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November 4, 2014 at 1:41 am #1172867Up::0MatthewKeath, post: 202630 wrote:I would speak to a professional designer who can help build a high converting website.
Thanks Matthew – it’s on my ‘to do’ list …
Lee
November 4, 2014 at 1:30 am #1172865Up::0Vertigo, post: 202447 wrote:Hi Lee,The first thing I see before reading any text is that you don’t have a discernible logo, word mark, or anything distinctive that stands out from the rest of your text. Then I see a stretched, low resolution image of a woman. Then a bit further down I see circle graphics that are skewed and don’t look like circles, even though they started off that way. The fonts used are bland and makes your site look outdated. You have two slogans – “I’ll tell you what other counsellors won’t”, and “Make life better. Quickly.” It’s confusing, especially because you don’t explain how you make life better quickly or how you’re different to other counsellors.
Solution: Hire a graphic designer for your brand identity design, a web designer for your site design, and a copywriter for your slogan, content, and general clarification of your message. You are a service-based business, so your website is your shop front. Making it appealing will make people want to come in and find out more.
On your about page, you say:
You are essentially dealing with vulnerable people who feel helpless and need direction. What are your qualifications? What is your experience? Who is the national organisation you work for? What are your achievements? And importantly, what is your name?
Solution: Back up your claims with more info. If I am personally entrusting my hopes and dreams to someone else, I want to be dealing with an experienced professional.
As for the content, there’s too much of it.
Solution: Think about the message you want to convey – a core idea – and build around it. Consider your own reading habits on the internet, and use that as a guide to create the content on your site.
I really like the exercises, tips, Q&A, but believe your branding, site and overall message need more love in order to get people engaged.
I hope this helps.
Mirella
Hi Mirella,
Thanks for your detailed feedback and your solutions – really useful and to the point, which I love.
I’m starting with the core idea you suggest I concentrate on and will build from there – I think one of the major things I have to rethink is that although I am a counsellor, this site and the workshops are not about counselling – they are more a teaching model – around ‘what do I do when [blank] happens?’.
It will be product based, not service-based, so I need to make that clearer too. I may even have to rethink the name, as I don’t what to misrepresent what I am offering.
Thanks again for your feedback Mirella, it’s been really really helpful
Lee
November 4, 2014 at 1:25 am #1172864Up::0IncredibleCo, post: 202331 wrote:I might be a bit late to the party with this one, but this page hit a nerve for me…http://www.theroguecounsellor.com/about/9-about-me
Rather than provide a detailed biography of yourself there’s actually very little about you, what you do and your achievements.
Instead you start the page off with :
It’s obvious that you are an eccentric.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eccentricity_(behavior)
That might be great in the field that you’re working in – but when it comes to running an online business it’s likely not going to cut it. I suggest employing the skills of some copywriters, web designers and online marketers who can help steer you in the right direction.
Best – Phil.
Thanks for your feedback Phil.
I’ll certainly need the skills of a good copy writer and web designer when I get to the point of honing things down, but I hope to not entirely water down what you identify as my ‘eccentricity’ (love that tag by the way!)
I find many sites are really really bland and I’ve read many ‘About pages’ that provide lots of data or detail but which give me no sense of the actual person behind the data and detail. I’d like to find a middle ground that provides the information people would require but also an understanding that my style is different. While that will be off putting for some (probably many) I’m not looking to appeal to the masses, just those few who want clear instructions about what they can do differently to achieve different results in their life. It’s more of a teaching model than a counselling approach, which is where I think some of the confusion (and disconnect) has come from.
Appreciate you taking the time to have a look and provide some feedback.
Lee
November 4, 2014 at 1:20 am #1172863Up::0Zava Design, post: 202162 wrote:Design & copywriting is how you communicate what you’re doing and why.You might find some help from some articles linked to over in this thread, very relevant me thinks: http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/forums/talking-technology/32315-psychology-web-design.html
Best of luck.
Thanks David, I take your point. But I still need to narrow down the who, what and why questions for myself, so I can hand a clear brief to a copywriter and a designer.
Thanks for the link – I notice Phil from Incredible Co said in a response to a separate post that you did on the psychology of web design that he thought it was a college student quality article, but you rightly understood that I know nothing about this area, so it’s a good place for me to start to get my head around the topic. Appreciate you realising this and providing the link.
