Thread: Need Comments on Website

Hi Everyone!

First and foremost.......everyone in here has been very helpful with setting up my website. I believe I have everything working on it with the exception of my shopping cart.......I haven't added this yet even tho I do have a button for it. That will be my next challenge.

I first want to make sure everything else is working ok......looking ok.....what changes need to be made, etc. I'm open for all constructive criticism so don't be afraid to tell me like it is :)

Thanks for your input! www.greatcandlesbymary.com

the site looks really well put together. it flows well and the only thing that i could possibly tell you you need work with would be the shopping cart option.
well done

brandin

Well your keyword meta tag might get you banned from the search engines right out of the gate, no matter how elegantly you make your candles. around 30 keywords and phrases is the MOST that should ever be in there, and if those phrases and words arent on the page, then they should NEVER appear in meta tags.

Your description is ok, but you dont have anything resembling it on your page either. You have a few lines about your spring sales and the rest are pictures. You need to work on the Search Engine aspect as much as you do your shopping cart. If those words dont appear on a page then dont use them. You can put keywords and descriptions on EVERY page in your site, no need for spamming them or using black hat seo to get rank.

Karen

You've made unique navigation for yourself - but while you made the images (background) clickable, you haven't made the words themselves clickable - and I had a heck of a time figuring out that some of those worked. You need both clickable to the pages.

Get your meta and seo worked on (as Karen mentions) - feel free to read the ebook in my signature for basic help with it. You desperately need that to be right! Starting with page titles and getting the meta right.

Site looks good,
-Centering would help. Just right click page properties and check the box.
-Several pages are longer than necessary, cut down on the vertical using page properties.
-Almost every page has some sort of introduction, except your home page, it seems to be missing something. Let buyers know what to expect, hook them in.

Thanks everyone for your input.......I wasn't aware about the amount of keywords for search engines should be limited to around 30. When I first created my index page, I intended to have home decor items on my website and then later decided to not include them at this time. That is why some of my meta tag has words that are not currently on my site. This I realize I need to change..........I've been working on my website for about a month or so and this was one of the first things I did.......not sure how I even did this, will have to go back and refresh my memory so I can remove the words that don't pertain.

I originally had a lot of words on my index page (home page) and was told by friends it was too wordy......so I changed this and I guess I went from one extreme to the other. I will work on putting something out there to "hook" my viewers.....thanks for the input.

Now, my biggest challenge is adding the shopping cart. I'm a little intimidated by this and feel I"m prograstinating on doing so. I realize my site is no good without it and I know I need to get this up and running quickly to make my site functional. I've spent a great deal of time searching the forums on how to do this and which one to go with, but still feel I'm not clear with it all. I think I will probably go with paypal but I was wondering if they have an option that automatically calculates shipping charges? Anyways, you've all be so very helpful and I'm sure I'll be inquiring for your expertise in the next couple of days for help with adding my shopping cart.......any advise, opinions and information you have with this would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks again for your input! Have a blessed day!

There are a number of things you need to consider, and actually the shopping cart should have been first. The most important part of ecommerce is how you collect the money and build that end of it. No matter now.. you are where you are at this point.

You now need to decide if you want a merchant account, which will open a number of other doors for you. Voda Host offers you a free one in the U.S. There are monthly fees to running a merchant account, but also does present a better professional image as there are lots out there who still dont like paypal. Merchant account would open doors to Mals ecart, which is cut and paste code, Roman Cart and Beth's Cart Manager. Paypal does have a similar cut and paste button function to setting up their cart as well, but it does involve higher transaction fees. It does not cost monthly fees and alot of merchants do choose this route.

When reading about integrating the paypal cart, make sure you arent reading the information about PAY PAL PRO, which is a merchant account and does involve fees. Make sure you are reading the correct HOW TO integrate a paypal cart for the freebie accounts.

You could depending on your choices, install one of the builders availabe here into a sub folder and link your already created page to those carts, or start from scratch and also BUILD with those carts.

Karen

I also forgot to add that using cart builders other than paypal, roman cart, mals ecart, and cart manager (these are shared ssl types) will require you to use ssl and dedicated ip to run your merchant account in most cases.

Karen

Hi Everyone!

I made some changes along with adding my shopping cart. Could you please take a look and give me your feedback. I especially want to know if it's easy to navigate and what needs to be added, deleted or changed.

Thanks for your input!

Your post has been moved to your existing site review thread. Please continue with the one thread instead of starting a new one on the same site as per forum rules :)

Sorry......I'll remember to do that next time.......Bethers....did you get a chance to check it out now that I've added my shopping cart?

Very Pretty
I do think centering would make it better and possibly putting links in the product pictures on the front page so people can go straight to them.
Apart from that, great job!

I hadn't looked before - was rushing through, but did just now.

What I would like to see you do is add your navigation to ALL pages. Don't force customers to use the back button - or to have to navigate back to the home page to get to another type of product page - they want it to be as easy as possible. Putting your standard navigation on every page will make it much easier for them :)

I'm also not sure why have the different "steps" before the page they can order from? I'd rather you have the list of all the fragrances right on that page - and have a link to the page explaining the fragrances - instead of the other way around (if you follow that).

Thanks everyone for all your responses.....I made the suggested changes (with the exception of Bethers.....was a little confusing to understand what you were saying....sorry)

I think I'm gonna run with what I have for the time being and see what the customers say.

Thanks again!

It looks really great. The white space left me looking for something, the pages look good, but were you saving the space on the right for links, or....? Good job!!

I like the navigation on all the pages.

As for the other - no biggie - the navigation was more important!

SAman........in your response: "It looks really great. The white space left me looking for something, the pages look good, but were you saving the space on the right for links, or....? Good job!!"

Could you tell me where you're seeing the white spaces?....on what pages or are they on all of them? I shouldn't have any. When I preview my website, I don't see what you're talking about.....does anyone else see these?

thanks!

All you need to do now is center your pages, looks good. Good job!

The centering took care of it, looks real good!!

Thanks everyone! You've been so very helpful and supportive! I hope I can do the same with all that I've learned throughout this process :)

It is lovely! You did a really nice job. Looks nice and airy, has a nice flow to it. My one suggestion is perhaps putting a pic of your containers on the fundraiser page, so the customer will not have to go back to see what they look like.

Best of luck with it...I've seen you over on Candletech as well!

great suggestion vicki! I'm putting pic on fundraiser site right now!