My 1st Joomla Site: VoIP Service Provider

[dougg]

My site is http://5pcom.com, a VoIP Service Provider site.
I want to say right up front that it is built with a template from siteground.com, with customized graphic design that uses modified combinations of graphics from several SG templates, along with my own logo design, etc.

Additional Extensions: Well, I integrated Netshine Billing into the site and had the order process ready to go...and then the decision was made to have the billing process and data handled on a sub-domain created and maintained at a partner site, not by me. But, Netshine showed a lot of promise for serving the billing needs of the site well, and I may implement it later.

Custom Development: Hmm. I guess not, I am still pretty new to Joomla and just did my best to use the standard modules/components/mambots etc.

Other Features: Not sure what to state here.

Three specific areas of my site that I'd like feedback on:

1) Professional Overall Presentation: My goal of course is to project the image of a business that is a solid technology player in the VoIP market. Please help me understand to what extent I may have achieved this, and obvious (or not so obvious) improvements I need to make in order to accomplish this.
2) SEO: I am using the standard SEF urls, Customized Meta Data wherever possible, alt tags on main images, keyword targeted content (to a degree). However, I know there is much more work to be done there. Also, I know there are extensions that go a step beyond the standeard SEFs that are formated as "...content/34/x, yz...." and actually allow you to choose the directory path and name of file associated with the SEF url and page name. Please share your opinion of the extension that best accomplishes this functionality.
3) Data Compression/Speed issues: How to maximize the efficiency with which the code is processed and minimize load time and unneccessary data transactions. I know tools like those at port80software.com exist, and that my server uses optimized mysql application (Zend I think...) But I am sure there is more I need to learn about this.
4) Anything you notice and feel would improve the conversions at the site, from look/feel, coding, better sales copy, better organization of content, etc. This is optional of course, but I don't want to limit the feedback that is possible with 3 or 4 bullet points. And by conversions, I mean new customers. I am particularly interested in building trust with the consumer who may be interested in the service offered but "afraid" to try a company they have not heard much about.

If you only feel like touching on just one of the above rather than all of them, please do, I welcome any opportunity to get objective perspective, to learn something new and of course, to improve.

Thanks,
Dougg

[teckademic]

First thing I thought was way to much white. You need to either add color to the sides of the template outside of the content, or a little background for the middle.

There is nothing to click in the content, If I want to see more about the unlimited plan 19.99, There was no way to click and see more.

For long distances rate, instead of * i would just use a blank space. the ****** looks out of place.

Complete Feature List, I would align it to the left instead of right. Same with FAQ, contact us, about us, Everything

Your Terms wrapper doesn't look very good. I have to scroll left and right inside the wrapper. Also it looks like you put their old site into that wrapper, so I'm looking at products inside the terms link.

Coming along good, the white just bothers me, when I go to those kinds of sites and see alot of bright colors, attracting me to their products and why i should go through the hassle to switch to them. Keep it up, ill be checking back to see how it comes out.

[MrRoyce]

Very professional looking site!  You could maybe use a light shade of grey for the overall background color, but that is being picky.

Think about going with a wider format.  The content text is either mashed up to the menu on the right or it requires a horizontal scroll bar to read it all. 

Its always tough to have use standard Joomla! templates for a "real business" and not look like it was thrown together quickly.  Nothing looks worse than a poor looking site for a real business thats trying to project a professional image.

Congratulations on a great beginning.

[dougg]

First thing I thought was way to much white. You need to either add color to the sides of the template outside of the content, or a little background for the middle.

Yes, others have said it's too "bright" or too white, I will work on that.

There is nothing to click in the content, If I want to see more about the unlimited plan 19.99, There was no way to click and see more

.
Good point - All links to those items are in the main nav, but of course, we need to make it as easy as possible for people to find more information about what they are seeing.

For long distances rate, instead of * i would just use a blank space. the ****** looks out of place.

I believe when I did that, I tried to use spaces and for some reason they wouldn't work. Hard to explain, but the field for the heading seems geard for a one or 2 word heading, and I needed to put space in between to create seperate column headings, but when I input a bunch of blank spaces, it seemed to read only so many of them and then ignored the rest.  I ended up with asterisks only as a stop gap, and this again is a wrapper page which I don't have direct control to do modifications on the other site. I will revisit this though.

Complete Feature List, I would align it to the left instead of right. Same with FAQ, contact us, about us, Everything

I am a little confused on this, because the feature list is already aligned left...are you saying all pages should be aligned right?

Your Terms wrapper doesn't look very good. I have to scroll left and right inside the wrapper. Also it looks like you put their old site into that wrapper, so I'm looking at products inside the terms link.

