Roast my EngineerThis Website!!!

[EngineerThis]

Stealing this idea from my friend @Mr.Nichan .. ROAST MY WEBSITE!!

I started a Google ad campaign last week targeted at this certain page: LINK
and have yet to receive any bookings...

I get tons of love on here.. With this Ad.. LINK

Not sure what the issue is...

Feel free to flame the rest of my site too, I need more opinions!

Don't hold back, I want to be successful.. I don't care about my feeling getting hurt Lol..

Thanks, guys!

 

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[Caminsky]

My notes:

• The site was a little slow to load at first.
• Come up with a site logo instead of just text. Making something halfway decent in Canva or Adobe Express is not too hard.
• Are the testimonials real? If so, ask to use their business name in the testimonial.
• Add an "About Me" page where you tell people WHY they should trust you with their design and products.

Otherwise, I like it so far.

 

[EngineerThis]

My notes:

• The site was a little slow to load at first.
• Come up with a site logo instead of just text. Making something halfway decent in Canva or Adobe Express is not too hard.
• Are the testimonials real? If so, ask to use their business name in the testimonial.
• Add an "About Me" page where you tell people WHY they should trust you with their design and products.

Otherwise, I like it so far.

Thank you, I will work on a logo. Yes those are all real testimonials but I changed their names/pics for anonymity. Do they sound fake?
About me is always a good idea. Thanks.

 

[Caminsky]

Thank you, I will work on a logo. Yes those are all real testimonials but I changed their names/pics for anonymity. Do they sound fake?
About me is always a good idea. Thanks.

I would ask if you can use real pictures and names. The stock images make them seem fake.

Remember that people will be leery about giving their product idea to someone else, so you need to build credibility. They need to be confident that 1. you can do what you are claiming and 2. you won't steal their product.

 

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[Caminsky]

I would ask if you can use real pictures and names. The stock images make them seem fake.

Remember that people will be leery about giving their product idea to someone else, so you need to build credibility. They need to be confident that 1. you can do what you are claiming and 2. you won't steal their product.

If you have an engineering certification such as PE, include that behind your name too.

 

[machinistguy]

It's really cluttered. Large walls of text, etc.

Who are your ideal customers? Because your website only appeals to regular people not a professional market.

 

[Stargazer]

If I look at a B2B business I expect testimonials to be from named companies. What sort of a company is saying great job you did but you can't use my name? That's not really a testimonial.

And I would check a few of those companies to see if they are real and then phone one but that's maybe just me.

I would also want to see the original sketch plus your finished article with a brief summary of what you did. Mini case study.

Did you design the website? It's not really talking to anyone much. Unlike your Advert on this forum that is 10x better at talking to a potential customer. So seems weird

And where are the views coming from? What is your Advert saying that would make someone come here and is it congruent with that Advert?

Dan

 

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[AmazingLarry]

One thing that stands out to me is that there are no example pictures of your work. If I was a potential customer, I would definitely want to see this. Examples of CAD designs, 2D drawings, and renderings.

I'm guessing you're limited in what you are allowed to share publicly, so I would design a few sample products that you display on the site.

For a while I was doing freelance product and machine design like this, and I had at least 30 sample images of my machine design work shown on the website. I received a lot of positive feedback from customers who were impressed by these.

 

[ZCP]

super slow load
ATF image not very compeling ..maybe a mechanical assembly or metal part would work better?

to use the word 'engineer' in pretty much any state, you have to be licensed in that state. in most states it is against the law. now, no one is really coming for you. you just might get fined

not super clear what you do or what the end product will be

consult now button ... super slow to load

price not real clear. looks like a job shopper single person hasn't done much hoping to get work site just like the rest .... would probably go to upwork or something so there would be reviews and recourse instead.....

 

[BizyDad]

A lot of good already shared.

Why does every testimonial look like a young beautiful hipster? Clearly this dude doesn't help my kind of business...

Is the brand Ian or is the brand Engineer This?

The website sounds small, like it's a one-person operation, not sure they could handle my work.

There is no phone number, there is no privacy policy, this is probably a fly by night operation.

I know others mentioned it, but seriously slow...

My initial impression was not favorable. I don't know what in the world you engineered it there, it looks to me like drug paraphernalia. Combine that with the hipster testimonials, and it seems to me you have a specific niche that you engineer for...

What if I'm not ready to schedule a consult? What if I just have a quick question? That email gets lost down at the bottom. Replace it with a form that invites people to ask questions. You'll get more conversions that way. Put a phone number close to the form.

 

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[EngineerThis]

Aot of good already shared.

Why does every testimonial look like a young beautiful hipster? Clearly this dude doesn't help my kind of business...

