Website rewritten

[wjcampbe]

Folks,

Quite a few of you have looked at my site over the last few weeks. I have now done a complete re-write including a template change. Could I ask some of you to re-visit and comment on the changes.

You can comment here or by email from the site.

Thanks lots in advance

[SusanF]

Hi Bill,

The site is looking great - I know some people dislike the Smart Theme due to possible difficulties with search engines, but I think it looks good and is easy to use and user friendly for the customer.

You do seem to have a problem with the Shopping Cart page - it looks like it hasn't been linked to the smart theme - and I can't quite remember what you need to do to change it. Possibly Design | Options | Layout ??

I do like your Company Information page very much. Personalising it in this way will help your customers feel as if they know you and will help build trust. It is a shame though that you've got the brochure pages link hidden away at the bottom of your home page though - I nearly missed it altogether. The home page is a bit text heavy (especially the store sections area). This means it's easier to miss things as you quickly scan through it.

Anyway, I hope this is of some help. I've nearly got my first site ready for inspection and am realising how much more difficult it is to critique your own site.

Regards,
Susan

www.CardsAtYourFingertips.co.uk

[MDS]

I didn't see your origional site I'm afraid.

Sorry to say I really dont like the colour scheme.

I find it difficult to read, the menu is long & the writing is quite small with some menu's items going to a 2nd line makes it more difficult. There is a lot of text on the front page as well.

There are a couple of errors, the shopping cart is another theme, there is a 403 on the privacy policy, and a 404 on the announcements/list of pharaohs.

Colour scheme aside which is only a personal thing, I like the theme, the site is quick, looks good and is easy to use

[wjcampbe]

Susan,
Thanks. Of course you don't see the cart page in an offline preview, so I did not catch that. Yes its on design | options | layout that it needs to be fixed. Done that and uploaded again. Tested on line this time<g>.

The store sections bit is standard for the theme - javascript yahoo sections - I agree it is alittle cluttered and not too easy to read. The hover highlight helps a little - guess we can agree that's an area for more work.

[pinbrook]

I'm not convinced about the colour scheme either, to me its not very egyptian (I can't remember the original theme though)

The top banner doesn't really work, its to tall and black on red is difficult to read.

I looked into the paintings light papyrus section. I'd layout the products so the the first product has the image above the product description, this way you will eliminate the tall thin column of description and the format will more mirror the products below.

for this product (and this may apply to other products) Egyptian Wonders Ltd > paintings dark papyrus > The queen It could be made more obvious what the difference in the 3 items is, I had to scroll up and down a few times before I confirmed in my mind that it was size.

The packages are confusing Egyptian Wonders Ltd > Packages > Anubis Pack 1 it would be good to have a link back to the actual papryus as the images are quite small and the ref no meaningless to me the potential buyer.

The good thing about the site is good easy to use navigation, and quick to load.

One idea for the Yahoo style menu is to have your group section headings in Caps, with sub sections lower case, and maybe have a different colour to. I've seen this on another site and it seems to create a natural break, and is more pleasing to the eye.

Hope this helps!

[pinbrook]

I've nearly got my first site ready for inspection

I may be jumping the gun here, Susan, but my suggestion is that you re-jig your logo and get rid of the Comic Sans font.....its soooo 80's

[B_Online]

I notice that you have several unnecessary links to other sites; I checked and most sites you link to (bar 3) are not linking back to your own site. If you are linking to these websites in order to improve your own PR (Page Rank) and a higher search engine ranking, then you have to make sure they are linking back to your site. Otherwise this is going to have an adverse effect on your sites PR.

Unnecessary links are when you link to another website (Link partner) and they don't link back to you. By linking out to a "link partner", you're giving them a percentage of your Page Rank that you could be passing to other pages within YOUR website. If this "link partner" isn't linking back to your website, there is no need to ever link to them. You're just hurting you’re ranking by doing so!

By the way, I do like your site, its clean, nice layout, easy to navigate, and some very interesting products…but even the very best sites end up with some modifications or tweaks and there comes a time when you say enough is enough, because it becomes never ending occupation. Having said that, you want feed back so…for me, your top banner did not jump out at me, it had no real statement. I am colour blind and the red and black across the top wasn’t the easiest to read, I had to alter my screen and squint a little. I think there are some fantastic images for what you are selling and you could couple a few together and create a fantastic logo, banner type thing, with a more lasting impression across the top. Nice site!

[B_Online]

I did not see Jo's comments before i posted mine above!

[wjcampbe]

Jo and John, Thanks, yes I am looking at the Banner. I agree the current one has to go.

Mick, I have repaired the 403 on the privacy policy. It now opens the p3p in a new window. I could not duplicate the 404's - that should never have happened anyway, as I have a 404 file in place.

[BPJSURF]

maybe I am critical but I really dont see this as a site "design". Actinic themes are a framework of code from which you build a site but their in no way a "design" All that red :::: RED:::: oh my god that is very hard on the eyes. You could very easily tone down the site and give it a more professional feeling by incorporating some images in the header and softening the look by actually embedding a design into the themes.

Our expereince with merchants has shown that a Actinic theme may help a merchant start a site and get it live but you really need a professional design to give your visiters the comfort level to know your serious as an online merchant and a true professional organization. The current look does not instill confidence with a visitor. Location is number one in my book but right after location is "making a good first impression". You may have 10 seconds to impress your visitor.

To your credit you have done many things to your site which will help you sell. Posted your company info in the footer, display the credit card logos Links are a good thing and I see the chat (should move that to the header). You have loads of great content ( content is king " no pun intended") so you have made it past many of the fundementals but your gonna need a good site design to really make an impact in sales. Here is a site we built that sells greek stuff, http://greektownimports.com. This site use to use a generic template. After the redeployment their sales have more then tripled. Quality design is pleasing on the eye, functional for a the user to navigate and it build confidence in your potential customer.

also to your credit: feature products with text description is very good. You need to syncronize your keywords phrases with your feature products to maximize the value of your index page content. Also you will get a lift in the search engines if you implement the h1 tag on your feature product short description.

Sorry if I am a bit harsh, I prefer brutally honest. I think you have a great start on the content, now wrap that conetent with an excellent web design and you will have a winner.

Brian

[MDS]

I could not duplicate the 404's - that should never have happened anyway, as I have a 404 file in place.

Yes there is a custom 404, there are a couple of graphics missing.

You will find it by going to announcements, then clicking on "Chronological list of Pharaohs"

Sorry I didnt explain it to well-was tired

[jont]

I am getting the word "RED" - I would really consider if this is the colour scheme for you - for me this is certainly not doing your site any justice at all. I would expect golds, yellows, coppers, black etc for an Egyptian site.

[pinbrook]

I have to back up Brian's comments on a professional design. We have taken sites with a simple actinic grown template scheme and applied a true design to the site, and then sat back and waited for the client to tell us how sales had increased.

Of course to acheive this you need budget, but the cost can be clawed back from increased sales