I totally agree! I am actively working on a solution to this now. The problem is, certain information, like customer data, signup, etc. are hosted by a partner, whereas I control the front end. So I have no editorial control over the page design, or FTP access etc. On the terms, I will just replicate that information on my site as a static content item and get rid of the wrapper. However, on the signup process, and my account wrappers, I am hoping they will do further customization of those pages for me, otherwise I have to get creative about what I make visible to the front end users...(?)

Coming along good, the white just bothers me, when I go to those kinds of sites and see alot of bright colors, attracting me to their products and why i should go through the hassle to switch to them. Keep it up, ill be checking back to see how it comes out.

Thanks very much for your time and comments teckademic!

Dougg

[dougg]

Very professional looking site!  You could maybe use a light shade of grey for the overall background color, but that is being picky.

Thanks, I will look at alternatives to mute down the overwhelming whiteness factor.

Think about going with a wider format.  The content text is either mashed up to the menu on the right or it requires a horizontal scroll bar to read it all. 

I have been thinking that too, I am planning on modifying the HTML to provide wider body area and reduce the margin space on left and right side.

Its always tough to have use standard Joomla! templates for a "real business" and not look like it was thrown together quickly.  Nothing looks worse than a poor looking site for a real business thats trying to project a professional image.

Congratulations on a great beginning.

Yes the last thing I want is to convey an obvious template look, which is why I combined elements of 2 templates and have further tweaked the html and CSS to some degree (although I really liked the overall design of the template to begin with.) Its still a work in progress though...
Thanks for your comments and encouragement MrBoyce.
-Doug

[teckademic]

Complete Feature List, I would align it to the left instead of right. Same with FAQ, contact us, about us, Everything
I am a little confused on this, because the feature list is already aligned left...are you saying all pages should be aligned right?

Sorry I was not clear, When i look at the text in these sections they are aligned to the right so it looks like this

Chapter 1

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diem nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut lacreet dolore magna aliguam erat volutpat. Ut wisis enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tution ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis te feugifacilisi. Duis autem dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit au gue duis dolore te feugat nulla facilisi. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci taion ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex en commodo consequat.


instead of this

Chapter 1

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diem nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut lacreet dolore magna aliguam erat volutpat. Ut wisis enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tution ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis te feugifacilisi. Duis autem dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit au gue duis dolore te feugat nulla facilisi. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci taion ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex en commodo consequat.

Hope that helps

[dougg]

tekademic,
This is really interesting. I wonder if some setting is allowing your browser to display these pages based on a default on your side rather than those controlled by Joomla - When I look at these pages, both at home and from work, the text blocks are all aligned, and justified to the left...none of them look like the example text you posted that I can see. The only pages that could look different would be the ones being wrapped, like my account, terms, etc.  What browser are you using?

Anyway, thanks for calling this to my attention, now I am wondering if the site is somehow loading differently for other users than what I am seeing.

Dougg

[teckademic]

IE7, Ill take a screen shot later. I use IE7 becuase alot of people will be using it, and "if it works in ie7, it work in anything."

[matthewhayashida]

i would change the background color...
maybe a blue?

i would also add more orange.
looks pretty good overall.

[dougg]

i would change the background color...
maybe a blue?

i would also add more orange.
looks pretty good overall.

Mathewhayashida,
Thanks! I agree with your color suggestions too. Being a Joomla admin at 13 is pretty impressive, I wouldn't mind seeing your sites sometime.

My Best,
Dougg

[dougg]

Think about going with a wider format.  The content text is either mashed up to the menu on the right or it requires a horizontal scroll bar to read it all.   

MrRoyce,
I brought my template html into Dreamweaver to try and adjust the column widths of the tables which comprise the main nav and the main body. For whatever reason, no matter how much I tweaked it, once I re-entered the code back into joomlas templates manager, the original dimensions remained unchanged? Is the code somehow locked? I wonder if you could shed any light on that for me...

Also, since the framed pages were not "fitting" and looking poor, I am trying eliminate most of them. But, if I need to frame a page, I would like to be able to do so. I would like to be able to take the main nav (at the right) completely off the wrapper page if I so choose (for a wider format etc.), or for that matter, off of any page. However, after pouring over the menu controls in joomla I have not found a way to do it...Is this possible?

Dougg

[dougg]

Hello All,
I am back after spending a few months (or more) tweaking and modifying the original design. Below is my original post for easy reference.

New Information:
I have implemented many components and modules since original post, including: OpenSEF, JoomSEO, iJoomla Scroller, TagJ, My Blog (not working right so unpublished) and maybe more.

My main concern and reason for re-posting, is to get some feedback on my landing page design, which I consider to be my home page, as well as "Residential VoIP", "Business VoIP", and "Get VoIP Now". My goal is to establish credibility and increase conversions (not surprisingly) and of course to look as good and professional about it as possible.

