Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Benjamin O'Neill on February 19, 2012 at 0:22

Hi Dan the picture your viewing only shows half the team, to explain a little more the water feature there cleaning out is hasnt been cleaned in 40years, i have a bit of respect fore my older staff i wouldnt be asking them to wade nee deep in sluge when the young lads can do it.

in regard to the multiple sites at the moment there is only one website published, its was i call a feeler website to see how it compares to my other competitors in regards to site traffic, i am setting splitting my business up in to smaller business, perviously i carried out all aspect of hard and soft landscaping, grounds maintenance and tree services, but you can imagine the insurance and paper work for all that is terrific so i feel its easier to reduce my work load and make one business into smaller businesses.

Dan Frazer Gardening said:

I doubt anyone in the photo in the 'About Us' section has 30 years experience!

I agree with most people, you should cancel all these websites, everything, delete it all, and have just one site. Are you set up with various company names/bank accounts/registered with Companies House as several different businesses? If not, you're calling yourself the ONeill 'group'. Makes me a bit confused.

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Permalink Reply by Benjamin O'Neill on February 19, 2012 at 0:39

hi craig i decided to put a contact us form on the homepage, it was a gamble as its does take up valuable space, but i have asked the majority of my client about this and they like it because it was quick and easy to get a message to me, we have to remember people are lazy they dont want to find the website then have to click the contact us page, they simple want to find my page and click send, to us it seems stupid, but to them it makes that little bit of difference.

I have taken your advice on removing the two words you have to type on the contact us form, they were originally put on to help comfirm legit messages for work as opossed bogus messages form fake clients wasting our time, E.G fake address these as you can imagine are annoying and take up valuable time, so for know i have taken it away to see the changes.

since i established my business in 2004 i have thought alot about having a company uniform, but again it depends on what job your doing and the cost that occure, my staff know my clients extremely well in most cases the client is happy for my staff to wear what they feel comfotable in aslong as they get the job completed. oviously there are jobs which require a smart appearence so the staff dress acordingly.

I must say that i think the prices i have stated for wood chipping is resonable in relation to location, wages and overheads and people are happy to pay these prices.

Craig Downey said:

On the home page you have a contact form. i think this should be in the contact us page, also i personally HATE the part where you have to enter the two words to prove your human, not unique to your site i know but i cant stand them. 

Also someone else has mentioned the photo in the about us page, i notice no uniforms? i think this looks unprofessional, and they do all look young, little bit like a holiday snap.

But im no expert

Just a point on your price for brush cutting, is that the normal price for this service?  £45 call out then £75 per hour?  If so i need to get me one of those

 

thats as for as i have got for now,

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Permalink Reply by Craig Downey on February 19, 2012 at 0:53

i can see the sence in having the contact form on front page, so fare comment, i had a contact form on my site (havent now due to technical problems) but i never got any fake messages through, i do think its a good idea to remove the two word thing. 

As for the uniforms, your customers may be ok with it, but what about people passing by?  we simply wear a green tshirt, The can be printed with company name for a few ££, and a pair of green combats, i have had comments in the past saying that we stood out because we were both dressed the same.  Not too expensive the combats i get are £12 on ebay and the tshirts can be as little as £2 or 3. 

And the price i may have worded the first post a bit wrong, it wasent a dig at you i was really not sure if this was the going rate, i didnt realise it was so expensive for this tye of service.

Hope i have helped a little
 
Benjamin O'Neill said:

hi craig i decided to put a contact us form on the homepage, it was a gamble as its does take up valuable space, but i have asked the majority of my client about this and they like it because it was quick and easy to get a message to me, we have to remember people are lazy they dont want to find the website then have to click the contact us page, they simple want to find my page and click send, to us it seems stupid, but to them it makes that little bit of difference.

I have taken your advice on removing the two words you have to type on the contact us form, they were originally put on to help comfirm legit messages for work as opossed bogus messages form fake clients wasting our time, E.G fake address these as you can imagine are annoying and take up valuable time, so for know i have taken it away to see the changes.

since i established my business in 2004 i have thought alot about having a company uniform, but again it depends on what job your doing and the cost that occure, my staff know my clients extremely well in most cases the client is happy for my staff to wear what they feel comfotable in aslong as they get the job completed. oviously there are jobs which require a smart appearence so the staff dress acordingly.

I must say that i think the prices i have stated for wood chipping is resonable in relation to location, wages and overheads and people are happy to pay these prices.

Craig Downey said:

On the home page you have a contact form. i think this should be in the contact us page, also i personally HATE the part where you have to enter the two words to prove your human, not unique to your site i know but i cant stand them. 

Also someone else has mentioned the photo in the about us page, i notice no uniforms? i think this looks unprofessional, and they do all look young, little bit like a holiday snap.

