Your home inspection website

General Inspection Topics General Inspection Discussion
241

I will.

242

Thanks Kate and Gary:D

243

Hi, John (Acaron) –

Here’s my feedback for the homepage of your website at www.HomeInspectorUSA.biz :

  1. Nice color scheme!

  2. There’s a lot of discrepancy regarding whether you’re an “I” or a “we,” so you should make sure that your homepage and the rest of your website reflect your true status.

  3. Especially because you’re a CMI, it’s important to introduce yourself up front. You also don’t display your phone number (or email address) until more than halfway down your page, and this definitely hurts you. A good place to identify yourself would be in the space in the very top banner between your logo and your company name. You can insert:

John Acaron, CMI
Certified Master Inspector®
850-814-3889
hiusa@cox.net

  1. Your heading just below the top banner and the sub-heading below it have some problems with grammar, repetition and punctuation, so render the text this way:

Residential & Commercial Property Inspections
HIUSA Provides Home & Mold Inspections in Gainesville, Florida

  1. As I mentioned in my previous feedback for another inspector (as well as several before that), don’t keyword-stuff at the expense of providing clear and sensible text and information. If you insert a lot of the same phrases (including “home inspector,” “home inspection,” “Gainesville,” etc.) over and over, your visitor is going to grow tired of it quickly and may click off to find another website that’s easier and faster to read, regardless of your superior qualifications and service. Keyword-stuffing is not the way to ensure high SEO for your homepage because it can backfire on you, both with your website visitors and with Google.

  2. The most noticeable problem with your homepage is that your text is too small and too dense. You want to keep your text short, succinct and consumer-friendly, and you also want to increase the size of everything so that it’s more easily readable.

  3. You should also stick to one style of font. The font of the heading under the main banner is different from the rest of the text, so make sure all the text on your page is one uniform type. (Bolding and using different sizes are okay, of course.)

  4. You also have a tendency to break some web conventions by misusing underlines and block highlighting, so my comments will help you correct those, too.

  5. The linked photos are a nice addition, but, again, it can be bigger, so increase the size of this. (Again, if you’re a company of one, change “About Us” to “About Me” at that link.)

  6. The heading below the photos (“Why Home Inspector USA…”) should not be underlined. Underlined text indicates that the text is linked, and this is not, so delete the underline. Also, change your company name to a different color so that it stands out from the rest of the text in that heading.

  7. In the first line, you have a number of punctuation errors, so render it like this (and re-embed the link at CMI, if necessary):

Home Inspector USA is the ONLY Certified Master Inspector® (CMI) in Gainesville, Florida.

Do not use quotation marks (or underlining) for emphasis. Quotation marks are for directly quoting words from a speaker or text from its source. The spelled-out version of “Certified Master Inspector” requires the registered trademark symbol (R in a circle) at the end. And “Gainesville” requires a comma before “Florida.” And since this is a complete sentence, it needs a period at the end.

  1. The second, third and fourth bullets are all related to your qualifications, so they should be combined or set apart from the rest of the list, as I’ve done below. And there is still some confusion for me regarding the makeup of your company -– in addition to using both first-person and third-person references, you refer to yourself as the “lead” inspector, implying that there are other inspectors at your company, although you mention only your own qualifications both here and at your “About Us” page. If you are the only inspector at your company, don’t mislead your visitors by implying otherwise.

  2. Again, there are tons of punctuation, grammar, spelling and formatting errors in the rest of your bullet list, so I’m just going to give you a replacement list here:

John M. Acaron, CMI, is a:

  • Florida-Licensed Home Inspector #HI-80,
  • Florida-Licensed Mold Inspector/Assessor #MRSA-1895, and
  • former engineering (BSME &TDME) and residential contractor.

You’ll receive FREE with your home inspection:

  • Visual Mold Screening,
  • 90-Day Limited Home Warranty,
  • RecallChek© for all your major appliances,
  • follow-up for 30 days,
  • “The Safe Home” book, and
  • the “Now That You’ve Had a Home Inspection” home-maintenance manual

A few notes about your bullets:

a. It’s unclear what a “CHI” is, since you fail to explain it, so I’ve just changed that to “home inspection.” Remember not to use jargon or acronyms that your visitors won’t understand.

b. Don’t link “The Safe Home” book (not the “Home Safe” book); linking it allows your visitors to download it now. You’ve already linked “CMI” to the CMI site, so that’s good, but don’t also link this freebie (unless your intention is to give it away to all of your site’s visitors without an inspection, but I don’t think you want to do that). Also, you haven’t personalized your copy via the CMI site, so be sure to do so -– this will give you a bump marketing-wise for repeat business from former clients.

c. The last two items are claims about yourself that any inspector can make, so, rather than have them in this bullet list of items that’s meant to set you apart from other inspectors, I’ve folded them into other text on this page as revised text.

  1. I’ve written the following replacement text for the paragraph after the bullet list that corrects punctuation, grammar and formatting errors and other issues. Also, I don’t understand the heading after the first paragraph, which claims that you’re “renowned” in your area for “zero tolerance.” Zero tolerance for what, exactly? Since you don’t explain that (unless I missed something), I’ve delete that heading and revised the two paragraphs under it and combined all three of the paragraphs into something that’s more consumer-friendly and flows better. (I would also re-think the linked text that takes your visitors off-site to the homepages for the VA, EPA, etc. Unless you link to their standards that you say your inspections conform to, you are sending your visitors away from your site and on a hunting expedition, which will not help them hire you. Either link to these documents or don’t bother mentioning them. Also, the InterNACHI link should link to our SOP and not the main page: http://www.nachi.org/sop.htm ) Again, you want short and snappy text without a lot of repetition. The longer it takes you to sell yourself, the less likely your visitors are going to stick around to read everything (and hire you). Here’s the revised text:

A home is the biggest purchase you’ll ever make, which is why it’s important to understand the condition of your investment. HOME INSPECTOR USA is an independent company that provides residential and commercial property inspections in Gainesville and the rest of Alachua County. I also offer mold and other air quality inspections and testing for your primary residence and investment properties.

