Please help me improve my e-commerce site!
Hi all,
My site went live the first week of January this year and I've spent most of that time finishing it off and optimizing for search engines. Ok, truthfully I pretty much redesigned it and I have no idea how to optimize it. I made a big mistake in my ignorance and didn't design it from the get-go with properly researched keywords, good descriptions, keyword rich content, etc.
While I think my product is strong, I also think the main page is a little weak and would welcome suggestions for it.
I've worked hard to validate everything and I still have a little bit more to go, but this is my first site so I learned everything including CSS and Photoshop in the process.
Any tips or suggestions would be welcome, especially concerning the "real-time product customization", since that's sort of my hook.
Thank you!
Brian Gogol
Rabid Teddies!
virtualrealty posted this at 03:42 — 9th February 2006.
They have: 4 posts
Joined: Feb 2006
I think the graphics are great...the only thing I can think of is maybe a few close-up shots of the t-shirt graphics on the first page. Great work!
robfenn posted this at 11:42 — 9th February 2006.
He has: 471 posts
Joined: Jun 2005
Makes a change to see a website on here that looks good! Only annoyance is the jagged edge borders which could have smoother edges with a feathered selection.
I think the text within your clothing panels could be darker as it's heard to read against the background icons.
As virtualreality has mentioned, as a buyer i'd want to see better pictures of your items and you should make it more obvious that you can view an enlarged version...
Your meta keyword tag is far too long. You don't really need it at all but in any case concentrate on 3 or 4 words. You need to make sure the keywords are regularly repeated throughout your site.
In terms of actually search engine success you'll need thousands of incoming links. I'd probably spend more time on viral marketing as you have an innovative brand going on.
bgogol posted this at 14:28 — 9th February 2006.
They have: 21 posts
Joined: Jan 2006
I noticed that. I read a tutorial to even get that far so I'll mess with it some more.
I made the change to the text.
I thought the home page was a little weak, I think you hit it. I'll think about rearranging stuff there. I'm not sure yet how to make it more obvious that you can view an enlarged version (of just about everything) except maybe with additional text.
Yeah I had no idea what I was doing there. The subject of keywords is mystical and scary to me. If you pick good ones you win! If not; bad bad you will fail. Problem is that it's hard to tell what are good, successful keywords. More research!
To tell the truth I'm kind of over pursuing the whole link exchange thing really hard. I'll pick and choose here and there but won't devote tons of time to it. I'll do some research but this is only the second time I've heard that term "viral marketing". Sounds exciting.
Thank you for taking the time to review.
Brian Gogol
Rabid Teddies!
TimMorgan posted this at 13:13 — 9th February 2006.
They have: 14 posts
Joined: Feb 2006
I think the graphics are great and its a really nice design. However I don't anything stands out very much and i have noticed you have a special offer but the text is very small. Maybe you should expand it a bit as it may get you some more sales from customers who want to benefit from your special offer.
Makememysite.co.uk Web Design and Logos
ajr_designer posted this at 13:28 — 9th February 2006.
He has: 18 posts
Joined: Feb 2006
I agree, a very nice looking site, I like the image popups and your graphics are sweet.
As mentioned the ripped edges look more like bad compressed images rather than a tear so maybe work on that a bit.
Also a small problem with your use of CSS, where you have used a ‘link:hover’ style you have applied it to text that is not a link. In some browsers this is fine but in others when you scroll over the grey headers such as HODDIES, JACKETS, BOTTOMS etc it changes the colour of them even though they aren’t links.
I would also carry the torn edge them all the way down the page, even if the content doesn’t reach, I think it would look better then just a straight line cut off.
Also for your main page, I think you should make more of your USP, you’ve got a good angle but I don’t think it’s obvious enough. On first looks it just appears to be another clothing website. Possibly not so many clothes, do something that’s going to make the user want to read more about your product, some animation maybe or a bit more about your "real-time product customization". One rule if you haven’t got the users interest before 7 seconds then they are outta there!
I have worked in screen print clothing and it’s a dog eat dog world, a lot of competition. You’ve got a good look and angle, good luck!
The Definitive solution
Mixing the right Formula
bgogol posted this at 14:44 — 9th February 2006.
They have: 21 posts
Joined: Jan 2006
Thank you.
