# Subjective opinions wanted



## daArch (Mar 15, 2008)

I'd like your opinions (and reasoning if you got any) for a site that has different backgrounds for different pages.

On my present site (and I might as well make an SEO based link, sorry) Massachusetts Wallcovering Installer, Bill Archibald I have three different backgrounds.

I realize one, two, or all three may not be to your liking (Hey, I'm tired of them), but what about the CONCEPT of different ones

OH, my reason for doing it? One does not put the same wallpaper pattern in every room of the house. 

thanks


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## y.painting (Jul 19, 2009)

I like it, but probably only for a wallpaper guy's website.

Different patterned backgrounds like that on other sites might appear tacky.

Maybe a painter's site could get away with different solid colors for different pages - but definitely not patterns.


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## PressurePros (May 6, 2007)

Bill. I love ya, bud... NO. 

I appreciate artistic and poetic license. My answer would be the same if you told me you were going to present all your bids on remnants of paper from your jobs.. NO. (though 'thank you' letters hand written on the back of a piece of the customer's wallpaper may be kinda cool).

Keep in mind you are going under the assumption that people associate the background with "wallpaper". To most people's eyes, and without the defining clarification of your goal, it may look disjointed. At best its gimmicky.


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## the paintman (Feb 3, 2012)

Bill i am going to try to give you some good advice. Free of charge. I am currently remodeling my website. It's almost 10 years old and even though I still get good comments and even though it looked great at the time. It's outdated. People praise it all the time. But My webmaster/seo guy tells me they don't want to hurt my feelings and are just being nice if any one tells me it looks good. LOL! I know he is at least partially right. Thats why i am paying him the big bucks for seo and web design. Anyways I say all that just to say I am somewhat in tuned to what you are looking for and what he and I are looking for, for me and what they say works in todays overly complicated web business.

Your site. I am not sure If its a good idea to have the different backgrounds. And no offense to any painters and I'm one, I'm not sure you should do it based on what we say. I think if you do decide to do it that it may be a good idea to have the single universal color theme. But have you explored the idea of slightly different colors? I think it might also work. But I don't particularly like the moss green color theme. It's not a terrible color or anything like that. I just think another color would look better. I think personally the color on that pic under the stairway is a better color. I don't like the simplicity of the oval wallpaper at all. I think it does not portray the level of paper you can hang at all. And you really only have 2 backgrounds on 4 or 5 pages. Is your intention to make them all different like you said?

Finally, after working with a webmaster/Seo guy for the last 6 months i think I already know what my webmaster would say without asking him. So I will offer up what i'm sure he would say to me if i made your suggestions.

1. He would not like the idea
2. Why because he has told me over and over to quit sending subliminal messages. You don't want to do that with a web site design. I think that falls into that category.
3. You want them to look at your pics and text and anything that does not do that or detract from that is not a good thing.
4. You do want a nice background and I think wallpaper is a great fantastic idea, but not to be "the main thing" they are looking at. 
5. Is it going to make them dial your number is the only thing that is important. I think your pictures and references do that. 

Finally, and this is from me. Here is a great idea. It's gonna blow you outta your chair. And your going to pay me back for this one day. I know you are. Cuz I know your a good guy already. I'm going back to that same stairway pic. Take that great looking arch with the Pristine white trim around it, HMMM! isnt your name Arch? Instead of a hohum square boxy outline frame. Put that Arch around your pics and text. Use it on every page. That same wallpaper thats in the pic as your background. And have a beautfull doorway into your business. ChaChing! 

I know. I'm good :thumbup:

Glenn


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## PressurePros (May 6, 2007)

I like this guy, Glen. (maybe cause we share the same delusions about our sites.. people tell me they love mine too).


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## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

I think the background you have on the home page is subtle enough to use and makes sense since you are a wallpaper guy. Think I'd stick with it on each page and not use the other two for much of the same reasons already mentioned.


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## Workaholic (Apr 17, 2007)

Honestly Bill I do not care for any of those back grounds. I would just stick to one. You know I am no expert though.


