New Webite

[Jim Street]

Hi all - I am new the the forum, and have been recommended on here.

I have recently launched a new website and branding

I have focused on mobile users (75% of users) in mind. However, the Home Removals section mostly are viewed by tablet/computer.

Please let me know your thoughts: jsremovals (dot co dot uk) - cannot post link.

I am working on Facebook ads with the branding but wanted feedback before I ploughed on.

Thanks all!

 

[Jim Street]

Sorry about the spelling on Website in the title :-(

 

[UrbanRetail]

Link: https://www.jsremovals.co.uk

I actually really like it. The colours work well, everything looks neat and all the information is concise and straight to the point.

Looks great on mobile and my Lenovo tab, haven't had a chance to view on desktop.

Only criticism; Gmail email address instead of office@ or info@ your domain etc.

Good luck with it.

 

[Jim Street]

Thank you for your email. I will take the pointers on the email, it is something I need to get sorted and I am delighted that the website hasn't taken a battering on its first feedback!

 

[UKSBD]

My initial thought was,

Would I want a waste removal, waste collection, house clearance business doing my home removals?

I don't know your target market and your photos look fine for clearance work but if I was looking for a home removal company they would certainly put me off using you.

Others (and more importantly) your target market may disagree though.

 

[Jim Street]

These are my thoughts exactly, we keep vans doing the same type of job - but getting this point across on the website is difficult and I won't fancy having a different website for the home removals side if I am honest just for the extra admin that would involve..... I am still thinking on this point.

The business was originally called Jims man and van - I am trying to increase the brand. I am considering, finances permitting, getting a larger van and displaying it on the home removals page - but mixing it with the other services certainly doesn't help.

 

[AllUpHere]

My initial thought was,

Would I want a waste removal, waste collection, house clearance business doing my home removals?

I don't know your target market and your photos look fine for clearance work but if I was looking for a home removal company they would certainly put me off using you.

Others (and more importantly) your target market may disagree though.

Agree, it's not a website problem you have, it's a general marketing strategy one. You look much more like a waste removal firm than a removals firm. An impression that's made worse by the picture of the guy in shorts behind a really tatty looking Luton van. I'd be happy to let you take rubbish away, I wouldn't even consider having you transport any of my possessions.

 

[fisicx]

"The Midland’s finest and most reliable removals service"

Can you prove this?

The site scores 9/100 on the google speed test - https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?url=https://www.jsremovals.co.uk/

The labels on the images look a bit naff as do the shadows. And all those boxes with rounded borders were great 10 years ago.

On the waste collection page you have a picture of a man in bed, a sack and a washing machine. It this a total load or a bed or sacks or washing machine. Do you weight everything before loading? It says "Our prices are all inclusive with no hidden charges" but then "£90 minimum charge". does that mean you decide on the day to charge me more?

Why is the image animated?

To get a quote I have to send you a picture of the waste. It's not at my location so I can't do this. What happens next?

The booking form is not on the page.

The reviews are off site for Jims Man and Van not JS removals. I know you are the same but it's a little disjointed. The reviews and testimonials need to be on the site.

The site is OK. It looks a little dated and could do with some more content along with some case studies - and a LOT more before and after pictures. Each of these should be on a new page with details of the job, the location and cost.

But you are using squarespace and this is going to restrict what you can do.

Are people looking on facebook for removals? We just used google .

 

[Jim Street]

Agree, it's not a website problem you have, it's a general marketing strategy one. You look much more like a waste removal firm than a removals firm. An impression that's made worse by the picture of the guy in shorts behind a really tatty looking Luton van. I'd be happy to let you take rubbish away, I wouldn't even consider having you transport any of my possessions.

I agree, I am trying to separate the business by adding more vehicles - another to be added around Christmas - to get away from the waste and removals side. I have ordered more uniforms and trousers etc...

 

[Jim Street]

Ah the tatty van is an old picture on the home page, I changed this on the category pages (the one on the homepage only does waste jobs) so I need to get this change on the homepage I guess - ASAP

 

[Jim Street]

"The Midland’s finest and most reliable removals service"

Can you prove this?

The site scores 9/100 on the google speed test -

The labels on the images look a bit naff as do the shadows. And all those boxes with rounded borders were great 10 years ago.

On the waste collection page you have a picture of a man in bed, a sack and a washing machine. It this a total load or a bed or sacks or washing machine. Do you weight everything before loading? It says "Our prices are all inclusive with no hidden charges" but then "£90 minimum charge". does that mean you decide on the day to charge me more?

Why is the image animated?

To get a quote I have to send you a picture of the waste. It's not at my location so I can't do this. What happens next?

The booking form is not on the page.

The reviews are off site for Jims Man and Van not JS removals. I know you are the same but it's a little disjointed. The reviews and testimonials need to be on the site.

The site is OK. It looks a little dated and could do with some more content along with some case studies - and a LOT more before and after pictures. Each of these should be on a new page with details of the job, the location and cost.