Yeah I think that had something to do with how I made the custom brush in PS and used "wet edges" or something. I'm a noob.
Thanks I've fixed that. Just a couple more code changes to the itme category pages should take care of it.
Gah! Where does that happen?! I added 50px of padding at the bottom to get rid of that. I've tested in both IE6 and Firefox. Doh.
Alright what is USP? I think you're saying kind of the same thing robfenn said? The original design of the main page was to mainly feature the graphic designs and show the clothing as "featured" or "popular items". I got some comments about how there should be more clothing on the main page and to redesign it to give the shopper a better idea of what they're supposed to do, so this is the result. I admit it doesn't "pop".
Yes I'm finding lots of competition. Thank you for the kind words though.
Brian Gogol
Rabid Teddies!
ajr_designer posted this at 15:50 — 9th February 2006.
He has: 18 posts
Joined: Feb 2006
I use a 20" widescreen monitor and turn it landscape when I'm working so pretty much every page, what I would do is something like this in your CSS;
.tear {
background-image:url(images/image.gif);
background-repeat:repeat-y;
background-position:center;
}
Put it in your body tag and it'll repeat forever down the page, make sure the top and bottom of your image match of course.
Unique Selling Point, make more of why your product is special, grab peoples attention with some animation, popular items or a clever marketing strategy or all three. I believe if someone wants to see more designs then they'll look for them, you need to get their attention first. Rarely do you see portfolio work on a homepage, if you do it's a small selection of the best.
The Definitive solution
Mixing the right Formula
bgogol posted this at 16:41 — 9th February 2006.
They have: 21 posts
Joined: Jan 2006
Ok I cleaned up the background .gif and made it repeatable. I can't believe that wasn't in there already.
Gotchya. I've been wracking my brain all morning. I was thinking of making it interactive, like the customer can mouse over some clothes or images to see them change and kind of push the customization thing. An animation would be easier though. Still thinking on it but I definitely agree it should change and it could be better.
Thanks.
Brian Gogol
Rabid Teddies!
bgogol posted this at 16:08 — 10th February 2006.
They have: 21 posts
Joined: Jan 2006
Ok, I took all of your suggestions into serious consideration and have made many changes. I was wondering if you could take a quick peek at the front page again and tell me how I did? Thanks.
Brian Gogol
Rabid Teddies!
TimMorgan posted this at 16:23 — 10th February 2006.
They have: 14 posts
Joined: Feb 2006
What software do you use to make your ecommerce store or did u build it yourself?
bgogol posted this at 18:16 — 10th February 2006.
They have: 21 posts
Joined: Jan 2006
I built it myself in Dreamweaver. I just pasted the links to my hosted shopping cart after the design was done. Soon, I'll move to a host that allows me to use my own SSL certificate and shoppers will never leave my site.
Was quite a learning experience, and still is!
Brian Gogol
Rabid Teddies!
ajr_designer posted this at 16:41 — 10th February 2006.
He has: 18 posts
Joined: Feb 2006
Hey now that's cool, I now know exactly what your website’s about within a few seconds of viewing it. I think you’ve hit the nail right on the head.
Just one thing though, I want to click on something to start making my T-shirt, I think by using the image as a link to your designs or shirts it sets the ball rolling and before you know it you’ve made a shirt so why not buy it!
The Definitive solution
Mixing the right Formula
bgogol posted this at 18:19 — 10th February 2006.
They have: 21 posts
Joined: Jan 2006
Thanks!! I appreciate that and I'm so relieved.
What's funny is that my 9-year old son suggested I add in a shopping cart to the image when I was making it last night, then he asked me this morning to make it clickable. Now I have an idea how to do that. Thanks so much.
Brian Gogol
Rabid Teddies!
notumar posted this at 18:32 — 10th February 2006.
They have: 25 posts
Joined: Feb 2006
You have done an excellent work, if your dont mind, the problem is in horizontal scroll, make you page like it capatable in every resolution i am using 800X600
arty2 posted this at 13:48 — 11th February 2006.
They have: 5 posts
Joined: Feb 2006
Hello
The design is nice looking one.
bgogol posted this at 16:45 — 19th April 2006.
They have: 21 posts
Joined: Jan 2006
Hi all. First, thanks for all the comments the last time around. I wanted to get your opinion on the new site since I redesigned it. I did this for 2 major reasons; I needed a format and graphics branding that would allow for future expansion of designs unrelated to what we were currently offering, and I figured out how to code my pages so a form could pass the variables to my cart which allowed even more real-time customization.
