Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: hblair on September 04, 2002, 09:17:32 AM
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After buying a domain name 1 1/2 years ago, I finally got motivated to build our shops webpage. I'm not a wenpage builder by trade and haven't ever had anybody show me much, so it's pretty much trial and error for me. I've got most of what I want on the website there. I'm gonna have a links area and a little more content. Would you guys do me a favor and check it out? Give me some feedback. Does it load ok? Does it look ok? Secretary typed some stuff up to go with the photos, Iv'e got to check for typos, etc. A couple of the photos will be replaced. I made it in frontpage 2000. Suggestions from you guys with html experience is welcome.
Here's the link...
http://www.blairautobody.com
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"When your automobile is involved in a collision, there's a good chance there will be some structural damage involved. Structural repair is often the foundation of the repair to a vehicle, if not performed correctly, occupant safety can be affected, as well as tire wear and fit and finish."
Rephrase to read:
"When your automobile is involved in a collision, there's a good chance there will be some damage to the underlying structure of the body or frame. Structural repair is the most critical repair for a vehicle, and if its not performed correctly, then occupant safety can be affected, as well as load handling that can lead to excessive tire wear and imperfections in fit and finish."
Yes, I do mean "load" and not "road", as "load" encompasses the g-forces and road stresses of maneuvering.
Also, change the name to "GoFaster's Auto Body" and you'll really start raking in the cash. I'll only charge you 10% of your net revenues for the use of my handle. :)
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Blair Auto Body is an Auto collision repair shop located near Gadsden, Alabama. Specializing in late-model collision repair, we have been serving this area since 1990 in our current facility. We strive to perform the highest quality repair possible to our customers automobile. We employ capable, experienced, and certified technicians using the latest modern equipment. Many of our technicians are certified in various fields with I-CAR and ASE. Blair Auto Body is also an active member of the Alabama Collision Repairers Association (ACRA).
You can learn more about us and the way we repair automobiles by clicking on the linked topics on the left side of this page. Any questions or inquiries can be emailed to us here. Thank you for visiting our website.
Web site looks good, but this strikes me as a little too wordy.
how about:
Blair Auto Body is a collision repair shop specializing in late-model autos serving the Gadsden, Alabama area since 1990. Our shop not only boasts the most modern equipment, we also employ capable, experienced, I-CAR and ASE certified technicians. Blair Auto Body is also an active member of the Alabama Collision Repairers Association (ACRA).
Learn more about us and our quality services by clicking on the linked topics on the left side of this page. Any questions can be emailed to us here. Thank you for visiting our website
Good luck!
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rgr gofaster, I haven't been over much of that stuff yet. :) Some of it sounds a little cheesey. Thanks for the input.
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I have the 'master' working on it now :)
my gf is damned good at finding mistakes.. spelling, grammar, etc
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Originally posted by hblair
Need Advice
I've been givin' ya the same advice for 6 years...
Stop flyin' the 109g10, then that groinal area rash will disappear.
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Thanks Target and Oedipus. Looks like I need to go over some of the wording. kinda too descriptive in places. Tell her to look good wlfie. :) Milenko, you're flying the wrong plane. ;)
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I like the site hblair, easy to navigate and direct. You may want to consider adding some pictures of a before and after repair, including some in progress pics.
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shot you an email of a few grammatical errors..
she is good.. uh.. at uh.. uh.. grammer :
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Loads fast, nice photos, does a good job of showing a glitzy clean shop with lots of motivated skilled technicians....but...
...where's the scantily-dressed girl? I expect to see at least one of those when I'm looking at auto repair places.
- oldman (very disappointed)
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Make sure to post a FAQ link to that Swanky BMW board to answer all Clear-Coat questions. :p
Cobra
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That's a really good and simple effective page.
The logo showing your actual business sign is exceptionally helpful to promoting where your business is located, ironically, more so than, promoting what your business, is.
Local’s would recognize it immediately, which obviously is your consumer base.
