Renegade Conservatory Guy

Masterframe sash windows – flying the flag for UPVC vertical sliders

A few days ago, I had a real double glazing ‘A’ lister on my website – Alan Burgess , the MD of Masterframe Windows – and he placed a comment about my appraisal of the TimberWindows.com website.

Well, he encouraged me to take a look at his websites, and I decided to give him (and you) my thoughts:

Masterframe Website

This is clearly the main Masterframe website and is designed to appeal to the trade – installers, fabricators, builders and specifiers. I assume the site will also get a fair few consumers as well and has a Homeowners section.

The Home Page has a clean and fresh feel with clear links to the main parts of the website. I like the title at the top of the page:

Specialist manufacturers of PVCu Vertical Sliding Box Sash windows … it’s all we make!

There’s clear directions from the Home Page to the Photo Gallery, Technical detail, and the different ranges of products they sell – such as the Bygone Collection, the Classic Collection etc.

At first I wasn’t sure about this statement:

Let us start by stating, we are all about best value for you, our client and that we are probably the most expensive manufacturer of PVCu sliding sash windows in the UK…

This is a brave statement, a bit like Stella Artois suggesting they are reassuringly expensive. I can see that Alan is keen to imply that Masterframe sash windows are the best, and priced accordingly. I’m sure this policy can work for such a niche product – I wish I could get away with stating the same for standard casement PVCu windows!

I’ve had a good look around the website, and feel there is everything I need to know about sash windows there to look at – pictures, technical stuff, the option to receive a buyer’s guide, and detail directed at the main targets – builders, specifiers, fabricators and installers.

By reading the text, I was left feeling that Masterframe Windows is an honest company – if you give them a ring, you’ll get a straight answer. I’m not sure if that is the case, but the website gives that feeling.

I would expect that this website gets a good amount of traffic from consumers, and I’m not sure if this is something the company wishes to promote. I’m aware that they have a separate consumer website, which I will appraise in a minute. But if they did wish to generate more leads from the website for their dealer base, I feel a concerted effort towards SEO would pay dividends.

For example, the header titles all state ‘Masterframe – Manufacturers of high quality UPVC sliding box sash windows’. I feel varying the titles slightly will improve the search results. For example, why not have a page titled ‘Masterframe – installers of PVC sliding sash windows in the UK’. The website is not currently on the front page of Google for ‘PVC sash windows’, whereas the site appears in 3rd place for ‘uPVC sash windows’. I would also target terms such as ‘sash windows London,’ and other key geographical areas, as such long-tail terms are more likely to be purchasers.

Clearly the site works well on Google, but I feel the website has quality content, and deserves to appear higher.

I have two further suggestions. Firstly, I was interested in seeing what you factory looked like? Some pictures of the machinery, and the craftsmen working would have interested me. Secondly, a bit of video footage about how the windows open, how they are installed and so on, would be of interest.

Bygone Collection website

The Bygone Collection website is very similar to the Masterframe website, which makes sense as there is continuity, and I would assume both sites are easy to maintain and update this way. As the site is designed for the homeowner there is less technical detail and more selling points for the consumer.

I like the link on the Home Page – worried about your carbon footprint? – which takes you to the detail about their Energy Rated Sash Window – the first in the UK!

I liked the Find an Installer section as I was interested to find out which companies installed Masterframe sash windows in my area. It was a bit difficult to find the section though, so I think this could be given a higher priority.

Most of my comments about the main site apply here, and the overall feel from the website is that choosing the Bygone Collection from Masterframe would be a sensible investment.

I noticed that Masterframe are investing in Google Adwords (Pay Per Click advertising) to ensure that the website is top for certain key phrases such as ‘sash windows’. This is very sensible, but like the Masterframe website, I feel a concerted effort of SEO and link building could make this website appear at the top anyway. I suppose the perfect result would be to have the two websites in the top two positions on Google.

Conclusion

I look after a few websites myself, and I know how difficult it is to get things 100% right. In most respects, I would say Alan is doing a far better job with his websites, than I am with my own! If I appraised my own websites at the moment, I’d be incredibly critical.

Finally, I’m aware of the real success Masterframe is having in one of the few niche markets within the double glazing industry and for that end I am full of admiration.