be gentle with me....

Hi guys...

Can you have a look at my new site please and see what you think... its a modified oscommerce site that i've been playing with to get it to where it is..i think it ok and still needs some improvements but will be interesting to here other's oppinions too...

also, i have the facebook 'like' button on there...i did have it to show some images and x-people like this, but thought as i have only 33 likes at the mo it may put people off with only 33 so i changed it to just like...what are your thoughts...

i have added a blog in too thats linked from the bottom right that goes to a wordpress backened that have modified to look like the main site (but still needs a little tweak...)

Oh, and please be gentle as i'm new to the forum

The site address is Posh Kitty

Cheers - Mark

Hi Mark

Would have to say not a fan of the colour scheme, and having spent a few minutes looking I am still not sure what you do.

Also why would you use important header space to tell me your site is best viewed in Mozilla?

And I won't even start on the seo side of things

Selling online is about trust and your site does not come across a professional enough, the problem with the free open source stuff is you need to know how to use to get it looking just right.

This next comment is not aimed at you but more of a general comment.

If a new online business cannot afford to buy or pay for for design of their website, the most important selling asset then I would question if the timing is right to start a business online.

If I was starting a driving school would be acceptable to turn up in a free car, with bits missing and looking untidy?

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I agree about the colour scheme. I think you have some nice gifts but they aren't getting presented to the visitors in the best way possible.

PS is everything free delivery or just pn those items wher its mentioned? Only I cant see how much delivery is (you need to put it in front of me not make me search for it) and when I put something into my basket I then have to register to reach checkout and find out how much delivery will be. Not good so I abandoned it. I would expect to see the final delivery cost before I start filling stuff in.

I see no site security - I would suggest at least a basic SSL cert for peace of mind and put up a logo to say you have it. Payment logos are also in footer - make them prominent so I know how I am expected to pay.

There is an address and a contact form but no telephone number or email address. Personally I want to see both before I will buy. I wnt to know I can speak to you should anything go wrong with my order/delivery. Also, even though you have a contact form all websites should now display the contact email address too.

Distant Selling Regs - cant see your T&C - I should be able to read them before I move to the payment stage and ideally, before I even register. Why am I going to register only to find out I dont like your T&C, or that there isnt any.

If such crucial stuff is missing off a website, I am liable to leave as it makes me think you are just a bedroom dropshipper and thus no trust has been created before I decicde to purchase.

No site optimisation with your kewyords and lots of coding errors on html & css.

Thats all for now.

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Hi,

Thanks for the comments....

I'll be sticking with the colour scheme as the site is mainly aimed at women because of the gifts side of things. My lady checked with with she works (about 200 women) and the majority of them liked it.

I do have at the top of the site in the main header 'Treat your loved ones to a personalised gift from posh kitty' to tell people its a gifts website. What else can be done to make it more obvious to the visitors? I am starting to put some product banners up as well to show people, but how much is overkill on banners for your products because i hate sites that look 'busy' with loads of stuff that distracts you too much..is there a way i can tell the customer what we do more effectively?

I was wary of putting the firefox banner up (it does alternate between other banners though) but the site doesnt look quite right in IE and i know other sites have done something similar..but i can move it or maybe place as a side banner instead....

In which ways can i improve the SEO? again its a contribution with the software and are various things that can be changed but i dont claim to know everything so i do tend to change it to see what effect it has on visitors, but any help/advise would be appreciated

Some others that i've asked about the look of the site do like it and thinks it is professional and have seen far worse, tacky and amateur looking sites that are really busy and making money.

Unfortunately i lost my full time job in april so cannot afford to spend 3k on having a site designed and built for me and as i am a 'jack of all trades' I designed and built the site myself using my various areas of knowledge, but am not an 'expert' . I launched the site to make money in order to pay my bills, keep my house and feed my family... which was done on an extremely tight budget.

The site is doing 'ok' with a few orders a day after launching about 2 months ago, i just need it better

thanks - Mark

Perhaps its best to outline what yo have no intention of changing, but ask for a review on anything else, as that saves peoples time.

If your friend has asked 200 women (im female by the way) and they like it, then great - will they be ordering?

Were the 200 just 'women' or were they your target market? Do you know yor target market? Dont just say 'any female' or 'any women over 18' as thats not the way to go about it. Never, ever ask family and friends to critique your webiste. What do you really think the majority will say? Sorry, but thats the truth. They will rarely say they do not like it when asked by a friend or family member. I'm not saying its awful at all, i'm saying it could be much better thus bring in more orders (once everything else is in place of course).

I knew what it was (a site selling girlie things bascially) so i've no qualms on that score however that big Firefox banner really needs to come out. It means diddly squat to 99% of your traffic and worse, you are wasting what is part of the most valuable spot on your website - its the first thing you see, and that's wrong. They need to see your USP or even a free delivery banner or a special offer of the month. The FF banner might also be throwing people off because its the first thing you see - a pink site and a firefox banner - really odd.

