6 Improvements that Would Strengthen a Tampa PR Firm’s Website
By bringing strong content forward and giving themselves more space their site can become a much better representation of the good work that they do.
It wouldn’t take much to make dramatic improvements in the ability of the HarmonTampa website to increase its appeal to prospective clients who are unfamiliar with the firm. Relatively small changes could make a big difference. Here’s where I believe they can improve the user experience and deliver more content marketing benefit to the firm itself:
- When you first land on their site, the homepage takes as long as 30 seconds to load. That’s more time than most visitors want to wait. By changing their design technology, they can load much faster without losing the power of stong visulal images.
- They are too constrained by using a fixed rectangle design. It means that they cannot show a lot of the good stuff that relates to client outcomes and a stellar list of clients right upfront.
- They bury a solid visual slideshow one layer deep. This slideshow actually illustrates the outcomes of wonderful, positive news stories. That’s what visitors would have loved from the get-go. In fact, at the conclusion of that powerful, but slightly hidden, slideshow they make an important point: “what’s in it for the reader, the viewer, the listener–that’s what the media care about.” That point and the slide show are so important that they belong on the home page.
- They include as part of their main navigation a “Photos” section. But, they don’t explain why visitors should take the time to view them. Since, we are all time-pressed, it’s critical to explain why a visitor should spend time with these albums.
- They have a great roster of clients that would be better highlighted on the home page so visitors can seem them immediately. That would make for instant credibility for those who don’t already know the firm.
- The site includes a section called “News Blog.” But this really isn’t a blog. It is a series of press releases that take a bit of time to get through because they are structured as a manual slide show. It just doesn’t add much value from a prospective client’s point of view.
It’s obvious that this boutique PR firm does good work because they been in business for 10 years and have a great roster of clients. But, they have limited the impact of their website by keeping it within that restrictive rectangle, by keeping some great content off the home page, and by offering a “news blog” that really isn’t a blog.
Fortunately, as with so much of content marketing, making positive changes would be pretty easy and inexpensive to do.
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Comments [3]
We are living in an unprecedented social experiment.
Never so much technology has been available to everyone.
From a very young age, children start with a computer connected to the Internet then graduate very quickly in the name of parent security with mobile phones, they are the new generation of connected kids.
For these kids social interactivity is happening through emails, SMS and of course what it is called “Social” sites with the likes of Facebook and others.
Great article Newt. I’d also say that the images on the homepage, while beautiful, don’t convey any message to prospective clients. They’re taking up valuable homepage real estate and do little to contribute to the message Harmon wants to portray.
Incidentally, I’m not a big fan of the white text on black background. Harmon may want to do some A/B split testing with some other colors.
Thanks, JR. I’m not a big fan of reverse type online–or in print.
I think this agency does a good job of bringing their role to life, but they bury it one layer down and should have put it right upfront on the home page.