[fitz2kleen]

Hi guys
I'm probably gonna be left licking my wounds here , but here goes anyway.
We currently have 2 websites being developed, one professional and the other not.
I've had some feed back from  friends which has shocked me so was wondering if you guys would mind giving me honest opinions of both.

www.fitz2kleen.com

www.fitz2clean.co.uk

[ianharper]

hi

the first you make a statement and don't give any proof. the second loads slow and you need a reason why they should read on. in other words no headline.

End of tenancy is a great opportunity to sell. this is where lots of your work will come from so its worth leading with it.( cant say to much here)

people dont just want carpet or upholstery cleaning this is the path to solve a problem they have. for example stain removal or pet problems are the real reason they need your service. just look at any product range and your see what i mean.

As a example your find urine neutralise and you might have some on your van but you will not use it if you dont market that service. not everyone will type in "carpet cleaner town"

Respect

Ian Harper

[Doug Holloway]

Hi

The first is obviously the professional one, lots of pages but souless.

The second is simpler and clearer as it's written by a CC.

Cheers

Doug

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

The .com site looks ok - the .co.uk froze my laptop and I had to switch off and re-boot, won't be clicking on that again  :

[fitz2kleen]

keep em coming guys, the amateur ( no cost to us )is winning so far.

[Joe H]

I looked at your photo gallery i the 2nd one. Looks to me if they been taken with low quality camera - maybe a mobile phone. If you going to have photos make them good ones ie nice and sharp.

Also it was taking too long to load.

[pest]

co.uk

No keywords, no meta description more importantly the title tags need sorting.
 
[H2] Latest Articles
[H2] Coventry Carpet Cleaning
[H2] Contact Us
[H3] End of Tenancy Cleaning
[H3] Upholstery Cleaning
[H3] Carpet Cleaning

H1 sould be something like Coventry carpet cleaning
H2 eot cleaning coventry
H3 Upholstey cleaning coventry.

The photos should have decent alt tags like carpet cleaning, etc..

No site map uploaded

W3C (26 errors, 35 warnings)

Text/HTML is only ratio13.87% you should look at chopping some code out i thinks its around line 149 before it gets to the copy.

Title (Carpet Cleaning in Coventry – Fitz2Kleen), try to use around 70 characters

not had time to look at the other site.

it looks good but if no one can find it on google...........

[Matt Seymour]

Personally, I think the .co.uk one is far better.

Much easier to navigate and more to the point as well.

I also don't like anyone who starts off by slagging off other carpet cleaners who charge low prices on the homepage of their site as is the case on the .com one.

[fitz2kleen]

Personally, I think the .co.uk one is far better.

Much easier to navigate and more to the point as well.

I also don't like anyone who starts off by slagging off other carpet cleaners who charge low prices on the homepage of their site as is the case on the .com one.

matt i take it you are referring to this
'We've all seen those leaflets offering whole-house cleaning at ridiculously low prices, and we've all heard the horror stories that go with them - tales of poor work carried out by companies that are here today and gone tomorrow, using underpaid temporary staff with little or no knowledge of the different types of carpet and the different cleaning methods required.'

slagging people off???
This is statement that experienced carpet cleaners and customers alike are all too familiar with and marketing is about reaching your customers on a level they understand.
You will be surprised as you progress in your new business just how many of your customers have such a negative attitude towards us in the trade purely for the reasons stated on the website.

[Mike Halliday]

Personally, I think the .co.uk one is far better.

Much easier to navigate and more to the point as well.

I also don't like anyone who starts off by slagging off other carpet cleaners who charge low prices on the homepage of their site as is the case on the .com one.

matt i take it you are referring to this
'We've all seen those leaflets offering whole-house cleaning at ridiculously low prices, and we've all heard the horror stories that go with them - tales of poor work carried out by companies that are here today and gone tomorrow, using underpaid temporary staff with little or no knowledge of the different types of carpet and the different cleaning methods required.'

slagging people off???
This is statement that experienced carpet cleaners and customers alike are all too familiar with and marketing is about reaching your customers on a level they understand.
You will be surprised as you progress in your new business just how many of your customers have such a negative attitude towards us in the trade purely for the reasons stated on the website.

i've got to say I slightly agree with matt although i think the term slagging off is a bit extreme, but I don't agree with you suggesting what I have put in bold.  are customer really familiar with these practices? I don't think they are and by mentioning them on your website it gives a negative tone were it would probably be better to keep pushing a happy positive tone.

but this is a minor, piont over all i think both website are very good

[Matt Seymour]

Personally, I think the .co.uk one is far better.

Much easier to navigate and more to the point as well.

