Your thoughts please? FoundByDesign.com

FoundByDesign · #1 (**permalink**) 09-11-2009, 04:37 PM

Hey fellow WPW members. Was wondering if you'd be so kind as to take a look at my website and give me some feedback on the new design. Creative ideas and suggestions, particularly those related to conversions would be greatly appreciated. Bugs and/or UI issues would also be appreciated. However, if anyone finds a security issue, please email me directly rather than post it here! LOL

The site is: Affordable Website Design and SEO for Business | Real Estate MLS IDX | FoundByDesign.com and is geared towards business owners seeking to develop an online presence, but have limited knowledge (or time to accumulate such knowledge) on website design, development or content management.

Thanks in advance.
Ed

deyounggerry · #2 (**permalink**) 09-11-2009, 07:58 PM

You could use the space bar a little more in your keywords. Makes it kinda hard to read for the engines.

FoundByDesign · #3 (**permalink**) 09-12-2009, 10:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deyounggerry

You could use the space bar a little more in your keywords. Makes it kinda hard to read for the engines.

Never thought that was an issue so long as they were comma separated. Will look into that...

Anyone else?

Doc · #4 (**permalink**) 09-12-2009, 10:45 PM

The information I've seen is that as long as they're separated by commas, there's no issue.

However, I did see that you have two sets of robot and description metas. See below:

It appears that it's the first set that is readily visible to the SEs, but I can see where it might cause you a problem.

Feydakin · #5 (**permalink**) 09-12-2009, 11:19 PM

You might also want to reconsider using MLS in your title.. They have been known to be very agressive legally about protecting their trademark..

Also wanted to add that your FocusBlog (tm) looks amazingly similar to a modified WP install.. Even uses WP plugins..

I also noticed this -

Quote:

Our coding is designed to be valid code,

yet we see this when it is put through http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=ht...Inline&group=0

Errors found while checking this document as XHTML 1.0 Transitional!
Result: 64 Errors, 17 warning(s)

Just thought I would point out the inconsistency..

**Tubby** · #6 (**permalink**) 09-13-2009, 03:55 AM

I do not think it worked for me. The first thing I missed was
View Website Plans >> I think my eyes saw Order Your Website Now >> and must have presumed I read that line.

I did find myself looking for this link when I got to packages starting at only $19.95 a month,

I did get there rather hastily. It is always the second reading that sells me.
but nothing to click on where it said packages starting at only $19.95 a month, that is where I expected it.

I never like the format of listing the 'what a package includes' in rows, where the last row always seems to have what I need, and the price I like seems to have more than its share of (Not included) I think any person that has ever sold a quantity of anything shudders when they see this format. . (yes it is regularly used) It is a bit like driving 7 cars to the front door of a potential new car buyer. You just know the wife will want the red one, he will want the big one and the visitors will argue the the blue one is best. I am a great believer in Pick your sales target before you ring the bell. (you are not selling webhosting) A choice of two is plenty.

The salesman in me says - Sell this $19.95 your page seems to merely use this 1st level in rather a dismissive way. I would have preferred to read How this is a great way to start, and some sort of spiel telling me that letting your design team prove the value at this entry level, is the natural starting point. .

Then when I am just starting to look closer. . you only do mortgage and real estate. that bit did not load on my screen until I had scrolled well past it.

I think the site is more about what you want to sell. . rather than what a visitor is looking to buy.

You missed out on my new Jaguar car site . . ..
Get that real estate sign where it can be seen

I have never tried to sell real estate. But I have sold flooring & maintenance to many dozens of real estate firms. This crew is highly capable or reading between the lines. and they are smart enough to understand how to squeeze a little bit extra out of where they spend their dollars. I would like to see an opertunity to squeeze you somewhere in the fine print.

I shall presume you picked real estate because you have experience in this field - my question is, Have you dumped your real estate sales experience in favour of 'a design concept' ?

I think you need a much tighter target, far to much "a bob each way" for your target. IMO

P.S.
Did you create some personally developed real estate special fantastic software only you can offer. a reason to call on you?

**Tubby** · #7 (**permalink**) 09-13-2009, 04:31 AM

I just had a cup of tea, a cigarette and a home made sausage roll. Sitting on the back porch.

I found myself thinking of the real estate agents I know or knew and I asked myself what do these guys/ gals want. My conclusion is they want an outstretched hand from a potential buyer that says. "how do you do"

I think that is all any good salesman wants.
That's what I would want to deliver him in a website if I were to create one for him.

I do ramble a bit . . all you have to do is pick out one sentence from my rambling that offers you a different way to look at your site.

P.S. an afterthought - I have one of those heads that churn out thoughts until I change the topic.
My thought was. If I ever decided to sell Web design to local business's my first SEO task would be to 'become president of the local chamber of commerce.'
It just occurred to me that I had never seen that thought written down before as an SEO recommendation. But to me it seems like the first logical step. (I warned you I ramble)

danlefree · #8 (**permalink**) 09-14-2009, 03:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FoundByDesign

... if anyone finds a security issue, please email me directly rather than post it here! LOL

Soliciting security testing from the general population of users here at WebProWorld will expose anyone who takes you up on the offer to potential criminal charges, particularly if your hosting provider PrivateSystems.net takes matters into their own hands.

