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Redesigned Steel Jewellery Store Feedback?


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Hey there,

 

I've changed around the color scheme and look of my store quite a bit, and so I would like to see what you guys think of it. Also, any new technical issues that I might be unaware of...

 

Sales are still quite slow. I'm showing up in the first 1 - 3 pages in Google right now, but people look and then leave, I guess. I don't know what that means... I'm on Page 1 of Google but still don't sell much. Isn't that what people want, is to be on Page 1 of Google?? I don't pay or advertise or anything, except on this one shopping site, but they just have a link to my site, not a price comparison of products or anything.

 

Anyway, any feedback will be appreciated. Thanks!

 

My Website

 

Nicole

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Your site design and info is not give a very "trustworthy" impression.

 

No contact or address information.

 

Paypal as the only payment option.

 

The use of white and black background is inconsistent, it looks more professional using just one background color site wide.

 

Some of the text colors are not very "readable".

 

 

About sales.

 

Nr. 1 in Google does say much, anyone can be nr. 1 for some "un-important/un-used" term...

 

What is important is to be high in the search rankings on relevant and highly used keywords and/or key frases which will give you targeted visitors to your site.

 

Have you checked your prices vs. your web competitors?

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Your site design and info is not give a very "trustworthy" impression.

 

No contact or address information.

They can use "Contact Us", like anyone else would. Do you think I should put my phone number and email at the top on my header? I know some people do that, but I really think people should try harder to get your contact information. I get enough spam, and if people want to talk to me, they will find a way.

 

Paypal as the only payment option.

 

The use of white and black background is inconsistent, it looks more professional using just one background color site wide.

I think it's all black, except the thing at the bottom with the ssl and paypal seals, and if anyone knows how to change that, lemme know!

Some of the text colors are not very "readable".

Which ones? I looked through, but I didn't see anything that looked too different. If you can tell me which page, I'll check 'em.

 

About sales.

 

Nr. 1 in Google does say much, anyone can be nr. 1 for some "un-important/un-used" term...

 

Wow... Just wow... What is that? You don't even know the term I was using. I searched for what I sell. Which may well be "unimportant and unused" (no need for dashes there), but nonetheless...

 

What is important is to be high in the search rankings on relevant and highly used keywords and/or key frases which will give you targeted visitors to your site.

 

Have you checked your prices vs. your web competitors?

 

My replies are in bold, and thanks for the feedback.

 

Nicole

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They can use "Contact Us", like anyone else would. Do you think I should put my phone number and email at the top on my header? I know some people do that, but I really think people should try harder to get your contact information. I get enough spam, and if people want to talk to me, they will find a way.

 

Its not about if people can contact find out to contact you or not..

 

Its about how comfortable/secure a potential customer feels about shopping at your site.

 

An easily found phone number and/or address helps alot in terms of customer confidence.

 

 

To turn it around. alot of potential customers WILL NOT BUY from a site where phone number and address is not listed.

 

 

Which ones? I looked through, but I didn't see anything that looked too different. If you can tell me which page, I'll check 'em

 

For instance the dark red text on the create_account page.

 

I think it's all black, except the thing at the bottom with the ssl and paypal seals, and if anyone knows how to change that, lemme know!

 

Also the main center part, which now is white which clases with the black boxes...

 

It makes the site look "amateurish" , ie. alot of customers will not feel confident enough to purchase anything at such a site.

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For instance the dark red text on this page:

 

Thanks for pointing that out... Ive changed it now.

 

But aren't we not supposed to type out url's in here??? <_< I need to get that deleted from that post, I think.

 

Thanks

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OK, does anyone else have any opinions? ;) I'm mostly just wondering about the look, and if anything is broken.

 

I do understand the point about putting your phone number and stuff on there, but I' m just not gonna do it, so ignore that part and look at the rest, K? :) I have no money for an 800 number and I work from home, so I really don't want my private info on there.

 

Is it really that bad?? "amateurish" and "such a site"? I remember when a lot of the feedback was full of insults, but I thought those days were gone. Constructive advice is appreciated, so if it's bad, let me know. I would like at least one more opinion though.

 

Thanks!

 

Nicole

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OK, does anyone else have any opinions? ;) I'm mostly just wondering about the look, and if anything is broken.

 

I do understand the point about putting your phone number and stuff on there, but I' m just not gonna do it, so ignore that part and look at the rest, K? :) I have no money for an 800 number and I work from home, so I really don't want my private info on there.