But im no expert

Just a point on your price for brush cutting, is that the normal price for this service?  £45 call out then £75 per hour?  If so i need to get me one of those

 

thats as for as i have got for now,

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Benjamin O'Neill on February 19, 2012 at 1:31

hi graig i have used plain white tshirt with our comany logo and contact information on the back but as the website address has change i again need to re order, the green colour i find to many people use so i personally feel its abit boring, i have seen blue and purple which are a bit different but as we are in thelandscaping business you would asume green as our colour mayby im just looking for a colour scheme that gives us an edge over our competitors. any suggestion please feel free to comment.

Craig Downey said:

i can see the sence in having the contact form on front page, so fare comment, i had a contact form on my site (havent now due to technical problems) but i never got any fake messages through, i do think its a good idea to remove the two word thing. 

As for the uniforms, your customers may be ok with it, but what about people passing by?  we simply wear a green tshirt, The can be printed with company name for a few ££, and a pair of green combats, i have had comments in the past saying that we stood out because we were both dressed the same.  Not too expensive the combats i get are £12 on ebay and the tshirts can be as little as £2 or 3. 

And the price i may have worded the first post a bit wrong, it wasent a dig at you i was really not sure if this was the going rate, i didnt realise it was so expensive for this tye of service.

Hope i have helped a little
 
Benjamin O'Neill said:

hi craig i decided to put a contact us form on the homepage, it was a gamble as its does take up valuable space, but i have asked the majority of my client about this and they like it because it was quick and easy to get a message to me, we have to remember people are lazy they dont want to find the website then have to click the contact us page, they simple want to find my page and click send, to us it seems stupid, but to them it makes that little bit of difference.

I have taken your advice on removing the two words you have to type on the contact us form, they were originally put on to help comfirm legit messages for work as opossed bogus messages form fake clients wasting our time, E.G fake address these as you can imagine are annoying and take up valuable time, so for know i have taken it away to see the changes.

since i established my business in 2004 i have thought alot about having a company uniform, but again it depends on what job your doing and the cost that occure, my staff know my clients extremely well in most cases the client is happy for my staff to wear what they feel comfotable in aslong as they get the job completed. oviously there are jobs which require a smart appearence so the staff dress acordingly.

I must say that i think the prices i have stated for wood chipping is resonable in relation to location, wages and overheads and people are happy to pay these prices.

Craig Downey said:

On the home page you have a contact form. i think this should be in the contact us page, also i personally HATE the part where you have to enter the two words to prove your human, not unique to your site i know but i cant stand them. 

Also someone else has mentioned the photo in the about us page, i notice no uniforms? i think this looks unprofessional, and they do all look young, little bit like a holiday snap.

But im no expert

Just a point on your price for brush cutting, is that the normal price for this service?  £45 call out then £75 per hour?  If so i need to get me one of those

 

thats as for as i have got for now,

• ▶ Reply

PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Mick Gammage on February 19, 2012 at 8:38

why have you changed from having your own domain name oneilllandscapers . com  to oneill-landscapers- group. yolasite. com/

it was only registered last year

Domain Name.......... oneilllandscapers.com
Creation Date........ 2011-03-17
Registration Date.... 2011-03-17
Expiry Date.......... 2012-03-17
Organisation Name.... Benjamin O'Neill

then your asking about buying cheaper domain names, something does not stack up with your comment ?

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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Mick Gammage on February 19, 2012 at 8:58

I work in the Cheshire area too and I am nowhere near the best in that area, I am very good at what I do but I am certainly not the best, Its not for me to tell you to change that wording on your website but going off the standard of the photos on your web site that's not what I would call anywhere near the best

I could pass comment on your web site looking amateurish but that would be unfair as any thing goes on the web and what one person sees as a bad layout another person sees it as a master piece, if your getting lots of enquiries then maybe I need to change my web site layout to look like yours ;)

why have you got a photo of decking on the back of a mobile home as your main photo, surely a photo of a beautiful landscaped garden or patio would be better seeing as your the best in your area ?

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Permalink Reply by John on February 19, 2012 at 9:27

 I don't like the main photo' banner, the grass looks poor and there is a saw bench in the picture. This banner photo' should be one that is completely finished, and dressed to perfection.

 The bold font in different colours makes the home page look tatty, too many colours and the font

selection is wrong for bold. 

Get rid of all the links on the bottom, or reduce the number and have proper link buttons. 

You have some nice photo's on your site, focus on these and then get rid of the packing out photo's,

possibly by having more than one type of work per page. People want to skim over a site quickly so grouping them together gives a quick overall feeling of the site.

Hope this helps

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Permalink Reply by Geoffrey King North Yorkshire on February 19, 2012 at 10:59

Have a look at this, a good example of an about us page,

http://www.oneilllandscapes.com/about.html

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Permalink Reply by Benjamin O'Neill on February 19, 2012 at 14:44

Hi Mick

when i originally brought the design for the old website it was ok, but after plenty of discussion LJN i realised people couldn't read it as i thought, it is abit misleading oneilllandscapers notice the 3 lll, and the domain name runs ount at the end of the month. plus ive decided on .co.uk to make it more local.