Why would you invite people to expose themselves to liability and create a situation where you and your hosting provider would be unable to determine whether threats were genuine or benign..?

sheena · #9 (**permalink**) 09-14-2009, 04:12 AM

Hi, I like your design but it is better if you add your contact information at the top of the page as to be seen by viewer of the site

FoundByDesign · #10 (**permalink**) 09-14-2009, 08:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by danlefree

Soliciting security testing from the general population of users here at WebProWorld will expose anyone who takes you up on the offer to potential criminal charges, particularly if your hosting provider PrivateSystems.net takes matters into their own hands.

Why would you invite people to expose themselves to liability and create a situation where you and your hosting provider would be unable to determine whether threats were genuine or benign..?

That has got to be the most absurd reply I have seen on this board. I simply asked people to look at and evaluate my website, and if... IF... they happen to discover a security concern to please email me directly rather than post it here for anyone and everyone to see and possible exploit.

I did not invite anyone to test my security or to try and hack my site. This was not an open invitation to do so. And those that would try could care less if I asked them to do so or not.. they would anyway. However, I have found that many of the members here are intelligent and generally offer good will to others on the board. To assume that one might notice a potential problem goes to their presumed intelligence. To assume that they might notify me of a potential issue they saw goes to their goodwill... All I simply asked was that they email me rather than post it... which on my part may have been a slight insult to the majority of WPW members as I do see the majority of the members here as professional, which would indicate that they would never post such an issue in the general public.

So to insist that I have in some how invited WPW members to try and hack my site and open themselves up to any legal issues is simply absurd and way over the top!

Now, if you have something of value to add to the conversation, I'd love to hear it. If not...

danlefree · #11 (**permalink**) 09-14-2009, 03:16 PM

I don't think you understand how security concerns are "found".

I have nothing more to add to discussion insofar as your business and practices are concerned, though if you are equally concerned with providing benefit to others on this forum as you are with self-promotion and receiving others' advice, perhaps you'll take into account that browbeating and snide remarks are hardly professional ways of relating to other users (no offense intended).

FoundByDesign · #12 (**permalink**) 09-14-2009, 03:28 PM

I do understand how security concerns are found, especially when someone is "looking." However, in many cases I have run across simple issues that webmasters were not aware of that might have opened them up to attacks, and not by searching for it. Not one person knows everything, especially in this ever changing world of technology. So if someone happened to see something I was not aware of, I simply mentioned that I would prefer they email me directly.

I did not intend to "browbeat" or offer "snide" remarks... however, I did take offense that one would think I would intentionally ask others to put themselves in any harm. It was no more self-serving than anyone else that might ask for others to lay a set of eyes on a website for feedback.

Your reply to my original post simply came across wrong and I found the idea of what I posted being the equivalent of asking someone to "expose themselves to liability" absurd. But I don't want to turn this discussion into a back and forth... just know I am not asking you or anyone else to search for exploits and put yourself in any kind of liability.

FoundByDesign · #13 (**permalink**) 09-14-2009, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doc

The information I've seen is that as long as they're separated by commas, there's no issue.

However, I did see that you have two sets of robot and description metas. See below:

It appears that it's the first set that is readily visible to the SEs, but I can see where it might cause you a problem.

Thank you for pointing that out... I need to take care of that.. LOL

FoundByDesign · #14 (**permalink**) 09-14-2009, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Feydakin

You might also want to reconsider using MLS in your title.. They have been known to be very agressive legally about protecting their trademark..

Also wanted to add that your FocusBlog (tm) looks amazingly similar to a modified WP install.. Even uses WP plugins..

I also noticed this - yet we see this when it is put through [Valid] Markup Validation of http://foundbydesign.com/seo/ - W3C Markup Validator

Errors found while checking this document as XHTML 1.0 Transitional!
Result: 64 Errors, 17 warning(s)

Just thought I would point out the inconsistency..

Thank you for pointing out the validation errors! Just went through and cleaned that up.. was a result of doing a simple copy & paste of the code provided by the newsletter company I use. Seems like a lot of these that give you copy & paste code usually don't close their input tags and forget to place quotes around a few of the names... then there were a couple of & that I should have used & in link URLs. All fixed now and validates.

Yes, the FocusBlog is a modified WP setup, one that took me a while to figure out. There may be a simpler way to do what I did, I just didn't see it.. LOL However, the presentation of how the content is provided is what makes it differ and for that I have given it a name for marketing.

As for the MLS usage, thank you for the advice. I am using similar tags and verbiage as the company that I am affiliated with for the service. I will keep an eye on if there becomes a major stink, but with the national presence of the service, I would think there would have been something written about that.