Is the brand Ian or is the brand Engineer This?

The website sounds small, like it's a one-person operation, not sure they could handle my work.

There is no phone number, there is no privacy policy, this is probably a fly by night operation.

I know others mentioned it, but seriously slow...

My initial impression was not favorable. I don't know what in the world you engineered it there, it looks to me like drug paraphernalia. Combine that with the hipster testimonials, and it seems to me you have a specific niche that you engineer for...

What if I'm not ready to schedule a consult? What if I just have a quick question? That email gets lost down at the bottom. Replace it with a form that invites people to ask questions. You'll get more conversions that way. Put a phone number close to the form.

Made me laugh with that. Definitely needs an overhaul by the sounds of everyone.. going to keep it stupid simple since I do need this for an event in a couple weeks. Going to just make a landing page, and shelve this site.

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

How much traffic have you sent?

 

[EngineerThis]

How much traffic have you sent?

Just started running Google ads for a week. $25 a day. Around 3,000 views and 260 clicks

 

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[Kung Fu Steve]

Just started running Google ads for a week. $25 a day. Around 3,000 views and 260 clicks

Yeah... it's just not enough.

But maybe I'm misreading this...

3,000 page views and 260 people clicked "schedule" ?

Or you mean 3,000 views of the ad and 260 people clicked through to the website?

 

[Eudaemonia]

Others have already said what had to be said.
Coming from a online-formed self-proclaimed web-designer on my mobile, i noticed the following :

》 The hierarchy is trash. Large blocks everywhere. No ones reading all that. The other website you linked had all of these boxes ticked, so you might have forgotten these basic stuffs.

》 Too much texts means too less images. Add some icons, some images, maybe some lines, just something more visual please.
+ professional
+ User Experience

》 Lastly i suggest a Call-to-Action button at the end like "Contact-Us", much better User Experience so he doesnt have to scroll back up.

Keep it up

 

[EngineerThis]

Yeah... it's just not enough.

But maybe I'm misreading this...

3,000 page views and 260 people clicked "schedule" ?

Or you mean 3,000 views of the ad and 260 people clicked through to the website?

260 people clicked on my site, spent average of 0.08secs on it. 0 booked. I was just learning, first time I ever paid for ads

 

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[EngineerThis]

It's really cluttered. Large walls of text, etc.

Who are your ideal customers? Because your website only appeals to regular people not a professional market.

Nailed it. I’m caught between being a CAD designer, and turning into more of a consulting/coaching operation.

 

[BizyDad]

average of 0.08secs on it.

Is a misleading stat because it's basically a one-page website.

Anyone who only sees one page will be tracked as having spent zero seconds on your site...

Google tracks the time between clicks on the site. But you don't have a lot of clickable elements, so most of your visits will probably be zeros.

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

260 people clicked on my site, spent average of 0.08secs on it. 0 booked. I was just learning, first time I ever paid for ads

You did great. 99% are so terrified to run an ad they never even start. I know people who will pay 2k, 5k, 20k for an ad course and never create an ad because they're scared they'll "lose money" -- so silly.

So here's the first piece: I don't normally judge a landing page until it's had at least 30,000 unique views (meaning 30k clicked to the website and SAW it).

As far as ads go, we don't care how many saw the ad we only care how many clicked on the ad and what that cost was. So your clicks and your CPC (cost per click).

That being said, in my humble opinion, you should not send more traffic to this site until you clean up the landing page.

If your cost per click (CPC) is $1... it would take $30,000 to do the test numbers I am proposing... that's insane. So let's start with best practices on a landing page.

1. Eliminate the navigation. You're paying for traffic to go to THIS site and THIS offer. Anything else is a distraction. People are already distracted enough on the internet, never give them more than ONE link to click.

2. A stronger headline. There's an art to headlines and it's one of the most difficult (and most important) things in all your copy/all your sales. There have been thousands of books written JUST on headlines alone because 80% of your sale is going to be made from that. I would start with a simply "How to yay without boo" headline formula.

"Here's How To Take The Idea In Your Head And Create a Product With It... Even If You've Never Done It Before" -- that's god awful but you can start with the concept and use either ChatGPT or headline studio to help you out. "

The headline should be so good, clear, and concise that the text below it now can just be erased (that'll solve your text wall issue).


3. Most people won't do what you want them to do. And I can't stress this enough. Most people won't even see your ad... most people who see your ad won't click on it... most people who click on it won't give your their information... most people who give you their information won't book a call... and most people who book a call won't show up. It's the internet. You're not competing against other engineers and product designers, you're competing against boobs and cats.