With a background in engineering, chemistry, biology, and residential and commercial construction, as well as building science and environmental concerns, I can spot problems with materials, installation and workmanship that other inspector might miss. I can also advise you on health and safety issues that are posed by mold and other allergens.

I follow the Standards of Practice of the State of Florida and those of the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI).

HOME INSPECTOR USA is committed to giving you the highest level of professional service at competitive rates. I will provide you with an unbiased and comprehensive inspection, and a report you can rely on to make a confident decision.

  1. Again, un-underline the headings that are not linked. I’ve deleted “One Office to Serve You:” and the lone underlined and numbered item below it. You don’t need to keep repeating your service area. (And it’s understood that you have only one office; the only time it’s necessary to mention the number is if you have more than one.)

  2. Here is a revised numbered list of your specific services, which combines similar elements and un-combines different ones:

  3. Home Inspection (including Condominium)

  4. Commercial Property Inspection

  5. Mold & Allergen Inspection & Testing

  6. Water Quality Testing

  7. Wind Mitigation Inspection (for Insurance Discount)

  8. 4-Point Inspection (for Insurance Discount)

  9. Roof Certification & Inspection

  10. Swimming Pool Inspection

  11. Foreclosure Inspection (of Bank-Owned Properties)

  12. Engineering Assessment (Residential & Commercial)

  13. Consulting (Residential/New Construction & Commercial)

  14. Expert Witness Review & Testimony (Residential & Commercial)

  15. Change the underlined and linked heading above the videos to “What Really Matter in a Home Inspection” – and don’t underline or highlight this heading (and don’t put it inside quotation marks—I’ve only done it so that you understand what the title should be). Don’t keyword-stuff by adding your name to the title. This is generic information about why getting a home inspection is important and what to look for.

  16. Also, make these video grabs MUCH bigger. Like everything else on your page, it’s too small. No one will want to watch a video in a window that’s only 1x2 inches. Additionally, there’s important text in the second video, which is impossible to read. It’s great that you’ve added these videos, but they’re useless at this size. Finally, in order to break up the visual/graphical elements on your homepage, I suggest you move these videos and related heading so that they appear above the numbered list, since a few of those services are not directly related to home inspections.

  17. There is way too much text in your “Please Call Me Right Away” button. Furthermore, the wording on the button itself is confusing because the “me” in this case is not you but your website visitor. I recommend swapping this button out for InterNACHI’s “Have Me Call You!” button, which is clear and unambiguous. You’ll find it at our logos page here: http://www.nachi.org/logos.htm

  18. Your “Mission Statement” does not meet the essential ingredients for an actual mission statement. A mission statement is a brief statement of the philosophy that drives your business. It does not talk about your prices, specific services, freebies, or service area. What you have here is simply more marketing language. You may wish to write a mission statement and insert it at a link called “My Mission Statement” or “HIUSA’s Mission Statement.” Here are some specific guidelines in our article titled “How to Write a Mission Statement for Your Inspection Company”: http://www.nachi.org/write-mission-statement-inspection-company.htm

  19. The link for “SEMPER FI” is really random, as it links to a picture of a hovercraft on a site called MilitaryFactory.com, which has nothing to do with home inspections. If you want to mention that you’re a veteran-owned business, say so, but this link shouldn’t appear on your homepage, as it doesn’t make any sense, and it also sends your visitors away from your site (even if it opens in a new window). The ONLY point of your homepage is to get your visitors to hire you. Anything on your page that doesn’t do that delays that goal and hurts your chances of securing the inspection.

  20. You have a huge cluster of linked icons with problems other than readability because of their small size and the fact that they’re all crammed together. The first two seals (for “Expert Witness Services” and “Florida Building Code”) go to the same link but have nothing to do with the seals themselves (the link is for the DBPR website). The CMI seal and link are repetitive and unnecessary. The “We Are Certified” link is broken (and the wording is misleading), so you should delete that one, too. And the “Indoor Air Quality” link and your logo are also broken links (and I don’t know what your logo would link to, so it should not be a link). Furthermore, the tagline you’re using under your company name is one of ours and is rendered wrong. Of course you can use it, but render it properly, like this (italicized, as you have it):

Anyone else is just looking around.®

I recommend you re-think all of these icons; I recommend deleting them all except your logo, which is okay to repeat “below the fold.” Since you’re not a code inspector, I don’t know why you’d want to have the Florida Building Code logo on your page; this will undoubtedly cause some confusion for your visitors and open yourself up to unwanted liability by implying that you inspect to state code. If you want to keep any of these, put some space around all of them, fix or delete the links, and make sure there’s a clear reason that they’re on your homepage.

  1. Delete the microscopic keywords under your logo. You already have a Keyword List near the bottom of your page; you just need to insert the heading “Keyword List” (without the quotation marks). The problem with this text, aside from the fact that it’s redundant and, therefore, unnecessary (even or especially for SEO), when you have text this small, your visitor can’t ignore it, even though the reason you made it this small is precisely because you want them to. But nobody wants to skip any “fine print” for fear that they’re signing up for something they don’t actually want (or don’t want to pay for). So, if you make the print too “fine,” you make your visitor determined to read it, and you also unintentionally annoy them by making it so small.