But you are using squarespace and this is going to restrict what you can do.

Are people looking on facebook for removals? We just used google .

Tried to speed up the website but the Squarespace has limited the speed tremendously - not sure where I can increase on this.

The message on homepage is being updated shortly as are the images of the tatty van (quite correct I was heartbroken when I read this then realised what images you are talking about).

I am updating the review pages, Facebook is being quite difficult in this regard.

The problem re the picture of the waste - I have noted this down and am thinking about this.

These are a priority for me I think

The other comments are taken on board, I will be adding more details of our work on the website over time, I do add lots of pictures on facebook.

 

[fisicx]

Tried to speed up the website but the Squarespace has limited the speed tremendously - not sure where I can increase on this.

Easy to fix. Don't use SquareSpace.

The longer you stick with SquareSpace the worst it will be for your ranking and marketing efforts.

The pictures need to be on the website not facebook. Each picture needs a story and ideally the testimonial that goes with the story. You will soon build up a huge collection of indexable material to boost your ranking. But not while you use SquareSpace.

 

[Jim Street]

Ah that's a bit of a bummer since I just had the website build using Square Space.....

 

[Jim Street]

What do you recommend instead of Squarespace?

 

[fisicx]

WordPress. It's free - all you have to do is pay for hosting.

There are thousands of free themes to choose from and thousands more premium themes. There are also thousands of free plugins to performs just about any function you want.

Look at the tradesman theme in my signature. It's a wordpress theme I built for people like you. It lest you post about the work you did and lets people post their feedback on the site: https://tradesman-theme.co.uk/testimonials/ This is just an example of a wordpress theme. Here are some more: https://wordpress.org/themes/tags/news/

Did you pay someone to build the Squarespace site? If so I'd go get your money back!

 

[Jim Street]

I did pay someone to build the site yes - I am paying someone to help knock it into shape, which they have done on category pages. I am now just salvaging what was built, but have a guy who has improve category pages massively from what they were.

Please don't beat me over the head too much

 

[fisicx]

Or stop paying anyone. Move the site to Wordpress and discover a whole new world of possibilities. And it’s free.

 

[Jim Street]

Sounds great but unfortunately my time and abilities are limited so ultimately I will need someone to do the work in any event :-(

 

[fisicx]

Then stop paying someone to fix the fundamentally flawed squarespace site and pay someone the few pennies needed to set up a wordpress site. It will take less than an hour to so and another hour to teach you all you need to know. It's that simple.

 

[Jim Street]

Unfortunately, as great as that sounds - it doesn't help with time. I get the odd couple of minutes here and there.... but I will check it out certainly in those few minutes I do get thank you for this.

 

[fisicx]

Using square space will hurt your business. If you want to advertise on different platforms you need dedicated landing pages. The layout of these pages may be different for each platform and even each advert. You will need to be constantly editing and tweaking the adverts and the pages. Daily monitoring of site usage, ad campaigns and other analytics tools.

It’s only be doing this (or paying someone to do it for you) will your marketing be successful.

It all starts with dumping square space.

 

[Jim Street]

I have emailed the guy who is dealing with things for me, to discuss the idea of buying another domain for home removals with our cleaner vans separating from the waste collection etc..... and I will look into Wordpress as an option.

 

[fisicx]

You don’t need a new domain. The one you have is just fine. Far simpler to look after one site than two.

 

[Jim Street]

Yes I agree but the issues I am faced with are:

- Having waste and moves on the same website.
- Knowing the issues with the landing pages - I am still not sure?

 

[fisicx]

In your other thread I said to develop a marketing strategy first. This will indicate what content you need on the site. Once the content is written you can workout the best layout for the pages and from there you get the site structure.

You then begin to test different adverts and keywords, monitor how effective these are, test and adjust the landing pages accordingly.

You may discover you need to change themes, headers, footers, content, images, calls to action and so on. A website is a constantly moving target that may take many iterations and updates until you find the sweet spot.

This is why sqarespace is the wrong platform. It doesn’t give the flexibility you need to test different options.

 

[UKSBD]

Yes I agree but the issues I am faced with are:

- Having waste and moves on the same website.
- Knowing the issues with the landing pages - I am still not sure?

A lot of that depends on your market.

There are some people who wouldn't dream of having vans and men like yours, to do house removals.

There are some people who wouldn't dream of paying for Pickfords style removals

If your target market are people just wanting local, basic, cheap, home removals there's no point making yourselves look like something you're not.

 

[fisicx]

Lets suppose you want an advert for waste removal in XYZ. You research the house prices and types of people in that location and decide you need to offer a no-frills same day service.

You choose an image and words to entice prospective customers. They land on a page that is totally focused on the service, location, price and offer. You include a call to action, examples of your work and maybe a testimonial. Everything they need (including the enquiry form) is no the page - they don't need to click anywhere else on the site.

