Google search issues

[madboyo]

Grant (I'm assuming that's your name?) I do understand and have taken everything all have said. Hence I have advised my friend the owner to change the T&C's.

He is in the process of changing the returns policy right now and then submit that to TS's.

Hoops is my nickname given my surname is Hooper.

[grantglendinnin]

Yup, you got it

Another major thing I think would improve the site:

Your home page doesn't link through to the shop sections, as previously mentioned.

The shop landing page is very bland - every section uses the same image. Make the images for the sections represent the section content as best as you can - users look for images before words.

Furthermore, to solve the issue of having a very long-winded list on the homepage, why not use Norman's Collapso - this seems a more than ideal solution for this sort of problem. Though I don't see what's wrong with using the TLS menu you have in your shop-page layout. If you insist on having a long (in terms of height) home page, there is still a good bit of space you could use on the left sidebar to include the same menu you have used for your section/product pages.

Finally, apply your overall layout to your T+C's page. Notice once you click on T+C's there's no way to get back to the shop without clicking the 'Back' button.

[acompton]

It seems that in order to be taken seriously my name is essential

Not essential, but it helps. People in here are dishing out advice on commercial matters, and like to know that the person they are helping is a serious trader, and not a scammer. They have to make a judgement call about the motives of the poster - much like the judgement that customers make when they visit a site. Trust is important when selling on the internet and for the customer, it comes down to a gut feeling in the end. You'd be amazed how many people actually read the About Us page.

BTW: "Bike Extras" shouldn't have an apostrophe.

[acompton]

Finally, apply your overall layout to your T+C's page. Notice once you click on T+C's there's no way to get back to the shop without clicking the 'Back' button.

Its a common convention that the top banner or top-left logo should be a link to your home page. Unfortunately, this isn't a default facility in Actinic.

[madboyo]

Yup, you got it

Another major thing I think would improve the site:

Your home page doesn't link through to the shop sections, as previously mentioned.

The shop landing page is very bland - every section uses the same image. Make the images for the sections represent the section content as best as you can - users look for images before words.

Furthermore, to solve the issue of having a very long-winded list on the homepage, why not use Norman's Collapso - this seems a more than ideal solution for this sort of problem. Though I don't see what's wrong with using the TLS menu you have in your shop-page layout. If you insist on having a long (in terms of height) home page, there is still a good bit of space you could use on the left sidebar to include the same menu you have used for your section/product pages.

Finally, apply your overall layout to your T+C's page. Notice once you click on T+C's there's no way to get back to the shop without clicking the 'Back' button.

It's interesting that you raise the points you have given this was a conversation I had with the owner before I logged back on and saw your comments.

I have suggested we move the logos in the lefthand panel and replace with the section headings as per when you are actually in the shop. I also suggested given how the products have been arranged in what he thought were logical grouping that we use the Windows slide out menu system that will allow the user to navigate directly to the product that could actually be 5 levels down.

The bland comment is fair enough as it's personnel opinion. The aim of the site was to provide some sort of common layout that as soon as the user had viewed one section he could navigate all the sections. This has led to some levels being there for the sake of being there e.g. Guts Racing. The flag icon was used as we were struggling to get everything to look even across the page i.e. line up horizontally and vertically as it looked a really mess when we used specific images some of which didn't like being reduced that small. We've found that enough users would miss products or couldn't be bother to scroll down with pages that extended to far down.

Just to readdress the address issue I've also been told that customers were starting to turn up unannounced thinking it was a retail outlet where in reality it's a warehouse for mail order only. I guess we need to make sure it's advertised properly that MXBits is mail order only.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say TLS menu and hopefully you'll see we don't like long pages for some of the reasons previously said.

The T&C's were set out like that because if you use the T&C's section under the Business settings it didn't allow us to put in bold headings or structure it in the way we wanted to. We just deleted all the previous info within Actinic and then composed a new page outside of Actinic and changed the link. Totally agree we need a link back to either the home page or the entry to the shop.

This is great help and totally agree with the comments we need to fix it first before worrying about our rankings. Just a shame it took so long to get to this point.