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## daArch (Mar 15, 2008)

Thanks all.

at times I'm too close to the trees to see the forest. I appreciate the distanced thoughts.

and for the record, one reason for redoing is that the "mossy green" is old and weighty. Sure everyone wants to be "green" but I went overboard. It's dull, listless, distracting

I've posted the bare bones landing page (www.warch.com) which as you see, still has the same header and menu bar, but the back ground is a lot more lighter and airier. 

Glenn, sure, having something design worthy would be nice, but remember, I am not a designer. I want to be straight forward with my message. 

The site before the present one was gimmicky with a window frame that I digitally "built"









the background changed at every refresh. It took so many hours to create that window and then figure out how to piece it together with tables, that I stubbornly kept it too many years. 

I feel for my business it's more about the message than the media, notwithstanding WHAT Marshall McLuhan said.


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## StripandCaulk (Dec 30, 2011)

Bill- maybe i can add some insight of a younger generation here. Having multiple backgrounds is not a great idea for a couple of reasons:

1) its too busy, you defract from the actual message you want your customer to see
2) It is considered slightly unprofessional in todays web market, the more uniform your site is throughout the more collected you look. IE, on a job site you have 4 guys all wearing different attire. one guy has on jeans, another shorts, another khakis, another military cargos. if everyone is wearing the same logo'ed t-shirt with khakis you look more professional. Every time they change the page they will see the new background and it will look tacky.

3) I like the black instead of the green, looks a bit more crisp and bold. have you considered creating a logo for the site? there are plenty of programs out there that will allow you too within 15 minutes for under 100 bucks. you can also transfer it to business cards, headers as well as your site.


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## daArch (Mar 15, 2008)

StripandCaulk said:


> Bill- maybe i can add some insight of a younger generation here. Having multiple backgrounds is not a great idea for a couple of reasons:
> 
> 1) its too busy, you defract from the actual message you want your customer to see
> 2) It is considered slightly unprofessional in todays web market, the more uniform your site is throughout the more collected you look. IE, on a job site you have 4 guys all wearing different attire. one guy has on jeans, another shorts, another khakis, another military cargos. if everyone is wearing the same logo'ed t-shirt with khakis you look more professional. Every time they change the page they will see the new background and it will look tacky.
> ...


I hear you.

No, no logo. My name is my logo  :thumbup:


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## MrPaint (Feb 19, 2012)

Bill, you have some phenomenal content on your site (I'm not a wallcoverings guy or even a res painter so maybe I'm closer to your target market) but with a little polishing you could really have something special. Here's my opinion, the grasscloth (or whatever the background for your homepage is) looks the best and I would use it for your entire site. Your slideshow of work is impressive but several of the first pictures look like dated designs and I would dump them in favor of keeping a fresh feel to your site. Even though some of those projects may have been technically challenging for you, I don't know that people care that much. They expect you to do what you do well and don't really care how you do it, so keep your site and the designs in it fresh and up to date. The copy you have written in your FAQ section is excellent and causes the reader to believe in you (especially the part about going through rolls and rolls of grasscloth to find the best natural fit) and it screams quality. If you can think of some more relevant topics I would encourage you to add more. Take a look at the copy on a site I built last year (http://accelerated1.com/wastewater-coatings/ ) and notice how the images cause your eyes to want to continue down the page and break up the feeling that you're reading tax law, seems insignificant but it works. I hope this helps.


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## PressurePros (May 6, 2007)

daArch said:


> I feel for my business it's more about the message than the media, notwithstanding WHAT Marshall McLuhan said.


That should be true for every website. Every test done also proves it to be true. A pretty template with lousy "me, me, me" content is not going to do any better than a dated design.. it will actually do worse. It is usually guys that fall in for the glitz and visual appeal. Since 4 out of 5 of my calls come from the female side of the household, I don't sweat design but prefer to focus on good copy. There is a balance of course.


