I just finished my website, so far at least…

I’m looking for some critique / comments. Also have a question about the contact form.

When I set it to send emails to my email addresses which use Google Apps then it errors and fails to send.

So what I did is create a gmail account, and just have the account forward to my account hosted by Google Apps.

Is this a common problem? Or a problem in the code, I’m very confused…

Here is the URL:

Thanks

Oh also, in case you were wondering, I modified a theme from ThemeForest called Concise!

I like it.. clean, minimalist.

Could use a touch more colour, though.

Don’t know why it would fail to send to a gmail address. Shouldn’t matter if it’s a forwarder or not

I kept waiting for the color to show up, thinking there was a picture loading or something.

Layout is decent.

Needs some content for sure on the home page.

Add color. Add contrast.

I’d move that contact form to the contact page, and find some sort of stock image to put there. Maybe an explanation for why someone might want to utilize the form as well, because after spending 10 seconds on the page, I didn’t know what the company does or why I’d want to do business with them.

If words aren’t your thing, make some icons and use pictures to direct viewers around. Don’t just slop everything in one place and expect them to figure it out, because in all likelihood, the visitor is just going to press his back button and look through one of the other 151,608,549 results he got on Google for sites just like yours until he finds one that grabs his attention.

I like it.. simple, tidy, to-the-point.. some of the wording could probably be fixed up a bit.. less fluff and more direct explanation of what you offer.. but overall it’s a good site.

I agree some more contrast/colour would give it a bit more "pop"..

Yeah,

I kept it without color so it wouldn’t distract as much and take away from the writing…

I’m in Pacific Beach BTW…

Yeah not sure why it wouldn’t submit emails to my email accounts hosted by Google Apps (mail.google.com/a/ligtenberg.com)

How would i make it more contrasty? A black background makes it look crazy…

I know, I write horrible copy :/ Wish I would have paid more attention in English class.

I agree with you to some degree. I just wanted to put the contact form there so it would be REALLY simple to email me right away. I prefer them to do that than read everything because it would take them a while.

This business is more referral / local, don’t really depend to much on Google hits, although I would entertain the offer. I was hoping the pictures would make them want to click on them because those are the main offerings.

It’s more just about getting to the point.. i’m no good at it either, i’ve got someone who does it for me, but the general idea is to just put "We can do x, y, and z for you. This is why we’re good. This is who we’ve done work for. This is what they said about us"..

Example, on your front page, all those summaries in the main slideshow.. none of them actually give any instant information on what you do and why I should choose you.. eg:

This doesn’t actually sell me anything.. it’s like the beginning of a story, as opposed to selling me a product/service. My eyes instantly glaze over when I see those long spiels. Time is money, ‘n all that

"We take care of the research and development to ensure your company doesn’t make mistakes in choosing technology".. or something more direct like that tells them what you can actually do for them.

Again, it’s just opinion, other people believe you get better sales if you DO include all the fluff. I’ve found it way more successful to just say straight up what i’m offering.

I agree with what you did here. A front page instant-contact/reverse-contact form is a good idea when it’s referral based. The person already knows who you are (to an extent), they just want to verify that you’ve got the skills/background to do what they’re after, then contact you.

i like it quite a bit actually. just a few things that i thin would make it better

1. darken up the text, not black just darker maybe 333333
2. Logo, im not sure if that is a branded logo if not i think the color should go there, im not an artist so i dont know how or what color but i think that it being the strong point would leave the visitor remembering and unless your selling somethign for 10 bucks your not selling to 1 time visitors so you want them to remember the name so next week they can google it because you know they will forget to bookmark it.
3. From a sales point, get rid of email addresses and contact forms on the site and use your 800 number with a well laid out press 1 for**** press 2 for****. I did this about 3 months ago and my conversions have went through the roof, make people call you! if they are interested enough to call about your product someone has to make a sale, either you or them, its never up in the air.
I know its a headache answering calls but its far easier to sell someone over the phone then it is in an email. ( this is strictly my opinion, but worked quite well for me)

Thanks for the great feedback. I’ll try and see what I can do to pull in more attention and make it more obvious and less like a story!

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