Review website - London painters and decorators

[phantompainters.london]

Hi Fellow Members

I would like your kind and constructive feedback on my new website:

Painters Decorators London

Painters Decorators London. Commercial and Hospitality Specialists. Wallpaper and Wallcovering Installers. Request free quote on 0203 930 0645

phantompainters.london

I have built the website myself using Wordpress and continuously make tweaks for SEO purposes. I would be grateful for your feedback on design, content, SEO, structure etc. I have reasonable knowledge of building websites but I am not a developer so I am kind of limited to what the theme allows without going into the code too often.

My website is dynamic so I will be adding a "wallpaper & wallcovering" section to the top-level navigation with two or three drop-down pages. I also plan to change the top level navigation menu colour to something more user-friendly.

I am working towards building a comprehensive library of projects so to this end I do not wish to "remove" projects but the https://phantompainters.london/recent-projects/ is kind of limited to 10 projects so I am looking at a plan to "archive" these projects without losing sight of them. So I am thinking of creating a landing page with tiled images and put projects into categories i.e. offices, hotels, wallpaper, etc

Thank you in advance.

 

[Solve My Problem]

I am running out the door so it's brief I am afraid

On a mobile the logo is too large, the links for social are in the wrong place (it's the same with a desktop to be fair)

The first page everything seen is largely irrelevant, the first items displayed are the most important not only to visitors but also search engines, on a device I have to scroll to even get past the first two menu elements

If the theme is restricting you, change the theme

On the menu the first link is not helping anything and just causes frustration for people clicking on it, design the site for people and the SEO will do it's thing.

The large (and it is large) does nothing, it's not overly inspiring and it shown on at least two of the pages

Your "we are not your usual painters" is more important than the huge image at the top, it should be the first thing people see

The quote page should just be an email not a huge form, it is bad for conversions, just use email make it easy for people, you can ask the questions once they have made contact

Contact page should have phone number

The phone number should be visible without anyone scrolling and on every page , you need a contact link on the menu

Don't make people hunt for contact information, make it available at every opportunity

Sorry it's brief

Darren

 

[fisicx]

Most people looking for your services will be using a phone.

When I land on your site all I see is huuuuge logo. Needs to be much much smaller and on the left with your tagline on the right

Why do you then have links off site? Get rid of anything social, you want people to come from FB not go to FB.

Menu needs to be sticky. Most of the links don't need to be there.

Everything else on the homepage is about you. I want to see what you do not read that your painters have been properly trained.

You have a whole load of spammy junk towards the bottom. All those locations are just wrong.

On your recent projects page you have everything on one page with thumbnails and no context. Most of the words tell me nothing about the project.

Not sure why you have those feature wall pages, they add no value. Much like a lot of the content on the site. All a prospective client wants to see is stuff you have done so they can determine if you can do what they want.

Need contact details on every page. Even better, add a simple callback form on everypage. And add a picture - really helps conversions.

 

[phantompainters.london]

On a mobile the logo is too large, the links for social are in the wrong place (it's the same with a desktop to be fair)

Agree with the logo. Social links are at the top, which is what I thought would be ideal place for it.

The first page everything seen is largely irrelevant, the first items displayed are the most important not only to visitors but also search engines, on a device I have to scroll to even get past the first two menu elements

I agree, I am looking to revamp the home page.

If the theme is restricting you, change the theme

Afraid of changing the theme without losing content - will have to look into this.

On the menu the first link is not helping anything and just causes frustration for people clicking on it, design the site for people and the SEO will do it's thing.

I take your point - seobility advised to change it to something other than "Home"

The large (and it is large) does nothing, it's not overly inspiring and it shown on at least two of the pages

Large...? the logo?

The quote page should just be an email not a huge form, it is bad for conversions, just use email make it easy for people, you can ask the questions once they have made contact

Agree, looking to bin the forms because getting too much spam. I thought an online form would be easier for those that do not use an email client.

Contact page should have phone number. The phone number should be visible without anyone scrolling and on every page , you need a contact link on the menu

Agree - looking into this because I do not hear the phone too well hence encouraging email & WhatsApp. I moved the contact us page from the top-level because needed space.

 

[Solve My Problem]

I'll reply properly with more helpful details

 

[fisicx]

Social links are at the top, which is what I thought would be ideal place for it.

