Could you help..?

SSR Suspension - West Mids.
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Could you help..?

Post by SSR Suspension »

Hi Guys,

I am after something for nothing, well perhaps not nothing because I give up my spare time to create content for this website ;-)

I am currently reconstructing the company website and would very much appreciate, if you are so willing, as to some genuine constructive feedback for the company website. Writing a website is very much a game to try to apease Google and if you can succeed at this then Google will reward you by listing you well.

The next time you have 10 mins spare and if you are willing then please feel free to check out my website and let me know what you think of it, this could be such things as

-ease of navigation
-layout
-user friendly or not
-informative, too much, too little
-is it missing anything
-is there too much info
-is it mobile user friendly

Etc, etc...

My website can be found at the following address www.ssr-suspension.uk

Thank you in advance for your time.
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Re: Could you help..?

Post by Skub »

Well,I drew a blank. :(

On Safari and Opera I can't get on at all. Unsafe site/your connection is not private.

I get the same on Chrome,but can overrule it and access the site,but nothing works.

I've been getting this with a few sites recently,so maybe my experience isn't a full picture.
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Re: Could you help..?

Post by Rockburner »

SSR Suspension wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 4:23 pm Hi Guys,

I am after something for nothing, well perhaps not nothing because I give up my spare time to create content for this website ;-)

I am currently reconstructing the company website and would very much appreciate, if you are so willing, as to some genuine constructive feedback for the company website. Writing a website is very much a game to try to apease Google and if you can succeed at this then Google will reward you by listing you well.

The next time you have 10 mins spare and if you are willing then please feel free to check out my website and let me know what you think of it, this could be such things as

-ease of navigation
-layout
-user friendly or not
-informative, too much, too little
-is it missing anything
-is there too much info
-is it mobile user friendly

Etc, etc...

My website can be found at the following address www.ssr-suspension.uk

Thank you in advance for your time.
I'll try to take a look, but these days if you really want to list highly on google searches, then invest in a 'Google Web-master' account (or whatever it's called now) and do all the things it tells you to do. Then it won't really matter how good your site is for us humans, it'll list as well as it can.

To make it good for humans, the old rules still apply:
1) Content is king.
1a) Content is king
1b) Content is king
2) Make it readable and interesting
3) NO, piece of information should be more than 3 clicks from the home page (ie, keep the navigation SIMPLE)
4) Content is king.
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Re: Could you help..?

Post by Rockburner »

Skub wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 4:32 pm Well,I drew a blank. :(

On Safari and Opera I can't get on at all. Unsafe site/your connection is not private.

I get the same on Chrome,but can overrule it and access the site,but nothing works.

I've been getting this with a few sites recently,so maybe my experience isn't a full picture.
I'm getting on ok (on first click) - it MIGHT be something in your own browser/os that's out of date, (see my last reply to you on this sort of subject). Make sure your pc is completely up to date.
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Re: Could you help..?

Post by Rockburner »

SSR Suspension wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 4:23 pm Hi Guys,

I am after something for nothing, well perhaps not nothing because I give up my spare time to create content for this website ;-)

I am currently reconstructing the company website and would very much appreciate, if you are so willing, as to some genuine constructive feedback for the company website. Writing a website is very much a game to try to apease Google and if you can succeed at this then Google will reward you by listing you well.

The next time you have 10 mins spare and if you are willing then please feel free to check out my website and let me know what you think of it, this could be such things as

-ease of navigation
-layout
-user friendly or not
-informative, too much, too little
-is it missing anything
-is there too much info
-is it mobile user friendly

Etc, etc...

My website can be found at the following address www.ssr-suspension.uk

Thank you in advance for your time.
First impression? (of the home page): That logo is

WAY TOO BIG

Seriously - on a laptop there's very little content on the screen.
Last edited by Rockburner on Mon Oct 11, 2021 4:35 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Could you help..?

Post by G.P »

URL probably ends in .co.uk ?
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Re: Could you help..?

Post by Rockburner »

This site was built 'mobile-first' wasn't it.

On a laptop screen the text is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too wide.

it's hard to read a paragraph if it's the full width of the screen.


The 'Points of Interest' menu (products page) - the images need to have more space around them, and make the images themselves a link to the information as well as the text below.

