New site review.....any help to boost site organic visits and sales welcome!!

[briangray]

Hi,

Launched my site in late October 2008. Had over 5000 visits since then, mostly via Google adwords. I would be really grateful for your comments on how the site could be improved to attract more visitors organically and also to convert more visitors into customers.

http://www.inspirationalelements.co.uk


Many thanks
Brian

[bamboo]

Read through the other site review threads. All the answers are in there but as a start point what are you selling to who?

[Firecom]

download the free copy of web ceo and do some keyword research.

just google web ceo. its a good product.

[Rich Brady]

Your descriptions could do with some work IMO.

You have this text repeated in an awful lot of products:

Greengate products exude care-free sophisication and simple country living. We offer a wide range of stunning, co-ordinated products from the brilliant Greengate of Copengagen....Danish design at its very best!

Although this may be true it tells the customer absolutely nothing about the product. You need to make your descriptions, well... descriptive

Also, your keywords seem to replicate your meta descriptions:

Greengate Hurricane Lamps for example.

I'd have put lamp, lantern, light, table lamp, antique lamp, green gate, greengate, etc and make sure that they are all in your description.

You have the heights detailed, but no diameter, how long is the power cable, does it have an inline switch, what bulb does it accept bayonet/thread, is a bulb included. Perhaps you can include an energy saving liht bulb with every lantern order and apeal to the eco-friendly/green market?

[grantglendinnin]

Although your site could do with a bit of on-site optimisation (page titles and meta tags)

Your site unfortunately lacks backlinks.

To this day, I still refer to this SEO Guide - highly recommended, simple to understand and covers just about everything a novice needs to know.

As for the design...it looks fantastic. Good job.

[Mark H]

Hi Brian

In terms of converting, one thing which would stop me purchasing is not knowing whether an item is in stock or not. Your blurb says:

"Providing all items in your order are in stock, we will ship your order within 3 working days.

Delivery of out-of-stock items may take from 6 - 8 weeks. As soon as your order is complete it will be shipped to you."

IMO orders should be shipped same or next working day, so 3 working days is not brilliant. But waiting 6-8 weeks for out-of-stock items is a non-starter, particularly if the whole order is held up because of one item. What is worse, your site doesn't say which items are in stock or not. As a purchaser, I wouldn't take the chance.

[Firecom]

remember meta keywords and meta descriptions are useless for a google ranking as they are ignored by all accounts.

the number 1 element is page title, followed by a main keyword or key chain in h1 tag (only 1 h1 tag per page) with h2 and h3 tags following after on other sub headings that reflect keywords.

lots of people make the mistake of thinking meta keywords and descriptions are important. the only purpose they serve is good practice in researching appropriate keywords for your sector.

and don't add meta keywords that are not on the page. i only ever add 1 to 5 meta keywords tops per page.

seo is a hard practice and there are no guaranteed methods.

[acompton]

lots of people make the mistake of thinking meta keywords and descriptions are important. the only purpose they serve is good practice in researching appropriate keywords for your sector.

Google do use the meta description on their search results page. This can make a difference to how your entry looks compared with your competitors' entries.

[Firecom]

Thats true about the meta description, should be used so as the page description makes sense. I was just pointing out that google doesn't bother with the meta keywords in tags and descriptions.

if all your meta descriptions are the same then google will pull a description from the page itself instead. i tend to have a different meta description for each brochure page and a different one for each section and sub section page. the products in those sections and sub sections then use the parent meta description.

but its alaways good practice even from a research point of view

[briangray]

Mark,

Thanks for your comments. I'll get to work on rewording this section.

Thanks again
Brian

[briangray]

Jake,

Thanks for the reply. To be honest I don't really understand Meta keywords and descriptions....I'll investigate on the web. Thanks for the tip on page title and google priorities.

Brian