New Website

[Mike McCall]

There's a couple of things I'm truly awful at, marketing & web design. Yet both are required at some level of competence to give a fledgling business a chance of survival. I don't enjoy selling myself even a little bit, and doing so is a major weakness for me. But that doesn't mean I can let myself off the hook either. No, I need to have some skin in this. So, about 4-days ago I installed WordPress on my site, decided on and purchased a template, and dove-in. I tried to take some cues from @Bryce W and others as I worked through the process and put it together. It's not great, but I think it's a lot better than I've had until now.

Here's what I know is lacking:

• Needs images
• Footer doesn't match the site color scheme
• I don't think the forms are well implemented.

I would appreciate your dropping by and letting me know what you think.

Thanks!

 

[BlackLabTechs]

Hey - looks like a great start for not knowing wordpress and hating marketing! I have to say, I'm in the same boat as you but kudos - you've got a great foundation!

I'm sure you have a list of desires still to do but just throwing a couple things that jumped out at me....

- Green color - maybe darken it up a little to match the green in your logo

- "Sub Pages" - When navigating to a sub page (business, break/fix, etc) I think it would be helpful to keep the menu there. Many people won't know they need to click the home link on the right side of the bar to get back to the list. Personally I like to get to any page of a website from any other page through a main "always visible" menu.

- Sub Pages - I'm sure you already know this but get rid of the date, comments, username, etc.

As I said - great start though. Can't wait to see the final outcome!

 

[Markverhyden]

LOL!!! Don't worry Mike. I'm laughing with you not at you. I too have dived into the website construction thing. While I have a great understanding of marketing in general the web stuff I'm way behind. My site is certainly lacking as well.

I think that your landing page needs some adjustments. The slider bar, or what ever the correct term is, occupies way to much space. And it takes way to long to load each section. I seem to remember @Bryce W saying that feature is not such a great thing. Personally I usually do not pay attention to them. But I'm sure others do. Maybe make the slider area much smaller and put bullet hyper links below each category below.

I'd get rid of italics for words in a paragraph. Makes the layout look odd depending on the spacing. Maybe use bold instead.

I'll look it over some more tomorrow.

 

[Mike McCall]

Hey - looks like a great start for not knowing wordpress and hating marketing! I have to say, I'm in the same boat as you but kudos - you've got a great foundation!

I'm sure you have a list of desires still to do but just throwing a couple things that jumped out at me....

- Green color - maybe darken it up a little to match the green in your logo

- "Sub Pages" - When navigating to a sub page (business, break/fix, etc) I think it would be helpful to keep the menu there. Many people won't know they need to click the home link on the right side of the bar to get back to the list. Personally I like to get to any page of a website from any other page through a main "always visible" menu.

- Sub Pages - I'm sure you already know this but get rid of the date, comments, username, etc.

As I said - great start though. Can't wait to see the final outcome!

You're running straight into things I don't know how to fix.

• Green color - I would gladly darken the green to better match my logo, but I have no idea how to edit the template to do that. If I did, I would also change the footer color as well.
• Navigation Menu - I debated about that. @Bryce W had criticized other websites for making visitors look for a phone number, and since I could show the pages in the footer I thought I might put the phone number in place of navigation at the top of each page. Nevertheless, that's an easy fix.
• Sub Pages - Yeah, I hate those but hanvn't figured out how to get rid of them.

LOL!!! Don't worry Mike. I'm laughing with you not at you. I too have dived into the website construction thing. While I have a great understanding of marketing in general the web stuff I'm way behind. My site is certainly lacking as well.

I think that your landing page needs some adjustments. The slider bar, or what ever the correct term is, occupies way to much space. And it takes way to long to load each section. I seem to remember @Bryce W saying that feature is not such a great thing. Personally I usually do not pay attention to them. But I'm sure others do. Maybe make the slider area much smaller and put bullet hyper links below each category below.

I'd get rid of italics for words in a paragraph. Makes the layout look odd depending on the spacing. Maybe use bold instead.

I'll look it over some more tomorrow.

