Topic: benjaminandsons.kcmartz.com

[kcmartz]

I am working on a client's website. I know it looks ok, but it looks better than current, http://benjaminandsons.com/

Please post PROs, CONs, what to change, etc...
I am using PHP because of PHP include..

[jurass1c]

its 2010 not 1995. the website looks like it was built 15 years ago. 2/10

[mrMarcus]

ya, it's just a very basic website.  can't really list any pros/cons as it is nowhere near web 2.0 standards.

[xcandiottix]

Hold on. I disagree with the above posts. We are talking about a CLOCK REPAIR COMPANY .... in themiddleofnowhere, Washington.

Who's going to this site? I'm 27... i dont even own a watch. My grandmother has a big ass wooden clock however.

I like flash.... my grandmother can't even open an email properly.

SO, with target audience (age group +50, non power users, obviously not technologically current) as a refrence point... yes.. this site is perfect.

Shame on those posts above 

[thewooleymammoth]

Hold on. I disagree with the above posts. We are talking about a CLOCK REPAIR COMPANY .... in themiddleofnowhere, Washington.

Who's going to this site? I'm 27... i dont even own a watch. My grandmother has a big ass wooden clock however.

I like flash.... my grandmother can't even open an email properly.

SO, with target audience (age group +50, non power users, obviously not technologically current) as a refrence point... yes.. this site is perfect.

Shame on those posts above 

I disagree. just because old people are gonna look at it doesnt mean it should be boring (no offense). but it is really plain. I would make it a little more image heaving and use some wood textures to match the clock style. it can look very web 2.0 and still be pleasing to an elderly person.
like this one
http://templates.entheosweb.com/template_number/27348.asp
(but get rid of the flash and sound)
old people would love that! AND I LOVE OLD PEOPLE!

[V]

Hold on. I disagree with the above posts. We are talking about a CLOCK REPAIR COMPANY .... in themiddleofnowhere, Washington.

Who's going to this site? I'm 27... i dont even own a watch. My grandmother has a big ass wooden clock however.

I like flash.... my grandmother can't even open an email properly.

SO, with target audience (age group +50, non power users, obviously not technologically current) as a refrence point... yes.. this site is perfect.

Shame on those posts above 

Hmm I somewhat agree but there are many +50 users that browse modern sites and effectively use email. Plus visitors might not only be aged people. They could be young collectors looking for restoration or resellers. But yeah, I agree to keep it simpler but just add a little style.

I'm a fan of old people too!

[Adam]

I saw some old bat mawing her lawn at 7:30 this morning, and it was wet.

Anyway..

I agree with both sides here. It could do with some style, more colour, better fonts, simple imagery, etc. Currently it just looks like a page of writing, not all that interesting to look at. From the other perspective though, from a visual point of view, it does the job. The only problem is it sucks for search engines. The only people who'll see this website are those that already know about it, and so what's the point?

Forget the visual side of things for now and read up on some simple SEO tips and tricks.

[greenbizkit33]

I am on the side there is nothing wrong with having a 2.0 feel for an older person website. I wouldnt go all the way and an add rss feed lol.... maybe dividing the page up into more pages would be a start. add like a FAQ section, what you fix, some before and after shots

[cbassett03]

The site seems a bit plain and there is virtually nothing to do at the site, except for maybe email the company.  But considering it's a Clcok repair company and not a multimedia streamming company or some other high-tech company, I think it sort of fits the target audience (to a point).  I'm thinking the target audience is a more "mature" audience (people in their middle ages who own homes and have these sorts of things around the house--not some fresh-out-of-college techie).

But a little more color and maybe some more information/pages would be good, to make it worth the while for the visitor.  Maybe, at the very least, use some more graphics on the site, and perhaps maybe a more interesting background.  It's good for browser compatibility among many browsers and many versions, but most people today have more recent hardware (like IE6 or later, or Firefox 2.x or later) of which you can experiment more with advance technologies like PHP, SQL and CSS, and move beyond the basic HTML coding techniques that were used 10-15 years ago when no two browsers could render a page the same.

[kcmartz]

Sorry for the long inactivity. That's how he wanted it.

[QuickOldCar]

The reason for having this website is to gain more business.

If the person doesn't care about their site, maybe they don't care about the services they provide, is in which the way I and others may think.

You need to insert meta data like title,description,keywords.
Have a few different pages going to about,location,services,etc to gain more positions in search engines.

For sure this needs a better look, maybe some pictures of watches have worked on, or able to work on.

Look at some of the other competitions sites.
http://www.totalwatchrepair.com/
http://www.jjwatchrepair.com/
http://www.fastfix.com/watchrepairs.php
http://www.watchrepairny.com/
http://www.pocketwatchrepair.com/

Some simple text on a page and a small header image is not good enough.