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Time To Panic?

RoxanneMMRoxanneMM subscriber Posts: 1
edited November 2007 in Website Critique
Hello,
I need help.  I`m new to the forum. I have a website that sells outdoor clothing and equipment to kids ages 0 -14. We have been online for about 5 weeks. I have spent nearly $800 on Adwords and image ads.  We even have a winter fleece sale going on.  However, we have not sold a single thing. Not one.
 
I `ve had Google analytics installed for about two weeks. From what I can tell no one has put anything in the cart.  Our traffic is quite weak. Our max day was 74 visits.  We are not showing up on Goolge natural search, either. Is this normal after 5 weeks?
 
I hired a company to do the site and they have been very responsive. They tell me not to panic, yet.  But I must say, this is scary.
 
I am currently working on improving the following things on the site:

More products (on the way)

Writing more articles for resources and finding a way to link the to relevant products,

Create category pages,

Improve product page by making image larger, moving products details and action bar up higher on the page.

Will some of you just take a look at the website and please tell me what I am doing wrong?
 
 
I really appreciate any insight you may have. Thank you in advance!
 
RoxanneMM12/3/2007 4:19 PM

Comments

  • vwebworldvwebworld subscriber Posts: 40
    Hi,
     
    The site is nice and is indexed by Google. What are your target search words?
    Recognize that the "title" of the page is important. Right now your title of the home page is "Blue Planet Kids".  Just browsing through your product categories I found the title said "Browsing"...the category name.  You should remove the word "browsing".
    Not many people search using that term.
     
    Determine what keyword search terms are your targets. Name your categories using terms people would use to search for the products.
     
    There is a problem with your website code... all the styles are in the code rather on a separate file. This is alot of code for search bots to go through and will hinder some bot from indexing your page properly.
     
    If you do not have a google sitemap uploaded to google, do so.
    Also, make sure you have a site map on your home page.
     
    Work on getting links to your site, from other sites and search engine friendly directories.
     
    ~Roland
  • RoxanneMMRoxanneMM subscriber Posts: 1
    Roland,
     
    I was re-reading your reply and I have a newby question. When you mention the page title, do you mean a viewable title on the page or are you referring to a piece of code or URL? I want to make sure I clearly explain this to my website guy.
     
    In answer to your question about my keywords, I was using words like "kids winter jackets", "fleece hoodie" and "children`s clothes."
    Is it a better idea for me to use the actual product names, such as "Columbia fleece sweater"  "Reliable Backyard Tipi?" 
     
    Many Thanks!
     

    RoxanneMM@BluePlanetKids.com
  • RoxanneMMRoxanneMM subscriber Posts: 1



    nhgnikole



     
    Thanks!  I will do that. That price sounds like a bargain compared to what I have been spending on Adwords!  Do you have any suggestions on which blogs are good?  I`m not familiar with the Mom related blogs, yet.
     
    I`m afraid that the weird pricing is my fault. I wanted all prices to end in either .00 or .50.  Would it be better to have price structures that don`t look odd to shoppers?  (I`m guessing -  yes.)
     
    Thanks for your help! This feedback is wonderful.
     

    RoxanneMM@BluePlanetKids.com
  • WeblineWebline subscriber Posts: 13 Bronze Level Member
    I agree with Roland .... the SEO in your code is pretty non-existant, and many changes could/should be made in just the basic html.
  • WeblineWebline subscriber Posts: 13 Bronze Level Member

    Start every page with a valid doctype.
    Validate your pages at W3C.
    Have unique titles, descriptions and keywords for every page.
    As Roland said, put the css and javascript into external files, then import them.  You don`t need " text/margin/padding " values in every other line of your code.
    Put titles in your link tags.
    Get rid of the excess code that isn`t doing anything.
    I think that`s a good start for him.


    Webline11/27/2007 3:39 PM
  • John49John49 subscriber Posts: 0
    For your code.... ask the designer to put all the styles into a separte CSS file.
    Also, there is a lot of blank lines of code (some people do that to hinder people from copying code, but it is of no value)... have the designer delete those empty lines.
     
    As for the titles.... your ecommmerce program uses the product names and category names for your titles......when someone looks at a category or product. So, for those just make sure teach product has an appropriate name... if you sell brand name merchandise I would use the brand name.
     
    For the categories, it seem your program adds "browsing" to the category name. Ask your designer to eliminate that word.
     
    For your home page you really do not need to use "blue planet kids" because that is your domain name.  Rather use targeted keywords..appropriate for a shopping portal.
     
     
     
    John4911/27/2007 11:27 PM
  • RoxanneMMRoxanneMM subscriber Posts: 1
    Everyone,
     
    This is excellent information. It is so valuable to see the site through your eyes.
    I have another meeting with my team this afternoon and we are going to get started on the changes mentioned above;  marketing, creating a more unique site, etc.
     
    I`ve already started looking for blogs and other site where my target customers "hang out" and I`ve made some inquiries about advertising on them.
     
    I agree that we need to differentiate the site from the pack. We will be working on that as well.
     
    I am so glad I found this forum. You are all so helpful and provide such detailed information. I really appreciate the time you take to do a review.
    Thank you again. I`ll be back to show you the changes! If you come up with anything else - feel free to post!!!!!
     

    RoxanneMM@BluePlanetKids.com

     
     
    RoxanneMM11/28/2007 9:39 PM
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