Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

http://www.rattlecake.com

My website has jumped up to the top 15 in Google for "diaper cakes" and I am starting to really make the push for the top 10.  It has taken 9 months, but I feel like I have this site to just about where I want it. The work would have taken someone with experience probably a week, but there is something gratifying about learning and doing all of this stuff for yourself (html, css, etc). Anyway, any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I am getting a bounce rate of around 52% and some outside opinions might tell me why. Thank you in advance!

(I suspect the pink background and the overall font may be a problem, but it does match the theme...thanks)

Hi Michelle. At first glance, I would say the reason that you have not reached a higher search engine placement is because the site code is not current. It doesn`t have todays standards for website code construction.

It`s not the font or the pink background that is causing your bounce rate. It`s because the site looks like it was made in 1998. Bounce rate is the amount of traffic that reaches your site just to leave right after they have arrived. Maybe they hit the back button on the browser to go back to google and click another site.

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For a secure connection to truly be secure all elements on a secure page (one designated by https) need to be secure themselves. You mostly have used relative links which automatically selects the connection for you (because it simply works off of the existing url). However you do seem to have one absolute link, which is using http://, and that is a javascript facebook script. Add https to that script link, or take the script away from that page and you should be good.
Next item on the list, your design. It needs serious work, try not to overuse colors and animation. The spinning images on the home page are quite distracting, same with the rotating best sellers and "new" image. Next your background should be just that, a background, not the main focus. Using a busy background can distract from the actual contents of the site. Next, while your color scheme does fit the theme, it is not the best choice. You cna use colors that compliment a theme, but sparingly, overuse them and you overload the senses. Next, your elements all feel "floaty" like they`re not properly grounded. Applying some borders as appropriate will help block in your design elements. After that i see that you overuse images and other items. If i am registering you should avoid distracting me or else i may leave that page. Though, speaking of which, what does registering on your site provide? I see that when i purchase a product i am given two options, both which i still need to enter my information into... so what am i registering for at your site? This is a rhetorical question because after further investigation i found i can actually checkout straight from your site without the other two options... You need to use proper structure to make one of those options pop out to the user, giving them 3 different options which all seem equally likely can confuse them and/or distract them, make the decision easy for them to make by making it for them by having one of those options seem more pronounced.
Next, your structure is ok for the most part, but is confusing. You obey the text structure of large to small for the most part. But your main logo sitting outside the main table structure and onto the background feels orphaned, and as such my eyes are drawn to the next best thing that is in the main page structure, which is your second headline. But this is not how you intended the page to be read, which just makes it look confusing.
As more of a personal opinion, i`d recommend against using gradients for the background of product images, even more so color gradients. As a hobby i study display calibration, andin doing that i`ve discovered how flawed the human visual system is, but this is because of its adaptive nature. We can recognize something is white whether at night time with bluer light and during the day when the sun gives more of a redder tone. But this also makes color gradients a poor choice for the background of a product image, as our eyes will attempt to adapt and view the color of the product in relation to its background color... but the color is changing. You`re effectively turning each product image into its own visual illusion!

Jarrod--

thank you so much for the response and taking the time to really look at my website.  I am working on the site to incorporate many of your suggestions.  I really understand what you are saying about the colors. 

vwebworld and TMCwebs--thank you guys as well.  Great suggestions that I am working on as well. 

I appreciate everything guys and will definitely keep on working!

UPDATE--

Jarrod, you were correct...I fixed the SSL problem with the account/profile section--The Facebook script needed to be changed to the SSL version.  The script can be found on the Facebook Developers Page (http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Facebook_Connect_Via_SSL) in the top section.  Thanks again for the help.

Hi Rattlecake,

A 50% bounce rate seems high for such a focused product like yours, and your selection seems very high so I doubt that's it either.

I have to agree with the other commenters that your site looks like it's from the 90's (I'm assuming it's zencart or osCommerce).  I don't know what your budget is, but there are some really capable guys on some of the programming/free-lancing websites that can update the look at a very reasonable price.  Especially if you know what you want it to look like, and ca nshow them examples from other sites.

I'm guessing that if you spend a little money to pay someone to make your site look more Web 2.0ish, you could drop your bounce rate significantly.

Good luck!

Thanks again to everyone who has helped me out with advice.  We have totally redesigned Rattlecake Diaper Cakes over the past 4 weeks and the site is now live.  Please check it out and let me know what you think!  Thanks!

Much, much better! The design targets your consumers well without being too busy like before. I have a few suggestions though:

1.) Reduce the size of your site header. Although your logo is taking up the appropriate amount of space, there is no reason for the header, as a whole, to be that large, only make it as large as it needs to be. The smaller the header, the more actual content may be viewable above the site's fold.

2.) Your checkout is less confusing than before. But you can do yourself a great service by doing as i stated before,

"giving them 3 different options which all seem equally likely can confuse them and/or distract them, make the decision easy for them to make by making it for them by having one of those options seem more pronounced."

What you should do is make one of those options a default option, more than likely this will be your in-store checkout option. For example, you can make a button that says "checkout" and thats it! There is no decision making required for those who just want to checkout. Then below that offer your customers two other options by stating "or checkout using..." for those who may want another option. Though this is my second time mentioning this, so if you kept it this way on purpose than ignore this paragraph. I'm just trying to help you avoid the common pitfalls that result in high checkout abandon rates.

3.) Your visual illusion product images are still there! Though now they fit in even less now. The odd gradient backgrounds standout and look out of place next to the new color scheme.

Other than those three nit-picky points the site is greatly improved, good job!