Yeah, Mark, I'd almost rather pull my own teeth than do this stuff.

• Slider - Since I don't know how to edit templates I'm stuck trying to get the features I like on a particular page (like the links under the slider) without totally screwing things up. I can make the pages "blocked" which narrows the page and puts a border on either side, but I thought it cramped the text in the slider behind the left/right arrows. Again, I don't know how to fix that.
• Italics - Hmm, I thought that italics drew emphasis where bold was akin to yelling.

There is an editor I can use to modify the theme. Unfortunately for me the last time I built a web site was in the '90's using FrontPage. It's way more complicated now, and I'm out of my element.

I did set the site to "boxed." Let me know if it helps. I've also added the navigation menu to the top again.

 

[Markverhyden]

You're running straight into things I don't know how to fix.

• Green color - I would gladly darken the green to better match my logo, but I have no idea how to edit the template to do that. If I did, I would also change the footer color as well.
• Navigation Menu - I debated about that. @Bryce W had criticized other websites for making visitors look for a phone number, and since I could show the pages in the footer I thought I might put the phone number in place of navigation at the top of each page. Nevertheless, that's an easy fix.
• Sub Pages - Yeah, I hate those but hanvn't figured out how to get rid of them.

Yeah, Mark, I'd almost rather pull my own teeth than do this stuff.

• Slider - Since I don't know how to edit templates I'm stuck trying to get the features I like on a particular page (like the links under the slider) without totally screwing things up. I can make the pages "blocked" which narrows the page and puts a border on either side, but I thought it cramped the text in the slider behind the left/right arrows. Again, I don't know how to fix that.
• Italics - Hmm, I thought that italics drew emphasis where bold was akin to yelling.

There is an editor I can use to modify the theme. Unfortunately for me the last time I built a web site was in the '90's using FrontPage. It's way more complicated now, and I'm out of my element.

I did set the site to "boxed." Let me know if it helps. I've also added the navigation menu to the top again.

I'm using Rapid Weaver with a theme. At the end of the day it's all html and associated code. Become one with the Goo! LOL!!!

For example I was able to find a way to substitute a default graphic with one I wanted using that technique. Of course there is plenty of testing involved. I'm sure you can find a change as simple as that.

As far as italics vs bold. I'm old school. To me italics is always associated with quotations. Bold is just for emphasis. In the Internet yelling, to me, has always been all caps.

 

[BlackLabTechs]

I could be way off here and most likely so but from my limited knowledge I'd check into....

Green color - somewhere under themes possibly? Or there should be a stylesheet with color codes in it you might be able to edit.

sub pages - when you are editing the page, on the right hand side is box called page attributes. Maybe try changing the template to something other than post or blog? Like full page or 1 column, etc.

Edit - YES - keep the phone number at the top header that stays as you scroll no matter what!

 

[Bryce W]

The slider bar, or what ever the correct term is, occupies way to much space. And it takes way to long to load each section. I seem to remember @Bryce W saying that feature is not such a great thing. Personally I usually do not pay attention to them. But I'm sure others do. Maybe make the slider area much smaller and put bullet hyper links below each category below.

Others dont pay attention to them either (only 1% even though its the most prominent element on the site). This has been tested a lot and they simply dont convert. Here is a decent summary of some of those tests: https://vwo.com/blog/image-slider-alternatives/

 

[Mike McCall]

I could be way off here and most likely so but from my limited knowledge I'd check into....

Green color - somewhere under themes possibly? Or there should be a stylesheet with color codes in it you might be able to edit.

sub pages - when you are editing the page, on the right hand side is box called page attributes. Maybe try changing the template to something other than post or blog? Like full page or 1 column, etc.

Edit - YES - keep the phone number at the top header that stays as you scroll no matter what!

You're not off base.

• Green Color - There's an editor which will allow me to directly edit the template. I guess it's just a matter of wading through the stuff I don't understand to edit the stuff I want.
• Sub Pages - Tried different templates for various pages. Each one has things I like/dislike, so it comes back to learning to edit the theme itself.
• Phone Number - I think there's a workable compromise. I'll look into it.

