New Site

[MuirView Design]

So I've been working on a website for the past year or so that I've been doing myself. I got about 50% into it, but realized I was just not going to have the time necessary to finish it. So, we decided to contact the people at Clearimaging.com (Mypaverwebsite.com) as they are sponsors on the site and we wanted to just have them go ahead and rebuild the website.

After a few weeks, they sent me over the preliminary design that they came up. I like it to a degree, but honestly, I don't think it has anything special about it and I am considering having them redo it from scratch. What do you guys think? (The text and pictures are just place holders.) I need some advice on this one.

[cgland]

Adam - I would like to see some movement. ie a flash intro or something. Other than that its OK. Looks a little cookie cutter

[MuirView Design]

Looks a little cookie cutter

Exactly my thoughts. I could have done that myself honestly.....in a few hours. It's just boxes and buttons. Need to go back to the drawing board. I want my site to better reflect our strengths as a company.

The guy told my wife that they don't recommend flash on their sites because it gives a lower ranking in google. I've never heard that before. Might just be a way to persuade the naive into an easier to build template site or could be true. Who knows.

I need to spend the time and design it on paper how I want it and then let them just do the building. This is just the preliminary anyway.

[paponte]

Adam, I'd agree especially if your paying for it. You could come up with that easily if you had the time. If I'm paying for something they had better create some wow factor. One thing about websites, it seems like your never really fully satisfied with them. When I first had ours done I was quite impressed, but now it is lacking , and needs upgrades. Websites are constant changing, especially with a growing company.

[joeymaze]

I think your site needs a theme that reflects your strengths like you said. clearimaging does have some impressive sites out there so they are capable. I don't agree about the flash intro. You just need to be concerned about the page load time when you have one. I have a intro & my site ranks very high on google. Granted I have done some SEO to get there. It took me about 2 months of working with my website company before I got my site the way I wanted it. I think you are on the right track designing the concept yourself & letting clearimaging tweak it. After all who knows your comapny better than you!

[cgland]

I have heard that a flash intro somehow blocks the search engine bots and they skip over your site. Could be BS tho

[GDK]

I do agree that the site looks cookie cutter. It would be cool if they could incorporate before and after shots. Maybe the hardscape and landscape photo section could be further broken down into pools, walks, patios, etc. The black background and text just doesn't stand out either.

[Harmony Design Group]

Adam
I think your site should show the design progression. A image of before then a rendition of the 3D design them the installed project. One image should fade into the other on the top banner of the home page. For each image the client can click and get directed to a page. For example the 3D image can direct a client to the design page. The installed image can direct people to the portfolio page.

[MuirView Design]

Marc, that's a great idea!

[custom patios]

a good example of that is clearwaterlandscape.com
good site

[OutdoorOasis]

Adam, have you moved forward with clearimaging on your site? They have been calling me daily for some time, but when I reviewed some of their sites everything I found seemed to have similar images and nothing special about them.

Cully Kinnick
Outdoor Oasis