  2. Fix your “Angie’s List” icon so that the link opens in a new page, rather than sends your visitor away from your own site.

  3. Delete the microscopic “Gainesville” link or make it larger. I’m not sure why you’d want to link to local real estate listings, but if you have some kind of link-back agreement worked out with a local RE pro or office, then make this link of a size that’s actually legible, and use text that actually explains what it is, and not merely “Gainesville.” If you don’t have such a deal, there’s no reason to provide this link for your site’s visitors. You’re not a broker, so, again, don’t load up your homepage with anything that doesn’t have the sole goal of getting your site’s visitors to hire you for a home inspection.

  4. You have a ton of blank space between that “Gainesville” link and the next cluster of questionable icons and links, so delete that extra space.

  5. Regarding these next logos, icons and seals, they suffer from the same problems that the previous bunch does. Go through each one and decide if and why you need it. Less is more. If you keep it, MAKE IT BIGGER. I can’t even make out most of them, and three of them have images that won’t display. Delete them if they send your visitor off your site, if they have nothing to do with your home inspection services, or if the link is broken. Same goes for the “Netteller” text.

  6. You’ve misspelled “Resources,” and the link sends your visitor off your site. DON’T DO THIS. It’s not your job to provide all these conveniences that have negligible value. Your visitors are visiting your site to see if they want to hire you for their home inspection. They don’t need links to real estate listings in all 50 states. (And you have the same link for both the misspelled “Resources” and “Indexed by State” text.) Also, I don’t understand why you have a link for “Preferred vendor in Beijing,” or “Top Rated Websites Add Your URL Free,” etc., etc. Unless you have deals or understandings with these entities, as well as for all the links below (including the graphical ones—including the ones that won’t display—and the text), right on down to your keyword list, you have to make some decisions. You should not be providing advertising for other people or companies unless you have a mutual agreement. In that case, make these links sensible and clear, and put them ALL under one heading that says: “Other Resources” (no quotation marks)—this will make it clear to your site’s visitors that the links aren’t directly related to your own services. Be sure to test all the links, too, and if they don’t work, delete them. I recommend including as few as possible so that your visitor is not overwhelmed. Also, if you have agreements that don’t specify that you need to put these links on your homepage, I strongly recommend that you move them all to a secondary link titled “Other Resources” so that you can get them off your homepage, which is too cluttered with unrelated links.

  7. You have a ton of empty space under your untitled Keyword List, so delete it.

  8. Your copyright notation is unclear. Your site design appears to be copyrighted, so state that. (I’m not sure what “Base content” refers to, but, if possible, use the phrase “Site Design.”) Your copyright should come first, however, as this is your homepage. Additionally, delete all the extraneous text (keyword-stuffing). Besides the “LOGIN” text, there shouldn’t be anything else in these lines of text.

LEFT SIDE:

  1. The background color for these links is too dark. Make it lighter so that your visitor can find the links they’re looking for faster.

  2. “About Us” should be “About Me”; “Our Services” should be “My Services”; “Contact Us” should be “Contact Me.”

  3. Uncap “CHINESE DRYWALL” and the two links under that one—these links aren’t the most important of all your links.

  4. I suggest you move the link for the Residential SOP so that it appears before the ComSOP.

  5. At the “Links” link, you’ve misspelled “Useful.”

  6. “En Español” should be “En español”

  7. At your last link, uncap “An”

  8. Consider adding a link for “Sample Report,” and spell out what your client will get regarding format, photos, method of delivery, and turnaround time. This should be fairly high up in the lineup of links, which should be organized in general in terms of what your site’s visitors are looking for first.

  9. Depending on where you put your “Have Me Call You!” button, this “Questions?” box may be redundant, so consider deleting it. If you keep it, close up the empty space between the text at the top and the text at the bottom within the box.

  10. The InterNACHI logo you have here is seriously outdated. Please use the latest one we have that you’ll find on our logos page.

  11. You should link the IAC2 link to the IAC2 website at http://iac2.org/

  12. You might also consider linking the Honor Guarantee seal to this page that explains what it is: http://www.nachi.org/honor.htm

  13. Good job linking the CMI seal.

  14. Overall, I think your page has an appealing color palette and is generally well-organized, but it suffers from severe bells-and-whistles overload, and too-tiny text. Fix these issues and I think it will look cleaner and deliver the information you want your visitors to have much more quickly.

244

John, looks like Kate gave ya some work to do :D. Thanks Kate!

245

Kate,

Thanks for the professional evaluation of my website. Very helpful!!!

Mike

246

Awesome, Mike – thanks for letting me know!

247

Hi, Ray (Thoroman) –

Here’s my feedback for the homepage of your website at www.choosesuperiorinspection.com :

  1. Good use of your homepage tab for SEO.

  2. Nice logo! However, it doesn’t need to link to the homepage that we’re already on, so delete that code.

  3. Re your name in the top banner opposite your logo, rather than say “InterNACHI Home Inspector,” you should change this to “Certified Master Inspector®” (without the quotation marks but with the registered trademark symbol, and all on one line). This is a federally registered trademarked designation that you’re entitled to use as a CMI, so I recommend you exploit it as much as possible in your marketing. Additionally, add your email address under your phone number. Don’t make people click on a link to find it.

