New Topic
Post Reply
Follow Topic
Elbie Messages: http://www.elbiemessages.com/
My wife and I have launched the website for our small business. We sell customized invitations/messages in a bottle. The site was fully designed and developed by the two of us.
All suggestions welcome!
We really appreaciate your time. Thanks in advance.
Elbie Messages LLC
Website: http://www.elbiemessages.com/
Overall the look is ok ... I like the logo, it isn't cluttered, and your message is easy to understand. The dark blue text on the water could be changed for more contrast, though.
I think your cart system could be streamlined to be a bit more user friendly and intuitive. For example, I go to "Birthdays", then click "Message". There are 2 images with prices and radio buttons. It would be beneficial to add some type of text telling me how to proceed, something like...
"Please select the type of bottle you would like, then proceed to select your paper".
On the paper page, again let me know that I can then go to "Accessories" to add more options. Just the large buttons with "Paper", "Accessories", etc., isn't a very helpful guide on how to proceed.
If possible, you may want to have a list of the users current selections on each page as they go through the system and customize their order; this lets people remember what they've already selected, and might help them with color/theme selections as they continue.
When adding text, then clicking "Order Summary", I kept getting the same text entry page over and over, then realized I needed to select the font and font color. A short message at this point stating that these must be entered to be able to continue would be a big help; just saying "None" isn't helpful.
A real nice touch would be to show, if possible, some type of image with all of the options selected, however that might require some intricate programming.
So, my biggest suggestion would be to fine tune the cart system, but overall it looks good.
Nice looking home page. However, there is an annoying flash/delay when I mouse over the two images on the right. This happens when the page is first loaded.
Some other points:
I don't know how long your site has been "live" but it is not indexed by Google yet :-(
When I get to the terms and conditions page - the link at the bottom closes the whole page... so you lose the viewer (by closing his browser). The link should either go back to the prior page OR if you open the terms page in a new browser window it would be ok to close the window. This happens with other pages too.
It would be good to provide some written information about your product. Bottles - while I can see a photo of the bottle describing their dimensions would be good to know. How long before I get my bottle? - Oh found that in your "shipping policy". BUT most people are NOT going to read thorugh your whole site to find out that information.
A more complete description of the process would also be helpful. A little more detailed than "choose your design, wite your message, add to basket". Because the viewer must make many choices - type of bottle,, paper, font, colors, SHIPPING, etc.
As for SEO.. there really is none for your site. Your page title remains the same for all web pages. It is not important to use your name in the title tag, becuase it is your domain. Put the important key words FIRST in your title tag. Also, I didn't see a "description" meta tag.
Since there is relatively no text for search engines to read on your home page, you might want to expand upon your alt image tag text. Instead of just "Elbie messages" . duplicate all the text from your image. And add alt image tags to the invitation and personal message images.
~Roland
Webline, Roland: Thank you very much for your website critique. The feedback is very much appreciated.
Webline:
We appreciate your inuput about streamlining our shopping cart.
Were taking your advice and have created three new streamlining tasks that will be implemented shortly. Also, were currently modifying the text entry page to make it more user friendly. Thanks again.
Roland:
Thank you for feedback. Much appreciated.
We are not fully SEO friendly just yet... were begining to work on that during our marketing phase.
The issue you've encountered regarding the browser closing appears to be a defect in our site when using Internet Explorer. Those specific screens were meant to be pop-up windows. This issue has been corrected. Thank you.
We will also be adding more informational text to help with the user friendlieness of the website's experience.
Once again, we greatly appreciate your feedback.
Thank you,
Elbie Messages
Post Reply
