Website makeover 1

The Little Cornish Cleaning Company offers a range of cleaning services: cleaning carpets, upholstery, rugs and curtains.

The site includes good quality photography, an upfront contact form and a simple navigation menu.

What could The Little Cornish Cleaning Company do to encourage more sales and more visitors to their website?

1.  Use your testimonials more. You have a great collection of testimonials hidden away at the bottom of the page – make more of them.

Consider adding a new title to the menu (‘what people say about us‘)  or move them higher up the page so they immediately build credibility the moment someone lands on your site.  Pepper them throughout your other pages of your site to embed the positive feedback everywhere

2.  Develop your ‘About us’ page. What’s your story? Why did you set the company up?  People love to take a peak into other people’s lives, to see who they’re dealing with and understand what they’re about.

Your ‘About us’ page features photos of your vans – bring the pages to life with some images of you in front of your fleet of vans or pile of high tech cleaning equipment, and develop the content to include your story. Did you start with just one carpet cleaner and build up the company from there?  Help your customers understand more about your history and show you’re real people

3.  Publish some prices online – clients want a ball park figure to get an idea of how much your service will cost them.  My fear would be that prices are high and you don’t want to put us off by sharing them…. Prove me wrong. Show some sample packages that clients have bought in the past and been happy with

4. Give visitors to your website a reason to buy from you. Why would customers want their carpets cleaned? Most of us could live with dusty curtains, and in today’s economic climate people need a lot of convincing before parting with their cash. But then I read your page about mattress cleaning, and I’m almost too scared to go to bed before calling you to give my bed a thorough clean!

You’re not selling a service, you’re selling a solution – identify what problem you’re solving and be up-front about it on your homepage. Try something like “Reduce your family’s allergies“

5.  Change your homepage copy to make it topical. How often do you update your homepage copy? The reasons customers may buy from you probably vary throughout the year: Protect your carpets for the abuse they suffer over Christmas; Freshen your home this Spring with a new look living room; Give your bed a makeover this Autumn so it’s in tip top condition to look after you  as the evenings draw in; etc.

Or make it relevant to the here and now, and link it with a high profile news story

6. Talk about your customer, not you. Go through your website copy and highlight all the times it says “we”.  Where can you change the focus to “you”?  Customers care most about themselves and their problems, not you (sorry).

Your homepage opens with “We have invested a large amount of time and money in sourcing the very best cleaning solutions….”  Instead, try something like “You work hard enough to keep your home – why make do with a dirty mattress, dusty curtains and that dark stain at the top of the stairs?”

7.  Give visitors a reason to come back to your website. And encourage them to act now with time sensitive special offers, such as a seasonal bundle of cleaning services. For example: Christmas-proof your home this festive season with a stocking full of cleanliness (book upholstery cleaning + curtain cleaning together and save 25%). Make offers simple to understand, change them regularly to keep the site fresh, and vary the services you include

8.  Make more of your guarantee. Take away the risk to customers and flag up your guarantee on the homepage – ”We’ll never leave a job unless the customer is 100% happy with our work“. Make this stronger and put it on every page, removing any doubt about quality from customers’ minds

9.  Share your knowledge. You’re experts in what you do – establish this by adding a tips section to your website.  Include a step by step guide to removing common stains from upholstery and carpets (red wine, milk, grease, candle wax), advice on keeping carpets in top condition.

This information is available online elsewhere – you’re not giving away trade secrets, just being generous with your knowledge so customers link to your site (external links tell search engines that you offer quality content and helping your listings).

10.  Add before and after photos.  There’s nothing like a shocking photo of a stain on a cream rug or caramel sofa to make us wince in sympathy. Share some photos of awful stains that The Little Cornish Cleaning Company and your brilliant gadgets and gismos have made good as new – you’ve got some great testimonials mentioning the ‘before and after’ so position some of those around the photos to reinforce the message.

Thank you to Olivia and Mark from the Little Cornish Cleaning Company for inviting me into your website.

I’ll post another website makeover next week. If your homepage could do with a fresh pair of eyes or you’d like your own 10 point action plan, email me.

What changes could you make to your website?  Share the impact of any changes you’ve made in the comments below.