Bin 'em. You don't need them.

I take your point - seobility advised to change it to something other than "Home"

Ignore all these online SEO tools. They are mostly wrong.

Build the site for potential customers not the search engines. Beguile and seduce, talk about the gorgeous colours and the way the sunlight changes the aspect of the room. Talk about how the palette works with the furniture and all that ideal home stuff.

If you don't hear the phone use a call answering service.

 

[Deleted member 335660]

Hi Fellow Members

I would like your kind and constructive feedback on my new website:

Painters Decorators London

Painters Decorators London. Commercial and Hospitality Specialists. Wallpaper and Wallcovering Installers. Request free quote on 0203 930 0645

phantompainters.london

I have built the website myself using Wordpress and continuously make tweaks for SEO purposes. I would be grateful for your feedback on design, content, SEO, structure etc. I have reasonable knowledge of building websites but I am not a developer so I am kind of limited to what the theme allows without going into the code too often.

My website is dynamic so I will be adding a "wallpaper & wallcovering" section to the top-level navigation with two or three drop-down pages. I also plan to change the top level navigation menu colour to something more user-friendly.

I am working towards building a comprehensive library of projects so to this end I do not wish to "remove" projects but the https://phantompainters.london/recent-projects/ is kind of limited to 10 projects so I am looking at a plan to "archive" these projects without losing sight of them. So I am thinking of creating a landing page with tiled images and put projects into categories i.e. offices, hotels, wallpaper, etc

Thank you in advance.

I had a look using my iPad and thought it was quite neat and tidy and easy to use.

With my marketing hat on I am wondering if all these projects on the home page is the best thing. There is nothing on the home page about your 25 years experience and the other selling points in your Why Us section.

 

[phantompainters.london]

I had a look using my iPad and thought it was quite neat and tidy and easy to use.

With my marketing hat on I am wondering if all these projects on the home page is the best thing. There is nothing on the home page about your 25 years experience and the other selling points in your Why Us section.

Good point Trevor - I had actually thought about putting the projects on our home page, with a slideshow. As we build our portfolio we will move towards a more image based website.

I have started tweaking the website based on feedback thus far. Thanks

 

[phantompainters.london]

Bin 'em. You don't need them.

Ignore all these online SEO tools. They are mostly wrong.

Build the site for potential customers not the search engines. Beguile and seduce, talk about the gorgeous colours and the way the sunlight changes the aspect of the room. Talk about how the palette works with the furniture and all that ideal home stuff.

If you don't hear the phone use a call answering service.

I am currently looking into the call answering service - this time of the year is just a little quieter for us so I have more time to deal with marketing stuff. I am looking to get our own 0203 number and divert to a call answering service

 

[fisicx]

I had actually thought about putting the projects on our home page, with a slideshow. As we build our portfolio we will move towards a more image based website.

Nooooo!

Don't use a slideshow. Set up a grid of images with labels and categories. Each of these will link to a project page where you talk about the project and show lots of full size images.See the Tradesman Theme link in my signature for an example of what I mean.

People land on your site because they want their house/office decorated. They already know you can do the job because of your marketing. Your job now is to convince them to pick up the phone. Get rid of everything from the site that distracts them from this focus. You want new business not people reading about feature walls.

 

[The Supplier Central]

Nooooo!

Don't use a slideshow. Set up a grid of images with labels and categories. Each of these will link to a project page where you talk about the project and show lots of full size images.See the Tradesman Theme link in my signature for an example of what I mean.

People land on your site because they want their house/office decorated. They already know you can do the job because of your marketing. Your job now is to convince them to pick up the phone. Get rid of everything from the site that distracts them from this focus. You want new business not people reading about feature walls.

Agree completely here. People are looking for someone professional they can trust, let them drill down on a seperate page if they want to see your work, also it won't help your SEO looking like an image based site. I would remove that whole big image, your description of what you do is really good and people are just looking to confirm what services you offer before contacting. The pertinent info would then be above the fold and instantly viewable

 

[Solve My Problem]

I am currently looking into the call answering service - this time of the year is just a little quieter for us so I have more time to deal with marketing stuff. I am looking to get our own 0203 number and divert to a call answering service

Getting a voip number is cheap and fast https://voipstudio.com/ can setup a number for you, you can then direct to answer.co.uk for a cheap message only service. You can run the voip client on your phone so you can get the calls on your mobile if you are able to talk.

