Site design expert recommendations...

[tjsgifan]

Hello all you fellow Actinic users.

I have been using Actinic for a while, but have to be honest in that I don't have enough time in the day available to spend learning the software and optimising the site. I feel i'm paying Google Adwords every month for click throughs which are OK but am really letting myself down in the search engine rankings. It seems 1 day I look and the site comes up OK for a number of the products I sell. The next day - nothing. And I have no idea why......

So, as I'm 6 months into a 12 month trial of the website (I figured last year that I should make a go of the website and commited to paying for proper PROTX payment services rather than just the Paypal / Nochex / Cheque options, and renewed my actinic cover....)

I thought it would make life easier for existing customers to order stuff but it turns out they don't like that, they still prefer to speak to me and deal directly with email and faxed purchase orders, so i'm really only going after new business now, which I guess has to come through search engines.

So, can anyone make any a) obvious points that I need to resolve on my website and b) recommend anyone for design and SEO assistance. I'd prefer to use someone in the Actinic forum community (In fact I was going to contact Rural web design, but there website says they are not currently taking on customers....

I don't have a huge budget, but I do realise now that I'm better off concentrating on what I do best and paying someone else to do what they do best...

Any help appreciated....

Toby.

[leehack]

So, as I'm 6 months into a 12 month trial of the website (I figured last year that I should make a go of the website and commited to paying for proper PROTX payment services rather than just the Paypal / Nochex / Cheque options, and renewed my actinic cover....)

This is a short time to build a succcessful website. No successful website you know has suddenly cracked it in this short time. Its a slow process, a frustrating one also, but as long as you are improving and your business is on the right lines to success, it will come. One day you will step back and say "bugger me, we've got something going here". On this day, your smile will alleviate all the time, stress and shear hard work you have put in.

Few things i notice when visiting your site:

1. Images and text size are too small. A huge percentage of your target audience will be on broadband, so give them some better images to view, i found it very hard to differentiate between some products. Stupid or not (when they have the name and specs in writing) a good image can do wonders for a website. Geeks want to see geeky stuff!

2. You are using the standard actinic "Online Shop" logo. You should be trying to create a brand online, a logo that visitors recognise, something people associate with your company and the good service it provides. Your current logo is shocking for your marketplace IMO.

3. You are selling high tech products, your site looks very low tech. The look of your website should match your marketplace or at the very least should catch somebody's eye. It looks boring, full of text, poor images. Part of selling to people is inspiring them about what you are selling. Show them you have a passion about your products. If you visited a high street shop where the door squeaked when you opened it, the shop window was empty and the walls were in serious need of paint, would it inspire you to spend £800?

4. You have so few Top Level Sections, i think you should also show your sub sections. On the whole i find the navigation around your site a pain in the ass and not a pleasure.

5. Terms & Conditions are almost unreadable, like reading smallprint and when people see text like that, that's exactly what they will think. That info is there for them to ease any worries and understand how you work, let them see it!

Apologies for the bluntness, i am a straight talker. You have the basis for a nice successful site, just needs a bit of a rethink. Most, if not all of the things you need to do can be done by yourself for very little cost.

[Duncan Rounding]

I'm not an SEO fundi. But what immediately strikes me is the top part of your website (http://www.imagemule.com/uploads/headerJV6E.jpg) I certainly wouldn't consider spending a large sum of money with it looking like that.

You seem to have alot of wordy content for the SEs but:

1. You have no incoming links to your site - you needs lots of good ones.
2. Why not start posting in relevant forums - I would expect a lot of your prospects hang out in specialist forums.
3. Your domain is .com - can you purchase the .co.uk TLD as well and then change from .com to .co.uk - SEs should like that better.
4. Is you stuff second-hand? That's the immediate thought I had with your domain name.

[pinbrook]

if i came across your site in SE listings and saw the url usedunix.com i would assume you sold 2nd hand UNIX boxes only and used peripherals for unix, unless I was looking for one of those I would pass you by. I'd also assume you were based in the US.

If I were looking for a 2nd hand unix box and peripherals I'd want to phone you.

[RuralWeb]

In fact I was going to contact Rural web design, but there website says they are not currently taking on customers

True but I would suggest you contact Lee above who will certainly be able to help as much as I could.

[acompton]

I tried Google searches on a couple of your features products: nVidia Quatro FX and Avid Liquid. The ads came in at the no. 1 slot. This means your probably paying top whack for them, and many people ignore the top adverts as they are usually ebay and amazon. Try reducing the presentation position to (say 4-10+). This will reduce the cost for the ads.

If your worried about the overall cost, try reducing your daily budget (Google will spread it out over the day). I read a golden rule about PPC adverts - that the advert text should reflect the user's search terms. This wasn't the case for your nVidia advert.

You might want to make sure you've turned off Goggle Content Network (stops your ad gets shown on every Tom, Dick and Harriet's website that is trying to make money off other people's adverts). Such sites may not be approriate for your customer base (but they still get clicked on).

I assumed your products were second-hand, based on the URL.

Alan Compton
www.greenknightgames.co.uk
Great board games and cards games you won't find in the High Street

[jont]

1. Images and text size are too small.

...and centred.. which is a nightmare to read long sections of text

[RuralWeb]

You are in one of THE most competitive markets on the internet so you will struggle Im sorry to say. Get single product pages setup and some tuned title tags for each one, big pictures as lee suggests and lots of info. Many items I looked at were out of stock which is not good so change to pre order, 3 week delivery etc. With generic products such as yours price is going to be THE deciding factor so unless you can undercut the big boys its going to be even harder for you.