Analyzing my own website
In the future, I will be analyzing some of the websites I create for businesses. I will touch on certain features of the site and why it was put there. I will give you a behind the scenes look of why choices were made for certain colors, pictures, and placement of certain items on the pages.
Today, I'm going to look at my own website and critique it.
When I started to design my own webpage, I had a couple of things in mind. 1) I wanted a clean look (in other words not cluttered). 2) I wanted a simple and easy to navigate site. 3) On the homepage I wanted the customer to know exactly what my business was.
I believe I achieved those things, but certainly there is always room for improvement.
Let's take a look at the homepage.
First, the menu bar. When you create a business you obsess over things like what my logo should look like. For now, I wanted something simple. So, I basically came up with the two-tone text in Raleway font. It's simple, but catches your eye with the lighter blue and white over the dark blue background. Note: I didn't pick the color scheme based on the school district I live in, it just fits my personality best.
On the right, again keeping it simple with an About Page, Blog, Services and Contact. Plus, there's room to add more in the future.
The main picture on the homescreen captures what I will be doing probably 85% of my work life now. Sitting at my computer and creating content. Notice the product placement on the right: World Champions Cubs mug. :)
I mentioned before I want people to know what I do when they visit my page. The line "Creating Marketing Strategies For Your Business Growth" is my job description in a nutshell. I like how it scrolls with the picture above when you browse up and down on the homepage. Below it, you have a link to the Services I provide, plus an About Page so you can get to know me a little bit better. The More Info buttons gives the customer a plan of action to visit those pages with a brief description above about what page they are visiting.
I wanted to highlight the clients I'm working with for two reasons. 1) They are the reason I have a business. Without them, Jamison Media Services wouldn't exist. 2) This drives people to their websites or Social Media sites. I'm Marketing for them so I want to give them as much as exposure as possible. A big thank you to my clients!
The picture above is from my About page. Every business should have an About page. My About page will change over time. For example, right now it talks about why I started the business and a little about my personal life. This part may change to 100% personal in the future. As a customer I always like to see a little bit of the personality of the business or business owner so that's what I tried to achieve here. I carefully choose the pictures I posted as well. Cubs game with my wife, Disney trip with the family and Christmas and Easter family pictures. Great memories.
Two things I won't go into detail about but want to make note of. 1) Every website should have a Contact Page. If you are selling a service or product, the customer needs to know how to contact you. 2) My Services page. This tells a little more detail about the services I provide. If I just said I did E-mail Marketing or Social Media Management with no explanation, a lot of people probably don't know what that exactly means. I've seen a lot of business web pages list services but no description. They are missing out on sales.
As the business progresses I will eventually post samples of my services too as well as break them down in the blog.
If you have a comments or critiques about my website, let me know in the comments.
