[REQUEST] Just Recreated My Website (Hows It Looks?)

[Abet Computers]

So lets try again' this will be replacing the old site that got so much hate.

Just wanted to get some takes on my new website design.

Site will be redirected back to abetcomputers.com when launched
http://www.abettechsolutions.com/

Is it snappy?

Is it to the point?

Is it to much?

Is it boring?

what catches your eye?

Thank you for taking the time to look at any input would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.abettechsolutions.com/

SEO has not been started nor are the service descriptions complete

 

[sapphirescales]

It's...pretty bad. Sorry but I can't hold my punches. Do yourself a favor and pick up a Wordpress theme from themeforest.net, add some good pictures, and you'll be miles ahead of most of your competition.

Your current website looks like something designed in the 90's. It's not intuitive at all and has a lot of wasted space. The fonts and graphics you use just aren't professional looking. Some of your graphics have been blown up and are all pixelated (example below):

http://www.abetcomputers.com/store/p2/Total_Tune-up.html

And why can you add a tuneup service to your cart? I can tell from your pricing you're probably still starting out, but if you don't have a professional looking website, no one will trust you.

 

[GTP]

Looks ok to me apart from the images as mentioned above.
You need a captcha on your contact page to avoid you and your clients details being harvested.

 

[Umbra]

Yep agreed with the both comments, the icons/images are way too big, lot of scrolling to do = i move away.

The map isn't needed at front page, a link will suffice.

 

[Your PCMD]

Your index page should be your Home, not Services. Its not that the images are too big as @Barcelona mentioned, its that its what @sapphirescales said about pixelation. Also, you dont need WordPress, thats the lazys mans way of doing a website IMO. Although I believe your using Weebly. Which is just as bad as Wix. I say lazy mans way because I'm old school, so I code all the sites I create, so take lazy with a grain of salt.

@Abet Computers I don't know how long you've been in business, but I do agree with others in that your pricing seems to be rather low and leans towards a new company. That could be a good thing or come back to bite you later, which I think it will. It could be that there is a lot of competition in your area, we just don't know. But your diagnostic cost? That is insanely too low. A customer brings in a laptop. You spend an hour going through it and find out whats wrong, you contact the client, tell them whats wrong. They tell you dont worry about it. They pay you your rather minuscule diagnostic fee and get their neighbor to fix it for free. We'll see how long you stay in business with that pricing.

Your Privacy and TOS is non-existent. There are several things wrong with the site. Layout is OK. However while the use of tables is OK, your site is wrapped by a table, thats not OK. You also have no SEO. Your suppose to be a company, not an e-commerce store.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Umbra]

i didn't paid attention to the pricing, 10$ is way to low indeed.

In France, they take 50-80euros just for the diagnostic, and then if the customers agree to the fix, the amount is raised a bit.
the trick is to "force" the customer to give his machine to you, so if the diagnostic price is high enough, and they agreed, they will stay with you for the fix.
Now as PCMD said, we don't know the context in your area, if others make it 15$, asking more will put you at disadvantage.

 

[Your PCMD]

As @UmbraEmsisoft said, except, I would charge like $30-$40 for diagnostics with the diagnostics waived if the customer wants it repaired or deducted from the actual repair cost. That's what we typically do. Its better to get at least that instead of a mere $10. I would NEVER do any diagnostic for that price, they can take it to a pizza tech if they want to pay that little - and then bring it back to me when they want it done right.

One thing you should know @Abet Computers is that pricing can also reflect your quality. Too little and customers "may" think the service would be sub-par but too high (dependent upon your market area) and you'll price customers away from you. What I would suggest is that you play the customer roll. Get on the phone (not your business phone) and call other shops in or close to your area and find out what their pricing is then price your services accordingly. Get your friends and family to do the same, just on different services like screen replacement labor, virus removal, etc.

 

[Bryce W]

Pretty bad as others have said.

I first arrive on your site.. whats your Unique Selling Point? When Ive got 10 tabs open of other computer repair sites, why should I choose yours? Are you fast? friendly? insured? local? experienced?

No Basic SEO on the pages.

Cant scroll in and out on your map.

TOS and Returns Policy doesnt belong in top nav, move to bottom nav.

Its confused about what it wants to be, you have ecommerce "Add to cart" abilities, but how to people even know the issue they have? Thats YOUR job to figure out.

Some pages have centered text, which is really hard to read because the start position keeps changing. There are very few circumstances where centered text works. Usually only 20 words max.

