All ideas welcome

[mattsav]

Hi,

I have had the site up and running for a while and am still adding content so realise that empty pages are not inviting.

But we've had 3000 visitors but only 3 sales, even though our fastest moving items are listed. I've also had emails asking if we do mail order and where can they buy from the conact page!

I'm missing something but what??

http://www.catcams.co.uk

[Rich Brady]

Matthew

Your site is very narrow, the light grey text on a white background may be difficult for some people to read.

Clicking on a section that has nothing in it is frustrating, so get rid of them until you have products underneath them.

Not all of you products can be bought online, those that can have lots of possible choices, but I can't tell you which one I want:

http://www.catcams.co.uk/acatalog/Audi_VW_16v.html

I would be listing in manufacture as well as part type so if I want an Audi Part I only have to go into one section...

You have a list of dealers that take people away from your site on on to theirs.

Your Ts and Cs still say that 17.5% VAT is applied.

You need to look at other Actinc sites and see what is possible, then you need to read through the other site reviews posted here and see what you can do to improve.

3000 Visitors... Are they unique visitors or page views? How are those people finding you and which pages to they look at, which pages to they leave on?

P.S. Don't be disheartened by my comments or comments left by others. Do some reading and get the basics right and you'll see improvement. You have the problem that everyone has at the moment and that's the economy, try and tell your customers why it's better for them to buy from you than your competitors. Family Businees =- Personnel Touch, 20 Years Trading = Experience, High Profile Client's etc, etc...

[acompton]

I suspect potential customers are getting confused by the re-direction to another site from this page:

http://www.catcams.co.uk/acatalog/Full_catalogue.html

[RuralWeb]

I looked for a cam for a lotus which was not easy to find and then I ended up on a .be site with a shocking yellow design

Your site is very confusing and tbh I'm not surprised you have had few sales - I'm always on the lookout for bits for my Caterham but would not buy from you. I expect to see a nav menu down the left for each car make so I can find stuff easily and then not to be directed to another site with a different design.

Now if I was google I could possibly call your site a doorway or mirror site in which case you would be removed from the index

I would sit down with some people and do some usability testing to get some feed back.

[jont]

Navigation is the biggest issue by far. I would resolve that before considering aesthetics and other work.

[bamboo]

I've also had emails asking if we do mail order and where can they buy from the contact page!

Listen to your potential customers. Did you ask them why they had to go to the lengths of e-mailing you to find out things that you thought were obvious?

For everyone that bothers to contact you and ask these questions there must be a huge number who simply click away.

Go look at your top three competitors sites & see how they do it. Even better buy something from each them so you get a feel for the whole process inc order fulfilment.

You will then be in possession of real gold assuming you record everything about the process to identify where they are good & where they are weak.

Another piece of advice is to come up with an ideal customer profile & then get your site to speak to them in their 'language'. Assume NOTHING.

[mattsav]

Thankyou for everyone for looking.

I think you've hit on some good points. I'll change the navigation. its obvious to me but its my site so it should be!

I'll keep the dealers page. As a distributor 80% of my customers trade and they like to be listed (and as long as they are selling our products then I'm happy).

The visitors are new unique visitors. 85% from google the rest from direct traffic and links.

The vast majority of the search engine referals are people searching for Catcams so they are already searching for us. Just getting them to buy is the problem.


I was trying to make the site wider but had problems with it not displaying properly. I'll have to have another look at that.

[gabrielcrowe]

i'm afraid it looks toasted from where i'm sitting.

i'd suggest you get rid of your junk text from the front page and put some products there.

make a *large* search box more prominent. i'm thinking the width of the page. since your navigation isnt so good, then i'd suggest you focus on a very strong search results page.

so 'full catalog' remove it.

at the very LEAST, make it look like your actinic catalog and stop confiusing people with a crap redirection, its losing you sales.

it also does not work in firefox, get your game face on, and get this fixed.

'enter shop' is the 6th button in your top nav. you're losing money if its not the first, and your front page is not full of products.

look here:
http://www.breakeryard.com/
http://www.carsparefinder.co.uk/
http://www.eurocarparts.com/

and here is a bad one:
http://www.gsfcarparts.com/

notice the searches in the top 3? yup, and the lack of a search in the last one?

https://secure.gsfcarparts.com/shop/ < its stupidly one click in.

so, to recap:
- better, frontpage search
- cleaner, *LESS* tabs
- better navigation.

[gabrielcrowe]

my gods, i noticed: 'Please contact us to order.'

in every frakking page.

this is a lost cause, please, stop selling things online, epic fail.

[mattsav]

Harsh but true

Unfortunatley I dont have any control over the .be site. There is a new version coming soon which will work with Firefox but I have no idea what it will look like.

Persoanlly I like people to contact us. Choosing camshafts is not easy, I spend most of my day advising professional engine builders on what they need so the general public need a lot of help sometimes..

Nothing worse than buying too wild a cam, which is what the general public will always do.....

I'm trying to move the order of the buttons. I've re arranged the tree and the brochure pages change order but the enter shop stays at the end. Do I have to alter this in the code?

[RuralWeb]

Nothing worse than buying too wild a cam, which is what the general public will always do.....

Thats me...

[mattsav]

Right,

I'm slowly but surely getting there.....

Can anyone shed any light on why the search results are all off to the right hand side?

All the other pages line up properly with the header but I can't see why the search results is different.......


www.catcams.co.uk and search for bmw

[leehack]

The table containing the results is centred and then inside of it, the contents are left aligned. Get yourself Firefox and firebug and you can view the code and the styling in real time.

[EdHarrison]

I am the least qualified to help with the site but as harsh as these guys can seem they will "tell you how it is" the advice is great....

A small point, we found on two of our sites that the sales / hits almost always settled at 1 sale per 100 visits unless a global offer was in place then it doubled, this was remarkably consistent.

Ed

[Cheapprices4u]

hi its a long time since i built an engine
but when searching for cams etc its all about info
fitting guidelines
you probably provide all this for magazine articles so why not put it on your site

the product descriptions are lacking so unless you are a seasoned builder you will get bogged down

make a quick FAQ describing the difference in the stage cams, road cams etc


and get rid of this type of thing

copy_of_copy_of_Rally.html

dare i even say it

but look at kent cams site

i know its basic but there are lots of simple drop downs as malc suggested

also a nice site for engines components is

http://www.med-engineering.co.uk