CENTER:

  1. Nice discreet use of the “Home” label.

  2. Very nice option to have a print button, but center the text within the box so that it’s more legible.

  3. In your first heading, uncap “A” between “You’re” and “Smart”

  4. Change “that appreciates” to “who appreciates”

  5. Change “asset in making” to “asset for making”

  6. Change “by delivering the knowledge” to “by delivering the information” (“knowledge” is something that a person has or obtains, not something you can deliver).

  7. I would delete “completely” strictly for liability reasons. There may be hidden defects, so you want to avoid implying (or outright stating) that your inspection will reveal all –- that’s just not possible.

  8. Change “you’re considering” to “you’re considering purchasing”

  9. Change “through out” to one word: “throughout”

  10. Insert the word “and” before “even apartments”

  11. Again, temper “You’ll have the facts on everything” so that it accounts for concealed items and defects, so say: “You’ll have the facts on the home’s visible and accessible structure, systems and components, including:” (this is less snappy, but it’s also unambiguous and doesn’t over-promise).

  12. In the second checkbox, change “doors/windows trim” to “doors, windows and trim”

  13. Change the fourth checkbox to “Driveways, walkways and garage doors” (because where “garage doors” appears now is pretty random, and “chimneys” here is kind of random).

  14. In the fifth checkbox, insert “and” before “downspouts”

  15. Change the sixth bullet to this (to account for the probability that the home has just one furnace and one central A/C, so that folks know you don’t inspect portable or window units): “Furnace, central A/C, and supply and return vents”

  16. Change “water heaters” to singular “water heater”

  17. Insert “and” before “water pressure”

  18. Change the checkbox starting “Combustible gas detection” to “Combustible gas appliances, fireplaces and chimneys” (your client won’t know that a chimney is an exterior structure that you check at a different time than when you check the fireplace -– this simply seems like a related item and the grouping will make more sense to your visitors).

  19. Change the ninth box to “Electrical panels, outlets/receptacles and fixtures”

  20. Change the tenth checkbox to “Ventilation, insulation, and built-in appliances”

  21. Delete the last checkbox –- this talks about your report and doesn’t conform to the rest of the list.

  22. In the next heading, delete the ellipses at the end and close up the space between it and the first paragraph.

  23. Use this replacement paragraph, which corrects our name, and some grammar and punctuation issues, and makes our organization and your qualifications sound more robust, as well as mentions your CMI designation:

I’m a professional home inspector trained and certified by InterNACHI, the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors. InterNACHI requires its members to follow a comprehensive Standards of Practice, abide by a strict Code of Ethics, and continually update their skills and training each year through its rigorous Continuing Education curriculum. I’m also a Certified Master Inspector®, which is the inspection industry’s highest professional designation. Click on the icon at left to verify my status as a member in good standing of InterNACHI.

  1. Here’s replacement text for the next paragraph that corrects some grammar, punctuation, organization and repetition issues:

When you hire Superior Home Inspections, you’re hiring a conscientious, educated professional, focused on one job–inspecting real estate. I’m a member of the International Code Council, which is the governing body for developing building codes within the U.S. and internationally. I’m a Certified Full Member of the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI), having graduated from ASHI University, where I received training as a home inspector. I’ve passed the National Home Inspector Exam. And I’m also a member of the Better Business Bureau of Metro Atlanta.

  1. In the next heading, uncap “For”

  2. Here’s a replacement paragraph for the paragraph above your signature:

Please check out the rest of my website. Take a look at my Sample Report, and be sure to click on the FAQs button for some of the most common questions and answers about home inspections in general and my services in particular. Then give me a call to book your inspection. You won’t be disappointed… and that’s a promise from me personally, Ray Thoroman, owner of Superior Home Inspections.

  1. Excellent signature!

  2. Under your signature, change “Certified Home Inspector” to “Certified Master Inspector®”

  3. I think you’d be better off moving all the links that are here at the bottom over to the left side of your homepage with the rest of the main links –- most of these links are duplicates, but there are also some here that aren’t, which is confusing because they’re basically “hidden” if they’re not listed with the others. Don’t hide your “Seller Inspection,” “Radon Agreement,” etc. On most commercial business homepages, if there are links at the bottom, they’re duplicates of the links prominently featured at the top (or, in your case, along the left-hand side). But they should not be different links. So, either make all of these links duplicates, or delete the links here at the bottom and move the ones that are different to the left-hand side (which is what I’d recommend so that this area is less cluttered).

  4. The “Inspection Locator” link takes visitors off your site. If you don’t have a link-back or listing agreement with the outfit, delete the link. If you do, change the code so that their site opens in a new window.

  5. So, the problem with your keyword list below your links is that you don’t have spaces between all of the words and the vertical lines you’re using to separate each one. For example, unless someone specifically searches the phrase “Brasellton Home Inspector|Buford Home Inspector”—which they obviously won’t do—you won’t get any SEO hits for either “Brasellton Home Inspector” or “Buford Home Inspector” because there’s no separation between “Inspector|Buford,” so Google can’t read it. This is a problem throughout your keyword list of communities/cities in your wider service area. So, in order to ensure any SEO hits, go through this entire paragraph of text and insert a space on either side of each vertical line you’re using to separate the different phrases.

  6. Additionally, double-check the spelling of all the cities/towns, as “Brasellton” should have just one L.

  7. Move your copyright notation down to the very last line, and don’t do any keyword-stuffing. Simply state “Copyright © 2004-2014 Superior Home Inspections” (and no period at the end).

  8. Change the color of your copyright notation, as well as any keyword phrases in that same line of text so that it’s not that traditional blue that indicates that the text is a link—you don’t have to use black if you want it to stand out better, but change it to something other than that blue.

