Please Review My New Site

[GolfGripsDirect]

After spending the last 3 months throwing myself against the Advanced Users Guide and getting intimate with the search function on this forum I've launched our new site! The site design hadn't been changed since it was first put together around 6 years ago using the design wizard in v7 so it was definitely due a re-haul. I'm an aspiring part time Web Developer so once I managed to replace the table layout with CSS it became familiar ground. I've still got to replace some images and fix up product descriptions and the like for consistency and there are a few spelling mistakes that I'm going to have to go through and find but aside from the product/section specific bits I'm pleased with it! I would love to get some feedback from you guys since you really know your stuff, I don't know how I would've managed to get it to where it is without searching this forum.

Screenshot of old site

Link to new site

I'm working on some navigation tools to make finding products easier using custom variables as well as properly SEO'ing it and the forum only went live last night which is why it's still empty, but I'd really appreciate any feedback from you guys.

Thanks, Rob

[Mike Hughes]

First impressions:

1. The grey / white combination looks a bit too low key to me. Was surprised to see a burst of bright blue at the bottom of the page.

2. Too many steps to get to the products. At each step (click) from the front page you'll lose some visitors and the search engines start to lose interest.

i.e. Home > Golf Grips > Winn Grips > Iron/Wood Grips > Winn PCI Black Grip ?

3. I wouldn't waste people's time by putting the 'technical info' in a pop-up page. Why not just put the 3-4 lines of text on the page?

4. Prices are shown ex-vat? Is there a reason for this?

5. The free 'how to regrip' guide has to be ordered? Why not make it a free download so they can read it and then place an order there and then? (unless you're after their contact details for follow up). To my mind 'golf grips' are the kind of thing where you need to strike while the iron is hot (excuse the pun) rather than something to follow up with a big sales pitch.

6. The biggie for me really. There's lot's of information about why regrip, the benefits, how to do it, etc, but nothing I could see to tell people how to choose which regrip to get. If I was a potential customer I'd be sitting there without a clue as to which ones I should get.

Winn designed this grip for golfers who desire ultimate control without sacrificing comfort. The PCi resulted from years of R&D, player testing and feedback. The unmatched V17 polymer is combined with a cord under-layer that results in a firm feel and superior performance.

Does this make any sense to anyone?

I just did a quick search for golf grip and choosing a grip seems to be based on things like:

- Moisture management (Waterproof versus Absorbent?)
- Responsiveness (is this a comfort versus feel thing?)
- Surface texture & feel
- grip size (larger grips for larger hands).

Presumably, if grips are technical, there's also a choice of grips suitable for amateurs, experienced golfers and professionals?

All these kind of things ought to be explained and then I'd expect the navigation to help me mind the right one based on my requirements. It would be an awful experience to have to look at every grip in order to find one that was waterproof, comfortable and suitable for a beginner with small hands.

I'd probably organise the site with the grips shown in price ascending order but this is just based on my assumption that price is probably a pretty good measure of who the grips are aimed at. i.e. cheaper ones are probably aimed at the less experienced golfer, who want comfort rather than control.

Mike

[GolfGripsDirect]

Thank you for your review Mike. Over the next few weeks I'm going to be working on a custom search function for grips/shafts/clubs that will allow customers to specify their requirements via custom variables, this should help people get to what they need easier and allow me to move the products up a section level or two without the need for excessive subsections to try and further categorise the products.
Once again thanks for your comments, has given me something to mull over!

Rob

[GolfGripsDirect]

I've been making a lot of changes over the last few months, i'm still addressing the problem of how many clicks between products by using custom variables but this is a somewhat laborious process!

Any further suggestions on how to improve the way it looks and feels currently would be much appreciated!

Thanks, Rob

[NormanRouxel]

You may want to look at optimising your images. E.g. the big grip image on http://www.golfgrips-direct.com/acat...Navy_Blue.html is only 6Kb (good). But visually smaller images on may other pages are 30Kb (about 5 times bigger than optimal).

[Paul Bulpit]

You may want to look at optimising your images. E.g. the big grip image on http://www.golfgrips-direct.com/acat...Navy_Blue.html is only 6Kb (good). But visually smaller images on may other pages are 30Kb (about 5 times bigger than optimal).

Try http://www.smushit.com/ysmush.it/ for this. Upload your images in batches and wait for the results.