but why not let your clients speak for you as well. Add testimonials of what it's like working with you and how wonderful the final results are.

    Website Grader now gives your site a 77 / 100 : https://www.websitegrader.com/wsgid/4557938/default.aspx
  • Posted on 9/25/2009 at 11:30 AM Author
    Jodi,

    thank you for your very detailed and thoughtful review. You have raised some very interesting points, and we have already changed the text in the search box. Copy always takes a bit longer, but you've pushed us in the right direction.
  • Posted on 9/25/2009 at 11:40 AM Author
    Jay,

    thank you for your review. I agree that one would expect that client-centric would be a proposition of most architects, but we did find that our target market did not have this experience. Not all architects are cooperative. We wanted to clearly state up front that we work with the client instead of pushing an idea on them, which does happen way too often in our target market.

    Your suggestion about testimonials is a very good one, and we are currently working on gathering testimonials from our clients.

    My web developer informed me that tools like website grader do give arbitrary grades. It turns out that an entry in the Yahoo Directory would cost $299 and that Digg doesn't speak to our target market. Alexa rankings are open to manipulation simply by installing their toolbar. Keyword ranking scores does not take the long tail in account. I am hesitant to take this tool very serious, although it does give a quick overview.
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