LEFT SIDE:

  1. If possible, make the text of your links bigger. The lighter color against the darker background helps, but it really is on the teeny side and hard on the eyes.

  2. In addition to combining the new links at the bottom with these, re-organize all of them according to what your visitor wants to know first. First I want to know about you, so your “Credentials” should appear near the top, not near the bottom. Then I want to know if I’m in your “Service Area” (rather than “Area Served Map,” which is a clunky phrase), and then I want to know about your “Services” (including your “Seller Inspection”), and “Thermal Imaging,” “What’s Inspected,” and “FAQs” (plural /no apostrophe). Then get into more detail with your “Radon Facts,” “Mold Problems,” etc. Your “Home Sample Report” should just be “Sample Report.” I don’t know if you really need your “Links” link -– the purpose of your homepage is to get visitors to hire you, and this is just some bells-and-whistles convenience of negligible value for your visitors. If you don’t have a mutual agreement with the links you’ve listed, I recommend deleting this altogether.

  3. This is a suggestion I haven’t offered before, but you may want to use different colors for different groupings of your links. For example, “What’s Inspected” and “FAQs” are general, but “Seller Inspection” and “Thermal Imaging” are a couple of the specific inspections you offer. Also, you have some administrative-type links, such as “Payments” (which I recommend you change to “Pay Online”) and “Access Your Report.” Using different colors is another way to organize and group your links.

  4. There’s some good separation between each of the logos and icons here, but they could stand to be bigger, if possible. I can’t read your NACBI link unless I put my face up to my screen (and that’s partly due to the bright, saturated colors). But you want the text in each of the seals to be legible, so make them as large as possible.

RIGHT SIDE:

  1. The photo of you is great!

  2. The text inside the box with your photo could also be bigger.

  3. I’d also like to offer this replacement text. I get that you’re trying to distinguish yourself from part-time inspectors, but the typical home buyer isn’t going to assume that you have any other job, so it’s a bit off track from your overall sales pitch to mention it in the first place. Try:

As a Certified Master Inspector®, I know homes inside and out. I’m committed to providing the outstanding service you expect, the information you need, and a report you can rely on.

  1. Change “8am-8pm” to “8 a.m. – 8 p.m.” (need spaces and periods)

  2. Same deal with the icons and logos here as with the ones on the left side -– the spacing between them is good, but they’re all too small. Make them of a uniform size that’s large enough to read the text within the seals.

  3. In your first/CMI seal, delete “Atlanta” -– this implies that you’re a CMI certified by the City of Atlanta, and that’s misleading. Also, change the link so that it links to the CMI main page, not to the “find a CMI” link within the site. (They’ve found you already!)

  4. In general, this is a nicely uncluttered and easy-to-navigate page. Both the text and graphical elements are well-organized, and you have many of the essential ingredients that make for a great homepage, including your logo, your photo, the icons for your different affiliations, and a basic sales pitch for yourself, your qualifications, and your services. It’s a nice balance of content that isn’t overwhelming, with a pleasing color palette. The tweaks I’ve offered will help you fine-tune everything to eliminate errors and potential confusion with some of the text and links, as well as increase your SEO.

248

Thanks Kate.

249

Do mine as well please. Thanks Kate.
HTTP:// www.tech9homeinspections.org

250

I’ll add your name to my list, Jarrod, but please post your website address here, too – thanks!

251

Thanks Kate. I wish I had your talents :slight_smile:

Most I will likely implement. Some of the suggestions are splitting hairs IMO but definitely appreciate the advice! Thanks to Nick for allowing Kate to offer this service.

Question, Kate do you offer any services on the side? I have about 40 different sites and would be willing to pay you for side project. If so, I will PM my contact details.

Thanks again,
RT

252

Thanks for your comments, Ray!

And I realize I can be nit-picky, but that’s all part of the service!^) Like a good inspection report, I try to let the members know what’s actually critical.

And thanks for the offer of additional work – it’s always flattering to be asked!

253

Hi, Kenny (Ramm) –

Here’s my feedback for the homepage of your website at rammhomeinspections.com :

  1. Good use of your homepage tag for SEO hits.

  2. This is a nice color palette -– looks “calm” and welcoming.

  3. In the text under your company name with all the cities in your service area, I think it would be better to have something more succinct, especially since you mention all these cities again at the bottom of your page. A shorter description of your service area will keep your visitors reading down your page instead of getting stuck immediately with all this text, most of which won’t apply to them. (Plus, the phrase “Residential Home Inspections” is redundant.) So, I suggest swapping it out with this:

Providing Home Inspections and Radon Testing in Madison, and South Central and Southwest Wisconsin

  1. We designed a logo for you back in March and it should be on your website. Make sure your branding is used consistently across all of your marketing. A good place for it might be the upper-left corner of the space where the roof photo is. You might also want to make that photo smaller and feature more of the house, rather than just mostly the roof, which could be visually misleading unless people read the content on your homepage.