"***PAGE STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION, NOT ALL LINKS ARE CURRENTLY ACTIVE***" - loose that bollocks. Never point out that the website isn't finished yet.

"Frequently Asked Question's" : I know this is probably going to seem picky.... but it's a REAL turn off for some people when the grammar is wrong (lose the apostrophe).

This page: https://www.ssr-suspension.uk/the-truth ... ng-dampers - firstly - the link from the FAQ page should be on the 'POI' image (see above), and also- if you're going to have text on an image, make the image a clickable link to a large (fullscreen) version of the image so that we can read the text.

testimonials are great, but that page is just an ocean of small text, I'm not going to read it, sorry.



PLEASE don't take this as harsh criticism - it's not personal, it's exactly what I'd say to anyone in the office if they'd presented it to me, and it's exactly what I've been told in the (dim and distant) past when I've produced similar...... ;)
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Re: Could you help..?

Post by Ditchfinder »

There's a lot that could be done here but the biggest issue I have here is the non-interactive pdf form to request servicing. This will be a major barrier to people buying from you online.

You would be better served by building some HTML forms that can be submitted to you or if that's not possible within your budget / ability then just provide an email address and ask for the information you request on the form.

But for some easy wins from a UX point of view.

1. Cookies bar - make the close button bigger - I want it out of the way and fast.
2. Your logo is far too big and combined with your header image pushes content way below the fold.
3. Put more info on your homepage - precis all of the services/products you offer and link to the pages with the more in depth info and Calls to action on them. Order in priority of what you want people to see first.
4. Main Menu on desktop is too much on top level. - Think about using a footer menu
5. Are you on social media - if so link to those accounts and from the channels back to your site.
6. Contact details should be on every page - email and phone number should be in either header or footer.
7. I'm not a writer but your strapline - "One of the Leading Industry Certified Suspension Specialists in the UK." Needs to be shorter and more impactful. I would go with Motorcycle Suspension Specialists as your H1 on your homepage with lots of supporting H2's with what services / products you supply.

In terms of designing your homepage I don't know what site builder you are using and how much freedom it gives you but single column on desktop isn't the best use of space. Columns of text should be maximum 600px wide on desktop.

Testimonials - copy on your own site doesn't really have any authority, reviews need to be on a 3rd party site really. Google reviews is easiest once you have your Google My Business page set up. You will need to get the people who wrote the testimonials to re-submit if possible - maybe entice them with a 10% off voucher...?

You have good image assets so don't be afraid to use plenty of them to break up the copy.

I think if you do the Google Webmaster stuff, MyBusiness oh and don't forget to set up your Google Analytics at the same time, then sort your Header, Footer and homepage it will be a big step forward.
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Re: Could you help..?

Post by MingtheMerciless »

Header to bias others have said.

I'm using Safari and on your FAQ's page and About us page you seem to change font from bold to standard which really bugs me.

I'm reading the tyre pressures bit now so if I spot anything else I'll post it up.

**Michelin and Dunlop tyre pressure links don't work**
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Re: Could you help..?

Post by Ditchfinder »

I've just re-read my post and it comes across a bit, actually a lot dickish.

Truly sorry about that, if you want any help send me a message and I will be happy to point you in the right direction.
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Re: Could you help..?

Post by SSR Suspension »

Cheers so far for the input as I do appreciate it - I am actively changing a lot of things as we speak, so it is going to chop and change a lot in the next couple of weeks and at times probably quite drastically. I have used google webmasters document previously and have been informed that as of this year the emphasis is being put on the 'Mobile site' and user experience, what I am finding is that as I improve the mobile phone version layout elements of the desktop variant have to be compromised (much to my dislike).

I have no intention of producing the site in a webstore format, as some of my friends (competitors) have done.

Not sure about the font change because this happens on my android device, yet not on my desktop!

I will take everything on board as I embark on my mission, please keep the feedback coming.
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Re: Could you help..?

Post by Ditchfinder »

For mobile experience:

Make sure page speed is good - assets should load quickly and buttons and links should be easily clickable.

The content will be the same just laid out differently.

You can have both a good Mobile and desktop user experience showing the same content with the same calls to action.

It's just code.

