Feedback

[RUDE BOI]

I've just helped my girlfriend create her website for her dog walking business.

Would love to get some feedback, and ask for any easy tips for getting it as a priority a Google when searching 'dog walking [my local town]'?

Only registered and activated members with 10 posts or more can see links.

The site isn't quite finished, most the text needs re-writing but am done on the general design.

Thanks in advance

[Ashley]

When I open it in tapatalk the browser opens safari and try's to download snippet.cgi, looks good when I open it.

[RUDE BOI]

When I open it in tapatalk the browser opens safari and try's to download snippet.cgi, looks good when I open it.

I haven’t seen the site on any apple products, so am keen to know that it looks okay on iphones/pads. Unsure what the cgi download is, I haven't come across that before.

[Ganty]

The site url is lengthy - I'd consider something shorter, people will be put off before they even visit.

[RUDE BOI]

Cheers for the feedback, greatly appreciated.

The site url is lengthy - I'd consider something shorter, people will be put off before they even visit.

The name of the company and url is long, and I been thinking of shortening it but couldn’t think of anything punchy and notable. Although seeing as most prospective customers will be finding us through google/review sites I wasn’t sure how much this would impact us. Also unsure how this would effect ranking on google (SEO)?

Yello,

Points:

* I hope that is a business mobile/email and not personal. Any web scraper bot will find that and the Spam factor might become unbearable. You already have a contact page so I would only use that, especially when the email in the header is not clickable.
* Maybe have a downloadable price list? You can then lose the Prices page and have a download on the Services page. I only say as prices change and remembering to update the site when they do could easily be forgotten.
* The big 'Next' button on the Gallery does not fit in with the style of the rest of the site.
* On the FAQ, rather than numbers just use bullet points.
* I cannot decide on the Paw print buttons when you already have the links on the top in the header.

Yet again as I said in the other two posts, I am certainly no expert so do not take my opinion as action that needs to be taken. The site works, looks good and I hope it works out.
I do agree with the domain name comment.. I have forgotten it already.. Something about Smoggies? You in 'Boro? Maybe buy the acronym dmam.co.uk and have it redirect to the full string? Not sure..

The mobile and email are the business contacts, I thought I had set the email in the header as clickable, I will have to review that.

I agree with you that the next button doesn’t go with the site at all. The girlfriend has over 100 pictures (much more than what is on the site at the moment) so thought it would be too much for one page, so put the next image in as a quick workaround. This means I would probably need about 5 pages of pictures, so am probably in need of pretty prev/next images to match the site.

I will try changing the FAQ to bullet points to see what it looks like.

The girlfriend virtually never changes her prices, so don’t think will be a problem. And I have to say downloading files really annoys me (especially menus from restaurants) as I’m mostly on a phone so means app multi-tasking, but maybe that is only me.

[Goldberg]

Yello,

Points:

* I hope that is a business mobile/email and not personal. Any web scraper bot will find that and the Spam factor might become unbearable. You already have a contact page so I would only use that, especially when the email in the header is not clickable.
* Maybe have a downloadable price list? You can then lose the Prices page and have a download on the Services page. I only say as prices change and remembering to update the site when they do could easily be forgotten.
* The big 'Next' button on the Gallery does not fit in with the style of the rest of the site.
* On the FAQ, rather than numbers just use bullet points.
* I cannot decide on the Paw print buttons when you already have the links on the top in the header.

Yet again as I said in the other two posts, I am certainly no expert so do not take my opinion as action that needs to be taken. The site works, looks good and I hope it works out.
I do agree with the domain name comment.. I have forgotten it already.. Something about Smoggies? You in 'Boro? Maybe buy the acronym dmam.co.uk and have it redirect to the full string? Not sure..

[Goldberg]

Agree with the downloading now you mention it.

Maybe combine the services and prices page together? Seems pointless having two pages for effectively the same thing.

[blaggard]

I agree with Ganty. . . .url way too long 'dognmog' or similar would be better, no need to change the company name but I wouldn't want to have to type all that. . .

Only registered and activated members with 10 posts or more can see links.

[tric]

Would love to get some feedback, and ask for any easy tips for getting it as a priority a Google when searching 'dog walking [my local town]'?

most prospective customers will be finding us through google[my local town]'?