Others dont pay attention to them either (only 1% even though its the most prominent element on the site). This has been tested a lot and they simply dont convert. Here is a decent summary of some of those tests: https://vwo.com/blog/image-slider-alternatives/

Along with your thoughts, and now having read the piece on it, I agree the slider should go. He talked about a manual slider with only 2-slides possibly working (say one for business and one for residential). I'll have to work on that and get feedback on it. I do think there's a certain value to visual appeal, if it's done properly, as if I knew what that is.

 

[rockhoptec]

Mike - It looks like you are using green lantern premium template. Here is the documentation that might help, if you did not already see it - https://weblizar.com/documentation/themes/green-lantern-premium-theme/

Usually with these templates they have a spot within WordPress to edit the template for colors. My guess by looking at green lantern documentation - it shows a screen shot under section 2.1 and on the left side it says skin layout - this might be the place to change the green colors and colors for your footer.

When I looked at the demo of green lantern it had a configuration slide out that allowed to change template colors - usually this indicates that the template has the option to change color schemes.

Hopefully this helps

 

[cypress]

First thing that I think of when I see that color green is Kapersky lol, I don't know why. I think the content on the website is good after reading through the pages. When it comes to the slider, better off choosing one image as a static image. The gray letters on a black background for the footer is tough on the eyes.

But I think you are heading in the right direction.

 

[Mike McCall]

Mike - It looks like you are using green lantern premium template. Here is the documentation that might help, if you did not already see it - https://weblizar.com/documentation/themes/green-lantern-premium-theme/

Usually with these templates they have a spot within WordPress to edit the template for colors. My guess by looking at green lantern documentation - it shows a screen shot under section 2.1 and on the left side it says skin layout - this might be the place to change the green colors and colors for your footer.

When I looked at the demo of green lantern it had a configuration slide out that allowed to change template colors - usually this indicates that the template has the option to change color schemes.

Hopefully this helps

Thanks, Todd. I've been trying to work in that part for awhile now and making no headway. There's a drop-down menu to choose one of the presets that works, but below that where I should be able to choose a custom color scheme I get no love. I tried using the color wheel and Gimp to color pick, but all I get is a light blue stripe across the top and the links below the slider disappear completely. I did go to the forums to see if anyone else had this issue but didn't find anything. I did find the code to enter into the custom CSS editor to remove the posting information from the pages. I even tried using Firebug to look for any specific place to change it directly in the HTML, but couldn't find it. I also looked in the theme editor, but didn't see anything that looked like HTML. I do have the color code for the green used on my logo - 037f3e.

 

[Markverhyden]

One thing I've done to help decipher what is where is use Firefox Developer Tools. Chrome also has them. You can see the code for various elements, like color, when you load the web page. Then you can manually edit the html to make the changes. I'm sure there may be more efficient methods but it's worked for me when I've been stumbling about.

 

[Mike McCall]

First thing that I think of when I see that color green is Kapersky lol, I don't know why. I think the content on the website is good after reading through the pages. When it comes to the slider, better off choosing one image as a static image. The gray letters on a black background for the footer is tough on the eyes.

But I think you are heading in the right direction.

I think Kaspersky uses a darker green, which I prefer over what's currently on the site. Working on getting the color sorted out, but stuck with it until I do.

• I plan to work on the slider today. Since I have one foot in residential and am trying to get a toehold in SOHO, I may have to attempt to make an image that reflects both. Say, one side showing a home office & brief message, and the other side a home setup & brief message. I am decidedly not artistic.
• The footer is in the same category as the general color scheme. Working on it.

 

[Mike McCall]

One thing I've done to help decipher what is where is use Firefox Developer Tools. Chrome also has them. You can see the code for various elements, like color, when you load the web page. Then you can manually edit the html to make the changes. I'm sure there may be more efficient methods but it's worked for me when I've been stumbling about.

That's what Firebug does, though I looked at the Firefox Developer tools this morning. There mist be an easier way to get at this, but I'm not seeing it yet. It doesn't appear that the documentation is caught up to the current version. Things look a bit different and a few of the steps aren't the same.