Suspension tuning, now that's magic
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Re: Could you help..?

Post by Mussels »

There's no cookie opt out, clicking the popup takes me to a generic site about cookies and when I come back there's nothing.
You can get a big fine for messing that up.
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Re: Could you help..?

Post by weeksy »

For me, i'd start with your logo. I guess this may be your well established logo in your head, but in mine as a first time visitor, it's a logo of someone who knocked it up in Word using fancy fonts and migrated it into a JPG for the website. It's not a logo it doesn't have meaning other than the name. Either use the name in a defined font, or have a logo designed for you professionally.

Then onto the mid-pictures on the site, they're mostly just clutter, mostly just filler and get in the way of the actual text you want to see. You have to scroll past them to get to the information you actually want.

What i'd do is compare my website to my competitors.

https://www.brooksuspension.co.uk/

https://ftrsuspension.co.uk/

https://www.jhsracing.co.uk/motorcycle- ... -services/


They're just the first 3 my Google finds. Yours comes in my list on Google way down, after Mike Dawson, Steve Jordan, etc... I think you're about 10th in my Google list. (Which is another thing to think about too) but i think we've done SEO stuff in a website discussion too.

Looking at your site, i'd honestly pick any of the 3 others above before picking you based upon the website.. Theirs look more professional.

You showed earlier in another thread about your suspension dyno, that doesn't seem massively highlighted on your site, however, that's something that people don't realise is possible... Or maybe they don't much care, but someone like me, I think that's a superb thing which can highlight any issues better than any man bouncing up and down on it.

I guess the big question is, what are you looking to get out of this site ? Are you looking to attract riders of road bikes, riders of race bikes, people just buying your parts or the overall service ?

Brook have the most extensive collection of parts of anyone listed on their site.. I'm assuming there's no reason you couldn't have the same list of products listed on yours (other than the time it takes). But because of the fact they're not on yours, you're relying on people to ring you and ask.

1 thing you need to remember about humans nowdays.... they don't want to ring you. They want a Whatsapp chat, they want a chat bot, they want non-human but sort of human contact methods.

Lastly, i'd also ask myself. "is a website going to get me more business than an ACTIVE social media account" ? And by active, i do mean ACTIVE, not one post on Facebook a week/month, not just 1 brief thing on Twitter... What you need is people talking about you, even if at the start it's only YOU talking about you.... You need to get it out there more, out in the internet.
I know the above is both time consuming and complex, but i think it'll pay more dividends than just the website.

Ask yourself "who's the most active suspension company i'm trying to beat".... Then ask why...
I generally use Colin at 100%.... Why, because i always have. That's a hard one to replicate, though as you need to get into his market/game to beat him.
2nd up i'd use MH Suspension.... why, again because he's been around and had great reports forever..

If they couldn't do it, i'd ring K-tech.... ask yourself why.... well, because they're the most well known.
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Re: Could you help..?

Post by Horse »

weeksy wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 6:53 am I guess the big question is, what are you looking to get out of this site ?
This is, when designing a site, this has to be the starting point.

Do you want:
- an electronic 'brochure' or 'leaflet'
- a shop front sales site
- an information resource
Or something else?

From that, you can then incorporate the necessary elements.

I'm well out of touch with SEO these days. It used to be a couple of key elements:
- careful use of search terms in the page name, picture alt tags, text, etc
- relevant content
- inbound links

Plus, you need to think like a customer:
- what will they search for (services/information/parts)
- how will they search (words/phrases)
- where will they search (Google/Youtube/other)
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Re: Could you help..?

Post by SSR Suspension »

weeksy wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 6:53 am For me, i'd start with your logo. I guess this may be your well established logo in your head, but in mine as a first time visitor, it's a logo of someone who knocked it up in Word using fancy fonts and migrated it into a JPG for the website. It's not a logo it doesn't have meaning other than the name. Either use the name in a defined font, or have a logo designed for you professionally.

Then onto the mid-pictures on the site, they're mostly just clutter, mostly just filler and get in the way of the actual text you want to see. You have to scroll past them to get to the information you actually want.