Use dogwalking[yourarea].co.uk as your domain OR setup landing pages for the areas you cover (with plenty of keywords) i.e.
dogwalking.co.uk/chelmsford
dogwalking.co.uk/danbury
dogwalking.co.uk/essex

etc

[RUDE BOI]

Use dogwalking[yourarea].co.uk as your domain OR setup landing pages for the areas you cover (with plenty of keywords) i.e.
dogwalking.co.uk/chelmsford
dogwalking.co.uk/danbury
dogwalking.co.uk/essex

etc

Thanks tric,
I was thinking of going down this route but thought

Only registered and activated members with 10 posts or more can see links.

was too long to type. What would peoples thoughts be?

I like the idea of landing pages, problem is at the moment the site is hosted by moonfruit and the users are just being redirected from the .com domain, with masking turned on, so users only ever see the .com address without any '/pages' showing.

[Mule]

My comment was removed, presumably because it was assumed that I was being a perv, in this case however, I was not.

You should have a picture of your girlfriend on the site, it doesn't even need to be a wonderfully clear shot. Just so people know that some monster isn't going to turn up on their doorstep. It also makes the website a bit more personal, and that's what's being provided, a personal service.

[RUDE BOI]

My comment was removed, presumably because it was assumed that I was being a perv, in this case however, I was not.

You should have a picture of your girlfriend on the site, it doesn't even need to be a wonderfully clear shot. Just so people know that some monster isn't going to turn up on their doorstep. It also makes the website a bit more personal, and that's what's being provided, a personal service.

I already told her to take some pictures of her with dogs, with leads etc, as I agree it makes sense to inlcude pictures of the person who will be looking after their dog.

[akimba]

how about doginchelmsford.com, sure you would get quite a bit of traffic then ;-)

I am surprised that no one on here hasn't already started texting Katie but seriously I always prefer a landline number on a website just feels more professional.

I would prob drop the gallery and that gets rid of the "next button" issue as no of those pics are to do with the business they are just random pets albeit ones you have sheltered how do I know.

Also the pics on the main pages I would fade a little as the website is a nice pastel colour and then u get these colour heavy dog pics on it.

[RUDE BOI]

how about doginchelmsford.com, sure you would get quite a bit of traffic then ;-)

I am surprised that no one on here hasn't already started texting Katie but seriously I always prefer a landline number on a website just feels more professional.

I would prob drop the gallery and that gets rid of the "next button" issue as no of those pics are to do with the business they are just random pets albeit ones you have sheltered how do I know.

Also the pics on the main pages I would fade a little as the website is a nice pastel colour and then u get these colour heavy dog pics on it.

Yeah she like the pictures, so they will have to stay. But I was thinking about a pet profiles section instead of gallery where every pet gets their own section text and pictures, which might show she really gets to know the pets and cares for them. But then again this isn't a dog facebook.

If I can figure out how to fade images I might give it a go.

doginchelmsford.com - I might float that idea to her as a joke, just to see if she gets it.

[tric]

Moonfruit - ah right, pointless getting a keyword rich domain then. May as well go for something as short as possible.

Or just get a second shorter domain and redirect it to your main domain.

[RUDE BOI]

Moonfruit - ah right, pointless getting a keyword rich domain then. May as well go for something as short as possible.

Or just get a second shorter domain and redirect it to your main domain.

How does having moonfruit effect the having a keyword rich domain? Does google just ignore the redirecting domain, and look at the moonfruit address? If so does that mean I should change my moonfruit address?

[Goldberg]

Make the domain name personal like:

KatiesPetServices.co.uk
KatiesDogWalking.co.uk
etc..

[Ganty]

I think you're being slightly naive in the way you feel your/her business will be advertised - the reason I mentioned the url originally is because most of the business customers you get will come from word of mouth and branding on vehicles locally, not SEO.

Whilst SEO and websites are ever important in this digital age, don't underestimate the importance of physical branding (decals on a compnay van etc...) which is where the shorter url will benefit.

And obviously link the fuck out of it on social media, facebook users love dogs it would appear.

[RUDE BOI]

I think you're being slightly naive in the way you feel your/her business will be advertised - the reason I mentioned the url originally is because most of the business customers you get will come from word of mouth and branding on vehicles locally, not SEO.

Whilst SEO and websites are ever important in this digital age, don't underestimate the importance of physical branding (decals on a compnay van etc...) which is where the shorter url will benefit.

And obviously link the fuck out of it on social media, facebook users love dogs it would appear.

Thanks I agree with your points, firstly I'm just sorting out the website and branding. Then once sorted I'm going to start the advertising campaign, which will involve leaflets etc.

At the moment virtually all of her customers have come through the web, which is why I picked it as my start point. But this itself might indicate that increased local advertising is required.

[blaggard]

I think as well don't over emphasise dog-walking, she does so much more. . . .