Hi guys,

Just finished this site for a friend: Plumbers in Lancaster & Morecambe: L.Carter Plumbing & Heating. It's my first full Wordpress site build. I've tried to address all the issues and I've also tried to set the site up in a way which makes it easy for my friend to update the site himself without having to worry about SEO.

The "Gallery" page is actually the blog post index page and I've changed the categories to locations so every time he posts a new job he'll be targeting the relevant regional keyword as well.

The plugins I've used are:

All in One SEO Pack
cforms
Lightbox 2 (still got the problem of his images
Redirection
RSS Includes Pages
SEO Slugs
WP Super Cache
Yoast Breadcrumbs

I've also tried to address usability and accessibility issues.

Problems and issues that I'm aware of include the resolution and display of gallery images, the lack of content and there's a problem with the left hand menu in FF3. Any advice relating to these issues would be appreciated.

Otherwise... What do you think!?

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I don't understand much about wordpress and plugins and such, but I think the structure, nevigation etc. is very nice and easy for the visitor. I don't have anything bad to tell you about it that you should fix, so it's good.
Good luck with that.

Cheers Josh!

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Latest Blog Post: Google Consultant - Should this Job Title be Allowed? - Matt Inertia's SEO Blog - SEOers.org

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A nice site matt and a lot better than the vast majority of local tradesmans websites I see.

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Overall, looks good.

3 Negatives

1. The About Us page needs a lot more content. Tell me about the history of the company, the family who runs it. Show me photos of people.

2. Dump the W3C logos at the bottom of the pages. Prospective PLUMBING customers don't care about such things and it can only add to confusion.

3. Replace the water droplet photo with a custom photo. Perhaps of the service vans and their crews.

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Dave Barnes
+1.303.744.9024
http://www.marketingtactics.com
sitting in my basement with my iMac

Unfortunately that's the only job that's not on my list. It needs a shed load of better content (which I've advised). The most important task for me was making the site content managed and very easy to use, mainly so I didnt have to spend time adjusting what my friend adds. I've tried to make that process as painless as possible for my friend who knows nothing about webmastery or SEO. So he has no excuse! He's been getting to grips with Wordpress so I'll tell him to beef up his about page.

Hhhm... Not sure they'd confuse visitors to be honest, theyre pretty well know buttons. I could go for the smaller ones I suppose.

I have an arrangement with my mate that involves me using this site as a showcase which I can refer to when approaching other local tradesman (I sorted this site out for him very cheap) so that's another reason for having those logos in place.

Agreed. Stock photos are something which i'm forced to settle with a lot of the time. I'll ask him to fire some pics of his ugly bunch of plumbers across!

Cheers for the reply.

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Latest Blog Post: Google Consultant - Should this Job Title be Allowed? - Matt Inertia's SEO Blog - SEOers.org

"Carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary" - Dead Poets Society

Hi, Matt-

I'm not familiar with WordPress either, but I like the site. Good layout and navigation. You already know you need to do something about the photos. The only other thing I found that I think needs some work (and it sounds as though it may be on your mate's end, rather than yours) is a number of spelling, grammar and punctuation errors, throughout. Most were minor, but overall, it detracts from an otherwise very nice website.

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You forgot to mention in the descriptions that the plumber will arrive late, charge more than quoted and you won't be satifisied with the job.

Just couldn't resist. Sorry. I digress.

All in all, I like the site. It is a little busy with 3 navigation points: top, right and left side, but then that is wordpress and it seems to work. I agree the WC# logos at the bottom don't help with anything.

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In Contact Us the physical address needs to be looked with magnifying glass. Why the secrecy? In my opinion it should be large and prominent. They are in business, are they? Quite frankly to show W3C is just ego stuff. Like Dave said, plumbing clients don't give a hoot.
Check spelling,
........... and heating business based in Lancaster in the northwest of England. we cover.....
We should be capital.
..............and are experianced bathroom......................
experienced.
These are just few. Check the whole site or have someone to do so. No matter how your site validates, if you have misspelling, it turns of.

I think it looks good

Cheers for the responses guys.

Lol! I'll make sure my plumber friend updates his site with these details...

The spelling side of things unfortunately isnt due to me, as I mentioned the content areas are out of my control. Looks like I may need to go and get my mate more accustomed to spell check.

Lol. You really think i added those logos for an ego fix? I've already given my reasons above.

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Latest Blog Post: Google Consultant - Should this Job Title be Allowed? - Matt Inertia's SEO Blog - SEOers.org

"Carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary" - Dead Poets Society

inertia,
Majority of my websites are done using Wordpress. I love using Wordpress because it's easy for clients to figure out how to add and edit content!
Looking at your website, I would say you did well. The overall look is attractive, and don't worry so much about the pictures. Most of the people that are seeking a plumber are doing so in a mindset that just demands they find a good plumber! They will not sit around and critique the pictures (stock vs custom). As long as the site portrays a professional and can give the potential customer trust in the client, then the look does its job.
I noticed that the site is set up using mostly Pages. I would hope that the client does begin some blogging with a focus on Tips, etc. This will not only give more credibility to the plumber's knowledge, but will also give the SEs more content to find and he should dominate the SERPs after a while. Just set up a section called "Articles and Tips" and lay out the blog categories and teach him to blog just one article entry once a week. That will take him a long way.
Overall, good job!