  2. Since SEO doesn’t take into account size of text and since repetition is discouraged, I don’t think you need to repeat “Home Inspector Madison WI,” which is an unpunctuated, disjointed phrase. It should also not be bigger than either your name or your company name. I suggest swapping this out for one of our taglines (italicized and in a smaller size font), such as:

Inspected Once, Inspected Right!®

  1. I suggest inserting an exclamation point at the end of your “Welcome” text.

  2. Very nice use of the CPI designation!

  3. You should also include your Wisconsin home inspector license number here under the spelled-out CPI –- that’s important information that should be right up here with your name. Render it this way (and no space after the number sign or period at the end):

Wisconsin-Licensed Home Inspector #2516-106

  1. So, the phone number is good where it is, but there’s an issue with your “E-Mail” link. First of all, it sends the visitor off your page and to our site. Then the visitor must fill in a “Captcha” code, along with their name and email address. The reason this page is provided for members is to prevent their email addresses from being mined –- this additional step makes it harder for unregistered vendors and others who troll our site to spam you. But it’s not very useful for visitors to your own site, as it requires them to jump through too many hoops and lacks transparency. You should simply give your email address after your phone number. And to make room on that line, you can delete the word “Phone” and the colon after it.

  2. The photo of you standing next to your truck is great!

  3. I like how the subsequent text is brief, includes links, and gives just the essential information up front. However, there are some grammar, punctuation and organizational issues, and it needs a little more ramp-up and flow, so I’m providing you with replacement text (so you’ll have to re-embed the links, and, as a rule, any links that take your visitor off your site should open in a new window instead):

Finding an independent, experienced and certified home inspector is a critical step in the home-buying process. As a member of the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors, I represent the most highly trained professionals in the industry, and I will provide you with the facts you need to make a confident decision.

As the owner of Ramm Home Inspections, I want to thank you for visiting my website. Please click on the different links to discover more about my services and how I can give you the peace of mind you deserve.

My Standard Home Inspection

A home inspection is a visual examination of the home’s major systems and components, along with my professional opinion as to their condition, in accordance with the Wisconsin Standards of Practice. Depending on the home’s size and condition, it may take three to five hours to inspect. View a detailed list of the items I inspect here.

Your report will include digital photos and detailed descriptions identifying any significant issues or concerns I find. You will receive your comprehensive report via email within 24 hours. View a Sample Report (PDF) here.

I offer optional Radon Gas Testing/Measurements at a reduced rate with your Standard Home Inspection.

  1. Change the code for the link for the Wisconsin SOP so that it opens in a new window, rather than takes your visitors off your site.

  2. OUTSTANDING video! It’s brief but paced well and is comprehensive and very informative. (Frankly, I’d hire you based on the music alone!^) If you could center the video grab, that would be ideal.

  3. The information you have below the video is also very consumer-friendly, but I’m offering you replacement lists for it, too, to address the same issues as the text above (so you may need to re-embed the links where necessary, and any links that take your visitor off your site should open in a new window instead):

Some Facts About Me:

  • Wisconsin-Licensed Home Inspector #2516-106
  • Certified Professional Inspector® #12101905 (Click here to verify.)
  • Certified Radon Tester #PRDN0000016540
  • Member in good standing of InterNACHI, the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors
  • I’m fully insured with professional Errors & Omissions and General Liability Insurance.
  • I carry a Supra Key for quick and easy access to properties.
  • I have a background in construction, including residential roofing, electrical systems, remodeling and repair.
  • I take ongoing professional training and Continuing Education (24+ hours every year). Click here to see my Certifications for the last two years.
  • I consult with other experts regularly, including colleagues, instructors and specialists.
  • I dress to inspect. I wear work clothes, gloves, knee pads, a dust mask, and other safety gear so that I can climb, walk and crawl in hard-to-reach areas to give you the most complete inspection possible.

What You Can Expect from Your Home Inspection:

  • Major deficiencies (those that are visible and accessible) will be identified.
  • Existing and potential safety hazards will be highlighted.
  • Findings of concern will be reviewed with you step by step.
  • You’ll be educated on how the home’s systems work.
  • You’ll receive comprehensive information about the home you’re considering purchasing.

  1. Great photos of items you inspect and of you on the job.

  2. I first moved the text under your photos (which I revised) and incorporated it with text at the top because it made a good transition between the links you have, but then I realized that you meant for this to be a caption for the photos, which is a good idea. But for the caption here, you should move it up a line so that it’s closer to the photos, and then italicize it, as is done for captions. Italicized text should be used sparingly. Bolding is a better choice for emphasis. Here’s that text (which may not come out italicized here, but do italicize it):

A typical home inspection takes three to five hours. Be aware that anything less is not a full home inspection.

  1. Again, here’s some replacement text for the info under the photos, and do left-justify it, rather than keep it centered as it is now (only the “Thank You” text, your name, and your WI HI and InterNACHI numbers should be centered):

As a proud veteran of the U.S. Air Force, I bring the same discipline to my business and treat my clients with courtesy and respect. I understand that you’re making the investment of a lifetime, so I want you to feel secure about your home-buying decision by providing you an honest and thorough home inspection and delivering a report you can rely on.

  1. In your “Thank You” text:

a. Insert “Home Inspector” after “Wisconsin,” and delete the space between the hyphen and “106.”

b. Un-italicize “InterNACHI”

  1. Insert a colon after “to Schedule Your Home Inspection”

  2. Change that “E-Mail Me” link to just your email address, and bold it as you’ve done with your phone number.

  3. In the paragraph below your contact info with your service-area cities:

a. Cap “home inspections”

b. Cap “radon testing”

c. Insert a comma after “Waunakee”

d. Cap “south central”

e. Change the comma after “south central” to the word “and”

f. Change “south west” to “Southwest” (capped and one word)

g. Delete the period after “Wisconsin”

  1. Good to see your current copyright notation.

LEFT SIDE:

  1. Good size for the text for your links. I notice that the color of “Home” isn’t different from the rest of the links, even though we’re home now, so that’s weird.