What i'd do is compare my website to my competitors.

https://www.brooksuspension.co.uk/

https://ftrsuspension.co.uk/

https://www.jhsracing.co.uk/motorcycle- ... -services/


They're just the first 3 my Google finds. Yours comes in my list on Google way down, after Mike Dawson, Steve Jordan, etc... I think you're about 10th in my Google list. (Which is another thing to think about too) but i think we've done SEO stuff in a website discussion too.

Looking at your site, i'd honestly pick any of the 3 others above before picking you based upon the website.. Theirs look more professional.

You showed earlier in another thread about your suspension dyno, that doesn't seem massively highlighted on your site, however, that's something that people don't realise is possible... Or maybe they don't much care, but someone like me, I think that's a superb thing which can highlight any issues better than any man bouncing up and down on it.

I guess the big question is, what are you looking to get out of this site ? Are you looking to attract riders of road bikes, riders of race bikes, people just buying your parts or the overall service ?

Brook have the most extensive collection of parts of anyone listed on their site.. I'm assuming there's no reason you couldn't have the same list of products listed on yours (other than the time it takes). But because of the fact they're not on yours, you're relying on people to ring you and ask.

1 thing you need to remember about humans nowdays.... they don't want to ring you. They want a Whatsapp chat, they want a chat bot, they want non-human but sort of human contact methods.

Lastly, i'd also ask myself. "is a website going to get me more business than an ACTIVE social media account" ? And by active, i do mean ACTIVE, not one post on Facebook a week/month, not just 1 brief thing on Twitter... What you need is people talking about you, even if at the start it's only YOU talking about you.... You need to get it out there more, out in the internet.
I know the above is both time consuming and complex, but i think it'll pay more dividends than just the website.

Ask yourself "who's the most active suspension company i'm trying to beat".... Then ask why...
I generally use Colin at 100%.... Why, because i always have. That's a hard one to replicate, though as you need to get into his market/game to beat him.
2nd up i'd use MH Suspension.... why, again because he's been around and had great reports forever..

If they couldn't do it, i'd ring K-tech.... ask yourself why.... well, because they're the most well known.
Cheers muchly.

Firstly, it really is a case of needing to find more time to put into it from myself, nobody else can bring that to the party ;-)

Ref websites, I use the google analytics to crawl competitors websites and keywords as part of my research. I personally don't like Dave's site (Brooks) it is a webshop and I know he has done it that way because it works very well for google search terms (However I know from people that have used it that it does not work so well from a customer point of view in reality, they also list things that you can not even get!). The cost of hosting a webstore is huge money as well and not an option for me.

I know Colin, his model is track day support and 2 clubs for race weekends. He lives in his motorhome with his wife 90% of the year travelling from circuit to circuit and does do some onsite servicing. He uses the BSB support as a selling point but again in reality he does very little work there but it sounds good and looks good. I used to do trackday support and club support, I sponsored the Wirral 100 and Aintree clubs for a few years but it cost more money than I made after fuel and living costs, generally you would be paying £150 a day to the club just to be on site. Currently No Limits want £150 a day to do track support before you spend out on expenses, I spoke to Chris and Claire who own NL at the start of this year but the BSB calendar scuppered that. I am a Professional Crew Chief (just a tad bit more than suspension then, lol) so a Race Engineer and my Motorsport career will always come in front of the workshop stuff - I just have a huge passion for the bouncy stuff. I will be glad for a rest after this weekend as being away for 3 weeks out of every 4 has been hard but I diverse, lol.

I would not say I am trying to beat anybody - it only matters what you do yourself and not what others are doing, although the market is flooded and the skill level of companies is hugely diverse. Alot of us talk to each other about methods, theories or even at times if we get stuck for parts, just trying to arrange a few of us to meet up for a small seminar next month. Everyday is a school day in this industry ;-)

For me the site is more about awareness with an insight to what we can provide and offer , social media is a huge thing, Instagram is good but Facebook is terrible for many reasons, I am considering whatsapp linked to the company phone.

What bikers do I cater for? All...Road, Track, Race, MX/Enduro.

The dyno is just a tool, its only used for certain things, I used to advertise it but its just marketing BS - as is much of this industry in reality!

The new FTR website looks nice, but it is just 1 page with no active links, very dark and very slick though.
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Re: Could you help..?