[madboyo]

I think you info page has some coding issues because the <head> area is missing which also suggests that this site is not legit.

I'm sorry I'm not clear on which Info page you mean.

You have a lot of info on there about what a customer should do if they want to return an item, but they have no idea where to send it...

I believe the address is part of the form the customers are required to complete. Customers are also expected to call MXBits to register there is a problem and that the address is given out at that point from what I have been told.

You also state that there is 17.5% VAT applied, this needs to be communicated to customers at product level and your VAT registration number needs to be visible. IT SHOULD ALSO BE 15%

MXbits is legit including VAT registration as hopefully you guys now accept. Is showing the VAT no. a feel good thing or is it required by law?

My friend i.e. the owner has been told by me that no other products are to go on this site until we correct everything else otherwise we'll be having this type of discussion in another 12 months.

[Rich Brady]

Info page = Terms and Conditions

You must have your VAT registration number on the site. There's a field in Business Settings for it.

I don't doubt that you guys are legit, but we wanted to give you opinions from a customer perspective.

Well done for convincing the owner these things aren't just going to go away. He may even be surprised how many more conversion he makes

[acompton]

Is showing the VAT no. a feel good thing or is it required by law?

Even if it isn't required by law, its just another small pointer that makes the site stand out as a serious business.

[Darren B]

Did anyone mention pci-dss for collecting credit card information?

[Rich Brady]

Can't remember, add it to the list LOL.

Alan if you are VAT registered it is a requirement to have your VAT Registration Number visible.

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg...3866263&r.s=sc

[grantglendinnin]

Hoops, which version of Actinic are you using? Changes to the layout of the T+C's page can be made on the 'Design' tab on v8 and v9. Ideally you want the same features throughout the site on every page - stick to a horizontal menu at the top and a vertical menu on the left - this way once a customer gets to your site, they don't have to hunt just to find the menu - keep things simple.

Have a look here and here - I think they will help you alot with using different sized images which cause your layout to appear messy as you described.

Get the basics done, then you can worry about the fine details later. Though the topic which Darren mentioned is also an urgent matter which you will need to look into sooner rather than later, as it is now required by law.

[madboyo]

Did anyone mention pci-dss for collecting credit card information?

PCI-DSS????? Sorry you're gonna have to explain that or provide me with a link so that I can read about it.

Can't remember, add it to the list LOL.

Alan if you are VAT registered it is a requirement to have your VAT Registration Number visible.

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg...3866263&r.s=sc

Umm well I read it so I'll pass it on and see what the boss says. As far as I'm concerned it needs to go on the site.

Hoops, which version of Actinic are you using? Changes to the layout of the T+C's page can be made on the 'Design' tab on v8 and v9. Ideally you want the same features throughout the site on every page - stick to a horizontal menu at the top and a vertical menu on the left - this way once a customer gets to your site, they don't have to hunt just to find the menu - keep things simple.

Have a look here and here - I think they will help you alot with using different sized images which cause your layout to appear messy as you described.

Get the basics done, then you can worry about the fine details later. Though the topic which Darren mentioned is also an urgent matter which you will need to look into sooner rather than later, as it is now required by law.

Grant, there are two things I love cut and paste code and great advice. I know for a fact that image code would save him hours of work. The only issue is that he/we work on v7.x and to be honest whilst there are a few things that later versions make easier e.g. the customisable t&c's section, mailshots (I think) being another. I've already written code to extract email addresses from the database and remove all the duplicates etc so I've got around that problem. I'm not sure the reasons are compelling enough to spend the extra money. It's not my decision so I'll have to pass it on again. Unless the people with experience who thought like MXBits but bit the bullet and did the transition can give me a set of bullets points as to why productivity, management of the site will increase then I doubt the money to upgrade will be spent especially in these times where less people are riding less frequently therefore turnover is lower. It's the 80 > 20 rule if you get my meaning.