The text is boring, I just dont want to read a block of 300 words. Break it up with headlines, subheadings, Unique Selling Points and call to actions.

Images are horribly unoptimized. For example, your diagnostics image which is appearing as roughly 300x200, is really a whopping 4527x2560. Your other service images appear to be originally LESS than 300x200ish, so they are all pixelated.

Also, you dont need WordPress, thats the lazys mans way of doing a website IMO. Although I believe your using Weebly. Which is just as bad as Wix. I say lazy mans way because I'm old school, so I code all the sites I create, so take lazy with a grain of salt.

You do need Wordpress. Grab a theme or go TechSiteBuilder.com.
Saying "You dont need Wordpress" and how he manually codes in this context, is PCMD saying to learn to code HTML/CSS, learn about SEO, mobile responsiveness, compliancy etc...

Thats like you wanting to set up a physical store and saying "You should learn be a conveyancer, concreter, plumber, brick layer, plasterer, electrician, painter, roofer". OR, you can just move into a pre-existing store where people who are better at those tasks have already done the hard work.

Just grab Wordpress, and get a nice site up and running quickly so you can start getting sales quickly. Your website is just a tool, if you were making them for OTHER people, then you would learn those dev skills.

There are also a number of mobile issues. You can expect at least 60% mobile on your tech site these days.

 

[Your PCMD]

You do need Wordpress. Grab a theme or go TechSiteBuilder.com.
Saying "You dont need Wordpress" and how he manually codes in this context, is PCMD saying to learn to code HTML/CSS, learn about SEO, mobile responsiveness, compliancy etc...

I say lazy mans way because I'm old school, so I code all the sites I create, so take lazy with a grain of salt.

I'm not saying I have never used WordPress. I have for several clients because it's what they wanted. I'm not sorry that I learned how to code HTML, PHP, SQL, JS. But it took me years. In today's world, people just dont spend the time to learn that stuff anymore and just want it already done - the back-end - so they can throw whatever design they find that fits their business, style, etc. and that perfectly fine. With things like WordPress, Joomla, etc. you can have a site up in a day or two where as with hard coding, it can take weeks to months. I enjoy doing it. Today's coding is much easier if you take just a few days to learn Bootstrap. Anyway, just typing away.

With all the comments said here @Abet Computers please don't take them personally. We give our honest opinions. We criticize &/or praise but ultimately it is up to you to take it how you will and do with it what you think is necessary. It is after all, your site. Still, I would suggest to not use an eCommerce platform (Weebly, Shopify, etc.) or a free site creation place like the aforementioned Weebly and Wix as well as others. Get a hosting provider like Godaddy as well as others because they have in their CPanel, a one click WordPress install. Just add your theme and go. May I suggest Themeforest?

 

[Abet Computers]

Thank you all very much for your insights, sounds like I will be putting in some work this week.

 

[Archon Prime]

Been busy and haven't had a chance to look. But, yeah...needs a lot of work. @sapphirescales has basically said what I was going to say... And there is a lot of dead/empty spaces everywhere. You have the space, use it.

 

[goldmercury]

I kind of like how you have the pricing for each service on a separate page. It makes the user click through once they land on your homepage which is always a good thing. That's always the number one thing customers want to know before they call, price.

I used to be of the opinion that hiding pricing was a better option as you can add value when they call on the phone.


I'd probably have a call to action at the bottom of each service page with a click to call & display the number.

 

[Abet Computers]

updated

 

[sapphirescales]

updated

Sweet Jesus. It's called Fiverr man. Use it. You have absolutely NO design skills whatsoever (don't feel bad, I don't either). You need to find someone that will design you a good website and turn it into a Wordpress theme. Total cost will be around $50. Your "new" site looks more updated, but it's just as dysfunctional and half-assed as the old one. Maybe worse.

 

[Bryce W]

As technicians, we can generally figured out anything given enough time. Especially technical stuff.
However, that doesnt mean we should. Our time is better spent getting clients and fixing computers because the value of those tasks is far greater than trying to save money making our own site.

You arent actually saving money making your own site, you are losing money in multiple ways.
First of all, your effective hourly rate should be more than this: https://www.technibble.com/think-like-a-business-owner-and-not-a-technician/

Your general labor rate is $60. How many hours have you spent on this? 5 or more? Thats $300 you lost not working on what you are good at.
$300 would get you something pretty decent by a designer on Fivver or something similar. Something they are good at.

