Please review my site:)

[Dub]

We have aimed it at the double income no kids (dink) audience. We have had concerns about the colour scheme before now but its grown on me.


A little bit about us:

Small VW Camper Hire company in its second season, Hoping to buy another camper next year. I run this along side a full time job which can be tricky sometimes.
We are a litte more unusual as our camper is a Spilt Screen rather than a Bay.



Things I not sure about:

The colour
Not sure if I am displaying the correct information
The Logo (this was designed by a proper designer but Im not totally sure about it




Thanks

Be as honest as you like,

[custardfish]

Colour wise it is a bit muted so doesn't come accross as 'fun' or exciting as I'm guessing you want it all to.

You haven't really narrowed down what you want commented on but I would look at the following:

1. Drop scrolling header text.
2. Look at re-jigging the logo to take up less header space and do something useful in there content/text wise.
3. Spruce up the top picture section so it has a bit more 'wow' to it - or even drop in favour of something more focused on the van itself!
4. Remove the 'Browser Compatability" bit - no-one other than web designers care and its amazingly unlikely users are going to upgrade from IE6 because of your site. Fix the errors and remove it.
5. Improve the credit card graphics/logo's they're pretty squished/poor and don't instil the confidence you want them to at present.
6. Remove the counter in the footer.
7. Put some PROPER - land phone & address on the contact page.. And drop the website address.. (Damn that really annoys me! Putting a website address of the website your on for the contact!)
8. Call the gallery something like 'Van gallery" or "shots of the van" etc
9. Most of all get some really nice shots of the vans interior done - and drop the fading slideshow for a 'gallery' - users want to see a quick overview of thumbnails and click on those that look interesting not wait 5mins in the hope you have some they want to look at.

Basically without researching it I would guess most users want to see the van -in detail- and find out the hire prices.. make that easy for them and your onto a winner.

At present its too focused on what I can do or where I can go with the van - which really is upto the buyer. (From what I can see your not selling package tours etc?) Don't get me wring its a great idea and helps sell the concept, but I still think the overall aim should be to focus on the van itself.

[Dub]

Thanks, although I do feel like Ive just been told off!

[custardfish]

Thanks, although I do feel like Ive just been told off!

LOL not at all, there are always improvements that can be made on any site.

The only things I would say are real no-no's are the scrolling banner at the top and the counter on the footer.. But then you can probably find others that say different anyhows!

For me the biggest problem -as in it will hinder your conversion/enquiries- is the content seems too focused on how the van can be used rather than how great a van it is... but then without researching that's just a (well) educated guess on what your visitors will want to see.

[Dub]

Doh! The scolling thing was my idea!

I will have a fiddle,

Thanks Sx

[Dub]

Oddly enough, my father in law has a yellow fish he calls custard!

[david64]

I am really impressed with this for a small business. Its not up to the design standards that I would require, but its a hell of a lot better than most sites small businesses get.

The site is quite well laid out. There is not too many components competing for attention and they are not clustered up or off-putting.

I think one thing you really need to do though is some keyword research and then change the titles of your pages. A good place to start keyword research is this:

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

You can read more about it on these links:

http://semlabs.co.uk/seo-services/keyword-research <- overview of keyword research
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/s...e-titles/9213/ <- brief guide
http://www.hobo-web.co.uk/seo-blog/index.php/diy-seo/ <- good guide to help you cater for search engines

[Dub]

Thanks, Its been done with limited knowledge of Joomla that we have learnt from playing around with.

We know roughly what we want it to look like its a learning curve:0)

[custardfish]

Doh! The scolling thing was my idea!

Any scrolling or moving elements pull the eye's away and are essentially a distraction which most people find annoying. Especially in a continuous 'ticker' type banner such as this. Obviously it depends on the site, but for most sites its not a great idea.

Logically if you have items that are important enough to warrant been scrolled they should just be shown on the design to start with. Especially as people wont wait and read ALL the items in the list so basically if you have important things 2nd, 3rd, 4th in the list etc they just won't get read.

If you want any scrolling moving elements the best way to do it is scroll.. stop/wait.... scoll.. stop/wait... in a nice smooth leisurely fashion - that way you give the users 3-4 seconds to look around.. By that time they're likely to have clicked away/in anyway.

But like I say its critical that if its important content then that's not the only place its shown.

Also good job if its a home build!

[Dub]

Thanks

Now with your imput we know how make it a little more professional looking (fingers crossed)