Now, since I redesigned from the product pages backwards to the home page, I'm wondering if I screwed with a good thing. Mainly because some initial feedback I'm getting is that the site is confusing, difficult to use, and the color scheme sucks. I really don't want to redesign the entire thing again, but I will if the majority has issues with it. After all, it's all about the customers.
Anyway, anything you can lend would be much appreciated.
http://www.rabidteddies.com
Thanks!
Brian Gogol
Rabid Teddies!
henster posted this at 00:02 — 28th April 2006.
They have: 9 posts
Joined: Mar 2006
Dont want to seem boring here but I noticed you are using javascript to hide and show some sections. In terms of google seo it may not be ideal. Google likes lots of pages with a different keyword density on each. Although google will see through the javascript it will consider it one page diluting your keyword strategy.
Of course, if you dont expect to pick any customers up through organic search results then it doesn't matter.
The teddies are cool.
-h
http://www.acnetreatmentinfo.org
bgogol posted this at 17:29 — 28th April 2006.
They have: 21 posts
Joined: Jan 2006
Thanks.
That's not boring at all. I've optimized the page and keyword density as if it were one page because I knew that's how the spiders would see it. Right now the density is ok but could be better. I'm going to add some text to the main page to help this.
Most of the elements on the home page I'm hiding are either keyword-rich content broken out into their own pages anyway, or things like contact info which wouldn't help because I don't see an effective way of optimizing a page like that.
The other elements I hide like the clothing categories: you're right, I should break those down into their own seperate keyword-targeted and optimized pages. Maybe eventually they'll spider my site and index those pages, making it easier for them to pop on natural searches.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Brian Gogol
Rabid Teddies!
ablaye posted this at 17:01 — 19th April 2006.
They have: 140 posts
Joined: Apr 2006
Yes, you have a nice site indeed. Are you a graphic designer?
bgogol posted this at 22:10 — 19th April 2006.
They have: 21 posts
Joined: Jan 2006
No, just an amateur but I appreciate the comment.
webmasterdebate posted this at 03:55 — 26th April 2006.
They have: 5 posts
Joined: Apr 2006
I hate to sound like a typical guy, but I would learn from a site called T-Shirt Hell and use plenty of good looking pics of females modeling your shirts. I apologize to all the women out there, but someone had to say it.
David
WebmasterDebate.com
bgogol posted this at 18:05 — 27th April 2006.
They have: 21 posts
Joined: Jan 2006
Do you mean like a section where we post pictures that our customers send in? I'm not exactly sure what you mean because we do have pictures of every shirt and piece of clothing we offer on models. T-Shirt Hell doesn't.
Brian Gogol
Rabid Teddies!
webmasterdebate posted this at 18:53 — 27th April 2006.
They have: 5 posts
Joined: Apr 2006
To be more clear, the answer to both your questions is 'yes.' More models would be good, and having people take pics of your shirts would be really excellent too...IDK, it's a good looking site. I wouldn't be too concerned with my comments. You may not want it to look like T Shirt Hell does either, which would be entirely understandable.
David
WebmasterDebate.com
surg posted this at 20:24 — 26th April 2006.
They have: 3 posts
Joined: Apr 2006
The site is good, it needs more frequent work i think
Like the layout
geocities.com/surgmcq
bgogol posted this at 18:07 — 27th April 2006.
They have: 21 posts
Joined: Jan 2006
Thank you.
Do you mean it needs to be updated more often? or did you mean that you like the layout? or that I need to work more frequently on the layout...?
Sorry, I'm confused!
Brian Gogol
Rabid Teddies!
locatepeople posted this at 12:23 — 29th April 2006.
He has: 377 posts
Joined: May 2005
its a very well designed and artistic site. well done! Good PR5 rating as well. The only downside is it looks really really busy. abit too cluttered, but very professional.
Look at your conversion rate, how many visitors to a sale?
Maybe in a month try a less cluttered design and see if the conversion rate gets higher or lower. Stick with which one works best.
Trace UK People -UK People Searcher -Find People UK - Learn Martial Arts Online -Private Detective Agency - Cheap Website Design UK - Business Small
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