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How might I improve my web design/development site to get more clients?

Hi, So, I've been spending $100 per day to get lots of visitors to my website and hoping that at least 1% of them would hire me for my services. That isn't happening. No one is contacting me either by phone, email or on the forms. The site is here: http://FutureWaveDesigns.com What does this site need? Is it easy to find the information you would want to see or expect to see? How can I make the site better? Ok, I appreciate all the advice on improving this site here: http://FutureWaveDesigns.com Someone mentioned this design here: http://www.jr-art.net/ I like that but isn't there a possible problem with a flash site not being search engine friendly? I was concerned about that and with accessibility. That's probably why I came up with a boring site. Plus my partner did this as a revision and he doesn't have more than xhtml/css skills. I can do much better. than this. I have this site here: http://WordSaladPoetryMagazine.com and I've included flash components and engaging content, using the flipping page that displays the poetry books. What about a link to allow the visitor to see the flash version of the site or to just see the html? A full Flash site? I also use Adobe Flex and there are great tools for creating a site entirely in Flex to run in the Flash player. What do you think? Bruce

Public Comments

1. Bruce, Please don't take this personally - after all you asked for the advice. The look and feel of your website is 'cheesy' - that is a word that I would use to describe the millions of websites that are out there that have the look and feel of an amatur website. The website is too complicated, it has two many graphics, the fonts are to big, and the homepage scrolls forever. Then, after all of these very obvious design flaws, you are going to ask me for $199 to "improve my site"? Well.... I am going to recommend that you spend some time looking at the websites that are the most popular on the web - then compare them to yours. I would also recommend that you spend a lot of time learning how to work with style sheets (.css). There are literally hundreds of online tutorials about style sheets, and there are countless style sheets that are either free or very cheap on the internet. Look these up by simply googling "Style Sheets" or ".css" and you will see what I mean. I certainly hope you don't mind me being harsh, but you need some serious design work on your site if you are going to attract people who have literally millions of other places to go for web site design services.
2. if you know your target audience then figure out where do they frequent the most. Your looking for people who dont have a site, or who's site doesnt hold up. May be make friends with teachers of entrepreneurship classes, they are future website holders. Have people use your website as an example, like the first step to setting up your business is getting your license second is setting up your site, you can go to so-and-so's to do that. If your walking down the street and see a small mom and pops shop explain to them why they need your services, how much more business they can bring in. I dont think cheesy is the word i would use. It looks like a scam,so definately work on the site, like at other sites that offer the same service and take notes. I think you need smaller letters and less "flashy" it'll seem more serious and less scamish. Good luck
3. Hi Bruce, Hopefully I can offer you some constructive criticism! ;) Hire a good graphic designer! The website in my honest opinion looks cheap. You have been spending $100 a day on advertising - so why not spend some advertising budget on a graphic designer. Your firm needs a logo for a start. Every company needs a logo! A professionally designed logo - rather than just some stock text font with a clip art picture. Get rid of the stock images on your website - they devalue your services. Possibly think about displaying text using a different and smaller font. As a web designer / developer you should be making your website look amazing, even if your offering budget web builds! In your line of business the most important consideration you should have is the appearance of your company and website. At the moment it looks like a cheap turnkey site and something created in a rush. Use a graphic designer!
4. I learned that the best Web sites are built around great content. It's easier that way. Start there and design your site to tell in quick bites of information what people can use. Have you prepared press releases? RSS feeds? Are you getting inbound links to your site from other sites? www.jhowardco.com