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## the paintman (Feb 3, 2012)

MrPaint said:


> Bill, you have some phenomenal content on your site (I'm not a wallcoverings guy or even a res painter so maybe I'm closer to your target market) but with a little polishing you could really have something special. Here's my opinion, the grasscloth (or whatever the background for your homepage is) looks the best and I would use it for your entire site. Your slideshow of work is impressive but several of the first pictures look like dated designs and I would dump them in favor of keeping a fresh feel to your site. Even though some of those projects may have been technically challenging for you, I don't know that people care that much. They expect you to do what you do well and don't really care how you do it, so keep your site and the designs in it fresh and up to date. The copy you have written in your FAQ section is excellent and causes the reader to believe in you (especially the part about going through rolls and rolls of grasscloth to find the best natural fit) and it screams quality. If you can think of some more relevant topics I would encourage you to add more. Take a look at the copy on a site I built last year (http://accelerated1.com/wastewater-coatings/ ) and notice how the images cause your eyes to want to continue down the page and break up the feeling that you're reading tax law, seems insignificant but it works. I hope this helps.


 
This ain't about you, so I won't comment. But your asking for it arn't you? LOL! See what I mean Arch?


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## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

I think the pastel pink and green is fit for a nursing home..... if your target demographic is little old ladies you're on the right track :thumbup:


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## fauxlynn (Apr 28, 2011)

Ok, here is my opinion.Get rid of the fish scales or fantails, whatever they are. Love the damask, love the grasscloth, and I could even live with the fish scales if they were a nice warm color. Green is my favorite color, but it is not working here, either put like the damask behind the first page, faint.Then, the grasscloth,feint, and love that dining room paper...can you put a feint background of that behind that dining room page? So, maybe keep them the colors they are, only feint OR make them all a color like BM HC4,SW6373. (How many times have I had a client say to me they wanted to warm up their walls?)

I think since wall paper is what you do, and I believe it takes a certain courage in some people to go with wallpaper, that your site should reflect that attitude. No plain Jane.


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## StripandCaulk (Dec 30, 2011)

daArch said:


> I hear you.
> 
> No, no logo. My name is my logo  :thumbup:


Different font then? i realize your name is your logo. 

Wallcover Installations
By Bill Archibaild 

_all the information about your company with your italicized font._


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## parodi (Mar 15, 2010)

daArch said:


> I'd like your opinions (and reasoning if you got any) for a site that has different backgrounds for different pages.
> 
> On my present site (and I might as well make an SEO based link, sorry) Massachusetts Wallcovering Installer, Bill Archibald I have three different backgrounds.
> 
> ...


Bill, I would try to deal more with facts than with opinions. I could give you a bunch of opinions but they are of little value in this regard:

You know that as a side business I do a lot of painters and paperhanger's sites. I track them and can tell you the percentage of visitors who come to each one and stay for zero to 30 secends, 30 to one minute, etc. The number of people who stay from zero to 30 seconds for a painter or paperhanger's site runs from about 89% to 95%. So doing the math on that means there are only 5% to 11% who stay to even finish the text on page one must less go deep into the site. 

Do I get to know why such a large number left? No. Do the people who constantly call me and my customers to bother us with offers of SEO performance or conversion really know why either? No. Like a$$holes everybody has an opinion and they will promise the moon but no facts. Facts (or in this case research) cost a lot of money.

If you really want to know ANYTHING of factual value about your site in order to make it convert more sales you have to do market research. Let real people look at it and listen to them. And I don't just mean being in someone's house (your customer) asking them to critique your site. You need to get opinions from people who DON'T know you and find out if there are any turn ons or offs about the site which would make them click off. 

Somebody in this thread suggested you get rid of the outdated pictures. I was about to agreed with that but then caught myself. I did two paperhanging estimates this week where they wanted borders! So go figure. Isn't the color of their money the same...those out of date people with big 80's hair? 

IMO question everything until you have numbers. The idea of "what is most professional or glitzy" doesn't necessarily convert to clicks either . Even SEO and good ranking isn't foolproof. (I said "foolproof" not that it isn't important .) Ask around and you will find people who think that businesses have to PAY for top slot organic results and therefore think that those highly ranked businesses are more high priced to pay google for the privilege. There are "second pagers" who search page 2 in belief that the second page plumbers charge less. I'm not kidding.

My advice, get numbers not conventional wisdom.


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