  2. “What’s in a Home Inspection” should be changed to “What to Expect from Your Home Inspection” or “What’s Inspected”

  3. I would normally suggest that you delete the “Do I Really Need an Inspection” link because you don’t have to sell your visitors on the concept if they’re on your page, but you have some great info at that link, so I suggest you change it to something more direct, such as “Why a Home Inspection Is Important” (cap all the words except “a”).

  4. “Pre-Listing Inspection” is okay, but “Pre-Listing Seller Inspection” is more specific and will be more readily understood by your visitor, since this is a fairly unusual inspection.

  5. Change “Certifications” to “My Certifications”

  6. I would also normally advise you to move your qualifications-related links up to the top of the lineup (“My Certs,” “My Promise to You”), but since you have so few links here and you already give a great overview of your qualifications in the main area of your page, I think it’s good to have them lower in the lineup, as you’ve done here.

  7. Nice addition of the InterNACHI COE.

  8. I think you should delete the “Contact Home Inspector” link –- you have your email address and phone number at the top and bottom of the main area of your page, as well as lower in this panel above the seals, and no one is going to click on a link for them anyway when they’re right here.

  9. Excellent use of proper punctuation for your business hours –- yay!

  10. Change “Mon. thru Sat.” to “Monday through Saturday”

  11. Add your email address below your phone number.

  12. You need a fourth seal to balance out this grouping. (Nice use of square background with rounded corners – gives them all a uniform look.) I suggest you grab the “Radon Tester” one from our logos page here: http://www.nachi.org/logos.htm

  13. Fantastic use of embedding the online agreement system (I assume that’s what this is) -– great use of color and size for the font. This is super user-friendly for your clients looking for their inspection agreement. I would cap “inspection agreement,” though.

  14. Also excellent use of FetchReport access -– again, this is all very easy to find and read. I would change “E-Mail” to “Email” -– the hyphen in that word has disappeared over the years.

  15. Nice add of your contact address.

  16. I would delete “USAF Veteran,” since I’ve folded that into your text, and it’s kind of a random placement here. It’s also the same color font as your address, and these two items are obviously different.

  17. I didn’t know what a fan I was of the Inspector Pages template till I started working on this project. You’ve made excellent use of all of its features. Furthermore, you have a really fantastic balance of text vs. visual and graphical elements, making your homepage very quick and easy to get through and giving your visitors exactly what they’re looking for without a lot of filler. If you use my replacement text, which I strongly urge you to do, you’ll clean up the punctuation and grammar mistakes and fix the formatting discrepancies that are really this page’s only problem areas.

254

Hi Kate

I have to say Thank You for all that you have done for us (members). I have never been with and organization that did very much for its members throughout my 30yrs. in business. Then I join InterNACHI, WOW!!! Your dedication and professionalism is unparallelled. You and everyone that I have connected with at InterNACHI have once again out did yourselves. You and this organization are amazing.

I am so excited and can’t wait to make the changes to my website. I always felt it needed just that little extra. Thank You so much.

Post Scripted: Nick should change you nick name to Kate the Great :smiley:
Have a good weekend.

255

I agree. Katherine the Great!

256

Um, Kathryn the Great! :wink: Thanks, Nick! :slight_smile:

Kenny, thank you SO MUCH for your incredibly kind comments! I’m so glad I was able to help you.

I work with an amazingly dedicated bunch of people, that’s the truth! And, if I may speak for the entire asylum :mrgreen:, we love it when we hear such fantastic praise, so thank you for letting us know that we’re on the right track when it comes to our members.

Have an excellent weekend, and thank you again!

257

I agree, Kathryn the Great definitely has a better ring to it than “The Ukrainian Wrecking Machine” hahahaha.

Bert

258

LOL, Bert!!! Depends on the day of the week, I guess! :smiley:

259

Hi Kate, Please add my home page to the list of pages to review.

My home page is: http://bakersfieldinspections.com/

I have already learned a ton reading your advise included in other reviews. Thanks in advance.

260

Hi, Joseph (Barrs) –

Here’s my feedback for the homepage of your website at http://www.topicalhomeinspectionservice.ca/ :

  1. I like the font, and the font colors and size –- nice to be able to read everything very clearly without straining. I also like the layout of your links up top.

  2. If it’s possible to have a slide show that shows the different aspects of a home rather than the static shot of the kitchen, that would be ideal, since this doesn’t tell the story of a home inspection.

  3. Nice use of the CPI seal in the lower-right corner of the photo!

  4. The major problem with your homepage is that you’re short on essential information. Don’t count on your visitors to click on any of your links to find out what they need to know if you don’t give them the basic facts about yourself and your services right on your homepage. My suggestions will help you rectify this.

  5. There’s already some confusion as to whether you’re an “I” or a “we,” but I believe you’re a one-man company, so my suggestions will also help you eliminate this question, too.

