Website review required

[cody44]

In a recent post asking for advice on possibly setting up a Google Ad Words campaign it has become apparent that I may need to make changes to the website, especially the mobile platform in order to make the 'ad words campaign' more effective.

Basically I offer a number of 'Health and Safety training courses' to businesses across the North West. Courses include delivering directly in the workplace (in house) and some courses we offer directly to individuals at venues that we run as 'open courses'.

Any advice or direction is more than welcome and the website can be found at:

http://www.liverpooltrainingsolutions.uk.com/

Look forward to any comments

Thanks

 

[The Byre]

Unreadable on a mobile!

 

[cody44]

Unreadable on a mobile!

Thanks

Be interesting to know what mobile device you were using?

 

[Nochexman]

Using a desktop, I could not see how I would have to pay to attend a course.

 

[fisicx]

Having a mobile version may not be that important if most of your visitors are using a desktop or a tablet.

However, you just make it so difficult for anyone to check the course and to make a booking.

Look at this page: http://www.liverpooltrainingsolutions.uk.com/first-aid-at-work-faw/

What is the QCF? What are the recent changes to the HSE checks? How many trained people do I need? Is it a one off course or do they need refreshers? Do you train me at work for the same cost as the open course?

It's only when I scroll down I see some of the answers but I still don't know how to book the course. I could call you but it's late in the evening so I really want to fill in a booking form - but there isn't one.

And all the page I looked at have out of date course information on them. An event manager plugin would fix this problem for you - and let me see all up and coming training and allow me to book a place on the course.

A blog post on christmas safety is a bit out of date now.

There my be more suitable training for my place of work but I don't know what they are until I look at the drop down. I know you have the FA page but you don't lead me there (because of the dropdowns). If I do look at the FA page I'm still confused as the type of training I need.

On my phone the menu is a huge long list and the telephone number in the header no longer displays.

I'm sure the training you provide is top quality but unless I know exactly what I need the site doesn't guide me in the right direction - I have to do a lot or reading and guessing in order to find the right course - I don't know for example if I need fire warden or fire awareness training.

The site layout is very dated and the tiny light font on the grey background is very tiring to read. And why all the borders and boxes? They make the site look very dated (and gloomy).

Where are the testimonials? You have some stars but I have no idea what these mean or where they originate. I clicked on one and it said than you for my vote. I reloaded the page and it let me give you a one star vote again. So it's possible for someone to really mess this up for you.

What is the logo supposed to represent?

A modern responsive theme and reworked content and navigation will make a huge difference.

There is a load more, but that will do for now.

 

[cody44]

Having a mobile version may not be that important if most of your visitors are using a desktop or a tablet.

However, you just make it so difficult for anyone to check the course and to make a booking.

Look at this page: http://www.liverpooltrainingsolutions.uk.com/first-aid-at-work-faw/

What is the QCF? What are the recent changes to the HSE checks? How many trained people do I need? Is it a one off course or do they need refreshers? Do you train me at work for the same cost as the open course?

It's only when I scroll down I see some of the answers but I still don't know how to book the course. I could call you but it's late in the evening so I really want to fill in a booking form - but there isn't one.

And all the page I looked at have out of date course information on them. An event manager plugin would fix this problem for you - and let me see all up and coming training and allow me to book a place on the course.

A blog post on christmas safety is a bit out of date now.

There my be more suitable training for my place of work but I don't know what they are until I look at the drop down. I know you have the FA page but you don't lead me there (because of the dropdowns). If I do look at the FA page I'm still confused as the type of training I need.

Thanks for the feedback fisicx,

I think reading the posts I do need a more prominent Call to action displayed near the top of the page!

Have tried booking forms previously and the client will still pick up the phone (Call to action to explain how to book in 5 mins etc with form) Maybe simple 'request free quote form with less fields but enough to capture the main details of the client and enquiry.

I have previously looked at 'event manager plugins' and this will suffice for all 'Open Courses' I run at venues. The main core of the business is whereby the clients require the training to be delivered directly in their workplace - hence back to the 'call to action' requirement.

'Christmas Safety' - Yes I do need to update a few more recent articles and it bears no relevance to the page at this time of the year!