I’d just make a small change, that the sign graphic is as wide and high as the Header, to draw even more attention to what they will see driving into, or past.
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Looks good hblair!
Only thing was the colour of those ICAR brand on the middle left that hurt my eyes, but I guess you can't do anything about that.
I like it.
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Originally posted by Creamo
I’d just make a small change, that the sign graphic is as wide and high as the Header, to draw even more attention to what they will see driving into, or past.
Voice of experience from Mail order bride websites :p
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Originally posted by Cobra
Make sure to post a FAQ link to that Swanky BMW board to answer all Clear-Coat questions. :p
Cobra
ROTFLOL! :D
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Voice of experience from Mail order bride websites
I'll have to ask a guy here in the valley about that...
he says you have to 'import' to get a bride ! heh
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Good site. However, rewrite the parts where it sounds like you're apologizing in case you don't see all the damage included in your original estimate. That makes it sound like you might not stand by your estimates, so don't say that. Oh, and change the apology in the finishing section for the "minor imperfections" being the cause of your finishing. Word it to be more along the lines of you do the meticilous finishing as SOP to ensure a perfect color and texture match for their car. Now it sounds like you do the finish to compensate for a sloppy paint job. GoFaster and MT both had good suggestions, IMO. And once again I'm amazed at how clean that shop is. Move out here to California because my wife dents fenders more often than I get victories on AH.
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right on about the clean shop.
Can I bring my Cherokee down for a lil' work ?
I want that ASSASSIN chick on my hood :)
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looks good, loads fast
You may want to add city, state to your keywords and add the keywords to all your pages as I'd think the majority of your biz would be local stuff
Be sure to repeat your top keywords in somewhere in the top portion, middle and then towards the end of the page you want the engine to home in on for that keyword. Once or twice in each section, don't spam them all over the page.
have you ever heard of Savannah Beige and Chocolate Brown car paint colors? Those are the colors of my sons 69 bug and I'm looking for some touch up paint. Is there more than one shade of those two colors or does that pin it down to a pretty good match?
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As far as the I-Car graphics are concerned, those should be relatively easy to fix in Photoshop. You can save them as Gifs and matte to match the grey in the sidebar, then the graphics would blend in nicer.
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(http://www.nlcs.k12.in.us/deckardb/back3.jpg)
Like this
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Thanks guys. :) I knew I'd get useful info here. Good point creamo. I'll make some changes when I get home, for some odd reason when I pull up the html in frontpage here at work, the "shared borders" don't show up. :confused:
Kieran, thanks for saving me some work man. :)
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Good Luck HB, it's 99% there.
And...wtf DRip?
Now wait a Golly-geen minute Drippy. I didn’t respond to your personal email attack, that my wife Cathy received before I did unfortunately, as I thought it was Gordo screwing with me. I don't need that home front explaination BS.
My email, till I install the router and use separate machines to link our DSL goes directly to me and my wife’s common email account . Calling her a “girl” and “desperate” and "poor" isn’t very proper considering usual BBS banter.
Poke and fire at each other is fine with me here, anonymous to anyone outside of AH, but you just won’t take my ignoring you, will you? Why bring it to email? Well, lets just quote it…
“Nice, er, girl you got there Creamo, guess even ugly people like yourself can get a wife! Thank God for Mail order brides and women desperate to leave their poor neighborhoods!
LMAO!!!”
I understand your angst in my constant BBS rebuttal to your simpleton roadkill. I’ll ignore you. You laugh your bellybutton off, just stop this silly toejam personality attacks on my wife.
If you have no respect for yourself, have some respect for her, geez. T
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agreed. We (AH'ers) are fair game IMO.. but anyone else should be treated as if YOU DON"T KNOW THEM !!! hint
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Looks good - just 2 things, both picture related:
1. Use photoshop or whatever to resize the pics then drop them into frontpage @ 100% - that should get rid of the mildly psychedelic jagged edges on stuff.
