Your home inspection website

Howdy, Members –

If you’re a member and would like me to review your homepage (not your entire website) for errors and other issues, please post your request and a link to your homepage in this thread. I will add your name to my list and get to everyone’s request in order.

Do not email me directly with your request (as I originally posted); you must post your request in this thread, and I will also post my feedback in this thread for the benefit of all members.

I will also private-message or email you when my feedback has been posted to let you know that it’s up.

Thanks!

Thanks Kate. I see some homepages that have a lot of spelling/grammatical errors in them.

Who wants to go first?

I will!

http://www.reddeerinspector.ca/

Time for a re-make…be brutal

Sent you my link Kate.
Thanks

We need to change things up a little. Again, I am only giving your main page a once-over – not your entire website – but you have to be willing to have my feedback made public here on the message board for all to see and benefit from.

Outside of the four members who have already contacted me, if you’d still like me to review your main page and give you feedback, please post a message here on this thread with a link to your website – rather than sending me an email – and I’ll get to it as soon as I can.

I love the abuse. Have fun all :slight_smile: http://homeinspection.meekerindustries.com/

I am considering a total web makeover on all my sites so I might as well get info from a pro.

Wanna really have fun go to www.meekerindustries.com it drives pro’s crazy but clients seem to like it :slight_smile:

Hi, Dan –

Here’s my feedback for your main page at http://www.reddeerinspector.ca/ (and the text in red is quoted directly from that page):

  1. Your logo and company name in your page header are competing with
    each other unnecessarily. Your logo should suffice, so make it bigger.

  2. “upmost” should be “utmost”

  3. “For a buyer” and “For sellers” should agree in number for uniformity.

  4. For a buyer, we make sure that they know and understand every fact about the property that they are purchasing.

You are vastly over-promising with this statement, which opens you up to liability. You can’t know every fact about a property you’re inspecting, so how can you make sure that your client will? Also, just because someone knows something doesn’t guarantee that they will understand it – you can report on an item, but you can’t make your client read (or care) about it.

Suggest you dial this back to something like: “It’s important to understand the condition of the property” – this puts the onus back on the client – “which is why we’ll provide a thorough inspection of the home’s visible and accessible systems and components, and provide you with an easy-to-read report” – explains what you’ll do and what you’ll deliver.

Also, speak directly to your prospective client and avoid using third-person pronouns, such as “they.”

  1. For sellers, we will provide a report that gives 100% full disclosure, with no worries if a buyer coming back and questioning anything regarding the property.

Same general comment for this text. You are helping to provide legal disclosure for inspected items only – not “100% full disclosure” – and since you can’t inspect what you can’t see, and since some unscrupulous sellers will deliberately hide defects, you are opening yourself up to liability. (Also, “if” should be “of.”)

  1. Anytime that you are purchasing a property,

Change “Anytime that” to just “When” – this is not something the average person does often.

  1. Everyone involved needs to know every aspect of the property.

Maybe in a perfect world, but not in terms of your role as an HI. Your obligation is to your clients, and it’s up to them (and only them) to decide whether to share your findings (in the report that they’ve contracted with you for) with anyone else.

  1. We take pride in providing this service.

Say “We take pride in providing home inspection services.” (“[T]his service” is not specified in this paragraph.)

  1. Change “insure” to “ensure” x2.

  2. “Or just want a professional” is actually a continuation of the previous sentence, not a new one, so uncap “Or” and change the period preceding it to a comma.

  3. Change the ellipses at the end of “here to help” to a period.

  4. A general note: If you are a one-man operation, change “we” to “I,” and change all other first-person plural pronouns to singular pronouns. Your advertising should be truthful and not mislead the public.

  5. Delete the “Navigation” label at the top of your site’s links at the left.

  6. Your email address is too tiny both at the top and especially at the bottom-left, so increase the font size.

Kate,

Thanks for the offer, I sent you my link!

Tracy Echols

www.eagleseyeinspect.com

Lay it on me!

Hi Kate,

Thanks for the great feedback. You can look at your site thousands of times and not see what’s there.
Kind of like not seeing the forest for the trees…

Hi Kate
Please help and don’t hold back
Www.truequalityhomeinspections.com
Thanks

Hi, Jeremy –

Here are my comments for your main page at http://www.iiservices.ca/

  1. The space of sky in the middle at the top of your page looks very lonely, as if there’s something missing, so suggest you fill it with your contact info, which should be prominently displayed in large, bold font. Adding your service area as the last line would work well, too.

  2. You have a phone number posted, but no email address. If folks are looking for you online, chances are that they will want to email you, too (or instead of calling), so give them a choice, and don’t make them hunt for that info. Also, put the different elements on their own separate lines.

  3. Make the font on this page lighter in color on the darker background, and darker on the lighter background, so that it contrasts more for better readability. It’s fairly difficult to read as is.

  4. Under your logo and contact info is a paragraph with the heading “Barrie Home Inspections,” which sounds like another inspector or inspection business being advertised on your site. It’s confusing because it’s a different name than the one in your logo. Apparently, this is just one town in your service area, so delete “Barrie” to avoid this confusion.