I think an overall would be a better option and for now I think I need to tidy it up to get the Google Adwords campaign going not until I have updated the Mobile platform layout. I am using WPTouch and it does tick most of the boxes but looking into upgrading it to WPTouch Pro - will need to look at the advantages. Yes definitely need to have a phone number displayed at the top of the page. Know to upgrade is about $150 which covers 5 sites but no good upgrading if it doesn't do the job!

The star ratings I only have displayed for the 'Google Rich Snippet' which displays it on the Google search results. fast and easy and requires no major effort from visitors!

And why all the borders and boxes? They make the site look very dated (and gloomy). I think breaking up the text does help and maybe a habit ive fallen into! I have looked at competitor pages and the only alternative I can think of is to break up the page using more images. Also know I can strip some of the text out of most pages.

Know what you mean about the drop down navigation menu and I don't see an alternative. The pages are optimised for the keyword searches so a google search of 'Fire Warden Training Liverpool' will bring up the Fire Warden Page. Very much similar for other searches such as 'emergency first aid at work training Liverpool' or 'Paediatric First Aid training Liverpool'.

The logo? Pretty simple design in photoshop - I know I need to brand all media including website and documentation for strong logo and colour scheme and maybe this would need to be implemented at the same time as a website re-design.

But yes, stronger 'call to action' for bookings and more responsive mobile platform and prominent phone number displayed. Regarding navigation I may need to look hard at other similar businesses and see if a different approach will work.

Off to wine fridge now!

 

[fisicx]

Do not use WP Touch. All you need is an up to date responsive theme.

There are loads of alternative to the dropdowns. Number 1 is don't use them at all.

All you need is to introduce the courses on the relevanrt page. on The Fire page for example, list the two courses with a one paragraph summary of each and a 'find out more and book' link.

Seperate out the one site and open courses onto two pages. You can then use an event manager to handle bookings on one page. This is a plugin I built to do just this: https://quick-plugins.com/quick-event-manager/the-event-list/ you can even make it look sexy like this: https://quick-plugins.com/quick-event-manager/masonry-events/ or as a calendar: https://quick-plugins.com/quick-event-manager/event-calendar/

Change the theme and then start to play. Even better, get someone to help you in the same way you expect people to get help from you with the H&S training.

 

[cody44]

Do not use WP Touch. All you need is an up to date responsive theme.

There are loads of alternative to the dropdowns. Number 1 is don't use them at all.

I think a neat layout for an event system would be the way forward.

Separate pages for 'Open Courses' and 'In house courses' will generate too many extra pages and the Meta descriptions and Keywords may get diluted along the way. I think for now I need to work on the 2 or 3 pages I want to focus on for the 'Ad Words' to make sure they are fit for purpose. Later it will be a question of sitting back and start fresh on the web design and branding!

 

[fisicx]

No they won't dilute anything. Done right they will strengthen and boost your ranking.

Get the website sorted before doing adwords. If you don't you will just be wasting your money. A new theme won't cost you a penny nor will a rework of the site structure and the page contents.

Google likes lots of good relevant content spread over lots of pages all interlinked and supporting each other.

 

[Steve Alphabet]

Where are you planning to send people after they click your ad? Your homepage?

 

[SEO Lady]

This is a good question. Paid traffic should be directed to a specifically written landing page. You have just a couple of seconds to impress at first glance before people click away. Adwords is very expensive

 

[cody44]

Where are you planning to send people after they click your ad? Your homepage?

Hi Steve, I have 3 or 4 pages that are specifically focused on the 'keywords' I will be pushing in Google Ad Words. I don't see any benefit of sending queries to the home page.

 

[fisicx]

Still pointless. The whole site needs reworking. As you don't seem to want to do this your adwords spend will be mostly wasted.

I helped a chap in the USA with a similar business (he did CPR training). Once we had got the site optimised for has adwords marketing we got his daily spend down and increased conversions to the point that he only need to run adwords for a few hours each day. The key was the landing pages. Unless these are properly structured you will spend far more on adwords than you need to.

 

[UniHost2u]

your site design is old design.
please update your design