Thoughts are:
1.  Perhaps a horizontal Nav at the top, with fewer links, would be a better approach? I don't think my current template has one though, I tried activating "horizontal" on the Main Navigation, and got nothing.

2. I am trying to strike a balance between techincal/professional and "human" so as to encourage maximum appeal to visitors, however I don't know at this point if I should add more pics of people, take some out, or redistribute the ones I have, etc.

EDIT: I almost forgot, my page Titles (generated by JoomSEO) do not work when I turn caching on, but I would like to utilize caching because of slow load times. Any suggestions welcome.

Your feedback will definitely be appreciated.

Thanks,
Dougg

My site is http://5pcom.com, a VoIP Service Provider site.
I want to say right up front that it is built with a template from siteground.com, with customized graphic design that uses modified combinations of graphics from several SG templates, along with my own logo design, etc.

Additional Extensions: Well, I integrated Netshine Billing into the site and had the order process ready to go...and then the decision was made to have the billing process and data handled on a sub-domain created and maintained at a partner site, not by me. But, Netshine showed a lot of promise for serving the billing needs of the site well, and I may implement it later.

Custom Development: Hmm. I guess not, I am still pretty new to Joomla and just did my best to use the standard modules/components/mambots etc.

Other Features: Not sure what to state here.

Three specific areas of my site that I'd like feedback on:

1) Professional Overall Presentation: My goal of course is to project the image of a business that is a solid technology player in the VoIP market. Please help me understand to what extent I may have achieved this, and obvious (or not so obvious) improvements I need to make in order to accomplish this.
2) SEO: I am using the standard SEF urls, Customized Meta Data wherever possible, alt tags on main images, keyword targeted content (to a degree). However, I know there is much more work to be done there. Also, I know there are extensions that go a step beyond the standeard SEFs that are formated as "...content/34/x, yz...." and actually allow you to choose the directory path and name of file associated with the SEF url and page name. Please share your opinion of the extension that best accomplishes this functionality.
3) Data Compression/Speed issues: How to maximize the efficiency with which the code is processed and minimize load time and unneccessary data transactions. I know tools like those at port80software.com exist, and that my server uses optimized mysql application (Zend I think...) But I am sure there is more I need to learn about this.
4) Anything you notice and feel would improve the conversions at the site, from look/feel, coding, better sales copy, better organization of content, etc. This is optional of course, but I don't want to limit the feedback that is possible with 3 or 4 bullet points. And by conversions, I mean new customers. I am particularly interested in building trust with the consumer who may be interested in the service offered but "afraid" to try a company they have not heard much about.

If you only feel like touching on just one of the above rather than all of them, please do, I welcome any opportunity to get objective perspective, to learn something new and of course, to improve.

Thanks,
Dougg

[dougg]

Hello all,
Back again, looking for whatever insights the community may have on the current state of my site,
http://www.5pcom.com (keep in mind the sub-domain, voip.5pcom.com, is NOT a joomla site and I did not build it, that was developed by a 3rd party in charge of backend processes...)

Here are some areas that I have changed/added since my previous posts, as best as I can remember:

Template:
The original template(s) came from SiteGround. I took elements from 2 different templates that I liked, and then tweaked certain details (added images and logos, table widths and behaviors, CSS modifications, etc.) Mostly small changes since my last review post, so nothing new to speak of here.

Additional Extensions :
Added rounded corner boxes to mainpage elements, using the xTypo plugin. Strangely though, right after I installed this plug-in (mambot) I noticed an odd behavior: Whenever I use the "$" or "." ( That is, dollar sign and decimal point/period, as in pricing) on a page where xTypo is being used, the number sequence gets truncated, as in, if I place "$19.99" in the body of a user module or static content, what I see once it is published is ".99", everyting prior to the decimal point just diappears. I tried it with/without cacheing, including turning off my cache extension JRE Cache. My only work around was to input "superscript" text to indicate pricing, as you will see on my homepage.

-Any thoughts on why that is and how to fix it, as well as thoughts on how the rounded corners look overall within the template would be appreciated.

Since my last post, the most significant and helpful extension would be JRE Cache. This really added a LOT of speed to my pageload times, prior to that the site was almost to slow to function, even after I tried lots of image file optimization.

Also, for bloggin, I tried JoomBlog for a while. It didn't work out too well, seemed buggy and I couldn't get the appearance to work right (text alwasy shifted left/right unintentionally) so the blog on the site is just using core Joomla's blogging capability. I am thinking of re-creating the blog with wordpress in its own folder, because of the ease of use and auto-ping, etc. Any thoughts?