  6. The tagline in red should not be inside quotation marks. Quotation marks are not to be used this way. However, taglines are typically italicized, as you’ve done here. But I think you should use InterNACHI’s trademarked tagline instead, which will dispense with the word “we,” which is probably not technically accurate for your company. Try this, and use mixed case so that it doesn’t compete so much with your company name by also being all-caps:

Inspected Once, Inspected Right!®

  1. You have some room in the white space above your links, and I believe this is a good place to insert your service area, which is no where to be found on your homepage (or in your homepage tag). Try this:

Serving the Greater Toronto Area

  1. At your links:

a. The photo at your “About Me” link is great! I’d love to see that on your homepage, as well. Also at that link, change “GTA area” to just “GTA” (because the “A” in “GTA “stands for “Area”), and change “InterNachi” to “InterNACHI.” This is some of the kind of text that should be on your homepage—where you need to sell yourself—and your “About Me” link should actually be more like a résumé with general facts about yourself, but this is close. Also, at your “My Promise,” change “Professional Home Inspectors” to just “professionals” (uncapped) because it doesn’t make sense the way you have it now. You also have many punctuation and grammar errors on that page, but I really can’t list them all out of fairness to the rules and time constraints of this project, so please find someone you trust to clean them up for you (and to review all of your deeper pages, especially if you change the content of some of them, which I’m also recommending here in my feedback).

b. Change “Our Services” to “My Services”

c. Since you have Buyers’ Inspections and Sellers’ Inspections listed at your “Services” link, I’m not sure you want to be redundant by having a separate link for “Pre-Inspection” (which should actually be “Pre-Listing Inspection”), so I recommend changing it to “Sample Report” and uploading some information about your report’s format and turnaournd time (and a PDF, if possible) so that your visitors can see what they’re getting for their money.

d. “Photo.s” should be “Photos” without the period before the “s.” However, this is basically bonus material. You also don’t have any screentips or captions for the photos, so you can’t be sure that the problems they show will be at all obvious to your visitors who look at them. (Like, what’s the matter with duct tape?^) Either fill in some information so that people will know what they’re looking at, or swap these photos out for some other information of value for your prospective clients, such as the SOP and COE, or your Sample Contract, or something else that they really want to know about or should know about when they hire you.

e. Your “Contact Me” link is also redundant of your actual contact information (which is currently at the very bottom of your page only), so why not try an automated booking method and re-name the button “Schedule Your Inspection,” or, if you don’t want to go that route, try “FAQs” and populate that link with some commonly asked questions and answers about your inspections and process.

  1. In the white space under your links, insert this essential identifying information:

Joseph Barrs, CPI
InterNACHI-Certified Professional Inspector®
+1.647.656.0750 topicalhome@gmail.com

  1. If you have an Ontario HI license (if they exist for HIs), that number should go under “InterNACHI-Certified Professional Inspector®” as “Ontario-Licensed Home Inspector #???” (without the quotation marks).

  2. The text you have under the photos is slightly outdated text from our website, and although it’s useful information along the lines of what your visitor can expect from a home inspection, it says nothing about YOU, and you must sell yourself, not just the concept of a home inspection, or the fact that it doesn’t have to be stressful, etc. Again, don’t assume that because you have a link that says “About Me” that your visitor is going to bother to click it. Your homepage has to sell you in order for your visitor to be convinced to spend time to look deeper at your website. So, here’s some replacement text that does that, as well as corrects grammar and punctuation errors:

Why Choose Topical Home Inspection Services?

A home is the largest purchase you’ll ever make, so it’s important to understand the condition of your investment. Let Topical Home Inspection Services take some of the stress out of the home-buying process by providing you with a thorough home inspection and a report you can rely on.

As a Certified Professional Inspector® trained by the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI), I represent the most highly qualified inspectors in the industry. I’ve also received training from Carson Dunlop, which is a renowned authority on the construction and inspection processes. Additionally, I have a background in residential construction, so I can spot problems with materials, installation and workmanship that other inspectors might miss. Let me put my years of training and experience to work for you.

What to Expect from Your Home Inspection

Most of your inspection will likely reveal maintenance issues and minor imperfections. These are useful to know about, and maintenance items should be dealt with as soon as possible to keep the home in good condition.

However, the issues that really matter fall into four categories:

  1. major defects, such as a structural failure;
  2. conditions that may lead to major defects, such as a leak in the roof;
  3. items that may hinder your ability to finance, legally occupy, or insure the home; and
  4. safety hazards, such as a live buss bar at the electrical panel.

Anything in these categories should be addressed immediately and can typically be corrected inexpensively to protect the home and your family, especially items that fall into categories 2 and 4. My inspection and report will note these types of items (when visible and accessible) so that you can plan and budget accordingly. Remember that no home is perfect, not even a new one.

Whether you’re buying a home in the GTA or selling the home you’re in and want to have it inspected before you even list it, Topical Home Inspection Services will provide you with the information you need to make a confident decision. Please call or email me today to discuss how I can help you.

  1. I don’t think you want to have the “Link Referral,” “Meta Tag Analyzer” and “GoDaddy” icons so prominently displayed at the bottom of your page, if at all. If you have to have them because of some mutual agreements, fair enough, but they diminish the professional look of your website. They’re more appropriate to have on a blog, where you’re appealing to other people with their own websites, not on your commercial website where you’re trying to sell your services. Anything on your homepage that isn’t geared toward getting you an inspection appointment shouldn’t be on it. Consider deleting them, if possible. If it’s not possible, make the “Link Referral” icon much smaller and shove all these into the lower-left corner. Your phone number and email address can stay here.

  2. If you want to add more visual elements after the text, visit our logos page to find some appropriate web seals that will add more information and credibility about your background and training, etc.: http://www.nachi.org/logos.htm

  3. Delete any extraneous white space between the text and your phone number and email address, and between your copyright notation and the very bottom of your page. This is true for all of your linked pages, too –- delete any extra white space between elements going down and at the end of them.

  4. Your copyright notation should include the year after the copyright symbol.

  5. Many inspectors try to cram too much information in their homepage, but yours suffers from the opposite problem. So, with these changes, you should rectify that by giving your visitors most of what they want to know immediately so they can either email you or call you, or keep looking around, and that’s obviously what you want. It will also help you with SEO by including your service area and name.