I also don't like anyone who starts off by slagging off other carpet cleaners who charge low prices on the homepage of their site as is the case on the .com one.

matt i take it you are referring to this
'We've all seen those leaflets offering whole-house cleaning at ridiculously low prices, and we've all heard the horror stories that go with them - tales of poor work carried out by companies that are here today and gone tomorrow, using underpaid temporary staff with little or no knowledge of the different types of carpet and the different cleaning methods required.'

slagging people off???
This is statement that experienced carpet cleaners and customers alike are all too familiar with and marketing is about reaching your customers on a level they understand.
You will be surprised as you progress in your new business just how many of your customers have such a negative attitude towards us in the trade purely for the reasons stated on the website.

You assert that anyone charging lower prices is shoddy or a cowboy. That is absolute rubbish.

Lower pricing doesn't necessarily mean a poor job. It's just a lot of old nonsense and a myth perpetuated by other carpet cleaners in order to try and justify their own prices.

If you offer a good service then that is what you should be telling the customer about rather than trying to make others look bad.

[wynne jones]

Makes me larf when people get aggitated with what is essentially someones marketing waffle.

Everyone has an angle. People slag off TMs on their site, some slag off rotaries, others proclaim they are the best carpet cleaner. : I would concentrate on YOUR OWN marketing and don't confuse it with your idea of professional standards.

Oh and surely the main point about the sites is one has a UK domain and the other doesn't, which I think will make a difference as to weather it shows up in searches.

[Matt Seymour]

That's kind of the point I was making Wynne.

Why do some carpet cleaners insist on berating others on their homepage?

Why not just tell the potential customer about what you do instead of taking a swipe at the competition? What Fitz is essentially saying on his (.com) homepage is that anyone charging significantly less than him is a cowboy and not to be trusted.

[Blue City Cleaning]

.co.uk looks nice and easy to read but the gallery needs to be fixed (less pictures but with better quality and placed in order like on .com - before and after the clean).

[fitz2kleen]

well i was right about licking wounds, wondered how long it would take before some took a simple request for a website review and turned it to the usual ciu personal attack!

Thanks for all that gave useful comments, for those who take the actual wording of my site as attack, maybe you should ask why you feel that way.

i dont get all defensive whenever the mighty harp on about how porties are inferior to truckmounts..... we all know its a marketing ploy.

we are all entitled to our opinions , and that is the beauty of opinions my friends, an opinion cannot be wrong!

i certainly have no intention of entering into a slanging match here or anywhere else.

Thanks again!  :

[Mike Halliday]

I re-read the post and i don't see any personal attack, perhaps you should have been clearer, if all you wanted was praise and to be told how great your websites are you should have said.

but if you ask for opinions they you should expect both negative as well as positive . If you see Matts comments as a personal attack then you should take your own advice and ask yourself why you feel that way

[fitz2kleen]

I re-read the post and i don't see any personal attack, perhaps you should have been clearer, if all you wanted was praise and to be told how great your websites are you should have said.

but if you ask for opinions they you should expect both negative as well as positive . If you see Matts comments as a personal attack then you should take your own advice and ask yourself why you feel that way

no i dont take that as a personal attack, think some took the wording of my website as one though!

[Matt Seymour]

Fitz, I apologise for having a bit of a pop at the content of one of your websites. I certainly didn't intend to make it personal.

As someone who generally charges lower prices than a lot of carpet cleaners I just get a little frustrated sometimes when I see people suggesting that all low price carpet cleaning is carried out by cowboys. It just doesn't help to dispel the myth that if something sounds too good to be true then it probably is. It's not always the case and some companies really do offer their customers some great deals.

You're right, there are some people out there who charge low rates and do a terrible job, but there are also those who charge lower rates and do a very good job. In fact, there are plenty of companies who charge very high prices and do an appalling job, such as Enterprise Cleaning.

I just don't think someone's pricing is necessarily an indication of the quality of their workmanship.

Anyway, the .co.uk website is great.

[garry22]

Anyway, back to the site   

Marc,

As per Doug, the Wordpress site copy is written in the third person. Would it not be better writing it in first person instead?

I'm not sure how many plug ins you have but it is, as the others have said, taking a lot of time to load.

Just a matter of interest is the "professional" a website designer or web marketer?

Garry

[Neil Williams]

The .com site looks ok - the .co.uk froze my laptop and I had to switch off and re-boot, won't be clicking on that again  :

I'd love to give an opinion but my main pc froze up whilst trying to load up the .com site and i'm not risking it again with the .co.uk one

Just imagine how pleased potential customers are going to be if that happened to them too.