Site Review Please

[Steve Indigo]

Hello,

I have been busy with my new site design and new content. And I am please to say that, after load of tech. problems I have my new V9.1 site live.

It has a few pages of content to fill in once we have finshed writing them, and there still seems to be a problem with the google analyictics converstion tracking system, but I am on the trail of that, with the kind help of the actinic tech. support.

I am asking for you fellow actinic shopkeeppers, webmasters and designers to have a look and share your opinions with me.

I am open to and willing to look at anyway to improve the site.

Thanks in advance

[zigzagad]

Hi Steve,

My first impression is its all a bit dark and gloomy looking, maybe the inner layout particularly could be lighter?

[Sean Williams]

I agree with Harvey - I'd lighten up the inner layout.
On a widescreen monitor, the floating layout stretches the side bars way past the logo - I'd either fix the layout, or have the logo/page header floating too.
I think the credit card logos spoil the header logo - I'd put them elsewhere.
I'd move the 'customer info' links of About Us etc from lower left side bar to somewhere more prominent - perhaps top of right side bar. Easy access to info is paramount I reckon.

Good site - lot's of useful info and products.
And it's V9

[Steve Indigo]

And it's V9

Thanks for the feed back but why the V9?

what does that mean?

[Sean Williams]

Oh nothing - just a spot of mischief on my part - I've been having some problems upgrading my 8.5.1 site to v9; just glad to see someone having success with v9

[RuralWeb]

A fine example of how to keyword stuff a website - just the stuff Google hates at the moment

[Steve Indigo]

A fine example of how to keyword stuff a website - just the stuff Google hates at the moment

Hmmm, you think I have keyword stuffed my site!

Why? please can you explain this to me?

Thanks

[RuralWeb]

please can you explain this to me?

Im not offering a step by step SEO guide especially as the people you are paying should be doing all this for you

[Fairyglass]

Hi Steve,
A few notes which I hope may help- please bear in mind they're my opinion only!
On a widescreen monitor there's loads of space - I can send you a screenshot if you'd like. The information you can see is basically a series of lists- there's no "call to action" encouraging one to look further into the site.
The colour scheme's not good - far too sombre, it doesn't encourage one to explore.
The images visible when the site loads are largely irrelevant- the pestle & mortar image seems to have been bunged in for colour, but doesn't have any relevance or link to anything. Likewise the leaves further down the page and the yoga practitioner at the bottom. I'd expect a text section with these linking to a product.
The sidebars continue much further down the page than the central content and some are irrelevant on the front page- for example your coupon entry box isn't necessary on a main page that is the brochure to your shop.
Personally I wouldn't link from my homepage to my Ebay shop, as it encourages browsing customers to leave my site- Ebay is considered budget and if as a customer I thought I could perhaps get better prices on Ebay I'd miss the rest of your site completely.
You certainly like the words "herbal powder"- used 6 times in 6 lines at the top of the page. This is a good example of keyword stuffing- find a good online keyword analysis tool and check the whole site.

I hope this is constructive- I guess there's loads of info you will add to the site which will pad it out a bit, but the homepage is very sparse on detail. Customers will be visiting you for information and knowledge as much as to purchase specifics- if you can inform and guide them to products then you've more chance of a sale.

Good luck!
Ben