What's this mean? This page needs to be an opt-in page. Do NOT send them directly to a calendar link. Make them give you name, phone, email and then YOU reach out to THEM. Take control.

If you're super motivated, have the pop up bring in a name, phone, email and when they submit that form -- THEN redirect them to the calendar booking page. But you're going to have to email them multiple times to get them to book.

Every single email sequence I create starts with a minimum of 7 emails when they opt in. Usually more.

4. Love/Hate



Love this section, hate the headline. Maybe just change to a simple "How it works" and then do "step 1. step 2. Step 3."

Love the FAQs

Testimonials are great and I know they're real... I also know those aren't their real pictures (well, a couple of them). If you aren't going to use a FB profile pic, it always looks fake so you might as well just cut it from there. If you could include a product picture (of what you designed for them) with the testimonial that would be ABOVE AND BEYOND.

As long as you can just prove your product/service does what you say it does, you don't have to do any selling.

5. Get rid of bottom navigation

6. Add Privacy policy and terms of service to the bottom (you'll need those to run ads anywhere else). NOT LEGAL ADVICE: just steal it from someone and change the name to your company name NOT LEGAL ADVICE. DON'T LISTEN TO ME FOR ANYTHING, EVER.

I don't mind sharing some of my client's opt-ins I've made for them privately. Just send me a message if you want to see examples. Hell, I'm working on a couple right now.

 

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[BizyDad]

Curious what kind of search terms you were showing up for...

All this landing page optimization stuff might be pointless if you're sending the wrong traffic to the page...

 

[Jon L]

Three thoughts for you:

1) The focus is way too broad. What do you engineer? Consumer products? What kinds? Are they purely mechnical, or are there electronics involved? As a consumer of your service, I'd be really sceptical that you could design refrigerators just as well as you could design kitchen gadgets.

"We design beautiful injection-molded household gadgets that sell like hot cakes." "All we need is your rough sketch."

This will also greatly reduce your ad spend on Google. Unless you're Samsung, with Samsung's ad budget, you want HIGHLY targeted ads on Google.

2) A lot of people don't know what it means to engineer something. They don't realize that not only is it basic design, but also design for manufacturability, ease of use, etc etc etc. Tell them, through very short sections, the story of what it means to design a mass-produced product.
Talk about designing for manufacturing, how you head off problems with the CPSC, etc etc
Point out the material selection process
How you design for marketability - should be visually appealing, using colors that attract your target audience, how it will fit on store shelves, fit in packaging etc.

3) the testimonials are good, but pictures of the final product would be much better.

 

[EngineerThis]

You did great. 99% are so terrified to run an ad they never even start. I know people who will pay 2k, 5k, 20k for an ad course and never create an ad because they're scared they'll "lose money" -- so silly.

So here's the first piece: I don't normally judge a landing page until it's had at least 30,000 unique views (meaning 30k clicked to the website and SAW it).

As far as ads go, we don't care how many saw the ad we only care how many clicked on the ad and what that cost was. So your clicks and your CPC (cost per click).

That being said, in my humble opinion, you should not send more traffic to this site until you clean up the landing page.

If your cost per click (CPC) is $1... it would take $30,000 to do the test numbers I am proposing... that's insane. So let's start with best practices on a landing page.

1. Eliminate the navigation. You're paying for traffic to go to THIS site and THIS offer. Anything else is a distraction. People are already distracted enough on the internet, never give them more than ONE link to click.

2. A stronger headline. There's an art to headlines and it's one of the most difficult (and most important) things in all your copy/all your sales. There have been thousands of books written JUST on headlines alone because 80% of your sale is going to be made from that. I would start with a simply "How to yay without boo" headline formula.

"Here's How To Take The Idea In Your Head And Create a Product With It... Even If You've Never Done It Before" -- that's god awful but you can start with the concept and use either ChatGPT or headline studio to help you out. "

The headline should be so good, clear, and concise that the text below it now can just be erased (that'll solve your text wall issue).
View attachment 50776

3. Most people won't do what you want them to do. And I can't stress this enough. Most people won't even see your ad... most people who see your ad won't click on it... most people who click on it won't give your their information... most people who give you their information won't book a call... and most people who book a call won't show up. It's the internet. You're not competing against other engineers and product designers, you're competing against boobs and cats.

What's this mean? This page needs to be an opt-in page. Do NOT send them directly to a calendar link. Make them give you name, phone, email and then YOU reach out to THEM. Take control.

If you're super motivated, have the pop up bring in a name, phone, email and when they submit that form -- THEN redirect them to the calendar booking page. But you're going to have to email them multiple times to get them to book.