Post by Numnut »

@Horse is pretty spot on with his recommendations tbh.

Might be worth getting a free account with SEMRush - you can use their 'keyword magic tool' to see what people are searching in relation to a particular subject and what questions are being asked too. Importantly they give you information about keyword difficulty, which is essentially a measure of how difficult it's going to be to rank well for that keyword.

Here's some variations and questions based on 'Motorcycle suspension' as a keyword.
Screenshot 2021-10-13 at 14-16-58 motorcycle suspension Keyword Magic Tool.png
Screenshot 2021-10-13 at 14-16-58 motorcycle suspension Keyword Magic Tool.png (86.01 KiB) Viewed 4481 times
Screenshot 2021-10-13 at 14-17-23 motorcycle suspension Keyword Magic Tool.png
Screenshot 2021-10-13 at 14-17-23 motorcycle suspension Keyword Magic Tool.png (87.67 KiB) Viewed 4481 times
Screenshot 2021-10-13 at 14-17-42 motorcycle suspension Keyword Magic Tool.png
Screenshot 2021-10-13 at 14-17-42 motorcycle suspension Keyword Magic Tool.png (87.82 KiB) Viewed 4481 times
Also, a web store shouldn't cost you loads. Yeah, something like shopify is pricey, but Wordpress with Woocommerce can be hosted anywhere on a host that gives you a database and is easy to set up. It should cost you about a fiver a month give or take, plus about a tenner a year for SSL (some even include it for free).

None of it is easy, especially content. I'm having to write content for a new product and it's soul destroying. Give me some code any day!
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Re: Could you help..?

Post by Mussels »

SSR Suspension wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 12:24 pm
Cheers muchly.

Firstly, it really is a case of needing to find more time to put into it from myself, nobody else can bring that to the party ;-)

Ref websites, I use the google analytics to crawl competitors websites and keywords as part of my research. I personally don't like Dave's site (Brooks) it is a webshop and I know he has done it that way because it works very well for google search terms (However I know from people that have used it that it does not work so well from a customer point of view in reality, they also list things that you can not even get!). The cost of hosting a webstore is huge money as well and not an option for me.

I know Colin, his model is track day support and 2 clubs for race weekends. He lives in his motorhome with his wife 90% of the year travelling from circuit to circuit and does do some onsite servicing. He uses the BSB support as a selling point but again in reality he does very little work there but it sounds good and looks good. I used to do trackday support and club support, I sponsored the Wirral 100 and Aintree clubs for a few years but it cost more money than I made after fuel and living costs, generally you would be paying £150 a day to the club just to be on site. Currently No Limits want £150 a day to do track support before you spend out on expenses, I spoke to Chris and Claire who own NL at the start of this year but the BSB calendar scuppered that. I am a Professional Crew Chief (just a tad bit more than suspension then, lol) so a Race Engineer and my Motorsport career will always come in front of the workshop stuff - I just have a huge passion for the bouncy stuff. I will be glad for a rest after this weekend as being away for 3 weeks out of every 4 has been hard but I diverse, lol.

I would not say I am trying to beat anybody - it only matters what you do yourself and not what others are doing, although the market is flooded and the skill level of companies is hugely diverse. Alot of us talk to each other about methods, theories or even at times if we get stuck for parts, just trying to arrange a few of us to meet up for a small seminar next month. Everyday is a school day in this industry ;-)

For me the site is more about awareness with an insight to what we can provide and offer , social media is a huge thing, Instagram is good but Facebook is terrible for many reasons, I am considering whatsapp linked to the company phone.

What bikers do I cater for? All...Road, Track, Race, MX/Enduro.

The dyno is just a tool, its only used for certain things, I used to advertise it but its just marketing BS - as is much of this industry in reality!

The new FTR website looks nice, but it is just 1 page with no active links, very dark and very slick though.
If I was in the market for suspension help that really sells it for me, more than any fancy website.
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Re: Could you help..?

Post by singlesman »

Tough crowd 😂
Don’t know if the site has changed since some of the comments were made but looking at it on an iPad it works really well for me.
All the information I’m after is there, bit of reassurance with the listing of seals/ fluids used, costing is clear, testimonials are great, certainly can’t be bothered looking out 3rd party websites for them.
Looks good👍