You exclude Google from indexing the page and you create a new page for every single location and service you are advertising.

This is what your web man should be advising you about. If they aren't then you are missing a while load of stuff.

 

[Jim Street]

The advert landing pages are different to the ones you link to from the homepage.

You need to get someone to help with the marketing and from there build the website.

The website come after developing the marketing strategy. Until you know how to market the business you won’t know what to put on the site.

In your other thread I said to develop a marketing strategy first. This will indicate what content you need on the site. Once the content is written you can workout the best layout for the pages and from there you get the site structure.

You then begin to test different adverts and keywords, monitor how effective these are, test and adjust the landing pages accordingly.

You may discover you need to change themes, headers, footers, content, images, calls to action and so on. A website is a constantly moving target that may take many iterations and updates until you find the sweet spot.

This is why sqarespace is the wrong platform. It doesn’t give the flexibility you need to test different options.

Thank you for this. I have used some marketing information, from Google Adwords, which I have used to help generate the basis of the website. As a small business within a small demographic, the information I can pick up is limited. However using this and google search helped make some changes i.e. house moves was changed to home removals, and search terms were added at the bottom of the pages based on search volume etc.

I am hoping to build from this, using local areas - but really I think I need to gather data on what the user does. My old website was so useless (google jimsmananvan look at the images you will see it).

But I definitely want to add a case study, or jobs completed area in the near future!

 

[Jim Street]

A lot of that depends on your market.

There are some people who wouldn't dream of having vans and men like yours, to do house removals.

There are some people who wouldn't dream of paying for Pickfords style removals

If your target market are people just wanting local, basic, cheap, home removals there's no point making yourselves look like something you're not.

Your 100% right, our removals is an affordable solution. We have the insurance bits listed and offer a compromise - being between a man with a small van on his own and someone like pick fords - we are trying to look somewhat in the middle of the two.

 

[Jim Street]

Lets suppose you want an advert for waste removal in XYZ. You research the house prices and types of people in that location and decide you need to offer a no-frills same day service.

You choose an image and words to entice prospective customers. They land on a page that is totally focused on the service, location, price and offer. You include a call to action, examples of your work and maybe a testimonial. Everything they need (including the enquiry form) is no the page - they don't need to click anywhere else on the site.

You exclude Google from indexing the page and you create a new page for every single location and service you are advertising.

This is what your web man should be advising you about. If they aren't then you are missing a while load of stuff.

I agree totally with what you say and the web guy has advised something similar - but I have raised concerns about the admin required for this from my side, its just too complex to manage for me, and too complex to contract out as I like to oversee things. If you know what I mean?

 

[Jim Street]

I am trying to keep everything as simple as possible.

 

[fisicx]

.....and search terms were added at the bottom of the pages based on search volume etc.

Noooooo!

Remove this right now! Google hates this sort of thing.

 

[Jim Street]

I thought you had seen this - see page https://www.jsremovals.co.uk/waste-collection

See the bottom? Remove this?

 

[Jim Street]

I can get content written including these words rather than just remove them?

 

[fisicx]

See the bottom? Remove this?

YES!

I can get content written including these words rather than just remove them?

No. You target locations via case studies.

But...

You are marketing using adverts. If you want to market via the search engines you need a different approach. This is why I keep saying: get a marketing plan sorted first then build the website.

 

[Jim Street]

Working on new homepage:

https://www.jsremovals.co.uk/

Put this after domain: new-home-page

Still working on it with web guy...

 

[Jim Street]

Will be replacing the keywords at bottom with case studies mentioning areas.

 

[fisicx]

Working on new homepage

Nope. Still not going to work.

If you are planning to use advertising to drum up new business the whole approach is wrong.

Even if you weren't using adverts it still all over the shop. Bin that awful hero image. As soon as I land on the site I want to see the services you offer and where you work. Look at the site on your phone and see how far you have to scroll to find out what you do,

Have you got a marketing plan written up?

Sorry to be so grumpy but your webguy is not doing you any favours. You need to drop squarespace - it's the wrong platform for your business.

 

[fisicx]

PS. It says:

"Pristine vans with secure furniture fixings"

I can see missing hubcaps, paint on the types and damage to a top corner.

"Friendly local service with professional standards"

Why is your man dressed in paint spattered sweats?

People notice these things. This is why image selection is so important.

 

[Jim Street]

I totally agree - the van with the most pictures is dedicated to waste jobs. I am collecting new photos etc and all drivers have been issued new uniform (on FB page), high viz, fleece, jackets, polo shirts etc... I need to get this on the website I agree. And it will happen with the vans that complete moves.

Its a working progress.

yes you are very forceful on the marketing. My current web guy is just knocking the website into better shape for a bear minimum of cost. We are going to brain storm the ideas of a new website, marketing etc, but for a few hundred quid he is making a few tweaks for a quick improvement.