Another 'feedback on website' post please!

cambsno

cambsno

Messages
21,074
Name
Simon
Edit My Images
Yes
Yet another request for feedback!!

www.simonowensphotography.co.uk - I have asked a few mums for feedback, as they are my target market, and they think it looks fine. But looking at the number of hits I get against calls/emails I dont think its working that well. I know that a number of the calls I get are from people trying to sell phones/advertising but I would have expected more proper enquiries.

Any thoughts would be great!
 
I'm no expert but I am immediately put off when any company doesn't show a land line number whatever the reason.

You could do well with some sort of logo as the one you are using just looks too plain for me. I also think the "about page" is a better layout option to replace the home page as it is less cluttered with only the one photo showing, you could also have some sort of special offers on the main page that way too. The gallery is very nice and you have some great photo's in there :thumbs: Just my 2p's worth.

Edit: oops found your landline number :)
 
Where is your traffic coming from? What are they typing to find you? Which pages do they look at and which is the last page they look at before leaving? This info all put together can be a big help. Perhaps they hit your prices page and leave because you are too cheap or too expensive, or maybe they are looking for family portraits and hit your gallery page and only see babies (some people don't want to delve any deeper than the surface)
 
And as said above...your phone number isn't that easy to find so perhaps that is why you aren't being contacted much
 
crashtestmac said:
IS it iWeb by any chance...?
Click to expand...

How did you guess :p

Would not have a clue what pages they looked at last etc... I am really looking at traffic from google, so know the words they are looking for. I am guessing that if people see an ad they just enter the URL. So I would think that if people have typed 'baby photography' into Google, they would look further than the homepage.

In 2 minds about the homepage. I like the pics on there and would like to think a Mums reaction would be 'awww, cute' and go further. I used to have a homepage along the lines of About a while back but just thought it looked dull. Agree though that I need something like a Special offer on homepage to get people interested.
 
cambsno said:
How did you guess :p
Would not have a clue what pages they looked at last etc... I am really looking at traffic from google, so know the words they are looking for. I am guessing that if people see an ad they just enter the URL. So I would think that if people have typed 'baby photography' into Google, they would look further than the homepage.
Click to expand...
If you install a decent stats program like AWstats you can find all of that out. If you are getting loads of people searching for 'family portrait photography' and they land on your home page, there is nothing to convince them NOT to click their back button and move on to someone else. Even if they type 'baby photography', why should they contact you? Your home page says nothing (unless you go to another page then click on 'home', then for some reason it actually says what you do) and you don't make it easy to be contacted. Get your phone number somewhere easy to see! - you need to give the visitor what they want - and you need to make sure you are getting the right type of visitors.

cambsno said:
Agree though that I need something like a Special offer on homepage to get people interested.
Click to expand...
Why? Most businesses run perfectly fine without ever using offers. Just be more clear about what you do and try and hook the visitor.
 
Hi Simon. I have had a quick look at your website and I would give you the following feedback.

On the 'about' page I wouldn't start my pitch with the word "although" because, unconsciously, it is a negative word. If my focus is to do portraits (and the rest of your site is geared towards that after all) I wouldn't worry about letting people know my other interests. I would emphasise my fantasticness at portraits and leave it at that.

I am torn about your "...in touch and arrange your session" phrase. I can see where you are coming from, but I wonder if " and discuss what you want/need/would like" would be more tempting. I worry that if I ring you are you going to make me arrange a session; when I would want to see if I like/trust you first. Can I only get in touch when I am ready to arrange the session?

Pricing guide: You might want to change the punctuation here and shift it around a bit: I would have it this way if it was me.

Gift Vouchers for £25, £50 & £100 are available and make ideal gifts for mums, dads and parents to be. (at the very least I would take out the ' where they don't belong)

The main thing that I would change would be some of the pictures on the gallery. I would find a female friend or two and ask them to look through any images I have and give them an "ahhhhh! score". They wouldn't have to comment on whether they 'like' the picture or not, or whether they think it is a 'good' picture or not - just if their first thought is "Ahhhhh". Anything less than a 7 or 8 on the ahhh scale isn't going to tempt others to give you a call - and too many non-ahhhh pictures will outweigh the ones you do have. Get the ones together that have the highest ahh-factor and use only those ones. You might love the rest, and see why they are better pics - but you're not the one you have to convince.

Personally, I think that a lot of portraits that are ahhhh for the parents, because they capture the child's unique character, just aren't that interesting to others - the parents will love them but strangers will probably think OMG.

For me pictures 2, 9, 12, 14, 18 and 20 would have an ahhhh-factor of 7 or less. So, overall they detracted from my feel-good-factor about your site and I would probably have moved on.

I like the simplicity of your site and found it easy to get around. If I could get someone to take a pic of me during a 'shoot' to help prospective clients to feel more of a connection to me then I would think about it.

Good luck with the new business - sometimes these things just take time.
 
Thanks Ali, some good points there. I know I need to tweak the text, glad you have not picked out too much!!

Also agree about the pics, some pics that parents love I think are not that great, then there are others I think are stunning that they dont like! The only problem is that I can see myself getting some very varied results as people are all different. For example, pic 2 (B&W of mum and baby) is one I have had great feedback on from Mums, and one mum actually said it was her favourite pic and can we try to recreate it!
 
Absolutely agree about the 'each to their own'. I guess you can only go on the feedback that you do get and ask as many people as possible so that you get a broad range to choose from - rather than just one or two people's opinions.

Good point about getting the site's stats if you can.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top