Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

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Lora L. Warta
www.diddlehillassociates.com
www.mysticdreamzcollectibles.com

"What you are is your parent`s fault. If you stay that way it`s your fault."

Unless I missed it, it would help to provide a link to the site.


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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

Thank you so much.  I will add it now.  It is www.diddlehillassociates.com  Again, thank you.

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Lora L. Warta
www.diddlehillassociates.com
www.mysticdreamzcollectibles.com

"What you are is your parent`s fault. If you stay that way it`s your fault."

Meta tags for SEO ..... you have duplicates, at least in the main page .... you are trying to cram too many keywords into your metas, they aren`t critical but narrow the focus of them if you use them .... also your title tag should be shortened and focused.

One issue is that you seem to have many different types of products, not a specialty or unique line, so you are competing with many other sites instead of smaller niche sites. Because of that, it will not be easy to get higher search results, so you have to stand out somehow from the others. You might want to eliminate some products and categories and narrow your product line to be more niche oriented ... just a suggestion.

To be honest, the center background should be removed; it doesn`t really add anything, and makes reading the text difficult. That could be a reason for the bounce rates on the main page; if someone can`t read it, they`ll quit looking at it.





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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

Hi Lora,
The first thing I notice is that it`s very hard to read your site. The background looks beautiful, but, unfortunately, it makes it difficult to see what you`re talking about. In particular, your menu items at the top left are fading into the background.

The next thing I notice is that nothing on the home page tells me what you`re offering in particular. There aren`t any headings and subheadings. Think of all those outlines you did in school---they quickly tell the story, without even reading the underlying paragraphs. What`s your "outline?"

For example, just changing one paragraph would help. Instead of:

(The company name means nothing to me); but you`ve got room for a heading:


The "h1" and "h2" tags also stand out in SEO, by the way. Additionally, you have lots of pictures on the front page, but the area where you would create an interest in my mind is crammed off to the far left, barely making an impact.

I don`t understand if you`re selling gift cards, catalogs, or actual items. That should be immediately clear. Then, you need a customer call to action---something that tells me what you expect from me, as I browse around your site.

I really don`t care for the "See All" that drops down into an expanded menu. It`s too distracting trying to figure out what I want to click, then having to move carefully in order for that to happen. I`d rather see a category page, where I don`t have to pay much attention to where I`m clicking.

I went to "Furniture," and saw only a few items, among which are welcome mats. Those are furniture? I almost didn`t notice the next pages, since the text there also fades into the background.

All in all, the site doesn`t have a unifying theme. That doesn`t require Web knowledge, design skills, or anything having to do with technology. It has to do with people-sense, understanding how to develop interest and sales.

What if we met in a bar and I asked, casually, what you do? You could say you run a Web store, but that really isn`t very interesting. Instead, you could say that you sell.......what? Going further, I`m also not particularly interested in what you sell; I`d rather know how you intend to solve some problem I`m not even aware I have in my life, see?

So you could say, "I sell knick-knacks online." Or; you could say, "I help people figure out unusual gifts for people who have everything." The actual phrasing of the words produces a quite different meaning.

All in all, I think the site needs to be specified---that theme. It`s like Webline said above, that you have so many different products you`re creating a sort of confusion instead of offering a variety. Better organization of the product lines would help, but I think a better strategy would be to focus on what each product solves---what it offers---rather than that it simply exists. Does that make sense?

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Lora L. Warta
www.diddlehillassociates.com
www.mysticdreamzcollectibles.com

"What you are is your parent`s fault. If you stay that way it`s your fault."

Hi Lora,
I took a look at your site and I think you have a great basis for being successful.  The look and feel of the site if very professional and attractive. 
I agree with a lot of things that CraigL stated.  You have to have a headline.  User`s attention span is about 5 seconds when they look at a page and decide whether or not to explore. 
Your page title tag should not be just for keyword placement, it should say what you sell.  Example: "Collectible Gifts and Accessories from Diddle Hill Associates".  Since your site home page doesn`t explicitly say what you sell, I looked for the title of the page next and I was really turned off by the jammed in keywords. 

Also, get rid of the advertising.  You are selling your wares, not someone else`s.  You will make more money off of selling your items than the cost per click revenue.  And adsense-type advertising is very unattractive. 

Move the navigation to the left or have it cross the whole top.  And whittle some of the navigation down.  You have a lot of different stuff there, products, testimonials, mailing list links, etc.  Make it all products or narrow the choices down.  Site-users like structure. 

Move the search and the express order to the left underneath the navigation.  Then the pictures of your products will be the first thing users see.  I also agree with CraigL in that you have to get rid of the "See All" navigation.  Make that link go to a page that shows all of the categories. 

There is a great book for designing the layout of your site that you should read if you get the chance: Site Seeing: A Visual Approach to Web Usability; Author: Wroblewski. 

Good luck!

Sorry, I`m not such a cheerleader.  I think the site is far from professional - a bland template that has no life of its own, and does nothing for the products you sell.

It took me quite a bit of time just to figure out the small menu across the top are product categories - I could not read the too small text easily.

I gave up and bounced, but not before wincing at the flashing `freeSEO` link in your sidebar.
*sigh*

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Lora L. Warta
www.diddlehillassociates.com
www.mysticdreamzcollectibles.com

"What you are is your parent`s fault. If you stay that way it`s your fault."