Lee
November 4, 2014 at 1:15 am #1172862Up::0FS Concierge, post: 202103 wrote:Hi Lee,Thanks for coming back to review all the feedback – it’s always heartwarming to our reviewers when someone takes their comments in the spirit in which they’re intended and then takes action on them too. Good on you
Seems to me that some of the comments you’ve made today could form the starting point for your new copy.
For example, this is part of your point of difference:
And this is a very clear summary of what you do, who you do it for and when you can help:
I hope that helps, and will look forward to seeing the next iteration of your website in due course.
Thanks again for being such a good sport and for being so open to feedback.
Love your work,
JayneHi Jayne,
Thanks so much for your reply and your very helpful direction. I’ve been having a think about this and have started to try to be more specific and less wordy (John W’s and others’ comments about how different our reading is on line was also very helpful around this.)
I’ve had a shot on the home page to be more specific and take your advice above, and will keep building on this approach.
I’ve got a long way to go yet, but the generosity of fellow FS-ers has been invaluable. I wouldn’t be asking if I wasn’t looking for unfiltered feedback and I’m very grateful to people like yourself who have taken the time to have a look and post a response.
Lee
October 26, 2014 at 2:25 am #1172857Up::0MeetJodi, post: 201465 wrote:Well, the site obviously needs more work. The content needs to be copy written for online audiences. After reading the content what comes through is the website owners honesty. That is something you don’t find much on websites.Hi Jodi,
Copywriting is something I’m definitely going to need help with but I’m really glad you got that what I’m offering is honesty. Sometimes that can be confronting (and I clearly need to find out how to communicate it better) but my honesty comes from knowing that what some people want is answers – how to fix what’s wrong. I’m not always gentle, but I am sincere.
Really appreciate your feedback
Lee
October 26, 2014 at 2:20 am #1172856Up::0Byron Trzeciak, post: 201462 wrote:Hi There,I feel you’ve tried to be a little too clever with your wording and missed the opportunity to answer the questions that your visitors and potential customers will seek.
It’s very white which makes me feel like there are padded walls and straight jackets. I find the whole website really confusing each time I click a link it seems to send me down a rabbit hole and I have to click something else to get the answers I’m seeking.
From an SEO view there is a lack of optimisation across the entire site.
From a web design view it’s all very white, no clear call to action. I also have trouble gaining any form of trust as you don’t show a picture of yourself or any other information. It’s a fairly personal service from what I can see when I read things like “i hate my ex” and you don’t share enough with us for your visitors to want to share this with you.
From a human perspective I just don’t get it from top to bottom.
Cheers
Byron
Hi Byron,
Thanks for your feedback and input, much appreciated. Your perspective gets me thinking about things I hadn’t considered, which is really helpful. I clearly need design help, but I get that there’s something more fundamental I need to address first – why I’m approaching this as I am and what makes it different. And how to make that accessible and inviting rather than off-putting.
Really appreciate your valuable feedback Byron.
Lee
October 26, 2014 at 2:09 am #1172855Up::0ScarlettR, post: 201414 wrote:Everyone has given some really great feedback but the only thing I wanted to +1 on was this from John:This is exactly the first impression/problem I had. Your opening for the website is “The Rogue Councellor” (Me: oooh! Cool, why are you rogue?) “I’ll tell you what other councellors won’t” (Me: excellent, tell me why)
On both those counts you have failed. I don’t know why you are rogue, and what you’ll tell me that others won’t. Or simply: why are you different? Why am I coming to you, rather than a general councellor?
You have a lot of copy, but nothing that is outlined in John’s clear list above- which are the first things you need to deliver on, in my opinion.
Hi Scarlett R,
Thanks for your feedback and for honing in on the specific major issue that I have to address before I can start on all the other things I need to fix – what makes me different.
My real point of difference is that I basically ignore one of the fundamental unwritten rules of counselling: that counsellors never tell people what to do.
For many clients I provide what John W provided for me a few posts back – specific, concrete, measureable things that will improve a specific situation.
My clients arrive for their first session overwhelmed or stuck or confused and they leave with a list of things to do that they’ve chosen from the options I’ve provided (along with an outline of how to do those things, and what the likely outcomes will be.)