If not the message service grabs the call, it's a win win, phone numbers will always generate more leads for your line of work than messages

Darren

 

[Solve My Problem]

Home links on menus are pointless, everyone knows to click on the logo. Don't waste valuable space

A header should be different on a mobile and a desktop, a desktop you should display contact into along with the menu and logo, a mobile should have the number and email in the menu as header space is limited

The image on the front page is too large and adds nothing, use text and put the most important info there

On your free quote page you have a link to free quote

The email is not highlighted on that page, it should be

Good luck with it all

Darren

 

[Alan]

"Unsolicited sales messages will be blocked."

Avoid negative sentiments - it gives a signal to me you are grumpy and hard to work with

 

[JamaC]

Create the website with your customers in mind by providing them with the most important information first

Key advice, keep everything clear and simple!


A person who is looking for a painter/decorator will look for and need the following

• Quality of work - Create a page that provides multiple images of different projects you have worked on. Change the recent projects tab to gallery. Keep it simple, people are simple. Also place a few of these images on the homepage giving the user access to view more.

• Price - Price is a crucial part of shopping around for someone looking for a painter and majority of websites do not provide price as they differ per project.

Still place a prices on your website!! This can be done by giving a few examples of how the pricing works or use previous projects as examples and highlight the costs.

This will give you a big advantage over you competition as most do not have any pricing.

Create a pricing page and take a look at your analytics and you will see how much engagement this page actually has. It will show how much it is needed

• Process - Use your homepage to provide your visitors with as much important information as possible, use icons with a brief description of your quick 3 - 4 step process needed to book a painter. from the booking to the job.

For example 1. Provide us with your details 2. we give you a quote and available dates 3. We confirm the booking 4. Job done on the date

This helps give the potential customer clarity and knows what to expect

• Experience/Customer feedback - Briefly highlight your expertise and what type of work you have done in the past and the different methods you use. Maybe put this information on your about us page and/ or briefly on your homepage. Plus most of the information in the why phantom painters can be summarised and placed in your about us page. Keep it simple, the about us page is one of the most viewed page on any website, make the tabs familiar for people.

If your haven't already done so, get written feedback from your customers to use on your website and place these on your homepage (only 3 - 4 is needed)

• List of services - When people land on your website, they know what they want, make your images (commercial, residential, hotel) on your homepage clickable. When someone lands on the website they will click what is relevant to them and learn more about that specific service.

• Areas covered - Make it clear what areas you cover, from a person lands on the page they need to know how far you will travel. Especially as you have Richmond in your header section, do you just cover Richmond and surrounding areas


Lastly, you have done a good job with your design as it looks clean, but hire a web designer to give the site a good foundation. There are things that need fine tuning such as titles, text positioning/alignment, call to actions, navigation etc.

 

[phantompainters.london]

• Quality of work - Create a page that provides multiple images of different projects you have worked on. Change the recent projects tab to gallery. Keep it simple, people are simple. Also place a few of these images on the homepage giving the user access to view more.

I like that idea - gallery. I have already tweaked the site by removing the cover image. I plan to add another row of three images with title and description, eventually each linking to a page. We plan to have descriptive category title clickable rather than "view more"

• Price - Price is a crucial part of shopping around for someone looking for a painter and majority of websites do not provide price as they differ per project.

Still place a prices on your website!! This can be done by giving a few examples of how the pricing works or use previous projects as examples and highlight the costs.[

This will give you a big advantage over you competition as most do not have any pricing.

Create a pricing page and take a look at your analytics and you will see how much engagement this page actually has. It will show how much it is needed

I did think of this in the early stages of the site build but many advised against it. We largely do work for interior designers, hotels, offices etc so it is very difficult to come up with a 'price list'. The domestic market may be easier to do based on number of bedrooms etc but we do not do domestic projects i.e. occupied projects. Also, if we put prices, even guide prices, some clients may hold us to these and demand any lower price. We do not want to over promise and under deliver.

• Process - Use your homepage to provide your visitors with as much important information as possible, use icons with a brief description of your quick 3 - 4 step process needed to book a painter. from the booking to the job.

For example 1. Provide us with your details 2. we give you a quote and available dates 3. We confirm the booking 4. Job done on the date

This helps give the potential customer clarity and knows what to expect

That is something we are looking into - an infographic of the process.