  5. The paragraph under “Barrie Home Inspections” is written in sentence fragments, rather than complete sentences. Suggest you replace it with:
    Insight Inspection Services is a full-service home inspection company covering all points of the property and utilizing tools and knowledge to give you the professional report you need to make an informed decision.6. “DND Military Relocations” implies that you offer relocation services, so change this to “DND Military Relocation Inspections.”

  6. Under that paragraph, add “I am a” and uncap “Proud” – again, don’t speak to your visitors in mere sentence fragments.

  7. In the header “Specializing in First Time Home Buyers,” insert a hyphen between “First” and “Time.”

  8. The paragraph below that header reads like it’s written by a Realtor or broker. Consider what your role is as a home inspector, which is to provide an unbiased evaluation, and also to educate first-time home buyers about the home and how best to maintain it. The text doesn’t have to be dry, but it shouldn’t imply that you’re there to help push the deal through.

  9. Change “Fully Certified & Insured” to “Certified & Fully Insured”

  10. In the numbered list under the paragraph under that heading:
    a. Delete the dashes before the words.
    b. Uncap the first words.
    c. Change “Identify” at #2 to “identifying.”
    d. Insert a period at the end of #2.
    e. “properties condition” should be “property’s condition” (singular-possessive instead of plural).

  11. In the text on the right-hand side:
    a. Change the two forward-slashes to commas.
    b. Uncap “Health & Safety”
    c. “assure” should be “assured”
    d. Insert a comma after “experience”
    e. Your experience “enables” you, not your client, so change that phrase to “which enables me to help you make a critical decision.”

  12. Delete the quotation marks from around “What people are saying,” and cap all those words.

  13. Change “House Poor” to “house-poor”

  14. Change “life passion” to “life’s passion.” Also:
    a. Insert a comma after “independent inspector”
    b. Insert a comma after “why you need an inspection”
    c. Cap “who”

  15. At your link titled “Home Inspection Report,” try “My Home Inspection Report” or “Sample Home Inspection Report”

  16. Under that heading, suggest you change all “reports” to singular “report” – you are speaking to one prospective client at a time, so be more personal and talk about what they will get, not what everyone will get. (But when marketing specifically to RE pros/brokers, this would be appropriate.)

  17. “6AM” and “10PM” should be “6 a.m.” and “10 p.m.”

  18. Linked buttons, web seals, and action shots of you on the job are all excellent!

OK Kate take a look at my page please.

Tracy the below underlined and bolded will help Kate (from her post #5): :slight_smile:

Hi Kate,

Here’s my link when you get a chance.

Thanks

http://myersinspections.com/

Thanks, Larry – I already have Tracy’s info.

Hi, Jon –

Here are my comments for the main page of your website at www.hiddenvalleypropertyinspection.com

  1. The order of the links at the top seems pretty random, starting with “Info,” which is actually the home page that the visitor is already on. Suggest you change “Info” to “Home,” which is more universally understood, and re-order your links by looking at it from a prospective client’s perspective, perhaps by enlisting the feedback of family or friends. For example, “Customer Reviews,” “Book Now” and “Monthly Newsletter” should appear after “Home Inspection Services,” “FAQs,” and the different services you offer. Additionally, all of your links should be self-explanatory. For example, “Square Up Virtual Store” is not. (Is it an older version of your current website? If so, this link should be deleted.) Also, those that are duplicates should be combined, such as “Customer Reviews” and “Testimonials.” Combine where you can to decrease the number of links, as too many choices may confuse and overwhelm your visitor.

  2. In the text below your logo and CMI seal, delete “Utah” where it appears before “Home Inspection Services.” Also, uncap all of the words except those that are actually proper nouns. When every word is capped in such lengthy text (except articles and conjunctions), they all lose their prominence.

  3. Please add your email address under your phone number.

  4. In the text beginning with “Certified Master Inspector,” consider listing these items using a different format, as the first two are links, and the last three are not, but the visitor may believe that they’re supposed to be links but just aren’t working.

  5. In the text below the links/not links, uncap “Home Inspection, Radon Gas and Meth” – these are not proper nouns in this context.

  6. Change “surrounding Utah communities” to “surrounding communities” – it’s understood that you’re in Utah.

  7. Delete “home inspections” at the end of that paragraph.

  8. Cap the first “i” in “interNACHI”

  9. Unless you have more than one InterNACHI member in your company, re-word that paragraph so as not to mislead your prospective clients into thinking that you have more InterNACHI members or inspectors other than yourself. The use of “we” is fine if you have staff and/or helpers, but be judicious and specific, and avoid the “royal we.”

  10. Consider left-justifying the two paragraphs above “Read our reviews” – unless the line breaks are more sensible, lengthy text that is centered takes longer to read.

  11. Overall, great design!

Kate… you’re awesome!

Thanks, Nick!^)

Jim McGrail, please post your request here, along with your website address, per my revised instructions (and Nick’s druthers!). I tried emailing you but my emails keep bouncing back – thanks!