The new Service Central web redesign - how it benefits businesses
After months of hard work from our technical and design teams, we're proud to bring to you our new website. Service Central was the first online services marketplace in Australia, and now we're bringing you some exciting changes to our website that make everyone happier and keep us way ahead of the pack with innovative design and technical improvements. We've put our heart and souls into this project, and we hope that you're as impressed with the changes as we are! Of course, you can go direct to the website and play with it to find out how many improvements have been made. Read on for more detail about the changes and how they affect your business directly.
1. Simpler, cleaner, faster = more visitors
Websites have come a long way in terms of design. Nowadays, the simpler a site is, the better it performs. It's faster, as well as easier to use. You'll only need to go to www.servicecentral.com.au once to immediately see the difference. Clean lines, good to look at and exceptional clarity for every visitor. The middle area has been redesigned throughout the site to hold the most relevant information for that page and display that information in a way that is quickly and easily read and understood by visitors.
Faster, simpler sites drive more traffic. We've worked with experts in the field of Search Engine Optimisation and made several key enhancements that put Service Central well ahead of competitors in Internet search results. The design encourages visitors to stay, look around, and of course post more jobs.
2. Showcasing our top quality businesses
One of the immediately obvious improvements we've made to the site is the showcasing of our top quality businesses. On the home page as well as ALL of our category pages (and new sub-category pages), the top 3 rated businesses are listed in order, showing links to your web profile and feedback. This rewards our best businesses with greater exposure - premium placement of your business details. It also means your web profile is more important than ever before, so it's a great idea to check your web profile and edit it to make sure that your business is reflected in the very best light.
If your business shows in the Top 3, the customer can click through to your web profile. If they like what they see, they may choose to post a job from your web profile and give you the first shot at accepting the job - which puts you first in the notification queue and gives you 2 hours to accept the job before it's sent to any other business. However, if your business is too busy to accept the new work (or it's just not the right job for you) then the job will still be sent to all the other businesses - and the customer will have their job fulfilled no matter what. The better your star rating is, the more likely you'll receive these types of jobs.
3. Side navigation
The change to a side navigation is one of the most significant changes to the site. The side navigation makes it easier for our customers to move around the site and source the information they need immediately, and exposes the depth of tools and educational material available to them. The side navigation also makes it easier to show logged in users the most relevant tools for them - so you as a business will see completely different menu items than a customer would.
One of the most exciting things about the new side navigation is the flexibility that it creates for our IT team to roll out new products and features. Now there is the perfect place for these new features to go. It won’t be long before you start seeing these great new products and features that appeal to both you and your customers alike.
4. Higher quality job information
The website has been deepened to give each sub-category a home page - so whereas before we only had a page for 'Builders' now we have 12 different pages for 'Builders' - narrowed down by specialty like 'New Homes', 'Extensions' and more. This draws more users in and helps us educate them more deeply about each type of trade, using our rapidly growing store of educational material, leading to better informed customers and higher quality job information. Each sub-category page is also another opportunity to showcase the 3 top-quality businesses in that sub-category.
Using the new website
Although the new site is easier to use, you might find that for the beginning at least you're not 100% sure where things are. The log in button is on the top right hand corner, and once you're logged in you will find all the item's you're used to on the left hand side of the page. If you need any help with the new system or would like to give us some feedback, contact your Account Manager today.
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So much nicer guys. The log in box isn't as obvious but I still like it.
over a year ago by Robert B -
since updating your website iam finding that when i log on to the jobs page it takes a long time for me to go to page 2 or 3 or 4 etc.Is there something i need to do to get a better response time from your website.
over a year ago by supatilecleaning
thks JOHN -
Thanks for the feedback John. We'll get onto that straight away and see what can be done to speed up the subsequent pages.
over a year ago by danial_ahchow
