My website is http://www.getnorthstar.com

It's used to get leads for my appraisal company, I am an appraiser and I also designed the website myself. Let me know what you think.

It currently ranks 1-5 on google, yahoo and msn. Keywords: "bakersfield appraiser" or any other city I service like "taft appraiser" etc...I have about 10 cities I provide appraisal service too.

I DO NO OTHER MARKETING EXPECT THIS WEBSITE, and have done well for the last year, I am looking to improve it but don't want to change it too much b/c it's been working solid........but I am ready to take it to the next level.... any advice I would love and I will respond to all comments.

Pages that need work:

HOME: The home page of course is the most popular, but about 40% leave within the first 5 sec, according to statcounter.com, how can I get them to stay, today I added a new pic of a phone and # to call to talk with me etc..hoping to catch the users eye quickly, before they go, I get about 10-30 new users a day and about 1-5 return visitors a day. I convert those users into about 5 contacts via email, form, phone etc...a day....would like to increase that...any suggestions?

ABOUT US: Seems boring and standard about us page...I know I need to add better content and will but any suggestion would help. Should I add a pic or another way to keep user interested in "about us".

CONTACT US: Simple address and contact info. Looking to make it stand out more, should I increase the font, wanted all the pages to have the same font so I left font the same on all pages. Thinking of changing font size. What do you think?

PAYPAL: I have a online paypal link, I want to make it more user friendly and add a pic, but want to make it easy to use. What do you think?

ONLINE QUOTE FORM: I have an online quote form, I think I could make it easier to fill out, but haven't gotten and bad response for users, I get about 2-5 users a week to fill it out. I did notice on a lower screen resolution 800 X 600, the form is off centered and goes off the right border. Why?

SERVICES: Thinking of getting rid of the page and sending the info to about us. Not many users go to the link, according to statcounter.com, should it stay or go? What could I do to make it better?

Other Links: I have a link exchange, it's purely for search engine rank. Article links about the appraisal business, also use them for search engin rank, provide good content. Do you think I should change or add more links or articles? I am afraid too b\c I don't want to mess with my rankings, will it improve my ranking or not if I had "really good content" articles and text links.

Anyways if you read this entire post I thank you and would love to give you feedback of your website if you want some...? I am a rookie designed I have created only 2 websites....let me know what you think....

THANKS,

MATT
NorthStar Real Estate Appraising
www.getnorthstar.com

I think you did an awesome job for having only 2 websites under your belt!

Your conversions of visitors to leads is also impressive.

First thing I would do is narrow the table to 800 pix. That way the site looks the same at most resolutions and allows the reader to focus on what you have to offer. I really don't like the colors, but they do have good contrast, so it's really just a personal choice.

Also, you have way too much clutter on the homepage. Duplicate links, links that don't provide any new information by city, and the links are very wordy.

The text on the homepage is squashed right up against the left menu, looking very amateur.

The adcopy on the homepage is also weak, despite your excellent conversions. Simple as 123. Not really. You have steps listed under each step.

And the form is too long. You need to simplify it down to name address, and phone number, maybe 1 or 2 other things. Most people are not going to fill out everything else even if they knew what to put in those boxes. "The history of the house"? Now you're asking the person to write an essay!

I'm sure you can look up the house information and give a rough estimate of the cost and a time you can get started on it. The customer shouldn't have fill out all that stuff just for an "estimate".

All you really want to do is call the customer and set up an appointment to come out and do the appraisal. Don't give them an option to start calling other appraisers and compare prices.

The pay online is fine, but I wouldn't tack on the 3%. People don't like paying more with their credit card. It's also against most merchant agreements.

Use a visa/mc logo instead of the standard paypal. Many people are not familiar with paypal.

Finally, the maps should can be smaller and fit in your site's table. Having them open into another window will lose you some visitors. Keep them on your site. You already have the cities and counties listed, so you don't really need a map anyway.

You have most of the basic seo things down. H1, Links, Content, metatags, etc... Good job on that. However I would get rid of the hidden text in tiny point font. That's considered old school blackhat these days. You may be getting penalized for it. What if you could be comming up up #1 for home appraisal? You could easily monetize your website way beyond just getting your own leads.


Here's a sample I whipped up in about 10 minutes. http://deja.us/sample-2.htm

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Lead Generation For Real Estate Professionals
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Maybe ad some content on your "Service Area" pages. Every page is the same wtih no original content. A short description of the area or community the link is named after would go a long way for both SEO, content, and "look & feel" of the website.

Just a opinion.

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You need to tell visitors why you can do the best appraisal for them there is available and why they should trust you! The site is plain. It has no zip. It needs a beefed up selection of colors and needs lots and lots of original content to be added to it or they will just keep leaving quick! Good luck with it. I think we all realize why you would want to work over your site now to increase business the way the market has changed so much in California. Best of luck!

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Mike
http://www.HousingPredictor.com
http://www.DestinFloridaRE.com
http://www.RealEstateDomain.com

Thank you robert for your comments. The mock website you made looks simple and to the point, I am definetly going to use some of those ideas for the update to my site, I will post here when I am done so you could see it.

Thanks again,

Matt

Memphis,

I appreciate the comment.

I will add more meaning full content to the site, an area/community description would look nice.

thanks

PS i will post the updated site soon.

Mike,

I like the ideas of adding "zip". I will change the colors to bring the site out more. I also will add content as to "why" the user should choose to order an appraisal.

thanks,

Matt

Well it's been a couple of months but I updated my website. www.getnorthstar.com

Thanks for the help...but

I think I could still need so advice.....

How do you think the website looks?

What suggestions do you have?

Thanks in advance for the help.

I will respond to all posts.

-Matt