5. After a cursory review of your SEO metatags on your opening webpage there seems to be some troubling entries: 1. Current: <title>Future Wave Designs: Web Design, Web Development</title> Comment: Your <title> metatag lists your domain name which you assume is a major recognizable brand [which it is not]. And where's your business locator which is missing in the <title> metatags? 2. Current: <meta name="Description" content="Future Wave Designs, owned by Bruce Whealton, and located in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill (Triangle) area of North Carolina, provides web design, web development and web programming services. We provide services which utilize the latest technologies, applications, software, design and development approaches. Owner, Bruce Whealton." /> Comment: You assume that your owner's name is very recognizable in the <description> and <keywords" metatags. And if that is not the case, you may want to consider substituting more generic keywords in place of the owner's name since there is a limited number of entries allowed. 3. Current: <meta name="Keywords" content="Bruce Whealton, web design, web design North Carolina, Web Design NC, Web Design Durham, Web Design Carrboro, Web Design Durham NC, Web Design Chapel Hill, Web Design Chapel Hill NC, Web Design Raleigh NC, Web Design Raleigh, Web Development Durham NC, Web Development Durham, Web Development Chapel Hill NC, Web Development Chapel Hill, Web Development Raleigh NC, Web Development Raleigh, Web Development Carrboro NC, Web Development Carrboro, web application programming services, web application development services, search engine optimization, flash website design, flash website development, adobe flex builder, adobe flex web development, flex web programming, rich internet application development, rich internet applications, actionscript, actionscript 3.0, actionscript programming services, php programming services, php programming, ColdFusion Web Development, ColdFusion application development, web 2.0 services, web programming, flash, web hosting, North Carolina, web development North Carolina, web design North Carolina, Web development Carrboro NC, XML development, XML programming, MySQL Database Development, MySQL Web Database Development services, Web design Carrboro NC, web development Chapel Hill NC, Web design Chapel Hill NC, web development North Carolina Triangle area, web design Raleigh NC, Web Development Raleigh NC, Adobe Photoshop, photoshop, Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Flash, Dreamweaver, JavaScript web design, JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheets, CSS, AJAX, Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, seo web design, church web design, web page design, web design tips tutorials, seo optimization, xhtml, css web design, affordable web design and hosting services, web site development, seo web development, ecommerce web site development, ecommerce, search engine friendly web development, north carolina web designers North Carolina, Web Developers North Carolina, web-based applications, rich media, multimedia, dynamic database-driven websites, web site design development ecommerce north Carolina, north carolina small business web site hosting, dynamic website, north carolina professional web designers, north Carolina professional web developers, professional web design nc" /> Comment: And you also believe that there is no limit in the number of spamdexed/duplicate entries in the <keywords> metatag. There is actually a limit set for the number of entries within the <keywords> metatags, which is between 15-16 entries, total. In conclusion, the more spamdexed entries in you metatags, the more likely that google.com editors will lower your PR or subject your website and those of your clients to being reported via spamreport@google.com as offending websites seeking to elevate their website rankings by loading techniques. Hopefully you will take note of the following google.com tutorial which outlines the proper setting up of SEO metatags. Placement of Metatags: A ranking or search order does take place with Google and Yahoo and it begins with the "Title" metag which should consist of no more than 65 characters separated by commas. The "Title" should describe in generic terms, the goods and services, followed by a location from which the resource is located, i.e., city, state. The placement of a domain name which is not generic within the "Title" is not appropriate, unless your domain name is a major recognizable brand name. The second metatag is the "Description" which is usually 25-30 words to form a complete sentence which best describes one's goods and services. And the very last category - "Keywords" are also somewhat limited to 15-16 words which can be plural and compound in nature. Again, avoid multiple entries which could be mistaken as "spamdexed entries" which is defined as the loading, and submission of repetitive words into a particular metatag category. "Spamdexing" when discovered on a webpage and reported to Google's spamreport.com can result in the elimination of your website from their search directory. Good luck!
6. I went to future wave designs....You have your form on the landing page and everything is really in place. Maybe change (lower) your pricing? I would also put the form higher up on your first page(home page) Could also be your targetting the wrong advertising/keywords http://www.webgearinc.com http://www.3dvt.net
7. You should advertise on classified ad sites. My favorite is WantedWants.com because your ad stays up for 100 days and you can add a link to your free ad.