new website

[huggytree]

Just finished my new website Waukesha Plumbing - Residential Service - (262) 224-8377 (http://www.waukeshaplumbing.com)

im very proud of it.....after spending $5,500 last year on a new website that turned out to be a disappointment i decided to start over and take the loss...i decided to hire the guy from small business forum who had the most complaints about my old website(Harold).....i think he did a great job.

this one is everything the old one wasnt

one thing new that im trying out is posting prices...ive never seen a contractor website with prices.....ive decided whats the difference...either i list them on line or the customer calls me and i tell them....either way if a competitor wants those prices they are going to get them....this way it saves me the trouble of dealing with price shoppers....every call for small service jobs should be a customer now

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[MakingItNow]

As far as aesthetics, it looks and sharp and modern. I would not hesitate to call you for service. I like the brand names on the main page. I'm also a fan of the legitimate photos of you working. Too many people use stock photos which deter me due to validity. The content in the meta description is way better than what you previously had.

Your mapping is interesting and unique. I got completely slapped by Google for doing something along the same lines in 2009, mine was a tad more extreme. You've had that since April, how have your keyword positions changed since then?
I spent about 20 minutes looking over your local listings on Google, Yahoo, Bing. You're doing it right. Could I recommend a push for a few Google reviews and a quick link to do so on your website? I've linked directly to Google Reviews, Yelp, and Angie's List. People seem to understand I want reviews without having to mention it.

Adding prices to a service such as yours is a double edged sword with little benefit, in my opinion. However, I've never tried that so I am not speaking from any experience. I would like to hear how that works for your business. I've always assumed if you are lower, the other guy might say so is the quality. If you are higher, the other guy might say your quoting too high. Actually, I use those terms with my competition who post pricing. My close rate is about 85% and I am not the lowest price in town by any means.

Only thing that I personally don't like is the shadowing below the navigation, but that is my personal opinion. Other than that, you're stylin'. :)

[Wozcreative]

Wooo! I like it! I like the change in colour, it looks more serious/professional. Love the idea of showcasing the brands you offer/work with.

Things I have an issue with is the font on the testimonials page, hard to read.
The dropdown - there's no hover so it's difficult to know which button i might be clicking on.

Other than that, love how theres more photos of you. The other plus is that you're super photogenic. Take advantage of that. I'd definitely not be afraid to call you for some work!

[huggytree]

thanks for the reviews....

Woz.....i have found it works well with customers if they can see what you look like before you show up at the door...when i added a photo of myself to my old website the calls went up 3-4x..

i want them to see in not an over weight guy with a plumbers crack and that i have short hair/clean cut.......it makes people feel safe....i worried i used too many photos of myself, but i guess it also shows im a 1 man shop too

[MakingItNow]

I just went through your city links, that took some serious time to construct. The family picture really adds a level of trust and it's a great choice for the first major image after landing.

Just a heads up. You have a 404 on the home page area "fast and friendly service". The page is titled "/contact-us". Easy fix :)

All in all, you should be super excited about your site!

[Harold Mansfield]

Things I have an issue with is the font on the testimonials page, hard to read.
The dropdown - there's no hover so it's difficult to know which button i might be clicking on.

Got it and fixed.



Just a heads up. You have a 404 on the home page area "fast and friendly service". The page is titled "/contact-us". Easy fix :)
Also fixed.

Thanks for the heads up :)

[MyITGuy]

The following links also result in a 404:
http://www.waukeshaplumbing.com/tub-replacements/
http://www.waukeshaplumbing.com/new-homes/

The source is on several pages (Approximately 29 pages)

I wen't through it last night and didn't see anything else that would cause concern...

[Harold Mansfield]

Should be fixed now. Thanks.

[krymson]

The website looks good and functions properly. I would recommend for SEO purposes that meta keywords be used in your site. Many people think that they have been depreciated, but they haven't I still use them on my sites and all my clients sites. Also for the SEO game I would think about how you're going to update content on a regular basis to keep your site relative and not dormant. Its one of those things that Google looks at.

Here's my problem... and it's not even really a problem on your end, it's from a designer/ developer standpoint. This is something I see quite often because most web design clients dont know how to do the research of the design being used and its a pet peeve of mine ( but I'm putting it out there because I don't know what was discussed behind the scenes if im in the wrong let me know and I will rightfully apologize, this is for other members informational purposes )so if you dont want to read it then pass this bit up...

Here we go...

I hope that thousands were not spent on this website as it was a template found here ( Shocoon - Premium WORDPRESS Theme | MET Creative (http://metcreative.com/demo_viewer/index.php?theme=shocoonwp) ). The only thing that was changed was of course images, text and colors... Depending on how many hours spent... only worth a few hundred no more than $500 for time. Now don''t get me wrong it's not a bad design and I think it will represent your company well. As a web developer and web designer myself who actually does the work of hand coding every theme, I feel obligated to let you know you're paying someone to use someone else's work.

Web design is not a retail business it is a custom design business.