The software should allow you to change the meta tags but do your keyword research first. Make sure you use keywords right across your product pages too. You should be able to optimise every category and product page. This means you then have every single page in your website working for you in the seach engines. I would suggest get the home page done for starters then revisit the other pages and do those.

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Indizine -

WOW...thats loads....lol...OS Commerce is more 'buggy' than i thought!!...

Erm...god...where to start....

Is there a way i can get the products presented better to the visitor? should i remove the top menu banners and move the products further up so they are better seen? as i thought i would put the menu banners at the top so people can see at a quick look on what we do.

Only the ones stated are free delivery on the site and the rest are based on the value of the order. I do have the delivery info and conditions of use etc in the 'information' box thats in the bottom right. i put it down there as i thought the 'sale/promo' type things would be better at the top. what can i do to make it easier to see so people can find it better? are they ok in the box or should they be more prominent?

I will see if i can get the delivery costs included somewhere before the 'checkout' area so people can see this before they go through the create account process...that is a very valid comment and one i didnt think about..

I will also get some SSL added for extra peace of mind for visitors. payments go through paypals security so i didnt think i needed it, but if it helps its worth it. The servers i use do offer a shared SSL certificate which is free...do you think that would put people off even though it is stil SSL?

I will add email addresses etc on as well, i thought it would be enough with a postal address on there as i just wanted to cut down on spam etc..

What can be done with the SEO type stuff? as i mentioned before i do have an SEO contribution which 'should' improve the SEO for the site and put the product infor in the address bar too instead of something like product_id=1234 but...it clearly isnt doing what it says on the tin...so thats a big FAIL!... so may need to scrap that...but where do i start to improve it??

Which kind of things are wrong with the css/html?? i was an IT/Marketing Manager before, but not a web developer, so although i have above average knowledge, i clearly do not know it all...lol.... or i can just blame the OSC software and ask how i fix it... ...lol..

Thanks for the comments- Mark

right thats the firefox banner killed.....

oh, i forgot to mention the payment stuff, i have seen it in the footer of other sites too, hence why i put it there.(and its on every page). but i know just becuase they do it doesnt mean its right.... Where would be the best place to put it? i was thinking the header (again because it will be the same on every page), but dont know if it would look odd...

and the info box is bottom left, not right right...sorry...

i better get a plan together for changing things.....looks like i'm going to be busy for a while!

if there is anything else that can improve the 'feel' and seo of the site?

thanks - Mark

Mark I understand that and respect that but you can get a site for a lot less than £3k these days.

Take a look at Erol - (I am biased as I sell and seo the product) but take a look at their store of the month page it will give you an idea on what can be achieved with a paid for product (it comes with 30 day support also)

There are shops you can rent for x £'s a month also that will give support.

Bottom line is it needs to inspire trust.

There are a good bunch of people here that I am sure would help if you asked.

As always just my 2 cents

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I can see you have got lots of good advice from Indizine but have decided to stick my 2pennith in too!

Wow! What a busy homepage!
I am afraid to say, it’s a bit all over the place. I like to see symmetry in a website and this site doesn’t have it. On first glance I don’t know where to go, where to click and what I am suppose to do. This may sound harsh but it looks like a scrap book with something simply stuck on where there is a space.

I am very confused as to why one page is in line with the top of the site then I click on another page and it fills my screen giving 2 big spaces to the left and right of the top banner.

Visitors make their minds up within the first few seconds on landing on a website. As yours currently stands and looks, you are not going to entice users further into the site thus turning a visitor into a purchaser!

The navigation is poor. There are no breadcrumbs to ease the navigation. I have no idea when I am on a product page how i got there, what category I am in etc etc.

There is a saying I like to use when discussing the functionality of a website and that it “DON’T MAKE ME THINK!” I have to think all the time on this site and it’s hard work.

As mentioned previously, there is no optimisation on this site. The title on every page simply says “Posh Kitty”. This is a vital area for getting your researched keywords in to your site. I can’t see any header titles in the code or on the site – again another vital area for keywords. Page titles/URLs are not good for SEO.

I am a marketer and if you were to say to me “Kerry, I want you to market my site.” I would be inclined to turn you down. Without altering the aesthetics, call to actions and the very long left and right boxes you are not going to get any kind of return on marketing spend! Any marketer who tells you otherwise is simply taking your money so run for the hills

There are lots more things I could write here but this post would be a mile long. My final piece of advice to you is take a long hard look at this. You said you were a marketing manager so apply your marketing knowledge and knowhow into developing a site that people want to visit and more importantly purchase from.

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Mark,
I totally agree with what Tomsk has adviced you to look at and do. I think this would be a much better option for you.

I also totally understand your situation. I was made redundant in March and it's hard trying to get something off the ground and keep the roof over your head.

Just do a little more research and you could make a good go of it

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