I guess I could download the trial version do the upgrade and then start playing around to see the improvements.

re: the menus at the top and the left. I'm assuming you mean the 3 buttons that appear on the shop page that aren't there on the front page and the 1st level section headings as well. I did speak to him about those especially the left menu. It's almost getting to the point where he could almost do with losing the front page but that page is so useful to advertise new stuff with out messing the front page of the catalogue up all the time. I'd like to give the sliding windows style menu a try but he's not sure. Maybe I'll do it on the backup pc and see what happens. I think with the way the sub-sections are split down and the fact you can go 5 levels down before you even get to a product the sliding menus would be a way of speeding things up.

Man there's so much to think about and I don't even get paid for this. LOL

It's interesting that none of you have mentioned something that's been driving me nuts about the top main logo. Internet explorer interprets that section differently to Firefox. One has one white outline and the other has two. I don't know which browser is at fault but I'm guessing it's IE. If I remember correctly IE inserted the bottom white line. All I did was add the same dimension white line into the jpg to make it look the same. That was before I realised Firefox didn't. Oh well. The stats show 98% of the users on MXBits use IE (more fool them) so I guess for the majority it looks symmetrical. It bugs the hell out of me being a techie and a perfectionist as well.

[leehack]

PCI-DSS????? Sorry you're gonna have to explain that or provide me with a link so that I can read about it.

This forum and the web have stacks of info on this, use the forum search to see all threads on it. It started in April last year, so you are 10 months late already.

[acompton]

PCI-DSS????? Sorry you're gonna have to explain that or provide me with a link so that I can read about it.

There's a sticky thread in the e-commerce business section
http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=34718

[madboyo]

There's a sticky thread in the e-commerce business section
http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=34718

Oh how I love you guys

The PDI-DSS is unreal. One one hand you can do all your online banking using 128bit ssl connections but it isn't secure enough for online payments??????? I know that isn't the only issue as holding data and making sure you have controlled access to it outside of Windows based security is also another.

http://www.actinic.co.uk/services/pci-dss.htm

According to this "For the majority of small businesses, achieving compliance will probably not be practical or cost-effective."

"Alternatively, you can have your customers and staff enter card details only into sites and systems supplied by a third party who are themselves PCI DSS compliant."

Great so the banks basically give small or startup businesses no chance of being PCI-DSS compliant unless they go to a PSP due to costs.

Even if you adopt PSP and therefore become compliant any employee is allowed to enter payment details for the customer over the phone. What stops staff from writing them down on pieces of paper? How many small one-man businesses shred there waste paper or have it securely disposed of?

Wheres the mention of how secure you communications are i.e. cordless phones, mobiles, bluetooth devices, VOIP etc etc etc? All of those devices have security risks some more than others.

All this from asking about SEO LOL.


So he/we are trying to work out whether to go Actinic Express and Payments or to go with the latest version of Actinic, possible Actinic cover and or Actinic Payments. What happens to our existing site? Does it need to be compliant still? Obviously we will drop the current shared cert being used now.

I still fail to understand how businesses who wish to only charge customers at the point of dispatch can easily use a PCI-DSS compliant service which allows customers to input details beofre they need to be charged.

He/we are talking to Streamline about how our current payment system complies given this quotation from Actinic's own site "Royal Bank of Scotland/Natwest/Streamline and HBOS have made clear statements that a merchant can depend on the compliance of their PSP.

Act Express sound like it may be ok with added benefits of hosting, support and software upgrades all rolled in to 1 monthly payment but I have the following reservations.

I think contact with Actinic will be made to see if they have migration tools available to help you assess if Express is the correct product based on you site.

I'm also concerned on how flexible the product will be given we have written/copied code to allow single product pages such as http://www.mxbits.com/acatalog/Honda...Sprockets.html and as you have seen modified menus. We have also substituted flat buttons with gradient buttons using custom made gif's because of the lack of expertise surrounding CSS and implementing into Actinic. Basically the supplied templates only had the basics of how MXBits wanted to portray itself. Now if Express doesn't contain that level of customisation or allow us to insert code to allow us to make it look how it needs to then Express is not the product for MXBits. It also looks like it does not have the email infrastructure built into it the our current hosting does to service the mailboxes we run either. On the other hand having the all in one cost allows MXBit's to reduce it's current outlay.