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scrappyscrappy subscriber Posts: 8
edited April 2006 in Website Critique
Although there are still freight issues, overall I think it turned out pretty good.  What do you think? www.ScrapbookSpaceStation.com</A>
I`ve changed a few things on the homepage (until) I get my website developer to actually do what Riham did, but until that happens, I hope it looks a little better... 
 
Thanks Marcyscrappy2006-4-27 18:41:52

Comments

  • ShowboxersShowboxers subscriber Posts: 3
            The site looks great!  It is attractive and interesting and your products are organized well making it easy to navigate.  If I were shopping for your products and came upon your site, it certainly would keep my interest and I would stay and browse through it!  Good job!  Showboxers2006-4-26 22:10:19
  • TrueGRITSTrueGRITS subscriber Posts: 3
    Marcy,
    Truthfully, I think there`s way too much going on on the front page.  It seems jumbled to me.  Here are my comments.

    At first, before the photo loaded, I couldn`t even tell what you sold.  Half way down the page is "SSS offers customized storage furniture".  AHA!  That needs to be at the very top of your page.
    Also needed at the top: winner at the Southern Women`s Show.  Congrats!  That`s a really big deal!  Spotlight it!  (I`m from Charlotte and the Women`s Show is an annual tradition not to be missed!)
    All the multi-colored text confuses me.  Too many colors.  You can`t get my attention when I don`t know what to go for first.
    Your actual furniture info needs to go inside the website.
    Ditto about fixing the freight calculator.
    Size your homepage to fit on just one screen.
    I like the top nav bar - different and fun.
    Inside I think your pages are much better organized.  My only thing is that the font is a little small.
    There`s a really cohesive look on your interior pages that needs to be extended to your front page.  People aren`t going to ever see those interior pages if the front page overwhelms and confuses. 
    I`m thinking your IP address isn`t supposed to be showing at the bottom of your pages. 
    Overall, I think the front page needs quite a bit of work, but the interior pages look good.  I like your logo and your colors are attractive to your buyers.  The graphic with the pop-up images is great!
    I know it`s true for me that if a website`s front page looks homemade, I won`t go any further.  Ever.  Bring the great design and organization you have in your interior to the front and I think you`ll see a big increase in traffic
    Best of luck!
    Diana
     