2. Crop the photos to the right size rather than stretching them - it just looks nicer and more professional.
Other than that - it looks fine, and refreshingly free of the normal first try paraphenalia: the over-the-top bells whistles doodads & flashing stuff.
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Actually,
It looks great HBlair!
And to continue the Hijack......Not that Creamo needs any help, but that is friggin' BS Rip.
Cobra
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I would put something in the white space to the right. I makes it look unbalanced.
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Originally posted by Thrawn
I would put something in the white space to the right. I makes it look unbalanced.
It is left justified written for 800x600 res and larger
it is suppose to look like that
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Ah. Thanks for clarifying, Eagler.
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HBlair,
I think that you need to add:
...and if you aint got cash we take coonskins, mules, moonshine, tobacco, and fishing tackle for trade.
:)
eskimo
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NP, HB.
The prob you are experiencing with the shared borders is because you are using the MS virtual web server and server extension on the machine that created the site. There are files that are held in que in the virtual server that will be uploaded to the server when you upload... and those files are most likely not aboard your other rig.
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Nice page HBlair. Good move not being in the photos (facing forward anyways).
That does look like a quality shop you have there. I am suffering from shop envy right now and am somewhat unconsolable.
AKDejaVu
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Clean, efficient site. I would add a map and some satisfied customer testimonials. If I had more time I would go through the text a bit, but that seems to be under control already :) I have too much of that to do myself in the next few hours anyway.
BTW, be sure to check your e-mail daily and reply within 24 hrs if you can (48 is acceptable but pushing it a bit).
Charon
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One more comment... be sure to check this out in Nutscrape, too. Different browsers interpret HTML differently. I'd really only concern myself with IE and NS, though.
As other have stated, nice, simple, clean, and efficient site. When in doubt, always go for understated when you are dealing with a business.
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Makes me want to rush out and crash my truck just to get some quality work done by that handsome technitian you have there...
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Man, that site sucks...If I were you, I'd have the in-laws get one done for ya! :p
SOB
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Oh, SOB... nearly choked on a granola bar on that one!
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I like the consistant, easy to follow layout of the site. Looks good Hblair.
Also, you have a real nice looking shop.
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Originally posted by Charon
BTW, be sure to check your e-mail daily and reply within 24 hrs if you can (48 is acceptable but pushing it a bit).
Charon
In last week I ordered a slot for a year service for my car from the shop I bought it.
They have nice site where you can just put crosses to boxes what I want they to do with price of the work after that.
I clicked "Send" button and 10 minutes later my phone rang.
Guy did ask if I need a car when my own is on service and if yes then what type I would like to have.
Looks like they are taking care of their customers and that is one reason why I'm going to stay in that brand and company.
HBlair nice site btw.
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Now somebody tell me how I register my url with the search engines. :) As you can tell, I'm green here. Thanks for all the help tho fellas.
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it looks like to submit your site to multiple search engines now isn't free anymore
you can pay to have someone submit it to many or you can pick your search engines and submit it yourself
for example here is google
http://www.google.com/addurl.html
yahoo
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/
alta vista
http://www.altavista.com/sites/search/addurl
basically just look at the bottom of the search engine and there should be a link to submit a site.
you can do it yourself for free or you can pay money to have someone type in your url for you and click submit ;)
yer call.
hope this helps.
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Now somebody tell me how I register my url with the search engines. As you can tell, I'm green here. Thanks for all the help tho fellas.
Actually, you may be better served by looking at local promotional angles and leveraging the site through more conventional means.
I could put you in touch with a Shell Oil service station operator out on the east coast who actually specializes in this on the side, but he might charge you unless you happen to be part of the Shell dealer network :) Of course, he could just talk your ear off like he did mine. He really leverages his site at the community level - including his automotive service - as well as setting up sites for other retailers less technically attuned. His Web site is: http://shellne.com/
Here's the auto care section of a short article I wrote on the subject of retail petroleum web sites (thus my contact with the dealer). Hope it is helpful.
