Website not generating enquiries...

[Ryu]

Have been tweaking and adjusting my website for Months now (within the somewhat restrictive boundaries of my Mr Site pro package) and in a general sense, I'm happy with it...I could do with a few more photo's, my SEO is slowly improving, but not perfect....but I'm not getting the enquiries I got from the site a year or two back when I DIDN'T deal with all these things.

Maybe its just general malaise in bookings at the moment, but maybe there's something in my site which isn't really selling me in the right way.

So...if you have a spare 5, be as savage as you like and if you can, let me have some feedback as to why my site wouldn't make you contact me!

Thanks for any advice/thoughts offered!

www.harlequinroadshow.co.uk

[Megamix]

my initial thought is that the home page is dark and uninviting - doesn't instantly grab me.

[Ryu]

Interesting...Thanks Megamix, I did wonder if the general "theme" could be an issue...I'll add it to the list of things to further review...

[yourdj]

I agree with the general dark comment.
Not bad but really needs some colour and jest in there.

You probably need to do a bit of SEO - I would suggest getting a pro to redesign and optimise it.
for the cost of a gig its a no brainer IMO.

You are also falling into the classic trap of pictures of loads of lighting and an empty dancefloor.

Get some istock pictures of people having fun and project the image of what you will provide fro your client guests.
No one cares about lights and speaker they will just assume you have the tools for the job.

Apart from being blurry all this says to me is book our services and no one will dance:

[funkymook]

my initial thought is that the home page is dark and uninviting - doesn't instantly grab me.

I was just about to write exactly the same. Needs a different colour scheme throughout the site.

Your drop down menus are confusing - took me a while to realise the title itself was part of the menu, I thought it was only the options below it.

Weddings should have more prominence - you say your a wedding specialist so make it really stand out and easy to click onto, and you're selling to brides, so make sure it's appealing to them.

I'd edit the dates out of your feedback - it doesn't look good if it appears the latest is over a year old.

Not many very usable pictures in the Gallery - I'd get some stock ones dotted around the site to add some colour and interest until you can get better ones of your own.

Hope that's helpful and not too negative

[yourdj]

Weddings should have more prominence - you say your a wedding specialist so make it really stand out and easy to click onto, and you're selling to brides, so make sure it's appealing to them.)

Nothin wrong with negativity - it takes an excellent DJ to take critisism

I am a firm believer if a dj wants to and says they are a wedding specialist then thats all that should be on there.
I would target exactly what you want and perhaps set up another site for any other services.

If this is the case loose the black background and have something a bit more pleasing to a female eye.

At the moment you have the following, which in a clients mind may put them off as you look like a jack of all trades. Tom from RSD and the business show always bangs on about the bloke he met at BPM last year who said he was a specialist and must have listed ten events.
There is no way someone can specialise in that many kinds of parties so you do not really have a USP just making you another DJ to get a quote from.

Weddings
Parties
Corporate Events
Childrens Parties
Teen Parties
Video Disco

[Ryu]

This is all golden stuff. Thanks for the feedback Funkymook and Your Dj...not harsh at all, its all useable market research from people who are trying to achieve similar things.

So...at the moment I'm getting 6 key things

Theme-ing (Less Dark)
Photo's of Dancing
Specialization
SEO tweaking/Rehaul from a pro (I have grown to hate SEO...or my futile attempts at improving it!)
Sub Menus Restructure
Dates in Feedback

Thanks again. If anyone else has anything to add, again, much appreciated!

[funkymook]

This is all golden stuff. Thanks for the feedback Funkymook and Your Dj...not harsh at all, its all useable market research from people who are trying to achieve similar things.

So...at the moment I'm getting 6 key things

Theme-ing (Less Dark)
Photo's of Dancing
Specialization
SEO tweaking/Rehaul from a pro (I have grown to hate SEO...or my futile attempts at improving it!)
Sub Menus Restructure
Dates in Feedback

Thanks again. If anyone else has anything to add, again, much appreciated!

Actually, thinking about it my first bit of feedback should have been - get a professional to do it!

Take a look through some of the DJ sites on the internet - the difference in the look and quality of a professional site to a 'home made' one really stands out, and that's before you even start considering optimising SEO (if no one finds your site it doesn't matter how fab it is).

And consider how many hours you've spent on it already with little result. I'd say if it isn't working by now time to call in the professionals. It'll pay for itself with the first gig booked through it.

[Ryu]

Actually, thinking about it my first bit of feedback should have been - get a professional to do it!

Take a look through some of the DJ sites on the internet - the difference in the look and quality of a professional site to a 'home made' one really stands out, and that's before you even start considering optimising SEO (if no one finds your site it doesn't matter how fab it is).

And consider how many hours you've spent on it already with little result. I'd say if it isn't working by now time to call in the professionals. It'll pay for itself with the first gig booked through it.

Maybe thats it Funkymook....A simple, albeit wallet hitting solution.

The SEO is getting there, not quite page 1 for some searches (3 on searches like "Oxford Disco") but my web hits have definitely increased....which led me to think that it was the design which was the issue.

I've got another 10 month on my current package, and the plan was hold back on a pro site, do what I can with my existing package, then invest down the line....maybe I'd avoid a number of problems if I invest now...

[funkymook]

Maybe thats it Funkymook....A simple, albeit wallet hitting solution.

The SEO is getting there, not quite page 1 for some searches (3 on searches like "Oxford Disco") but my web hits have definitely increased....which led me to think that it was the design which was the issue.

I've got another 10 month on my current package, and the plan was hold back on a pro site, do what I can with my existing package, then invest down the line....maybe I'd avoid a number of problems if I invest now...

I'd say priority is getting a good site up and running asap - especially for the wedding market, you want to be getting results for next years wedding season now. Get a professional one created for that.

And how about you change this site to something totally different? If there's anything you really enjoy playing (Motown, Rock, Dubstep etc) turn it into a specialist site that caters for it. You can play around with it as much as you like knowing your core business site isn't going to be affected.