Website Critique Please

[allstarit]

Hello all,

I have setup my website allstarit.com.au and I'm not a web designer but I am familiar with Joomla and know a little to get myself by. I have set this site up and would like to get some feedback. I have purchased some images for the site and tried to keep a general theme going with the little white man which I think works well. The same logo and colours reflect onto my business cards to keep the overall theme going.

I have also purchased WHMCS to manage domains and purchases. This is also being used to log support tickets and complete customer billing.

WHMCS is located on services.allstarit.com.au - I have pretty much left the default template for this but one of jobs to complete is match the same menu colours and also have a link on the services page back to the main site.

I have also introduced Open Cart for a basic shopping cart where I place items I have sold and can purchase from suppliers. Again have left the template as default as its close to layout of the main site.

shop.allstarit.com.au

Any suggestions/feedback on my site would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance

Peter

 

[allstarit]

thanks for the feedback on the website

 

[Paul Rodgers]

Not bad, but not great. I think there is too much white space.

Take a look at other members websites and compare them to your own.

 

[allstarit]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the feedback.

Are you referring to the white spaces around the articles or do you mean the space on the left and right.

I think you mean around the articles. I had a look at your website and see what you mean your articles seem to be closer together and not so many white gaps.

Do you recommend more text or pictures or just reduce the amount of spaces?

Thanks again really appreciate it.

 

[allstarit]

I have reduced the width of the left column from 25% to 15% and looks better already. now just reducing the right side.

thanks

 

[Paul Rodgers]

Your content on the home page isn't centered. Your menu options aren't centered either which just looks odd.

I think more color in the form of images might work in helping break up the white space.

Your footer doesn't match your header at all in terms of design.

 

[pc-rebuilders]

Start page

Not sure I like the homepage selling products, I like to know little bit more about your company before you start throwing products at me.
I also agree too much whitespace.

 

[dr_ram]

I don't like ads on company websites. Seems in bad taste to me. I don't like the theme of the stick figures. I don't like the colors on the menu bar.


Other than that the design seems clean.

 

[allstarit]

Have made a few changes to this. Better menu than before..can read font on it now. Removed add as suggested. Adjusted layout too. Just need to fill in some white spaces with pictures. Have removed index.php to help with SEO and revised meta keywords and descriptions.

 

[aweston]

Hello all,

I have setup my website allstarit.com.au and I'm not a web designer but I am familiar with Joomla and know a little to get myself by. I have set this site up and would like to get some feedback. I have purchased some images for the site and tried to keep a general theme going with the little white man which I think works well. The same logo and colours reflect onto my business cards to keep the overall theme going.

I have also purchased WHMCS to manage domains and purchases. This is also being used to log support tickets and complete customer billing.

WHMCS is located on services.allstarit.com.au - I have pretty much left the default template for this but one of jobs to complete is match the same menu colours and also have a link on the services page back to the main site.

I have also introduced Open Cart for a basic shopping cart where I place items I have sold and can purchase from suppliers. Again have left the template as default as its close to layout of the main site.

shop.allstarit.com.au

Any suggestions/feedback on my site would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance

Peter

You need much tighter WHMCS integration. It really destroys the navigation otherwise. You can't get back to the main site without back buttons which guarantees bounces.

I like white space, but you have a lack of nice images. You need color in the worst way.

The contact page lacks any useful contact information which fails to instill confidence to purchase your services.

I would take the service area out. You don't want a drop down for contact unless the actual contact page is also a sub menu item. You'd be amazed at how many people don't realize they can click on the parent menu item.

If I click on online backups it opens a new tab. No. Don't do it.

Too much scrolling for no reason. Make better use of columns.

Way too much blather above the fold on the home page. Nobody is going to read all that rubbish of you blabbing about yourself. Nobody cares. Put it at the bottom and above the fold put what you can do for the client. Service boxes work well there.

The overall problem is that I have to read WAY too much to figure out what, if anything, you can do for me. Nobody likes to read. You need imagery to tell the story and to make much better use of short, concise <H>eaders.

 

[allstarit]

aweston/npinc thanks for your feedback i agree about the WMHCS intergration and contact us page. im working on this.

As for your comments "Nobody is going to read all that rubbish of you blabbing about yourself. Nobody cares." i don't see what your referring too here?
What is exactly rubbish and what exactly am i blabbing about myself?
Not sure where your reading but on homepage i am simply 5 lines stating that i offer services in Melbourne area and list the services that i offer.

Compared to other sites i have seen i have seen i think i kept this introduction pretty brief. I will consider moving it towards bottom and add some pictures to the page.

I had a look at your website npicloud and looks good. I do see what you mean about having more pictures it does make the site visually better.
Just curious is npicloud.com all WHMCS or is it integrated with something else? I see what you mean about keeping the navigation all the same.

will work through these items and let you know when its updated again.

thanks

 

[aweston]

aweston/npinc thanks for your feedback i agree about the WMHCS intergration and contact us page. im working on this.

As for your comments "Nobody is going to read all that rubbish of you blabbing about yourself. Nobody cares." i don't see what your referring too here?
What is exactly rubbish and what exactly am i blabbing about myself?
Not sure where your reading but on homepage i am simply 5 lines stating that i offer services in Melbourne area and list the services that i offer.

Compared to other sites i have seen i have seen i think i kept this introduction pretty brief. I will consider moving it towards bottom and add some pictures to the page.

I had a look at your website npicloud and looks good. I do see what you mean about having more pictures it does make the site visually better.
Just curious is npicloud.com all WHMCS or is it integrated with something else? I see what you mean about keeping the navigation all the same.

will work through these items and let you know when its updated again.

thanks

When I say "rubbish" I'm coming from the eyes of a visitor. That's what it is to them. Remember, your visitor only cares about two things: what's in it for them and how can they contact you (and rightfully so). That's it. The rest is just extraneous rubbish. It's ok to have it there for SEO, just don't use prime real estate to do it.

npicloud is a Wordpress site integrated with WHMCS. Actually you can see a better example on npinc.ca where even when I take them to the WHMCS powered content it still maintains the look and nav of the main site. It's a bit trippy, because the page I'm taking them too is actually the same page as the npicloud site. So it's possible, just tricky.

And you're most welcome.

 

[allstarit]

Ive moved the text down and implemented a slideshow panel at top to showcase main services.
Added some pictures to this too which i think makes a big difference. The slideshow is flash so only downside is it wont work on non flash devices.

 

[aweston]

Ok, now you need to tidy up that mess underneath. Try service boxes and a call to action.

I wouldn't use Flash for anything personally, there's a lot of good sliders that don't use Flash. Anyways, I would say that it made a significant improvement and you're off to a good start.

 

[allstarit]

thanks, good point i have removed flash slideshow and put another popular one in and it runs just a s good but works on mobile now which is good.

Working on the bottom now as you suggested.

thanks heaps for your help

 

[allstarit]

ok i have added some call to action, remote support and noved my number in between these two service boxes
I have also used Joomla Iframe to keep the same menu for all pages and removed the header from WHMCS so i all looks to be the same site and not taking you to other sites.

Not sure if this is the best way to do WHMCS- is there any disadvantages to Iframe - im not sure but have a feeling google wont crawl the content but to be honest it wont be that important becuase its the ordering and client side.
I have made landing pages for products and then on the order now button it then takes the customer to WHMCS side.

next its to tackle the Open Cart site but not 100% sure if ill keep the shopping cart- alot of work updating products and prices