I'd love some feedback on my website.

Hey Maureen: Sharp looking site! Layout is very professional. Colors are soft and contrasting. Message clear and very legible. Top banner serves as great top-level navigation. Content area easy to read. Images professional and quick loading.

Suggestions:

• The top mouse-over buttons (the images that change out when you touch them with your mouse) were slow to load when i would mouse over them a couple of times. They look sharp but javascript just acts weird sometimes. My personal (and it is personal, not a web standard by any means) preference is to use buttons like this as a background in their area and use css links for the mouseover. css seems more reliable for that function. I used to use javascript and even flash for buttons but have really gotten away from it and returned to as simple of navigation as I can find. This is a small suggestion so if you like how they load and your customers like them too then leave them alone because they look great.
• Consider adding content to appeal to Google. They love content. That is an ongoing process so just stay on top of writing every now and then to make the existing articles somewhat longer and to add a few articles as you find a topic you want to target. You probably don't need too much content but make sure the content is really well written and that there is "enough" (whatever that is)...it's a google thing. Along those lines...if you tout a portfolio or testimonials you want to suggest or offer several cases for each. At this point, there could be the impression that you have only done one or two projects. Whether or not that is the case you can give the impression that you have a ton of experience by suggesting "here are a FEW of my MANY testimonials" or "here are a FEW of SEVERAL/MANY cases I have done"...again just thoughts...
• Do you own the domain name (the URL)? What is your plan if you ever leave the company you are at? You mentioned the site is a template site tied to the training company. That means there may be risk there. Make sure you have a plan so all the hard work you do to make your site a success isn't crunched if they go out of business/get bought out or if you decide to move to another company...just watching your back  :)
• Next step ==> Have your clients and co-workers view the site from an industry point of view...keep on the thick skin and take their suggestions as opportunities to make the site even better. We really do want our clients to give us feedback because their opinion will likely be the same as other potentials...

I think you have shown a great example of what can be done with a template site. You have fabulous original content and (hopefully) it is easy to add new articles because it is a template site. Great work! I'll be around again to see the progress as you go...

Maureen,

Very pretty site. I've one comment, as a former English teacher. In your FAQs you say:

"Even spending a mere $500 for staging services should net you thousands in return and speed of sale based upon statistical data. In the previous statistics, unless the house is under 50K this argument is invalid."

This doesn't make grammatical sense. and there have been no "previous statistics." I think what you mean to say is something like:

"For most homes, even spending a mere $500 for staging services should net you thousands in return and speed of sale based upon statistical data."

or

" Even spending a mere $500 for staging services should net you thousands in return and speed of sale based upon statistical data, unless the home is priced under $50K."

Maureen,

Allow me to throw in my two cents for what it is worth. Overall the design has a nice clean appearance. Your main navigation is straightforward and easy to use. Consider adding "text based links" to the footer of your site to allow the search engines to see what links your site has to offer site vsitors. Think of it this way, Google can't "see" your graphical images (hence the need for alt tags) so show the search engines what links you have by adding them to the footer of the site.

Before you begin to "invest" your time re-venting this wheel, you may want to give some thought to exploring your options if you could build a new site. You may actually save in the long haul. Either way, be sure you think about some of the points in Brad Carroll's Blog for achieving success with your on-line presence. He and I are about to put a wrap on a couple of website resources (ebooks) we think could help many in the RE industry who are thinking about building or modifying their sites.

Whenever we design a site we ask these questions:

What is your corporate branding. Your logo, your tag-line, your UPS (Unique Positioning Statement-what sets you apart from your competitors)? Is your branding elements in the location where most site visitors begin their scan of your site. FYI...that's in the upper left hand corner and they read in an "F" pattern. Does the rest of your sales collateral have the same "look and feel" as your website or is it a hodgepodge with no consistency? FYI...make sure any PDF you produce has your branding and your contact information. You never know where it could land and help generate business for you.

Who is your target market? Does the site and it's content "speak" to your target market? Does it's content speak to their wants, needs and fears?

Is the imagery on your site all taken by the same professional photographer? Do you integrate "Alt Tags" in your images for SEO?

How many targeted site interaction opportunitieses does your website have? Why not offer a discount for the gift certificates if the site visitor registers for it online? Other than the newsletter, I'm not sure if I noticed another "compelling offer" on your site. Without compelling offers, you will find it difficult to generate leads.

I totaly agree with AWD from Vegas - Write and load some copy on the site. One thing that constantly amazes me. Agents will blog all these great topics and articles and never add them to their sites. It's one of the unanswered mysteries of all time.

If your struggling to determine what keywords you should load in your copy of the site, click over to Quintura and use their LSI Tool (Latent Semantics Indexing). This tool will help idenfity which keyword terms you should integrate into your copy for your market. Be sure you use the recommended keyword phases in your copy from Quintura. If you are not sure if you have used the keywords often enough in your copy, try our keyword analyzer tool! When writing web copy for our clients, I use this tool all the time to insure I have provided the search engines plenty of opportunity to see the important keyword phases about my client and their services/products.

Add a Privacy Statement. In this day and age, I demand that my personal contact information be kept out of the hands of spammers. Let site visitors know upfront you promise to never sale, rent or freely give their contact information to NO One! Guard it with your life.

I trust these observations will help bring some clarity when you begin to explore your options for your website.

May you experience greater success!