12 replies to this topic

[waveshoppe]

Greetings, this is our Film Vehicle Rental site: http://www.moviepicturecars.com/ site, you need to know that though it has commercial intent it, is a reference for customers that are referred to us by the film commission. Most of it is supplemental, but then we never intended it to be a contender in the SERPs.

Our customers come here because these ARE their choices, most of the actual visitors are someone that was assigned the dubious task by a producer or prop master so they really only focus on the vehicle that will look best for their shot.

We are primarily seeking feedback on cosmetics, particularly where best to add some color and in what form. Before you ask, No you can not go for a ride in our jet.


General
Is this site completed or under construction?
"Site is complete"

If completed:
How long has the site been up?
"Site has been online for a year or so"

SEO
Do you have incoming links?

"We have a few IBLs and we are working on a new campaign to start in January 07. We are waiting for the new site to be completed by the San Diego Film Commission which will allow us more linking opportunity with our genre."

What keywords are you targeting?

"Picture car rentals in San Diego, California"

Do you want your code reviewed for errors or improvements?
"No, it’s in FP and it renders fine"

Marketing
Who is your target audience? Think about: "prop masters, producers, and location managers, sometimes event planners."
Gender "universal"
Nationality "does not matter"
Age Range "na"
Income/Education level "na"
Likes/Dislikes ?

The more you tell us about your target audience, the better. We don't know them- you do!

“Our customers come here because these ARE their choices, most of the actual visitors are someone that was assigned the dubious task by a producer or prop master so they really only focus on the vehicle that will look best for their shot.”

Why is your site different from sites selling/offering similar info/goods/services? Why will someone want to do business you?
“well for one we have a fighter jet but our selling point is that we are in San Diego and transport and associated fees are not necessary”

How important is usability?

“its always important but I think vehicle color and quick means of contact means the most to our clients”

What is the purpose of the site? (inform, sell, online community, support B&M business, contact info only, etc)

“show offerings and convert to a book”

Design
Do you want design suggestions?

“We are primarily seeking feedback on cosmetics, particularly where best to add some color and in what form. Before you ask, No you can not go for a ride in our jet.”

Edited by Jill, 01 December 2006 - 08:14 PM.

[theseokit]

The site itself looks pretty good! But you only have 5 back links... You need to get that upto 5000 if you want to be effective.

[torka]

You need to get that upto 5000 if you want to be effective.

I'm sorry, but that is just plain wrong. You definitely do not need 5,000 links to do well, particularly in a niche market like this (and the OP already said their primary source of traffic is not search, so they're not really concerned with the SERPs to start with).

Waveshoppe, my really quick first pass: I like clean sites, so -- speaking personally -- I wouldn't add much in the way of color. I'd say you want the focus to be on the cars, so it's perfectly okay for the rest of the site to be a very neutral. Let the car photos themselves really pop out at people.

What I would like to see is larger car pictures. Larger pictures on the home page especially, maybe half again to twice as large as the ones you have there. And while it's okay for the thumbnails on the category listings page to be small, I'd like to see medium-sized pictures on each detail car page, with the option to view even larger by clicking.

Maybe I'm totally off-base, but putting myself in the place of somebody looking for a car to use in a movie or commercial or whatever, I'd be on the prowl for something that -- as you say -- has the right look, so... shifting myself to being in the place of the web designer, I'd want to cater to that visual orientation as much as possible by giving people some relatively large pictures to look at.

My

--Torka

[theseokit]

Its just a exspression meaning you really need to do some link work to do well..... You all take things way to seriously so I will have to be more exact with what I say from now on.

[Jill]

Offtopic

I will have to be more exact with what I say from now on.

Yes, it's very important as we don't like to contribute to the mountain of misinformation currently out there on this topic. We pride ourselves on being one of the few places where the information is generally accurate. So if we see something that isn't, we feel the need to correct it immediately.

[DimaX]

This site dont work

[JohneeMac]

Its certainly a clean site, but just a bit too clean for me.

Id start with choosing a better font for your heading which will make it a lot crisper. it looks at the moment as there is no anti alias on it.

Your navigation on the left is using images, i dont think you are making use of them. Theres are lot more detail you could add to make it stand out more, which would add to the look and feel of the site.

The photos you have are great, but id make them bigger and then getting visitors really thinking into what you do and are are selling.

Could go into more detail but hope that helps. Good luck with the site.

[jehochman]

Why do you have Adsense? It's a pure distraction.

Are you working with a professional graphic designer yet?

<on edit>

I see at least one typo. Have you had a proofreader go over the site?

Edited by jehochman, 23 December 2006 - 06:28 PM.

[waveshoppe]

Wow, stopped by and I was amazed that there were posts, thanks for the feedback. It definitely needs a few more on-topic back links, that’s one of my projects for the first quarter of next year. We definitely need to pull as many pages as we can from the supplemental results. I asked Matt C about the Google CSE and supplemental results and this was his response:

“Charles, I’ll ask about using CSE with supplemental results. My guess is that that wouldn’t happen in the short-term, but I’ll try to find out more.�

Picture size, that’s a tough one because believe it or not, many production crews are on dial-up. In the industry they usually print them out and spread them out on a table for selection, very primitive but that’s how Hollywood is. But maybe I can do something that puts emphasis on enlarging the car like “see full screen image�.

I will mess with the heading fonts and see if I can make them more interesting looking.

Jonathan, with all respect, I doubt we will ever use professional graphic designers services. The men and women in DreamWorks are into that; our realm is more like a traveling carnival. Nothing wrong with Adsence on a site thats not really main stream retail.

Could you tell me what the typo is?

[jehochman]

It definitely needs a few more on-topic back links

That's not on the top 10 list of things I'd fix. You need to make the site look professional.

Jonathan, with all respect, I doubt we will ever use professional graphic designers services.

Then go find a student. My own site and logo were done for $50 by an art student. Knowing how to use Photoshop and knowing what to do with Photoshop are two completely different things.

With the right designer you can say, "I want my site to have that bohemian, traveling carnival look," and they'll do that for you. Professional doesn't mean expensive, nor does it mean boring or corporate.

Please understand that I find gushing, "Oh it looks great" site reviews are worthless. The only way to get better is critical awareness.

Also, forget about Matt Cutts. Forget about CSE, supplemental results, latent semantic indexing, and the trapezoidal linking matriflux. You need to focus on the basics.

[waveshoppe]

Hmm, I don’t recall stating that I was looking for a “gushing” review. But nonetheless I do appreciate the feedback and I will attempt to step out of my area of expertise and address as much as I can.

Have a great Christmas!

[jehochman]

Merry Christmas to you too!

[Abhay]

Lots of wrk is to done in design..
Use sum nice color combination..
Fonts,Use of graphics in needed