 

Is it really that bad?? "amateurish" and "such a site"? I remember when a lot of the feedback was full of insults, but I thought those days were gone. Constructive advice is appreciated, so if it's bad, let me know. I would like at least one more opinion though.

 

Thanks!

 

Nicole

IMHO, I think your site is too dark (it makes the dust on my screen real noticeable). The text seems hard to read with the dark background. You might consider making the text white and bold.

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Hey there,

 

I've changed around the color scheme and look of my store quite a bit, and so I would like to see what you guys think of it. Also, any new technical issues that I might be unaware of...

 

Sales are still quite slow. I'm showing up in the first 1 - 3 pages in Google right now, but people look and then leave, I guess. I don't know what that means... I'm on Page 1 of Google but still don't sell much. Isn't that what people want, is to be on Page 1 of Google?? I don't pay or advertise or anything, except on this one shopping site, but they just have a link to my site, not a price comparison of products or anything.

 

Anyway, any feedback will be appreciated. Thanks!

 

My Website

 

Nicole

 

Hello,

 

I looked over your site and these are my impressions.

 

The Site looks very dark, because your inventory backgrounds are very white and it affects the overall contrast of the Site.

I would suggest you consider making the text white to make it easier to read. Also some of your images have a oval/circular effect that makes the image hard to see. I would do away with that.

 

The Contact info is fine and I understand why you do not want to give your phone. I felt the same way. I started my website in 2005 and put my phone on it and have gotten a whole 5 phone calls if that over the years. However studies show listing an address and phone number do increase sales. Just don't list the street address, although if you a legit business, I can check with the city you registered your domain from in California, as business linsences are Public Domain. I know where your from because your Domain info is out there.

 

Website Title: The Steel Something Boutique Stainless Steel Jewellery, Gifts, and Wine Accessories

Title Relevancy 70%

Meta Description: Stainless steel jewellery for men and women

Relevancy: 57% relevant.

Meta Keywords: stainless steel bracelet, stainless steel pendant, stainless steel cufflinks, stainless steel ring, stainless steel earring, stainless steel jewellery, stainless steel jewelry, free gift wrapping, free shipping

Relevancy: 44% relevant

SEO Score: 90%

Terms: 189 (Unique: 107, Linked: 73)

Images: 40 (Alt tags missing: 24)

Links: 47 (Internal: 45, Outbound: 1)

 

This is your Alexa Trend/Rank: #12,203,358: Down 2,491,551 ranks over the last three months. So your getting better. I would suggest making landing pages that are for specific items in your cart with XHTML. Then linking the product(s) that you are highlighting link directly to your Buy Now cart link. Make the landing page with specfic info about a particular product. Be creative but factual. If you are not sure how to Program Xhtml then goto w3schools.com and you can learn for free.

 

When I look at this page: www.steelsomething.com/storemain/catalog/privacy.php on your store, below the contimue button there is a big White Square block that is bright white which interfers with the cintrast of the page. this is true for all your info pages.

 

Well thats my 2 censt hope this helps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I

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IMHO, I think your site is too dark (it makes the dust on my screen real noticeable). The text seems hard to read with the dark background. You might consider making the text white and bold.

Thanks for looking. I did make the text lighter, but not white. ;) I made it bigger too, so hopefully it will be easier to read now.

 

Cheers

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Hello,

 

I looked over your site and these are my impressions.

 

The Site looks very dark, because your inventory backgrounds are very white and it affects the overall contrast of the Site.

I would suggest you consider making the text white to make it easier to read. Also some of your images have a oval/circular effect that makes the image hard to see. I would do away with that.

 

The Contact info is fine and I understand why you do not want to give your phone. I felt the same way. I started my website in 2005 and put my phone on it and have gotten a whole 5 phone calls if that over the years. However studies show listing an address and phone number do increase sales. Just don't list the street address, although if you a legit business, I can check with the city you registered your domain from in California, as business linsences are Public Domain. I know where your from because your Domain info is out there.

 

Website Title: The Steel Something Boutique Stainless Steel Jewellery, Gifts, and Wine Accessories

Title Relevancy 70%

Meta Description: Stainless steel jewellery for men and women

Relevancy: 57% relevant.