A note to the "designer/developer" I do commend you for not putting "designed by:" in the footer because that shows me that you have integrity not to claim something as your own that you didn't initially do.

At the end of the day though its all about results and I hope you get the results you're looking for.

[Harold Mansfield]

... I don't know what was discussed behind the scenes if im in the wrong let me know and I will rightfully apologize,

First of all, I built the website.

Yes, he's well aware that WordPress works on a template architecture since the old website was also on WordPress, and we discussed templates beforehand and this is the one that we decided on.
The decision was made to customize an existing template (rather than design one from scratch) so that we could put more resources into the content, creating 20 additional location pages, as well as individual service pages..all of which didn't exist on the old website. These things had to be created. There was also a time factor to get it done as soon as possible.

Just for comparisons sake, here's the old website so you can see what we were working with from jump: http://www.waukeshaplumbing.com/oldsite/

I don't BS people. I explain how everything works, give them options, and keep them updated and involved every step of the way. I lay out exactly what I'm going to do to meet your wants and needs, and when I'm done what you have should match exactly what we discussed and what I put in writing before I'm even hired.

Next...I don't know how you make assessments of how much someone elses time is worth, and what it should cost when you have no idea how much time it took, what materials were provided, what needed to be created, what copy needed to be written, or any other parameters of the project or deliverables, and so on and so on.

So yeah...You're pretty much wrong all across the board and I'm pretty offended at the audacity.

Helpful, constructive criticism about the site is welcomed. Criticism about me personally and questioning my ethics is not cool man. Not cool at all.

[krymson]

And now I'm formally apologizing. I meant it as no disrespect because like I stated I didn't know what was discussed behind the scenes. I've seen this happen to far too many business owners that spend thousands on a cookie cutter website that isn't unique to them and their businesses.

So again Harold I do apologize as I didn't have to full story and made false assumptions with incomplete information. I applaud your integrity and work.

As far as constructive criticism goes I would look into the SEO aspect as well as how to deliver fresh relevant content.

[huggytree]

i knew someone would attack Harold at some point...i had to chuckle.....good job defending yourself Harold

doesnt matter what i spent...im happy with the result and think its money well spent....i got 2x the website for 1/3rd less $$ than my old one.....maybe even 3x the website

i already rank very well for a few of my city names....ill be excited to see how well i rank for things like ''Water heaters'' combined with the city names in a few months

[Harold Mansfield]

And now I'm formally apologizing. I meant it as no disrespect because like I stated I didn't know what was discussed behind the scenes.
No problem. Apology accepted. There also a lot of other factors that went into how we decided on a direction and what was most important.
I've been interacting with Huggy for years over his website and I already knew what he'd been through and the money that he'd spent.

With that knowledge I knew what areas would be more important than others to him, and I also asked. I wanted to keep the price fair, while making sure that he finally got what he wanted. I'd been saying for a while that he didn't need to spend as much as he was, to get what he wanted.

A custom design was always on the table. It was always the 3rd option. In this particular instance we found something that we liked, that we could add to and make our own. So we thought it would be better to spend more time on building the foundation and content that he never had, and including the things that he wanted, rather than spending the bulk of the money and time on a custom design. Design wasn't his major complaint. It was going to be professional either way.

Function and performance was the main problem.

I also looked around at the competition and what they had going on design wise and knew that we could do better than most of them with the plan that we had and kill all of our birds at once, on time, and on budget.

So that's the direction we went and why.

[billbenson]

At the end of the day, Huggy wants his website to make him money and and give him a better online presence than his competitors. He's in a local market where he wants the business that online surfers look at. It's a small percentage of his total marketing at this point, but will certainly grow over time.

To me some of the posts in this thread are just plain silly. Whether its a custom site built from scratch or a WP site using a template doesn't matter. Everything can be improved over time. Nothing is perfect.

What is important is that the site that Harold built is making Huggy more money and will allow him to grow his online business into the future.

[Brian Altenhofel]

Definitely a huge improvement over the old site.

The only real issue that I found was on the map on the homepage. When you click a pin, it just opens a blank new tab in Chrome (not sure about other browsers).

As for using an already existing theme vs custom design - the important thing is always what works best for the business. In some cases (such as this), an existing theme can save time (and therefore money) on development and it's highly unlikely the target market will suffer brand confusion. Brand confusion is really the biggest risk with a brochure site.

Personally, I've used existing themes on many clients' sites when appropriate, even for an e-commerce site. But for some industries or target markets an existing theme is never considered. In my opinion, some designers/developers put too much emphasis on custom work and not enough on the possibilities of re-using what is already available, and that emphasis comes from a misunderstanding of what best serves a client's needs.

Both of my businesses (Drupal development/consulting/support and Drupal hosting) use pre-existing themes, and no one cares. The important thing is that potential customers/clients get the information they need and that the information is easy to find. I'm not competing with 1,000's of other brands, so something custom is in the same realm as "bells and whistles".

[v.conway222]

Very impressed. Much improved on the old website!
Love the photos - this adds such a personal touch, which is something that is incredibly important when marketing a local business. Hope it works out for you!