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Hello everyone!
I am in the process of designing a new website. I have a few questions for everyone.
What do you like about your buyers/recycling centers websites?
What do you dislike about them?
Any other advice?
And If you have a website that pops out in your head, please send it over to me. I would love to see it!
Thanks
Suggestions I would have -
Take pictures and describe how the process works for a new customer. These places can be intimidating if they are not experienced. Where to go exactly once you get there, how to prepare, etc.
Up to date price list. You can just have a simple form that an employee fills out when prices change which updates the website.
Live chat would be nice if there is someone dedicated to deskwork.
A buyer's site and a recycling site are two different things. For me, I prefer visual sites that really pop out. They look the nicest, and are usually easier to navigate for me than text-heavy sites are.
I agree. I will keep the text to a minimal.
Unfortunately we don't have a person that is at the desk 100% of the time. Hopefully in the future we can fix this.
Keep everything coming guys.
Thanks!
There is lots of info on the net about making effective websites.
The keys to making a site effective is generally not what the uneducated in the medium thinks. A lot of people say " Don't have too much text" for instance but research shows over and over again that the majority of people will read everything they can when they are interested to learn about something. This goes with the old adage " The one that tells, sells" This was coined in the 50's when a famous advertising writer took a tour of a beer company he was working for and saw all the processes they went through. He was amazed and told them so and they said Meh, this is how everyone makes beer, we don't do it any different. The guy wrote ads that described the process and they are some of the most successful ads ever written because no one else described the process and the market was just as impressed as he was when they read how it was done.
Personally, I try to write the long and the short version. If someone doesn't like reading, They can look at a few lines and move on. For the people that are more literate and interested, There is more in depth information for them.
One thing that's a big mistake with sites in to make them pretty but not effective. Most people want a real WOW! site with all the bells and whistles when what they should really be after is a site that gets the phone ringing or clients through the door. Again, despite what people will say and think, The 2 are not the same and there are many examples in the advertising industry where gee whizz sites fell on their backsides and much plainer, non spectacular sites did bloody well.
The important thing is to appeal to your target market. Who are they? If you are mainly catering to commercial or experienced people in the trade who are used to different yards, they won't be put off by them. If you want to appeal to home/ business owners, a yard is probably a scary place and the last thing you want in the joint looking like a hell hole from a mad max movie and all the staff looking like escaped Murderers. No offense to anyone but thats pretty much what all the places round here look like.
It's no good just having a site that looks good and appeals to your market, you have to carry it through to the business over all. The yard owners where I go would do well to invest a few hundred bucks in Monogrammed work shirts for the staff rather than them not being able to be told who was who from the customers except the staff are the worst looking and smelling.
Get some DECENT pics of your yard done. No Phone crap pics. Show it off in the most professional light possible and use that as an excuse to clean up the counter or customer area if it could do with one and lord forbid, even considering giving it a lick of paint. Money isn't everything. If you have a place that looks presentable and people LIKE or feel less intimidated coming to, they won't worry if you don't pay the highest prices in town. Push service, organization, friendly service etc and back it up.
If you have all those things going for your yard already, make sure you convey it to the site Viewers.
As part of your overall marketing, Your staff should ask every single person where they heard about you from and if they have been there before. This should be recorded. That way you know if people are coming from your Craigsmissed ad or the website or Flyers etc.
If you see that only 50 people a re year are finding you through that $2000 Yellow pages ad, you know you either need to change it or drop it completely. If On the other hand you find 20% of people came in because they saw your sign when they drove past, You can consider whether you can make the sign bigger and more brightly lit to pull in even more people.
Telling people how to prepare their material, what to do when they get to the yard, what the procedure is etc are all strong rapport builders and will be appealing to new clients who now don't feel so out of place and will come to you because they feel more informed.
Those people will DEFINATELY read all they can on what the procedure is so they don't look like twits when they get there.
Again, there are lots of sites and info on the net about building and EFFECTIVE website so invest some time reading up before you even plan what you are going to do or what you are going to write.
It will pay off for you for a long time.
:0)
this is a great answer. I especially agree with explaining how to prepare their scrap. It will make the customer not feel like a knob and will save you time and effort not having to help people get their stuff sorted properly.
easy to navigate
easy to find contact number
mobile friendly
updated pricing
If your are in the design process you need to get information. The visual side is one aspect. The inner working are another story. eWatsed has a great site, I love it. The way you go on and do everything is perfect.
Something to keep in mind is SEO search engine optimization. One thing Google looks for is how much text. It changes but last check was 500 words is OK, 700-1200 words per page is best. If you do not offer content you will not attract people.
Plan now to tie in social media, Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, etc.
There are a thousand things to consider. I would find someone to work with that will develop the site in phases. If you have a small biz and need to do things yourself I would use a Wordpress theme customized. This will allow you to add content as you go.
I am loading my site for the pool business on the server over the next few days and will post it here. Maybe you guys can visit and help me make sure everything works? My guy is in California. He is getting the site up and running. Then we will be adding 200 unique items to the store with the shopping cart enabled!
After the pool site goes up a new site for GRID Recycling will be on the horizon.