Meta Keywords: stainless steel bracelet, stainless steel pendant, stainless steel cufflinks, stainless steel ring, stainless steel earring, stainless steel jewellery, stainless steel jewelry, free gift wrapping, free shipping

Relevancy: 44% relevant

SEO Score: 90%

Terms: 189 (Unique: 107, Linked: 73)

Images: 40 (Alt tags missing: 24)

Links: 47 (Internal: 45, Outbound: 1)

 

This is your Alexa Trend/Rank: #12,203,358: Down 2,491,551 ranks over the last three months. So your getting better. I would suggest making landing pages that are for specific items in your cart with XHTML. Then linking the product(s) that you are highlighting link directly to your Buy Now cart link. Make the landing page with specfic info about a particular product. Be creative but factual. If you are not sure how to Program Xhtml then goto w3schools.com and you can learn for free.

 

When I look at this page: www.steelsomething.com/storemain/catalog/privacy.php on your store, below the contimue button there is a big White Square block that is bright white which interfers with the cintrast of the page. this is true for all your info pages.

 

Well thats my 2 censt hope this helps.

Thanks! That was nice of you to check all that stuff. Not sure what some of those ratings mean, but if you say I'm getting better, I believe you. ;) I know I need to do some work on my meta tags and stuff...

 

I did change some of the big white boxes at the bottom, made the text lighter and bigger, and am still tweaking that stuff. Hopefully it looks better now.

 

I know that people can find you on the domain registration and stuff, and that's OK with me, but I just don't want to put my address or phone number on the web page, and I don't think a PO Box would look any better than not having anything, so that doesn't seem like the thing to do either. I get so many emails from people in China wanting to sell jewellery to me, that if I put my cell number on there I would go broke listening to the messages.

 

Now I have a question... When I changed the footer table to black, my PayPal logo doesn't show up in IE any more, but you can still see it in Firefox. Why?

 

OK, two questions... I can't figure out where to change the font size of the product descriptions... They are really small and I cannot remember where they are. Anyone know?

 

Thanks

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Thanks! That was nice of you to check all that stuff. Not sure what some of those ratings mean, but if you say I'm getting better, I believe you. ;) I know I need to do some work on my meta tags and stuff...

 

I did change some of the big white boxes at the bottom, made the text lighter and bigger, and am still tweaking that stuff. Hopefully it looks better now.

 

I know that people can find you on the domain registration and stuff, and that's OK with me, but I just don't want to put my address or phone number on the web page, and I don't think a PO Box would look any better than not having anything, so that doesn't seem like the thing to do either. I get so many emails from people in China wanting to sell jewellery to me, that if I put my cell number on there I would go broke listening to the messages.

 

Now I have a question... When I changed the footer table to black, my PayPal logo doesn't show up in IE any more, but you can still see it in Firefox. Why?

 

OK, two questions... I can't figure out where to change the font size of the product descriptions... They are really small and I cannot remember where they are. Anyone know?

 

Thanks

Try removing

align="right"

in

<table width="100%" bgcolor="000000" align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">

I am assuming in the /includes/footer.php file.

 

 

Also on your product listing page you can hardly read the product titles. (https://www.steelsomething.com/storemain/catalog/index.php?cPath=21)

 

for the product description font size I think that can be changed via the style sheet (stylesheet.css).

BODY {
 background: #000000;
 color: #999999;
font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;
font-size: 13px;
margin: 5px;

}

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Try removing

align="right"

in

<table width="100%" bgcolor="000000" align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">

I am assuming in the /includes/footer.php file.

 

 

Also on your product listing page you can hardly read the product titles. (https://www.steelsomething.com/storemain/catalog/index.php?cPath=21)

 

for the product description font size I think that can be changed via the style sheet (stylesheet.css).

BODY {
 background: #000000;
 color: #999999;
font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;
font-size: 13px;
margin: 5px;

}

You are delightful! The "align right" thing was exactly right. Deleted that and it shows up now. I went all mental trying to move the thing to the right side. :blink:

 

I made the font darker on the product descriptions, and the font size for the product description was in the "TD.main, P.main" section of the stylesheet.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Nicole

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I know is hard to agree with other people when you have spend alot of time and energy getting your website up. And because of that you are not hearing people saying that your website is too dark. Look at big jelewry sites like Zales.com, yes they have the money to make a great website but that's not the point. I agree with the rest of the people that your website is too dark. As far as a phone #, i use a company call Maxemail.com. I can send faxes and receive phone messages with one phone number with out giving my personal information. I only pay about $24.00 per year to use this service. I also use a Po box listed on my website for an address, and pay about $35 per every 6 months to have it or $70 per year. Don't take it personal when other people give you there honest feedback, as some times we can't see our own mistakes until some body else point them up.