I have since then decided the change the name of my main company to O'Neill Landscapers Group as I run several smaller companies that are specialised in there areas I hope that clear up the issue.

Mick Gammage said:

why have you changed from having your own domain name oneilllandscapers . com  to oneill-landscapers- group. yolasite. com/

it was only registered last year

Domain Name.......... oneilllandscapers.com
Creation Date........ 2011-03-17
Registration Date.... 2011-03-17
Expiry Date.......... 2012-03-17
Organisation Name.... Benjamin O'Neill

then your asking about buying cheaper domain names, something does not stack up with your comment ?

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Permalink Reply by Andy Kenney on February 19, 2012 at 14:48

Hi Ben - bit of feedback for you as you requested;

Couple of typos, you need to check the spelling of LLanwrst and Meliden on your front page.

Like others, i'm not a fan of the picture on front page as, although the mobile home is very prevalent along the N Wales coast where i am located too, the image is stretched from its natural shot, as are a couple on your site.

In the Tree Services page, the telephone number is split and appears below the title.

The picture in the 'About Us' section would be fine if it showed your team doing a task uniformed to some extent, it looks like a school project or a Duke Of Edinburgh scheme.

You state 30 years experience, i assume you have added each persons individual experience and totalled - I would say that you established in 2004 and put that on your site.

Finally, i would avoid the 'best' statement - yes it makes you stand out, but to some people it may make you come across as arrogant or over confident, which im sure is not the case. Even Carlsberg use 'probably'! A little humility can be more attractive to a customer - such as 'we would like to feel that we are as good a landscaping company as you will find in Wales etc' - says nearly the same thing but more humble. Just my thoughts - as we cover a similar area, (Im Abergele - Prestatyn - Denbigh) I may pop over and see you soon, might be able to help each other! 

 

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Permalink Reply by Benjamin O'Neill on February 19, 2012 at 14:57

Hi Mick 

I appreciate your comment and after some long thought i have changed it to... Our customers Consider us the best.

When people look at my site they have to understand i have no prior knowledge of web design i have had no help in putting it together and yes it does gain alot of traffic and jobs through it so it must be working. If a person see a big flashy website, people do tend to shy away, thinking ohh there gona cost to much and if somethink goes wrong am i going to be waiting in a que trying to get the problem resolved. Im not saying big flashy website dont work, but certian people like certian designs of website like us all i suppose.

The main picture is by far not perfect and that was the point ive seen companies use these big perfect pictures on gardens and yes they look perfect. But is doesnt show the company actually on the job and i find that's what potential clients want to see and plus ive never ever been asked to show prior pictures or a portfolio of my older jobs. I do how ever change the main picture from time to time as customers find it boring seeing the same picture all the time, they want some think different to keep them coming back to the site. 

Mick Gammage said:

I work in the Cheshire area too and I am nowhere near the best in that area, I am very good at what I do but I am certainly not the best, Its not for me to tell you to change that wording on your website but going off the standard of the photos on your web site that's not what I would call anywhere near the best

I could pass comment on your web site looking amateurish but that would be unfair as any thing goes on the web and what one person sees as a bad layout another person sees it as a master piece, if your getting lots of enquiries then maybe I need to change my web site layout to look like yours ;)

why have you got a photo of decking on the back of a mobile home as your main photo, surely a photo of a beautiful landscaped garden or patio would be better seeing as your the best in your area ?

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Permalink Reply by Benjamin O'Neill on February 19, 2012 at 19:10

Hello Gaynor

Thank you for taking the time to look at my website

with regards to the picture i am considering putting some before and after pics and a photo portfolio page, the last pictue on the hard landscaping page is actually veg beds its hadrd to imiagine without the veg but,over the next couple of months i will be visiting the old jobs to take progress picture from a year or two on.

So thank you for the comments.

Gaynor @ www.witchardgardens.com said:

Hello Ben

I think you have a good website, although some pictures could do with a bit of a 'tidy up' e.g. get rid of long hose pipes on the lawn etc.

I like your design page - you demonstrate a wide skill base. 

Putting myself in a 'new customer''s shoes, I would prefer to see before and after pictures and not just 'work in progress' with no tangible result (last pic on hard landscaping).

Ditto for soft landscaping (I know this can take some time before planting is well established).

I think your tree services is pretty well set out - you give good information which gives the impression you know what you're talking about.

I would expect a team to include younger members of staff as this is 'par for the course' in a company who has been in business for a while, and I think it shows a progressive company.

I am no good on advising about multiple websites so cannot comment about that.

Hope that helps!

 

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