  • ChuckChuck subscriber Posts: 6
    Scrappy - I`ll try not to reiterate all of the stylistic advice already offered, but I will back up Diana`s point about visual consistency (in text and presentation) - the shift between background colors, font sizes, etc. doesn`t draw my attention, it makes me pass it all by.  Try to come up with something of a "style guide" for your site.  Limit yourself to a single standard text size/font/color, and two to four heading sizes and fonts, and use them throughout.  As a user, I`ll easily be able to pick up what content is highlighted and what is standard, and can intuitively pick it up in that manner.From a search standpoint, not to contradict TJG, but I wouldn`t spend time on meta tags or search engine submission at this point - your first task should be to go through your site and come up with distinct <title> tags for all of your pages.  You`re already being indexed by the majors, but your not getting the full benefit out of those listings - go to Google and enter this in the search box:site:scrapbookspacestation.comYou have 89 pages indexed, and even on the first page of results I see only 2 distinct titles for the 10 pages - no good.  I know each of those pages has something unique about it, and you`re leaving an opportunity on the table if you don`t go through and clearly identify each page in the title tag - as you can see, it affects how your pages show up in search engine indexes, and if you do employ distinct and preferably higher traffic keywords in those titles you`ll give yourself a better chance of ranking for those words and phrases.
    Chuck2006-4-27 7:12:31
  • scrappyscrappy subscriber Posts: 8
    Ok... where do I begin... 
    First, THANKS for all the input.  I`m all about learning! 
    I want to say, that it wasn`t `me` who put the site together, I hired a company and originally, on the homepage, all there was, was the information about the furniture and the graphics.  I`ve learned how to add text on the homepage (and thought) it would be good to add more detail (explaining the different items on the graphics and the price) I guess I could simply put > Ultimate Pkg for $$ at the bottom of the graphics and leave it at that ???
    As for the Diff fonts and colors (I guess that`s the scrapbooker in me) scrapbookers love fonts and colors.  I can easily change that back.
    When you start talking tags, I have no clue what you mean by that, nor do I know how to change that??
    I`d love to know how you found out how many key words I have listed?  and what can I do to fix this?
    Sorry I`m so ignorant.  I really value all of your opinions.  I`ll try to (little by little) today (while I`m at my real job) fix the home page
    As for optimization, I think, my website developer and also host, took care of that.  I believe it was part of my pkg??
    The freight estimator... what a nightmare this has been.  I have to state that on the home page, because I don`t know how to add that info to the `store` See, this company told me at the beginning that their store would be able to calculate freight using weight and dimensions (since I have furniture units) well, after 4mon of them working on the site, they found it could not do the dimensions.  They wanted me to try and do an `average` well, I can`t do that... I`m selling furniture... a 30x80 table weighing 60LB is going to cost a heck of a lot more then a 10x10box weighing 60LB... so, it`s been since Aug of last year and they still can`t figure out what to do.  They state that it has to be a custom programming which can cost a lot of money, but I told them they should have stated that in the beginning! so... they are trying to figure something out for me and meanwhile, I`m taking orders via email/phone.    I`ve had to state that it does not work in Bold because people have tried to purchase and when the freight comes up with an outrageous amount, I`m sure they`re saying `screw` this and move on... So, knowing all this info, how should I proceed? 
    AND, have I said THANK YOU...   You have no idea how grateful I am to have found this site! 
    Thanks!!!
  • ChuckChuck subscriber Posts: 6
    Marcy - if you`re at your homepage, and you`re using Internet Explorer, in the menu options at the top of your browser you can select View > Source to open up the code behind that page.  Within that code, anyone can see which keywords were selected for the meta tag assigned to the page.When I pointed to titles, I was referring to the text that is entered between the <title></title> tags within that same code - this tag generally goes at the beginning of the code behind your page (after the <html> or similar tag), and when a browser loads the page it pulls the text from that tag and places it at the very top of your browser.By the same token, a search engine takes that as the literal title of your page, and when it provides a result from your site it uses that text as the link to your page.  So I was pointing out that within your website there are a number of pages that have exactly the same title.  It`s relatively easy to fix that tag, and you can see which pages are affected by going back to Google - go to this search result and you can see all of your indexed pages, their URLs and whether or not they have distinct titles.
  • scrappyscrappy subscriber Posts: 8
    Chuck,
    Thanks for all your input! My question though, is (how) do I fix it? (what your wrote below)  I found all the info going through source... do I need to pay my website developer to fix it? or is it something I can do?  Thanks Marcy
    From a search standpoint, not to contradict TJG, but I wouldn`t spend time on meta tags or search engine submission at this point - your first task should be to go through your site and come up with distinct <title> tags for all of your pages.  You`re already being indexed by the majors, but your not getting the full benefit out of those listings - go to Google and enter this in the search box:site:scrapbookspacestation.comYou have 89 pages indexed, and even on the first page of results I see only 2 distinct titles for the 10 pages - no good.  I know each of those pages has something unique about it, and you`re leaving an opportunity on the table if you don`t go through and clearly identify each page in the title tag - as you can see, it affects how your pages show up in search engine indexes, and if you do employ distinct and preferably higher traffic keywords in those titles you`ll give yourself a better chance of ranking for those words and phrases.
  • scrappyscrappy subscriber Posts: 8
    Riham...
    How in the world did you do that so quickly???? that was awesome!  I feel like I need to give you some money... would you mind if I emailed that to my developer and say "this" is how it should be?  (except, I do like my tags under my logo) I made those tags and uploaded them for the developer to use just for that reason... do you suggest maybe making them smaller? 
    I love the way you divided up everything it`s great...
    Thanks Marcy
  • scrappyscrappy subscriber Posts: 8
    Riham,
    Again, your are wonderful! and I will be contacting you soon... it`s hard to work out all the kinks when I work a full time job too... I try and do as much as I can while a lunch.  I`ll be talking with my site developer about getting these changes, but if he can`t, how can I get a hold of you? To find out costs on transfering over hosting (if you do hosting) and making the proper changes.  I do not have a contract with this company, but I did want to give them a chance to `fix` it.
    TJ - I also I want to thank you!  You have been wonderful with all your tips and expertise! I look forward to talking to you again!
    Thanks Marcy
  • scrappyscrappy subscriber Posts: 8

    btw Marcy, It`s nice to see your face at last

    Thank Riham, I will be contacting you soon I`m sure! I did not get a chance to get with my developer last week.  Hopefully, this week I can...  I did go back and change the homepage... it`s not as wacky as before with all the colors etc...
    Thanks again for all the input! Marcy
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