 

Take care, and wish you the best in your journey.

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I know is hard to agree with other people when you have spend alot of time and energy getting your website up. And because of that you are not hearing people saying that your website is too dark. Look at big jelewry sites like Zales.com, yes they have the money to make a great website but that's not the point. I agree with the rest of the people that your website is too dark. As far as a phone #, i use a company call Maxemail.com. I can send faxes and receive phone messages with one phone number with out giving my personal information. I only pay about $24.00 per year to use this service. I also use a Po box listed on my website for an address, and pay about $35 per every 6 months to have it or $70 per year. Don't take it personal when other people give you there honest feedback, as some times we can't see our own mistakes until some body else point them up.

 

Take care, and wish you the best in your journey.

 

Thanks for being so considerate. I know it's too dark right now, that's my new thing... I had a bunch of red in there before and no one complained about it, so now I know that wasn't the best move. If it motivates someone to dust their monitor though, all the better! ;) I'll change it all back one day soon.

 

Cheers,

 

Nicole

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Thanks for being so considerate. I know it's too dark right now, that's my new thing... I had a bunch of red in there before and no one complained about it, so now I know that wasn't the best move. If it motivates someone to dust their monitor though, all the better! ;) I'll change it all back one day soon.

 

Cheers,

 

Nicole

Didn't motivate me (:

lol

Just noticed your site redirects to https instead of http. You might want to change this. http is faster and will not affect your google SERP.

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Didn't motivate me (:

lol

Just noticed your site redirects to https instead of http. You might want to change this. http is faster and will not affect your google SERP.

 

Hahaa! OK, Dusty. :P I put some red back in there. Howzzat?

 

Where is the https? I looked at several things and didn't find it... All the ones I saw had http. It eludes me.

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Hahaa! OK, Dusty. :P I put some red back in there. Howzzat?

 

Where is the https? I looked at several things and didn't find it... All the ones I saw had http. It eludes me.

That's a little better but it still appears to be too dark. When you visit your website (http://www.steelsomething.com/) it redirects to https://steelsomething.com/storemain//catalog/index.php. Notice the https.

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  • 3 weeks later...

One more time?

 

I lightened it up a bit and added some new stuff. Anyone have any suggestions? I compromised (in my mind anyway) about the address, and added my city into the header... A bit better?

 

The font color, I'm kinda stuck with because some backgrounds are white and some are black, and this is the only color that shows up enough on both. I kept lightening it and darkening it in accordance with the feedback, and then gave up! :blink:

 

Also, I just made some buttons (Add to cart, etc.) with my little steel ball pic from the header, and I am wondering if I've overdone it? I just have such fun with the graphics sometimes, so if it's too much, please let me know.

 

Or anything that is good or bad, I'm listening... ;)

 

Cheers,

Nicole

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The dark color scheme really didn't bother me. The washed-out payment logos did. But honestly - I wouldn't buy jewelry from a company with no contact info...

 

The overall look and feel as I clicked around, such as the contact us page, felt like the white boxes had been whacked into the code with a shoe-horn and a ball-pean hammer... Not very "finished" / "pulled together" looking.

 

Just my two cents. Hopefully heavier on the "constructive" than the "criticism".

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The dark color scheme really didn't bother me. The washed-out payment logos did. But honestly - I wouldn't buy jewelry from a company with no contact info...

 

The overall look and feel as I clicked around, such as the contact us page, felt like the white boxes had been whacked into the code with a shoe-horn and a ball-pean hammer... Not very "finished" / "pulled together" looking.

 

Just my two cents. Hopefully heavier on the "constructive" than the "criticism".

 

Absolutely no worries. Thanks for mentioning the contact us page - that did look a bit crappy. I just noticed there are a couple more like that deeper down in the checkout process, but I was in the middle of a PayPal heart attack, so I left them for now. I'll go fix them too.

 

I darkened up the payment logos, but I don't like the color ones because they look weird with my colors. Would I be better off with nothing? I looked at a few sites today and they didn't have any payment logos at all, but I thought it was kind of important to have them on there.

 

Contact info... I am starting to see the light about that, but.... not sure what I want to do about it.

 

Thanks for your time! :)

 

Nicole

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I hacve to agree with everyone out there.. Still too dark, and it still lacks some type of style.. ESPECIALLY with those huge while boxes. If you want to go dark, go all dark.. Otherwise dont. You have while boxes for the product listing, info, and some other info boxes.. it looks HALF DONE. I'm sure you did this so that the readability in those pages is better.. but that means that you do realize that the readability elsewhere is not.