They can be at their wit’s end with their tantruming 2 year old or their meth-addicted teenager. They can have relationship issues, or anger issues or bullying issues or chocolate issues or employment issues or stress and anxiety or guilt or rejection issues. They sometimes don’t even know what the problem is, only that they are unhappy. I help them work out why, and what they can do about it. When I’m not doing traditional therapy (which I do when the situation needs that) my approach is focussed, directed, often requires hard work, and is about people doing things differently to get the results they want. They also get unconditional acceptance (which I never tell them about but which they feel) and step by step instructions about things they can do that will make things a whole lot better than they were.
Clients very quickly understand that what I provide is not soothing, patient empathy but practical ways they can change whatever it is that’s causing them angst.
I didn’t always practice this way. I’ve been counselling for over 20 years and my style has developed from working with thousands of clients and understanding what actually makes things better, rather than what makes a client feel soothed and understood (my apologies to Maclean, who probably wanted exactly this in his stressed state). The approach is not for everyone, but those who like it, really like it.
What I want to do with my business is take all that experience and knowledge of what works in particular situations and create self directed workshops that answer the question: “what do I do when …?” (my lover dumps me/my child is being bullied/I can’t lose weight even though I really really want to and I’ve tried every diet imaginable/my wife doesn’t want to have sex with me/I always choose the wrong partner etc etc etc)
Any hints from anyone about ways to get that message across in a way that doesn’t seem completely cold or pushy would be very much appreciated.
.Thanks again for clarifying for me where I need to start Scarlett
Lee
October 26, 2014 at 1:32 am #1172854Up::0Hatching_It, post: 201382 wrote:Hi Lee,I’ve had a tough day at work, I’m tired and I’m probably feeling a lot like someone that would need your services right now…!
I had a look at your website and it actually stressed me out trying to read it. It’s just something about the way it’s set out, the way the paragraphs/points are structured etc that is not inviting – it’s just too hard to figure out.
The extra menu that’s not really a menu down the side confused me as did the 3 circles that aren’t circles.. I don’t know, vertical sphere things were just.. stressful!
I think your content is ok but you need to present it in a way less stressful way. Increase the size of the type, increase the spacing.
Here’s an example of a website that is sooo easy to read (even when you’re stressed out) https://www.eheadspace.org.au/
Notice how there’s not an abundance of info on the home page, but it’s enough to tell you what it is and then a BIG BOX for “How can we help?”
Man I feel so much better knowing there’s a website there that just wants to help me rather than making read heaps of text.
Not trying to be brutal, just an honest opinion from one stressed dude!
Maclean
Hi Maclean,
Thanks for your feedback, and I hope your stress levels have dropped a bit since you wrote your post
I take on board the things you’ve suggested and will work on how to communicate what I’m trying to do in a more user-friendly way. Pinpointing the stuff that was confusing or overwhelming really helps me and I appreciate it.
One of the difficulties is that what I’m offering is more like emotional bootcamp than soothing empathy. I need to be able to define that and communicate with people who looking for a way forward from the stuck or confusing place they’re in. I need to find a way to say that I’m of no use to someone who is feeling stressed and worn out, but can help someone who has a specific problem they are well and truly over and want to fix, now.
For all that my approach may seem less warm than many people might expect from a counsellor, it works. I know that because although I work for a national organisation where people phone a 1300 number for an appointment with ‘a counsellor’, more than 80% of my clients come as direct referrals. And their feedback when we finish is not about me, but the outcomes for them – things like: “My life is better now than it used to be”, “I feel like I’m in control of me and the choices I make” or (music to my ears) “I actually like myself now”.
Exactly how I’m going to communicate that without sounding like an arrogant, self satisfied prat, or just plain pushy, is a challenge! But I’ll work on it
Lee
October 26, 2014 at 1:16 am #1172853Up::0JohnW, post: 201379 wrote:Hi Lee,
Best websites are designed from the bottom up, not the top down.If you design your site to be entered via its Home page (top down) it is likely you will limit your new customer visits and hurt your conversions.
A visitor can enter your site at any page. I suggest you use this as the basis of your site’s planning, structure & content.
1. Plan each important visitor landing page
An “important” page list will include your Home page but it may also include specific service pages or potential client type pages.For each “important” page you should consider:
- Is it for new or existing customers?
- How did they get here? (Direct, search engine, other web pages, social media, email link.)