• List of services - When people land on your website, they know what they want, make your images (commercial, residential, hotel) on your homepage clickable. When someone lands on the website they will click what is relevant to them and learn more about that specific service.

Agree - we plan to do this shortly along with three more categories

I will be looking for a web developer/designer shortly to make some deeper tweaks to the theme/template.

 

[fisicx]

The gallery is key to everything. It needs to be prominent on the homepage almost to the exclusion of everything else.

I wouldn’t bother with an infographic as every project will be different.

And I agree with you, keep the prices off the site.

 

[JamaC]

I think my point was missed

Adding the prices is to make clear each project will differ depends on a number of factors.

That is what you inform the visitors so there is no expectations.

At the same time give a few examples to give the visitor some sort of idea, maybe even give 2 completely different examples.

The point is to help provide clarity

When someone is shopping around from website to website, these are the little factors that give you an edge over your competition.

Jakob Neilson also known as the 'guru of website usability' also recommends adding pricing even if there are no set prices

Heres are 2 articles related to pricing and the cons to leaving it off your site

Pricing information gives B2B sites a competitive advantage

Prospective customers want to know the price as their #1 info need on any website — including B2B sites, but these sites often hide or obscure pricing information.

www.nngroup.com

Show Prices for Common Scenarios

B2B sites often have overly complex pricing structures or can't show prices at all. To help prospects with early research, list representative cases and their prices.

www.nngroup.com

 

[UKSBD]

Adding pricing can bring in lots more visitors (whether they convert is another matter).

I would include pricing on a trade site, not accurate pricing, but just something like price from, typical price, average price, etc.

 

[phantompainters.london]

Getting a voip number is cheap and fast https://voipstudio.com/ can setup a number for you, you can then direct to answer.co.uk for a cheap message only service. You can run the voip client on your phone so you can get the calls on your mobile if you are able to talk.

If not the message service grabs the call, it's a win win, phone numbers will always generate more leads for your line of work than messages

Darren

Thank you SO much Darren. I was originally looking at another but more expensive supplier. I have set up with both suppliers you suggested. Thanks again @Solve My Problem you certainly solved my problem!

 

[phantompainters.london]

I think my point was missed

Adding the prices is to make clear each project will differ depends on a number of factors.

That is what you inform the visitors so there is no expectations.

At the same time give a few examples to give the visitor some sort of idea, maybe even give 2 completely different examples.

The point is to help provide clarity

When someone is shopping around from website to website, these are the little factors that give you an edge over your competition.

Jakob Neilson also known as the 'guru of website usability' also recommends adding pricing even if there are no set prices

Heres are 2 articles related to pricing and the cons to leaving it off your site

Pricing information gives B2B sites a competitive advantage

Prospective customers want to know the price as their #1 info need on any website — including B2B sites, but these sites often hide or obscure pricing information.

www.nngroup.com

Show Prices for Common Scenarios

B2B sites often have overly complex pricing structures or can't show prices at all. To help prospects with early research, list representative cases and their prices.

www.nngroup.com

Originally I was going to feature each project using a modified estate agent gallery so instead of No of bedrooms, we state the number of days, number of decorators, square metres, etc and instead of on market price, we put price brackets/range. I can see publishing this information it demonstrates transparency and individuality so will give this some thought for a later date.

 

[fisicx]

Originally I was going to feature each project using a modified estate agent gallery so instead of No of bedrooms, we state the number of days, number of decorators, square metres, etc and instead of on market price, we put price brackets/range. I can see publishing this information it demonstrates transparency and individuality so will give this some thought for a later date.

Which comes back to the advice given to create a post for each project. These are key to local ranking.

 

[Solve My Problem]

Thank you SO much Darren. I was originally looking at another but more expensive supplier. I have set up with both suppliers you suggested. Thanks again @Solve My Problem you certainly solved my problem!

You're welcome.

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

Looks OK. You paint stuff around Richmond. I'd probably call you for an end of tenancy paint job. My impression is you're low to medium-end painting and will pop around for a free quote.

I wouldn't look at you for anything high end because the website is 'OK.' It doesn't scream 'high end.'

Looking at it on a desktop, I think it looks like you've built it yourself. It's a bit DIY and I'm OK with that for something low to medium-end.