 

the grey text looks.. well, like your site has not finished loading, or all of the links are unclickable.. because when i think of a broken link, i think of dark grey text.. I would lighten it up A LOT.. dont go white, because that will be too stark of a contrast, but about 2-3 levels up on the grey scale will change your site HUGELY.. trust me.

 

UNLESS you decide to not go dark background, because you still have a choice to make.. dark or light.. You cant have both.. If you are dead set on keeping the dark, then replace the white boxes with some nice white , rounded corner boxes with an opacity to them.. You dont need to do it with CSS (although you can) but you can make a transparent png that will serve as the background. Or even just a grey background that LOOKS like its opaque

 

basically, having a dark website CAN BE DONE.. but it will be a LOT harder, and a lot more coding intensive.

 

What you should do is google DARK WORDPRESS THEMES. I know, this is not wordpress.. but there are some GREAT all dark thems out there that are GORGEOUS and they do it hte right way.. My personal feeling, however.. is that i still do not, overall, like dark websites. They are harder to read, they dont stand out.. and they are drab.. even the most beautifully formatted ones.

A great place for newbies to start

Road Map to oscommerce File Structure

DO NOT PM ME FOR HELP. My time is valuable, unless i ask you to PM me, please dont. You will get better help if you post publicly. I am not as good at this as you think anyways!

 

HOWEVER, you can visit my blog (go to my profile to see it) and post a question there, i will find time to get back and answer you

 

Proud Memeber of the CODE BREAKERS CLUB!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

:lol:

Well... now I've made it all black, and I know that will not go over well here, but I like it. We'll see how it goes. I do get some quite positive unsolicited feedback on it from people who just go there and look/shop, etc., so that's encouraging. They think it's pretty. :)

 

I appreciate the feedback, and thanks for looking!

 

Nicole

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I hacve to agree with everyone out there.. Still too dark, and it still lacks some type of style.. ESPECIALLY with those huge while boxes. If you want to go dark, go all dark.. Otherwise dont. You have while boxes for the product listing, info, and some other info boxes.. it looks HALF DONE. I'm sure you did this so that the readability in those pages is better.. but that means that you do realize that the readability elsewhere is not.

 

the grey text looks.. well, like your site has not finished loading, or all of the links are unclickable.. because when i think of a broken link, i think of dark grey text.. I would lighten it up A LOT.. dont go white, because that will be too stark of a contrast, but about 2-3 levels up on the grey scale will change your site HUGELY.. trust me.

 

UNLESS you decide to not go dark background, because you still have a choice to make.. dark or light.. You cant have both.. If you are dead set on keeping the dark, then replace the white boxes with some nice white , rounded corner boxes with an opacity to them.. You dont need to do it with CSS (although you can) but you can make a transparent png that will serve as the background. Or even just a grey background that LOOKS like its opaque

 

basically, having a dark website CAN BE DONE.. but it will be a LOT harder, and a lot more coding intensive.

 

What you should do is google DARK WORDPRESS THEMES. I know, this is not wordpress.. but there are some GREAT all dark thems out there that are GORGEOUS and they do it hte right way.. My personal feeling, however.. is that i still do not, overall, like dark websites. They are harder to read, they dont stand out.. and they are drab.. even the most beautifully formatted ones.

 

Oh my god. "Memeber" of the Code Breakers Club? The little red lines under the words mean that you spelled them wrong. If you're going to be critical, maybe give the spell check a try so you look like you know what you're talking about.

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oh.. didnt know you had to be an editor to be able to code and know design..

 

Maybe you should take the advice of the 10 people who told you that the design isnt working? or just dont ask for feedback

 

The worse thing about working with store owners is that they dont realize that what THEY like isnt always what their customers like, and they are not selling to themselves.. So get over what you like and start to consider actual design and target audeince - oohh.. did i spell another word wrong?

A great place for newbies to start

Road Map to oscommerce File Structure

DO NOT PM ME FOR HELP. My time is valuable, unless i ask you to PM me, please dont. You will get better help if you post publicly. I am not as good at this as you think anyways!

 

HOWEVER, you can visit my blog (go to my profile to see it) and post a question there, i will find time to get back and answer you

 

Proud Memeber of the CODE BREAKERS CLUB!!

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