If from a SE referral, every search engine landing page should meet these information requirements:
- What search question is this page answering?
- Why should the visitor read further?
- What is the next step for the visitor? (Your call to action.)
You only have a couple of seconds before a SE referred visitor is gone.
You better answer the searcher’s question very visibly and clearly at the top of the page. They won’t read through even two sentences of the most beautifully written preamble to get to the answer to their question.
1.1. Your Home Page
I can’t see any answers to these three questions on your Home page in the time allotted.2. Site-wide Content
Every single page on a site should provide this info:- Who you are
- What you do
- Who you do it for
- Where you are located (if relevant)
- Call(s)-to-action
Communications elements you don’t address:
- You don’t tell me what sort of counsellor you are.
- I don’t know what problems you fix.
- I don’t know who you help.
- I don’t know what services you provide.
- I don’t know how you provide your service.
3. Be User-friendly
This will be a crucial element in converting site visitors into action takers.On the Internet we work in a relatively poor communication medium. There are so many attributes that impact on the communication outcome that we are trying to achieve.
To start with, people read web pages differently to printed words. Another important communications attribute is that people prefer to scroll rather than click.
There is a lot of scanning for concepts by web users that makes it different to any other comms medium. Your web page formatting needs to complement these characteristics of the medium. It does not at present.
There is a lot we can learn from the world of retail and the point-of-sale techniques it uses to gain our attention and provide us with information.
Here I’m talking about the page formatting, layout and content issues.
- The font colours and sizes of your page headings, sub-heads and even sub-sub-heads need to be bold and different (not necessarily different colours).
- Link text needs to be very evident and different to non-link text.
- You want to differentiate non-visited, visited and hover link text
- Use eye-focus elements like bullets, bold and italics formatted text. (Never use underlining except for link text.)
Your site currently fails to implement these mission critical communication factors.
Hope this helps & sorry not to water the critique down.
PS Thanks for your comments on various of my posts on FS.
Regs,
JohnWHi JohnW,
This helps enormously, and I’m very pleased you haven’t watered down your critique.
I’m here because I want to learn and I want to know what I need to do, and your specific, tiered response provides the kind of advice I’m desperately seeking. You’ve given me a really good idea of where I need to start and what I need to focus on for my website.
It’s interesting that I want to do something very similar (provide step by step instructions of what to do and the ‘why’ behind that) with my business, but for people who are facing personal issues rather than business or website or marketing issues. The process for improving personal issues isn’t a whole lot different to what you’d use to address marketing or business issues, but the content is, and people don’t often get the chance to ask “what can I do to make [situation x] a whole lot better than it is now?”
There is always something people can do to take control but when it’s personal, it can feel overwhelming or confusing or paralysing. I’d like to help change that, but I recognise it’s a specific type of person that I need to target – someone who wants specific instructions of what they can do to make situation x better, and why they might want to.
Really appreciate you generously providing such useful, specific advice John
Lee
October 26, 2014 at 1:04 am #1172852Up::0Zava Design, post: 201145 wrote:You didn’t provide a link to the site you want reviewed, I’m going to presume it’s this one (but let me know if it is not): http://www.theroguecounsellor.comThe overall design is not appropriate at all. A counsellor should be offering an environment/service that is warm, safe, welcoming. The design of the site is functional and cold.
The copywriting is similarly bland, cold and functional rather than warm and welcoming. It doesn’t engage me in a way that I would have confidence in your abilities to connect with me within your counselling services.
At this stage, as you’ve already attempted to make changes yourself, I would strongly recommend engaging a designer and a copywriter if you want your site to work for your business rather than against it.
I just LOVE FS!! I went away for work a couple of weeks ago and at the time thought any comments that were going to come in for my review request were done. I get back and find there’s whole flurry more.
I am so appreciative that people have taken the time, and particularly for the specific feedback given.Thanks David for pointing out what I need to have from a design/engagement perspective. I get that I’m going to need design and copywriting help, but first and foremost it’s clear I need to find a way to communicate what I’m doing and why. That’s my starting point.
Appreciate your inputLee
October 8, 2014 at 10:48 pm #1172844Up::0Sandra S, post: 200924 wrote:Hi Lee,Congrats! Always a great achievement.