 

[Mike McCall]

Ok, slider replaced with static image. I've posted to the theme developers' forum asking why I'm not able to change the color scheme and am waiting to hear back.

 

[Mike McCall]

Kudos to @rockhoptec for getting me squared away on the site color. Took him just a few second to see my error. Thank you!

 

[jfm]

Being a work in progress it's coming along very nicely.
I really like the colors as of now.
The main image too, BUT, your image includes the text, you have to add it as text over the image for your SEO, (rephrase that in english sry

The footer is a bit too big for me...
Put that newsletter in the contact section.

Your top menu, when we hover over the text dissapears (white).

The contact form on the right under services seems a bit confused, confusing.

I never liked the affordable term, I'd prefer someone who's reliable and trustable than affordable
If you're affordable you might not be the best, be the best !

The hover over effects of the images in your services page are really not needed.

Name your services pages for more SEO, you have Residential - Shamrock Computer Services,
Rename to Residential Computer Services Silverton, I'm not 100% it's that much better but consider user experience AND google.
Ask around for this I'm sure you'll get some good tips for your SEO.

Overall I really like the look and feel of it, keep at it !

 

[Mike McCall]

Being a work in progress it's coming along very nicely.
I really like the colors as of now.
The main image too, BUT, your image includes the text, you have to add it as text over the image for your SEO, (rephrase that in english sry

The footer is a bit too big for me...
Put that newsletter in the contact section.

Your top menu, when we hover over the text dissapears (white).

The contact form on the right under services seems a bit confused, confusing.

I never liked the affordable term, I'd prefer someone who's reliable and trustable than affordable
If you're affordable you might not be the best, be the best !

The hover over effects of the images in your services page are really not needed.

Name your services pages for more SEO, you have Residential - Shamrock Computer Services,
Rename to Residential Computer Services Silverton, I'm not 100% it's that much better but consider user experience AND google.
Ask around for this I'm sure you'll get some good tips for your SEO.

Overall I really like the look and feel of it, keep at it !

Hi,

• Text over image - I thought that for SEO purposes the information you suggest I include should be part of the meta data in the HTML.
• Footer - The footer automatically adjusts to the content within it. I agree that it's larger than I want it to be, and it's background color doesn't match the color scheme of the site. Unfortunately, I have not found how to edit those things without getting into things like scripts, CSS, and such. Those tools are beyond my rudimentary web skills at this point.
  
• Newsletter & info request forms - Having an obvious & easy way to contact us on every page seems important. How to do that is the question. Not everyone wants to call, preferring instead to connect via email...at least initially. I know because I'm one of those people. Perhaps I can combine the two forms into a single one, but I kind of doubt it. The one is connected directly to my Mail Chimp account specifically for the purpose of the newsletter. The other comes directly to me. Anyone have suggestions on this???
• Affordable - Marketing, an issue I admit to being truly awful at. Is this really something I should reconsider?
• Link effects - That's written into the code for the template and not something I added, or likely would have. Minor issue.
• Renaming pages - Not sure that really matters. Someone more knowledgeable than I about such matters might chime-in on this one. Someone else suggested I include the phone number so it shows at the top of the page.

I've received some great help and suggestions on this and I do appreciate it. This stuff doesn't come easy for me and I have to really work at it. Thanks!

 

[jfm]

Google will consider a couple important things for SEO,
Again, I'm no expert but I'm pretty confident that most important are Page titles, Your H1's and top of page content, wich should be your H1.
In your case, on that main page, you have no text at all, that's why I suggest you really don't use your H1 in the image. It's worthless.
It should be your H1 plain text top of page.
The meta I beleive is not really considered anymore by Google. (confirm that I'm not 100% sure)

Page titles I think are of the most important ones

 

[RoseburgHelpDesk]

Sound like me Mike. Mt site isn't the best but I do try to make it look right. I think I got it full of info but I also hate selling myself. I am too technical and that puts people off. Good Start and nice to see another Oregon shop. Check out my site sometime.