Charon
Auto service centers
Gasoline may not be something consumers shop around for online, but the same cannot be said for auto care. The local phone book may still be the primary directory of choice, but Web-savvy potential customers are increasingly giving the Internet search engine a go when trying to find a local place to get the car repaired.
David Striegel, a BP dealer in Elizabeth, Pa., doesn't have much need for the Web, but then, given how inexpensive Web development and Web hosting have become in recent years he doesn't need much in return for the Web site to add value.
"I can't think of any way for the business to utilize our site better than we are now," he said. "We don't check it often enough to use it fulfilling orders, and I wouldn't want to rely on it for scheduling - we strictly use it for the advertising value. And for $10 a month it's not a bad deal. We developed the site out of the desire to stay current and up-to-date, and to portray a modern image. It provides information for people new to the area, describes our hours and what we offer, and I feel the site is extremely important for our auto service because it describes the certifications of our technicians. Still, I wouldn't recommend it for everybody."
Helping with its cost effectiveness is the fact that Striegel didn't have to pay for the site's development costs. The design is simple, but entirely adequate for its purposes, and the labor was handled "in-house."
"There was no challenge getting the site up and running," said Striegel. "I didn't develop it myself - it was done with the assistance of a brother-in-law who does our networking stuff as well. The development costs were basically zero, with the exception of registering the domain (about $35 per year), and there is virtually no maintenance except to change and update ASE certifications."
George Hallak, the general manager of Adams Street Shell in Dorchester, Mass., sees many of the same benefits in having a Web presence as Striegel, but takes the concept a step further. "We were one of the very first service stations in the Northeast to put up a Web site - it had to be around 1995," he said. "The main purpose was just to gain a presence on the Web, and I feel that it ultimately adds to the bottom line in how the customer perceives our operation. It's hard to quantify this, but I truly belive it's true. Automobiles are complex today, and if the customers do not think you are technologically sophisticated, they do not want you working on their cars. I'm just a basic dealer trying to utilize all the tools in a small family business."
Hallak also offers a variety of store coupons and promotions on the site and sees a good return. He stated that these efforts pay off, particularly among the local, regular customers, but only if you are willing to promote the site.
"Lesson No. 1, one people think that all they have to do is build a site and the business rolls in," said Hallak. "But like fine wine, it takes time. You have to be patient. I heavily promote the site in the store. I put the Web address on business cards and right on the door with the regular address. We offer Web coupons and similar coupons in the store, but at a lesser value. This encourages the customer to visit the Web site and lets us know where the coupon originated. We have been in the area for a number of years and the site supports our regular customers, and people new to the are who may be looking to get some repair work."
Hallak also noted that once the site is up, you have to support it.
"You need to maintain the site regularly, and answer your e-mail promptly," he said. "Someone new to the area will send in an e-mail saying, 'Can you look at my car on Thursday?' Of course! But as a dealer you have to respond within 24 hours, maybe 48 hours at the most, or they will go elsewhere."
Hallak has gone beyond the usual with his Web efforts, and runs a Web hosting service on the side. While he and his partner will help with some site development, Hallak adds value in an area critical for any business looking for an effective Web presence - visibility. "We concentrate our efforts on registration and making sure our members appear on the search engines," he said.
In addition, Hallak is at the forefront of efforts to get local dealers online, first with his own effort, the Northeast Diamond Club, and now with the regional Shell office through http://www.teamboston.com . The goal is to get some 120 regional dealers online with simple Web sites.
As with Shell, a number of branded oil companies are offering a Web site service for their dealers. In some cases it is a fairly standard page hosted by the oil company, and in others it is a link to a retailer's site as long as the retailer meets certain branding and quality criteria.
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Originally posted by hblair
Now somebody tell me how I register my url with the search engines. :) As you can tell, I'm green here. Thanks for all the help tho fellas.
Done - the first step anyway :)
check your info@blairautobody.com email