Website Started

I finally started my website. I got some photos now yeah! The website is not finished yet, but any suggestions would be great.
www.kyfaceandbodyart.com

Wonderful. I like the pictures, it looks like the kids (and adults) are having fun.

I was reading the part under facepainting where you say that 'your satisfaction should be guaranteed." It put up a red flag for me....remember the dry cleaner that got sued for a pair of pants, Sign said, satisfaction guaranteed, guy said he wasn't satisfied. Just my thoughts, although I understand what you are trying to say. I'll think about it and see if I can think of that magic sentence that says it. There's really smart people on this list...What do you guys think? OH! I might be wrong....It might be just me who sees a red flag.

Jenny

Thanks Jenny, I am still working on it.

I'm going to check the site out now! I love looking at new facepainting sites.

On the satisfaction part - I've not looked yet, but maybe:

"Your satisfaction is important to us" or something...

It's looking good Stacey!

Looking good, but think you should do something with the "logo_Logo1A.jpg" file at the bottom, since it looks a bit blurred. Maybe sawing at a higher quality?

The logo at the top corner (on the home page) comes off fine on my computer, so I'm not sure what the logo at the bottom is? It 's not showing up on any of my pages?

Sorry, was tired, meant at the top. But it still looks unsharp here. My screen shows everything, so if I'm the only one seeing it, then no problem ;-)

FANTABULOUS! GREAT JOB! Very User Friendly and Clean!

Hi

Haven't managed to get to this forum for a while ... but today have looked at the site discussed here and although I have many many comments, will mention just a couple today.

I don't think it good that, when a visitor arrives at the site, there is no image 'above the fold' anything to do with face or body painting. It's a long scroll until anything is seen. This is easily corrected as there's tons of space in the most important area of any page ... the top.

I believe it's important to 'engage' visitors when they arrive and the best way to do this is to mention them. Let them know that they are important and have arrived at a site that can answer their problems. I mention this because the copy you have used doesn't do this. It is all about you. It is very very short but even so has "we we our our us me".

I don't know if you hope to be found and listed by search engines so customers can find you, but if so .... there's some vital things you must change.

The Titles on every page is the most important thing Google (etc) look at first. You 'landing page' is called 'Home'. I doubt if anyone will be searching for that .. and if theyu did, they'd be offered many million! You must make this 'keyword' descriptive using the words your ideal customers will use.

Your Face Painting page title is 'About Us' and also should be changed.
The HotSnapZ page is called 'Customer Testimonials'!... and so on.

Google will look at the pages and expect some 'content' it can see on that topic. Unfortunately the site is lacking content and will get low low ranking. You should clearly identify each page and write a couple of hundred words on each. Then also make sure that the image titles also use descriptive words that relate, and include links to other pages within the text.

I have to say that I didn't understand why the design (typography) for the HotSnapZ page was so different to the others.

That's all for now ..... good luck

John Gordon
The Infotainer

Ok Thanks for the info, but that is way to much techincal stuff for me, I was lucky just to do what I have done. I'm not set-up for ad words from google or anything. I send the customers to my site, I really dont care who can search for it on the web. I am still working on photos etc.
I will look into changing my wording a little for the customer though. Everyone likes my site because it's Clean and easy to use without all the BLAH BLAH Blah!
It's still a work in progress.

Hi

Sorry .... tried to use no "technical" words at all ...

No, I agree, certainly wouldn't dream of putting an AdWords campaign on a portfolio site. That looks really cheap and tacky (as well as sending visitors away to competitors!).

OK ... fine if the purpose isn't for people who want people like you to find you. I guess it's like an online folio for them. I did preface that with "if"

Perhaps the comments will help others who do need more business and wonder why their site isn't getting enough visitors.

Good luck and well done

John Gordon
The Infotainer

I just made my website with free hosting....should I get my own domain???
tks!

The site is fine. Not great, not horrible. I agree with some of what John Gordon said but not all as it is wrong to design a site solely for the ranking in search engines. This type of business is more word of mouth and by referal compared to a software coding company who needs high rankings in a search engine as most of their business is generated via the internet. These are things we need to keep in mind as we create a website we feel comfortable with for our own use.

I spent many years as a webdesigner. Sometimes, people loose track of their purpose for a website.

To Camilinhaw, a domain is cheep. If you can find one you like (do not settle due to availablility), my professional answer would be yes - get a domain name. However, it is not required. Baby steps. Steady customers locally, business cards given out like candy, a brochure, website, then domain name, etc. Everything does not need to be done all at once.

Debbi is 100% right.

Our business is not generated on the internet. While ranking at the top is great if someone does a search for "Face painter your town" and to get that you do need to make sure that your page names and titles on each page have that information there somewhere, it is not the only purpose of having a website.

Mine is my online portfolio and it is where I refer people to look at my work - and I use my website address on EVERYTHING so if people don't have my phone number, they can find my site and therefore find me. When you search "shannon fennell" I am number one.

I get inquiries from my website, yes, but most of my work is referrals, repeaters and from direct mail. I don't sell through my site, I don't taking bookings through my site, they have to contact me.

Let's face it... our work is pretty much generated locally and realistically spending an inordinate amount of time on website optimization is not going to improve your bottom line and get you more bookings necessarily. That is going to come from your local marketing efforts.