Websites

[Couch Potato]

Thats a little harsh.

I went with harsh because he didn't seem to get subtle.

Well ive seen yours http://gregmyersappraisal.com/ and I would keep mine. We get about 150 online orders per month directly from the site of "new clients", and about 500 - 600 visits per day.

See its not just about the "content" of the page but how the page is formated for search engines, web crawlers, spiders, referral services, blogging and cell phone usage (ordering from your cell phone).

The page it self is easy to create however the logistics of everything else is what seperates from being a asset to your company or just a website.

Yes, and your google page rank of 2 is solid for an appraiser's site. I have not viewed your site on a cell phone. I am on vacation in Florida this week, so I don't have access to a small screen. Most of the time css is used to change for different platforms. It is achieved by having separate style sheets for the different devices. One of the things that gives me the impression you got ripped off is the use of embedded styles rather than separate style pages.

The inline fixed-width table used for layout is not a good choice for multi-platform viewing either. The site uses flash for menus, which means they won't work on the popular, rapidly growing iPhone platform. For $1,000 I would expect better work. (Not that $1,000 is a lot to pay for web site development, but the site ought to at least be organized for easy maintenance.)

By your stats, about 1 out of 200 people visiting your site places an online order. Either you are getting a lot of traffic from people not looking to order an appraisal, your getting a lot of fax orders or something is wrong with the site. Imagine if you could get that down to 1 out of 100. You would double you business if traffic levels stayed the same.

My goal with this post is not to bash your site. I truly intend it as helpful criticism.

 

[TN Pro]

Dean,

Did you like my related links at the bottom of the page?

I like your site, i think you did a good job in changing the standard xsite format.
There is nothing worse than a generic xsite. I like people who think outside the box. Your site is barely recognizeable as an xsite.
I like the personal touch of using your own house in the site (i assume)

Mine is very basic, i coded it all by hand on microsoft notepad when i had some free time. http://www.bridgez.com
Is it as profesional, or as fancy as others?
Its not, but i think it shows who we are as a company, and that we dont hind behind an expensive fasade while delivering a crappy product. It doesnt have the latest coding or techniques, but its just meant to be a brief introduction.

Dean

 

[Tom Foster]

There are lots of free templates out there.

I started creating web pages ( part time ) 13 years ago when you could make some good $$$ with HTML.

Now with all the templates, tools and teenagers with lots of time on there hands the times have changed.

 

[Couch Potato]

Dean, there are some simple things you can do to improve your site. Such as change the line "For Real Estate information Click here" to "Real Estate information" to improve the readability of the site and improve the evaluation of your site by search engine bots. Overall a nice site, but there are some issues with the width of the left column in some browsers, and I don't see "links at the top" on most pages. Your page seems to be set up to read the browser and adjust, but needs a bit of work in that area. Remember 1 in 4 people use a browser other than Internet Explorer.

Scott, you did a good job of customizing your site, but you might want to find a higher spot on the page for you phone and fax number. Potential clients should have to scroll or click to get basic contact information. They just might move on to another site rather than search for information where they are. I bet you could put the contact numbers above the house and make them look nice. When I had an XSite if found that it did not work at all in browsers without Flash. You might want to check to see if that defect has been addressed by viewing your page in such a browser. A fun way to test is good to a local store and play with an iPhone.

 

[RSW]

Dean,

Nice web-site. I think I saw that guy in the photo on the wall in the Post Office once.



Couch Potato,

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll go in and try to move it up to the top and see if it looks any better. I'll go into the Apple store here at the mall and try it on the iphone.

 

[EVAUSA]

Mines just the essentials, it took me 4-EV-ER to get this far. 2 hours just to design my logo, which is I know probably needs 2 more hours to make it prrrrfect. Still haven't done the research how to add a PDF attachment and few other things are missing like a Visa/MC pic link, and personal info out me and my team. http://www.evalueappraisal.com/

 

[GeorgiaCG]

another one with just the essentials

I modified a basic template in an old copy of frontpage for this site.

www.southernai.com

The hardest part was learning how to write the cgi code to allow a file to be uploaded to the site.

It's hosted on an old P4 in the mechanical room of my house using the linux based SMEserver (free software).

I paid a local computer artist to make the coverage map for me...... so if i see it on another site somewhere... I'll know where it came from.

CT

 

[EVAUSA]

I modified a basic template in an old copy of frontpage for this site.

www.southernai.com

The hardest part was learning how to write the cgi code to allow a file to be uploaded to the site.

It's hosted on an old P4 in the mechanical room of my house using the linux based SMEserver (free software).

I paid a local computer artist to make the coverage map for me...... so if i see it on another site somewhere... I'll know where it came from.

CT

Very nice, and professional!

 

[Jason Barber]

Yes, very nice site Christopher !!

One thing I noticed... the table on your Fee Schedule page (grey table) runs out past the border on the right side (white background). It would look much nicer if you contained it withing the white background area.

 

[reaper]

I dig Coesters site. Curious to know if you made that word order form or was that part of the site design?

Heres me. I done it all by myself. Opinions?

www.expressvaluation.net