James Holloway, Founder and Owner of South East Installation Solutions, has agreed to throw his site into the next discussion. I like to try different industry sectors and this series and this would really stood out as a site that could use some help.
This is a great opportunity for many of my marketing and design friends to step up and help a small business owner.
South East Installation Services is exactly what the name indicates, they install. From window treatments to artwork, they specialize in installation. Installation is one of the things we don’t think much about until the need arrives. South East Installation helps out with those installations you can’t (and shouldn’t) tackle yourself. Check out their website for more details on their services.
Speaking of the website, let’s go at it. I have listed a few things that I found below, but I need your help. Visit http://southeastinstalls.com/ and leave your thoughts:
- Keyword Targeting – This site gets the idea of putting keywords in titles; however it seems to be missing the wrong keywords. Users are searching for needs, like “help with drapes”, “installing valances”, “Cornice board installation”, etc. The long-tail is crucial for this type of business. I would recommend creating specific content targeted around each of these services. That way when a user searches for a very, specific service, that page shows in the results.
- Intuit SiteBuilder – Southeastinstalls.com uses Intuit Site Builder as its content management system. The problem with many CMS systems is that they don’t take SEO into account. For example, this site has JavaScript and Style Sheets in the main code. Because the code is in the file and not in an external file, it takes longer for Google to find the true content of the site. The content you want Google to find takes longer. The solution is to move these scripts to an external file.
- Blog – Blogs are great for SEO, but not this one, http://southeastinstalls.blogspot.com/. Because the site is hosted on BlogSpot.com, it only helps blogspot, not SoutEastIntalls.com. I would move the blog to the main domain or a subdomain, like blog.southeastinstalls.com.
That’s a start. I know many of design and development friends would love to chime in too.
Tags: Greenville, landing pages, search engine strategies, SEO, site review, South Carolina« « The Key Alliance | Google 2010 in Review Video » »
January 4th, 2011 at 9:19 pm
Hey John
As always your insight is much appreciated. (If it wasn’t for the seminar you did in Greenville last summer, I’d still have my hosting through GoDaddy, with frames & domain name masking, a black background, and an icon menu from the 90′s)
That said, any suggestions on how to determine what the best “long-tail” keywords should be?
January 5th, 2011 at 11:16 am
Great stuff John, as usual.
A learning/education center could be a great solution to targeting some of the long tail keywords. Provide helpful, relevant content and you’re likely to increase site visits as well as keep them there longer, a plus for relationships (loyal customers).
James, best really depends on your core business objectives and audience. You’ll measure content and success metrics against those first and foremost. John is a beast with SEO and PPC, so he’ll have a few actions in mind I’m certain.
January 5th, 2011 at 12:37 pm
Thanks for offering the opportunity to weigh in here. As usual, you started out with some great tips, John.
From a design perspective, I think the homepage should be re-engineered. With all of the the different images and text to pick from, the eye doesn’t know what to look at first. I think a streamlined menu would really help with that. A simple fix would be simply using the navigation from the interior pages on the home page too. Then, if you wanted to keep image buttons on the home page, I would only have three and make them be something like this – “who we are”, “what we do” and “view our work”.
Also, I think narrowing down the navigational options would help. Instead of different buttons for installation, measuring and repair, it could be one menu item that says “what we do” and include information on each. After all, the installation page says “all we do is install”, yet you have two other pages that says otherwise. One page of your services would make it easier for viewers to see what you do all at once.
I would nix the submit feedback to the site. The goal of your site is to get people to request an estimate, not give you site feedback. This is just a distraction.
I would put testimonials and work samples on the same page and call it “our work”.
I would also decide if you want people to call you or use the “request a quote” page. It’s confusing to the reader to have both. Pick one and really drive that home.
The “our promise” page is great. Perhaps that language should be featured on the home page.
There’s so much more I could say, but this is a start. Hopefully, these are some actionable tips you could make to improve your site.
If you’re looking for a re-design, James, let me know. I’d love to help.
January 5th, 2011 at 3:37 pm
Hey Everyone,
Great stuff here, John. I agree with what my friends have all said above so I won’t rehash anything.
James – first, kudos to you on being willing to put your site out there for public criticism. It’s not easy, but it does make us all better. I’ve done it and it was one of the hardest/best things I did for my sites last year.
There are really two things I want to talk about: the design and your customer.
Design – I saw above that you’re now hosted on Host Gator. That’s fantastic – I think they are an excellent service and one I recommend to all of my clients. I would really recommend that you use their one-click installation of WordPress to change over your CMS and then invest in a professionally-designed template from WooThemes (roughly $79) to change the look of your site. It’s an inexpensive upgrade and, with so many template options out there for WordPress, you can find one that will work for you. A good designer will be able to help you refine and upgrade the site from there as your budget allows.
Your Customer – Too often, we look at our own sites through the lens of what we want to communicate rather than through what our customer wants from us. Your tag line “Rescuing the Southeast from ‘Naked Windows’ one home at a time” is confusing since, at first glance, I thought you only installed windows. Your home page doesn’t really communicate to *me* what you do. If I can’t figure it out in a couple of seconds (or less), I’ll move on.
One suggestion (building on what Brett suggested) is to create “How to” content for your readers. Will it keep some people from calling you on certain, smaller projects? Sure. Will it embed you in their minds as a trusted resource for projects they can’t (or don’t want to) do in the future? Definitely. It’s great for driving traffic since it will be loaded with those “long-tail” keywords such as “How do I hang two picture frames evenly?” or “What size hook should I use to hang a 50 pound mirror?”
The best advice for long-tail keywords is to think like your customer, not like a contractor. Your customers don’t know your nomenclature. They only know “home owner speak.” You could even do posts titled “What’s a Valance?” since I truly have no clue what it is and would likely search on that exact phrase.
Other than that, check out Google’s Keyword Tool. John can help you make sense of the data and dig deeper into it along with prevent you from homing in on the wrong keywords (easy to do). These suggestions are just the tip of the iceberg.
Hope it helps and good luck with your project!
Cheers,
Travis
P.S. Sorry for any typos. I didn’t edit since I’m hungry and haven’t eaten lunch yet.
January 26th, 2011 at 9:19 am
Thanks to everyone that has contributed feedback up to this point.
I know it can be difficult (from a content / concept standpoint) to evaluate a site for a business like mine. Since my business is not a nationwide franchise, it is only relevant to people who need my services and are in the geographic areas that I cover.
I am in the process of rewriting several sections of the website (primarily the homepage / landing page) and will be focusing on that as if it were the only page in the site – because if I can’t lock someone in on the first page, they probably won’t stick around long enough to get to the rest of the site.
I apparently have a lot of work to do from a keyword standpoint, that may take some time, so be patient with me.
For now, I will have to continue using the Homestead/Intuit service for my hosting (unless somebody knows of a equal/better service at as good/better price).
As far as the blog is concerned,
(A) it is becoming more and more difficult to come up with original content that is relevant to the theme I have established
(B) I’m not sure if anyone is actually reading anything I post – I’ve gotten almost zero feedback on any of my posts
(C) I can’t tell if it is bringing traffic to my website or not and if it’s not resulting in someone converting into a customer on a local level, then technically I’m not getting paid for the effort to create the content – regardless of how much I enjoy the writing aspect of it.
That’s why I am struggling with whether or not to continue maintaining the blog.