FoundByDesign · #15 (**permalink**) 09-14-2009, 04:01 PM

@ Tubby

Thank you for the feedback... where do I start?!?
This is exactly the feedback I am looking for! Yes, I need to add the link to packages at the "starting at 19.95." Other than having been knee deep in kids, code and content I don't know why I missed something so obvious! Thank you for your second set of eyes.

As for listing the features and pricing in rows, it is the most common way I have seen this done and for sake of time I went with this approach. I do plan to look at alternative ways as I am not the greatest fan of it either. However, I do tend to like having some sort of chart to compare the features, so I am not sure how I will proceed with that.

One of the things either you did not pick up on, or I did not convey correctly, was that I indeed do more than real estate and mortgage websites. I have clients from real estate and mortgage, but also other clients including interior designers, auctioneers, and even a cattle farm! But I do have special packages I have created for the real estate / mortgage professional as I did come from that area in the past, so I know more of what they tend to need / like.

Interesting how you see the $19.95 package... as being treated as dismissive. You aren't completely wrong, as it is intended to give a lower entry level sales point. But I like the way you talk about selling it as a starting point... will have to modify a few things to bring that about... thank you!

And as for your rambling... that is sometimes the best way to get to the best thought! The first ones that come to mind often block the best ones yet to come... LOL. Becoming president of the local business chamber as a method of SEO is an interesting observation... definitely an offline way to get found!

Again, I thank you for your feedback...
Ed

Feydakin · #16 (**permalink**) 09-14-2009, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FoundByDesign

As for the MLS usage, thank you for the advice. I am using similar tags and verbiage as the company that I am affiliated with for the service. I will keep an eye on if there becomes a major stink, but with the national presence of the service, I would think there would have been something written about that.

The most recent lawsuit has been over using MLS in domain names.. But there are plenty of others..

FoundByDesign · #17 (**permalink**) 09-14-2009, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Feydakin

The most recent lawsuit has been over using MLS in domain names.. But there are plenty of others..

Starting to see more and more of that. Lets hope no one is ever able to get TM rights on www!

**Tubby** · #18 (**permalink**) 09-14-2009, 10:34 PM

It is always about 50% horrible when you have people looking over our web site with a critical eye. People always miss the bit we are proudest of. They get picky over colour schemes that probably soaked up hours of research. They make totally irrelevant observations that can drive a person nuts and make us wonder 'what the heck'. People pick out things we know are necessary and advise us to dump them. They offer us things we know are not needed and recommend we use them and while they are doing this they are invariably blind to the statistics information that we have been pouring over for weeks. Totally unaware of the actual user feedback that has been painfully gathered at great expense and often have no concept of specific niche peculiarities. .

Why do we do it? Why do we offer ourselves to this 50% horribility. ? Don't ask me! . . .
I think at one stage there was a recommendation somewhere on WPW that when you offered a review you should be prepared for the reviewer to return the commentary by offering your own site (a sort of reciprocate review) . . . I think that was a silly idea.
because all they will do is the things I wrote above. Who would want that?

Doc · #19 (**permalink**) 09-14-2009, 10:55 PM

Good points, Tubby, but I think the HOPE is, since this is a site comprised of professionals, people that WANT TO BE professionals, and others that will at least try to ACT like professionals, something good will come out of it.

I think you remember when I offered up one of my early sites as a sacrificial lamb. It was promptly drawn, quartered and devoured! But it was deserved... it was a POS!

The thing is, "constructive criticism" is difficult to accept, for many people. I think it's an even mix of the attitude in which it's offered, and the attitude in which it's received. I don't think Ed responded any differently than I might have. I've learned a lot here, because of that day, but then....I had a lot to learn!

**Tubby** · #20 (**permalink**) 09-14-2009, 11:57 PM

My site is terrible . . I invariably fall back on the 'it works' excuse.

I have an excellent memory Doc, it is in 'AS NEW' condition. (never been used) .

FoundByDesign · #21 (**permalink**) 09-15-2009, 12:29 AM

I learned a long time ago that I am one person with one set of eyes and one mindset of thought. So I can look at the same thing over and over again and I will only get my own perspective. Since its my website, I will only see it the way I want to see it...

So I ask for other eyes (to catch errors, as has been done) and the perspective of others (which expands my own thinking.)

To that end, thank you all for your replies so far.

Melissa M. · #22 (**permalink**) 09-16-2009, 11:00 AM

very nice first impression, on Firefox using a Mac there was a fair amount of extra white space at the bottom beneath the line: "*SEO Coaching available on select packages. IDX applications added to websites not designed by FoundByDesign.com may incur additional setup fee charges."

FoundByDesign · #23 (**permalink**) 09-16-2009, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Melissa M.

very nice first impression, on Firefox using a Mac there was a fair amount of extra white space at the bottom beneath the line: "*SEO Coaching available on select packages. IDX applications added to websites not designed by FoundByDesign.com may incur additional setup fee charges."

Melissa,
Thank you. I use a PC, so I wouldn't know. Any way you could grab a quick screen shot for me?
Ed

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