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Ed Nailor | Call 877-376-7736 | Twitter @foundbydesign | Free Wordpress Themes
Affordable website design | Top ranking search results We DoFollow @ FounByDesign.com

Cheers foundbydesign.

The way I've set the site up has the blog posts added to the "gallery" section. Basically he's targeting local keywords only so i figured id push him down this route for generating relevant keyword content. This way he can use categories to target locations. What do you reckon?

This should hopefully work out as a way of showing the capabilities of the company as well.

__________________
Latest Blog Post: Google Consultant - Should this Job Title be Allowed? - Matt Inertia's SEO Blog - SEOers.org

"Carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary" - Dead Poets Society

Brilliant work. I like the phone number BIG at the top of the page. One of the main uses of a business web site is to get the phone #. Make an email link big and bold too but then your mate must be ready to answer email within a few hours or sooner. I agree with FoundbyDesingn. But as a working plumber you may need to guide him on how much time he can put into the site and let that decide how much blogging or updates are done. The About us could be more personalized. Clients may only want to see a shot of him and the family that works in the business. Maybe the dog too if they have one.
Don't waste your time with Lightbox. Suggest your mate review the copy on the gallery pages. This is an excellent example of a clean Wordpress layout. Plus as you are using it as the CMS that makes it that much better. The only challenge getting your mate to manage Wordpress.
Cheers!

Nice clean site, great navigation. The only comment I had, and I don't know anything about Wordpress, so might be that forcing your hand, was that Gallery should be renamed as something more appropriate (Past Work, Happy Customers) or something that would be more enticing to prospective customer to look at?

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Cheers guys, some excellent points there for me to think about...

Can I ask why you dont like lightbox?

Its possible to change the gallery page name to whatever I want but, it's not that easy now as I've hard coded various aspects. To be honest I think "gallery" has pretty obvious meaning, the other one i toyed with was "portfolio"... hhhm. Ill have a think about this as I want to be able to take this set-up and replicate for other tradesmen type sites.

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Latest Blog Post: Google Consultant - Should this Job Title be Allowed? - Matt Inertia's SEO Blog - SEOers.org

"Carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary" - Dead Poets Society

I didn't recognize that structure.. very good. As long as he has a mechanism for posting, and he does it regularly, he should get good rankings from it on a local search. Too many blue collar tradesmen do not have a site, and if they do it is something free and extremely basic, never optimized. So to outrank 99% of them isn't too hard!

BTW... how did you get the latest post in your signature? You don't update that yourself you do?

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Ed Nailor | Call 877-376-7736 | Twitter @foundbydesign | Free Wordpress Themes
Affordable website design | Top ranking search results We DoFollow @ FounByDesign.com

I would reduce the size of your large image, it will improve the load time and resolution. If you don't have Photoshop, you can download GIMP and use UNSHARP MASK to clean up a little of the resolution.

Nice site overall, I would not over do the text, just optimize it for search results. I would add a Testimonials page. Selecting a plumber unless by word of mouth can be difficult, but you have an advantage of having folks write about how great he is.

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Testimonials page... excellent. Can't believe I didn't notice or mention that... good catch cg404! That would definitely help with target audience conversion!

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Ed Nailor | Call 877-376-7736 | Twitter @foundbydesign | Free Wordpress Themes
Affordable website design | Top ranking search results We DoFollow @ FounByDesign.com

cg404.. just noticed... you joined in 2005, but just now posting?

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Ed Nailor | Call 877-376-7736 | Twitter @foundbydesign | Free Wordpress Themes
Affordable website design | Top ranking search results We DoFollow @ FounByDesign.com

The search box should be easier to spot, above the fold ideally.
Totally agree with a testimonials page. Asking a trusted friend, colleague is
a common way to choose service providers.
Image is pretty but real people or nice clean trucks with logo are more friendly and reassuring.
Nice job overall. Sounds like your friend is lucky to have you

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Testimonials page, of course! I'll get him to sort that out.

The standard of local business sites in the UK is shocking with certain big companies dominating the market and churning out crap sites. This site went live a few weeks ago and its already top page for most geo terms purely through decent on page SEO. I'm hoping to take this wordpress format/set-up and use it for similar types of site. The plumber knows a lot of people!

Whats gimp like? A decent alternative to ps?
Just did it myself as part of my efforts to rank for google consultant! Not sure if you could do something with rss tho?

__________________
Latest Blog Post: Google Consultant - Should this Job Title be Allowed? - Matt Inertia's SEO Blog - SEOers.org

"Carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary" - Dead Poets Society

Great site and a wealth of information for a plumbing site, not familiar with Wordpress.

From an SEO perspective I'd be tempted to changes some of the Title tags to include L. Carter Plumbing & Heating xx to include Lancaster or other key geographic term, also maybe vary use of plumbing with plumber.

If it was me searching for your service I'd be more likely to search for plumber and my home town.

Also make sure you are listed on Google Local Business Center to get local searches etc.

This actually looks to be a fairly straightforward site to me. I was pretty much able to tell what was going on as soon as I was on it. All the links seem to lead where they should, and the graphics are simple and nice.

I like the layout! It would be nice if the main graphic with contact information changed with corresponding sections.

Might want to checkout the no category base plugin. This would allow you to remove category names and link directly to each of the categories. It also includes an automatic 301 redirect. I use it on a site that has 3 categories set up to display different content using the archive template.