Every single email sequence I create starts with a minimum of 7 emails when they opt in. Usually more.

4. Love/Hate

View attachment 50777

Love this section, hate the headline. Maybe just change to a simple "How it works" and then do "step 1. step 2. Step 3."

Love the FAQs

Testimonials are great and I know they're real... I also know those aren't their real pictures (well, a couple of them). If you aren't going to use a FB profile pic, it always looks fake so you might as well just cut it from there. If you could include a product picture (of what you designed for them) with the testimonial that would be ABOVE AND BEYOND.

As long as you can just prove your product/service does what you say it does, you don't have to do any selling.

5. Get rid of bottom navigation

6. Add Privacy policy and terms of service to the bottom (you'll need those to run ads anywhere else). NOT LEGAL ADVICE: just steal it from someone and change the name to your company name NOT LEGAL ADVICE. DON'T LISTEN TO ME FOR ANYTHING, EVER.

I don't mind sharing some of my client's opt-ins I've made for them privately. Just send me a message if you want to see examples. Hell, I'm working on a couple right now.

Steve, thank you so much for the details. I will implement everything. Seriously, thank you!

 

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[Panos Daras]

Eh...I mean this needs improvement, to say the least. How would you feel if an ad led you to such a website? Would you trust it? It reminds me of all the reasons I stopped using WordPress. Slow, mediocre websites that take a ton of work to make. But if you insist on using it, and it is not a terrible idea for a service honestly, please use these tutorials:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgXU7XAZYmQ&t=634s&ab_channel=WesMcDowell

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VL8MwaHzJE&t=3033s&ab_channel=WesMcDowell

 

[Devilery]

I believe you have an incredible service but a poor presentation, here's what I would do:

1. I would keep WordPress (it's endlessly customizable) but get the Divi Theme & Builder ($100 a year), and select one of these templates: 900+ Divi layouts (2023) | view all the best layouts here.

2. I would keep the text much shorter, especially, when first opening the page, and focus on showing "work done"/ "ideas materialized" - the more the better. Don't tell, SHOW that you can take any idea and turn it into a real product (/mockup).

3. The testimonials are obviously fake, I'd rather focus on showing previous designs (step #2).

Overall, I'd build the page first focusing on the "napkin to reality", "turn your ideas into businesses", etc. angle, and as you scroll down, I'd make it more technical - what software you use, what formats you work with, application areas, etc.

 

[Eurojanek]

Why would a potential custommer trust Your design seeing Your logo looking like it was thrown together in 5 minutes using some free app without much consideration of its function?
Check big brands logos in engineering niche and compare.
At the moment logo says: young, playfull, colorfull, unprofessional, generic.

 

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[Subsonic]

Stealing this idea from my friend @Mr.Nichan .. ROAST MY WEBSITE!!

I started a Google ad campaign last week targeted at this certain page: LINK
and have yet to receive any bookings...

I get tons of love on here.. With this Ad.. LINK

Not sure what the issue is...

Feel free to flame the rest of my site too, I need more opinions!

Don't hold back, I want to be successful.. I don't care about my feeling getting hurt Lol..

Thanks, guys!

When I was doing ppc for windowcleaning I did something unconventional that drastically increased my click to lead conversion rate:

The link didn't send them to a sales page with a "get a quote" button but directly to the contact form with a small sales text at the side and the headline "get a free quote now".

This works if the people who click your link already know what they want and are ready to pay.

Alternatively you can put the form (email, phone, name) right on the landing page. Landing page here refers to the first full screen the customer sees when going on the site. Have a good headline and then it will work great.

Below you could have the website go like this (while also always having a cta button on the screen)
"Landing page with form and catchy headline"
"What is this about 3rd grade explanation"
"Why does this help me"
"Testimonial with pictures of what you made for them"

 

[Andy Black]

Let's back up a bit.

Search Term -> Ad -> Landing Page

Can you post screenshots of each?

 

[Andy Black]

Let's back up a bit.

Search Term -> Ad -> Landing Page

Can you post screenshots of each?

I ask because:

NOTABLE! - HOT! - MARKETING - The biggest landing page mistake

What's the single biggest landing page mistake? This mistake is almost universal. This mistake causes people to do all sorts of stupid things with their landing pages. I see this mistake made over, and over, and over again. I'm going to try and save you from making this mistake, whilst...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

This might also help:

MARKETING - How to get profitable or fail fast with AdWords

(Originally posted on the inside here.) How To Get Profitable Or Fail Fast With AdWords Here's how I often determine whether a project, niche, seed, or keyword has legs, or needs a bullet. Note1: I use blanket bid prices throughout the steps below, meaning the bid price within a campaign for...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

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