I installed CJ catalog builder with virtue mart for voip products, but CJ sales have been low.

Also, I installed iDevAffiliate to launch an affiliate program, but lately, the tracking mechanism just stopped working...


Custom Development:
Uh, not sure what qualifies under this category. I tweak things as need be, but have never created my own extension for example.

I am interested in further feedback on:
1) LANDING PAGE OPTIMIZATION, which applies to homepage mostly. I just get the feeling I need to be funneling people to sales more effectively, and I am kind of stuck on how to improve that. For example, many people have stated the extensive main menu nav (verticle, on the right) is "helpful" , however, since my home page is my main conversion page, with so many options to link away, I think it becomes less effective.

2) Further suggestions on SEO, on page ( and off page if you have any suggestions there too.)

3)Overall Presentation (Design.)

Additional Comments: Can't think of any more. Thanks much in advance for your comments!
-Doug

[leolll]

The xtypo dollar sign bug can be fixed by following the instructions here: http://www.templateplazza.com/component ... itstart,6/

[DarrellBray]

Hello all,
Back again, looking for whatever insights the community may have on the current state of my site,
http://www.5pcom.com (keep in mind the sub-domain, voip.5pcom.com, is NOT a joomla site and I did not build it, that was developed by a 3rd party in charge of backend processes...)

Here are some areas that I have changed/added since my previous posts, as best as I can remember:

Template:
The original template(s) came from SiteGround. I took elements from 2 different templates that I liked, and then tweaked certain details (added images and logos, table widths and behaviors, CSS modifications, etc.) Mostly small changes since my last review post, so nothing new to speak of here.

Additional Extensions :
Added rounded corner boxes to mainpage elements, using the xTypo plugin. Strangely though, right after I installed this plug-in (mambot) I noticed an odd behavior: Whenever I use the "$" or "." ( That is, dollar sign and decimal point/period, as in pricing) on a page where xTypo is being used, the number sequence gets truncated, as in, if I place "$19.99" in the body of a user module or static content, what I see once it is published is ".99", everyting prior to the decimal point just diappears. I tried it with/without cacheing, including turning off my cache extension JRE Cache. My only work around was to input "superscript" text to indicate pricing, as you will see on my homepage.

-Any thoughts on why that is and how to fix it, as well as thoughts on how the rounded corners look overall within the template would be appreciated.

Since my last post, the most significant and helpful extension would be JRE Cache. This really added a LOT of speed to my pageload times, prior to that the site was almost to slow to function, even after I tried lots of image file optimization.

Also, for bloggin, I tried JoomBlog for a while. It didn't work out too well, seemed buggy and I couldn't get the appearance to work right (text alwasy shifted left/right unintentionally) so the blog on the site is just using core Joomla's blogging capability. I am thinking of re-creating the blog with wordpress in its own folder, because of the ease of use and auto-ping, etc. Any thoughts?

I installed CJ catalog builder with virtue mart for voip products, but CJ sales have been low.

Also, I installed iDevAffiliate to launch an affiliate program, but lately, the tracking mechanism just stopped working...


Custom Development:
Uh, not sure what qualifies under this category. I tweak things as need be, but have never created my own extension for example.

I am interested in further feedback on:
1) LANDING PAGE OPTIMIZATION, which applies to homepage mostly. I just get the feeling I need to be funneling people to sales more effectively, and I am kind of stuck on how to improve that. For example, many people have stated the extensive main menu nav (verticle, on the right) is "helpful" , however, since my home page is my main conversion page, with so many options to link away, I think it becomes less effective.

2) Further suggestions on SEO, on page ( and off page if you have any suggestions there too.)

3)Overall Presentation (Design.)

Additional Comments: Can't think of any more. Thanks much in advance for your comments!
-Doug

The bit near the bottom is a bit 'wall of text.' You might see if it could be distilled into bullet points or similar? It also pushes the 'get started' graphic down awfully far, and makes it less prominent.

[joomfriend]

Answer to Question #1 (Professional Overall Presentation):

I suggest you change your template to a more professional one with some good menu, image etc. At the first look, your site looks more like a blog talking about VOIP rather than a business site.

Answer to Question #2 (SEO):

You should consider making your URLs search engine friendly.

The best SEF extension ever (for Joomla) is SH404SEF.

Reviews here:
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/10134

Answer to Question #3 (Data Compression/Speed issues):

Please read this:
http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?p ... 7#p1956127 (Important)
and
http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?p ... 7#p1956127 (Important)

Also, if you are on a VPS or dedicated Server, you should gzip compress your pages.

Answer to Question #3 (Anything you notice and feel would improve the conversions at the site).

Don't worry be happy . You have got a great site!