I’ve just checked your website, so no sugar coating
I agree with previous comments. There is still a lot to read.
Your exercise about repeating 3 things before sleep could do with a little bit of structure : Step 1, Step 2 or maybe a video. For now, it is just a long text to read. Maybe too long.I found it a bit disruptive to have to click on a link to read the question and the answers of the Q&A.
I’m a bit confused by your tone. You are talking about advice, counselling, serious stuff but you throw quite a lot of humour as well. Somehow I like it, but still I am confused.
In your “About me” section, you are telling me what the website is all about first, but I’d like to know what you are all about first, before I seek more about your website.
Overall, I’m sure you can re-structure the appearance of the text to lighten up how much you have to say with paragraph, colours or boxes. Maybe even add some images.
I’ve subscribe to your 3 newsletters as I think you mentioned you wanted some feedback on those as well? Let me know.
Cheers and good luck!
SandraHi Sandra,
I really appreciate your feedback – it’s beautifully specific and gives me good things to think about and work on.
For now I’ve put the response to the Q&A below the question, but think maybe a box or drop down will be better, so it opens beneath when clicked. Eventually there will be a bunch of them, so this may work better.
Have taken your advice of the ‘step 1, step 2’ approach for the ‘change your mind’ exercise, but think you are right about having to find a better way to shorten my way too wordy approach and deliver it in boxes or bite sized chunks, break it up with images etc. The site will be content-dense, but needs to be done much better than it is currently. This is very much my learning stage
Will re-look at the layout of the About me (and shorten it too).
Re the tone, yes they are serious topics, but they are not tragic – there won’t be anything on this site about sexual abuse of children or family violence or the grief of losing a loved one to an accident or crime, or managing a diagnosis of a terminal illness. The pointy end stuff rightly belongs in the counselling room. The site is for people who know they want to make changes to their life, but who are not sure how to go about it. The workshops will be about taking control (which means responsibility) for doing things differently to get a different outcome. The tone is lighter in some places because it’s about learning new ways to do things. Though I am thinking of dropping the ‘life truths’ section altogether, not sure it fits really.
Thanks for signing up, if you don’t mind I’ll send you a couple of newsletters and have you unsubscribe so that bit can be tested too.
Thanks again Sandra, your comments have been really helpful
Lee
October 8, 2014 at 5:00 am #1172842Up::0Gizmo, post: 200915 wrote:Hello,For me there is far too much white space on the website.
I think you need to redesigned it.Okay, too bland then?
Thanks for taking the time to take a look Gizmo.
Lee
October 8, 2014 at 1:45 am #1172982Up::0biads, post: 200892 wrote:Hi Lee,Thanks for your 2c. This sort of feedback is invaluable, especially at the research stage, which is where I am at. I guess it’s great to create traffic and make sales, but creating repeat customers is the key to success.
Thanks for your input.
Dan
You’re more than welcome Dan.
One other suggestion – having a search function on your site where customers can search for a product by name (as opposed to just category) is really helpful. When I was looking I tried a number of sites trawling through ‘vitamins and supplements’ as not all would give a result under ‘pernaease powder’. I knew what I was looking for and wanted an easy way to find it.
Just another point to add to your research list.
And do let me know when you’re up and running – happy to test your system by buying the pernaease from you if its competatively priced. I can give you feedback on the shipping process too, another important feature for repeat customers.
Lee
October 8, 2014 at 1:30 am #1172840Up::0I’ve been doing some editing and am hoping I can get some feedback on a couple of pages.
Mathilda found the home page copy way too wordy and long, I’ve tried to make it shorter and more clear. Can you tell me if it’s clear enough that people could self select whether the site was going to be of interest to them within several seconds of reading it? And have I weeded out the patronising tone Mathilda noted?
Mathilda also found the amount of information in the new and free page (there’s a link to it on the right sidebar of the home page) too overwhelming. This is a difficult one because there will be a lot of content of the site. The exercises, like the one there at the moment, are long.
So what I’ve done is put in a series of sub headings to visually break up the length of it. Does this make it easier to read? Over time there will be a lot of exercises I want to add, and they’ll be lengthy and detailed. I’m looking for the best way that can be presented to be digestible for the reader.
This is very much a work in progress and I’m very appreciative fellow FS-ers might be willing to help. All and any feedback is most welcome.
Lee
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