There is always more to the task than you think. Many people think that a website is some text, some images and some links. But there is so much more involved.
You have loading speed, mobile support, SEO, writing to sell and convert, laying it out to sell and convert, and much more.. A web dev knows this stuff and thats why it would have been better to just fix computers, learn $300 and spend that on a dev.

I dont mean to be harsh, but the site isnt anywhere near where it needs to be. Its really not set up to convert. For example, most people dont read, but rather scan. I simply cant be bothered reading the big block of text at the top of the first page. It needs big headlines.

I dont know where to look, sometimes less is more.

The animated hands are super distracting. I cant read the little service images (plus its trashing your SEO).

I get what I am talking about with presenting a site for sales and conversions:

Have a listen to this:
https://www.technibble.com/creating-a-computer-business-website-that-converts/

Watch these:
https://www.technibble.com/technician-website-review-1/

https://www.technibble.com/technician-website-review-2-flashy-elements-killing-conversions/

https://www.technibble.com/technician-website-review-3-fine-tuning-sales-copy-user-experience/

 

[Your PCMD]

@Bryce W why does this not work?

Anyway, I'll have to disagree with some points made by Bryce but I do respect his opinion. Although, that is because part of my business is web development. But therein is the good thing. Some people will love it, some will hate it. It's an opinion and everyone has a right to theirs. While it is true that not everyone is going to sit there reading pages of text, here where I am, people do and I had to do that on my site.

Bryce mentioned losing hours and yes that it true that working on a website is lost revenue IF your doing it during business hours - which you shouldn't. In my case, my site took me almost 4 months to complete because I worked on it a little in the evening when I could and on the weekend, again, when I could. The reason I have on some pages quite a bit of text is that I was losing hours being on the phone with customers and potential clients continuously asking about things like do I do this or that, how much is it for this or that, etc. People where I am located now just read my site - 90% of new clients found me through Google search and my site. So in my case, my site has made me money with new clients and I can utilize my hours during business time more efficiently.

The animated hands. Though to me is not too distracting, but at first I thought it was a wedding site. Your main page is NOT your Home page but still your Services page. My index page (Home) the first thing you see is what I do and how to contact me. After that, if you want to go through the site, go for it, if you dont then dont. But its there for those that want to read it.

If your needing images @Abet Computers then there are places like Pexels, Unsplash, Pixabay and StockSnap.

 

[Umbra]

My opinion, about the update:

1- i didn't read the big text block on the top, makes my eyes tired even before trying... and i guess many won't too.
2- the resizing is much better, i can see the whole page without scrolling, that is good change.
3- i thought those were links:

Desktop and Laptop PC Repairs • Data Recovery • Remote Support • Virus/Malware Removal & Protection • Tune-ups & Troubleshooting • Laptop Screen • Keyboard Replacement • Motherboard Repair • DC Jack Repairs • Data Back-Up • Data Transfer Between Systems or Devices • New Computer & Peripherals Set-up • Hardware Upgrades • Operating System Reinstall & Upgrades • And More....

Surprised to see they were just plain text when i mouse over them...

Some members advised you to hire a web-designer, it could be a good idea, then you will learn about webdesign on your free time, the imperative is to have a working and efficient selling/conversion-ready site. sometimes spending money to get better incomes is a better strategy than trying to do all alone.

 

[Archon Prime]

Sweet Jesus. It's called Fiverr man. Use it. You have absolutely NO design skills whatsoever (don't feel bad, I don't either). You need to find someone that will design you a good website and turn it into a Wordpress theme. Total cost will be around $50. Your "new" site looks more updated, but it's just as dysfunctional and half-assed as the old one. Maybe worse.

What he said. If you aren't sure about web design, please get someone else to do it for you...

 

[Abet Computers]

So lets try again' this will be replacing the old site that got so much hate.

Just wanted to get some takes on my new website design.

Site will be redirected back to abetcomputers.com when launched
http://www.abettechsolutions.com/

Is it snappy?

Is it to the point?

Is it to much?

Is it boring?

what catches your eye?

Thank you for taking the time to look at any input would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.abettechsolutions.com/

 

[GTP]

So lets try again' this will be replacing the old site that got so much hate.

I don't think anyone would purposely go out of there way to "hate" on it.
We all want you to succeed!
I think you should see it for what it is - "constructive criticism."