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RoxanneMM

posts: 5

Nov 27, 2007 12:06 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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Hello,

I need help. I`m new to the forum. I have a website that sells outdoor clothing and equipment to kids ages 0 -14. We have been online for about 5 weeks. I have spent nearly $800 on Adwords and image ads. We even have a winter fleece sale going on. However, we have not sold a single thing. Not one.

I `ve had Google analytics installed for about two weeks. From what I can tell no one has put anything in the cart. Our traffic is quite weak. Our max day was 74 visits. We are not showing up on Goolge natural search, either. Is this normal after 5 weeks?

I hired a company to do the site and they have been very responsive. They tell me not to panic, yet. But I must say, this is scary.

I am currently working on improving the following things on the site:

More products (on the way)
Writing more articles for resources and finding a way to link the to relevant products,
Create category pages,
Improve product page by making image larger, moving products details and action bar up higher on the page.

Will some of you just take a look at the website and please tell me what I am doing wrong?

I really appreciate any insight you may have. Thank you in advance!

vwebworld

posts: 1237

Nov 27, 2007 1:30 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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Hi,

The site is nice and is indexed by Google. What are your target search words?

Recognize that the "title" of the page is important. Right now your title of the home page is "Blue Planet Kids". Just browsing through your product categories I found the title said "Browsing"...the category name. You should remove the word "browsing".

Not many people search using that term.

Determine what keyword search terms are your targets. Name your categories using terms people would use to search for the products.

There is a problem with your website code... all the styles are in the code rather on a separate file. This is alot of code for search bots to go through and will hinder some bot from indexing your page properly.

If you do not have a google sitemap uploaded to google, do so.

Also, make sure you have a site map on your home page.

Work on getting links to your site, from other sites and search engine friendly directories.

~Roland

-------------------------

Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

nhgnikole

posts: 2660

Nov 27, 2007 2:18 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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You might consider purchasing ad space on mom-related blogs. You can often get the space for $10-100 per week with better results than AdWords. Try one for a few weeks, see what happens!

The site is nice. The prices are odd though. I`ve never seen $75.00 on anything in a store ...

RoxanneMM

posts: 5

Nov 27, 2007 2:20 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

Roland,

I was re-reading your reply and I have a newby question. When you mention the page title, do you mean a viewable title on the page or are you referring to a piece of code or URL? I want to make sure I clearly explain this to my website guy.

In answer to your question about my keywords, I was using words like "kids winter jackets", "fleece hoodie" and "children`s clothes."

Is it a better idea for me to use the actual product names, such as "Columbia fleece sweater" "Reliable Backyard Tipi?"

Many Thanks!

RoxanneMM@BluePlanetKids.com

RoxanneMM

posts: 5

Nov 27, 2007 2:27 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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nhgnikole

Thanks! I will do that. That price sounds like a bargain compared to what I have been spending on Adwords! Do you have any suggestions on which blogs are good? I`m not familiar with the Mom related blogs, yet.

I`m afraid that the weird pricing is my fault. I wanted all prices to end in either .00 or .50. Would it be better to have price structures that don`t look odd to shoppers? (I`m guessing - yes.)

Thanks for your help! This feedback is wonderful.

RoxanneMM@BluePlanetKids.com

Webline

posts: 687

Nov 27, 2007 2:37 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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I agree with Roland .... the SEO in your code is pretty non-existant, and many changes could/should be made in just the basic html.

-------------------------

M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

Webline

posts: 687

Nov 27, 2007 3:38 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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Start every page with a valid doctype.

Validate your pages at W3C.

Have unique titles, descriptions and keywords for every page.

As Roland said, put the css and javascript into external files, then import them. You don`t need " text/margin/padding " values in every other line of your code.

Put titles in your link tags.

Get rid of the excess code that isn`t doing anything.

I think that`s a good start for him.

-------------------------

M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

nhgnikole

posts: 2660

Nov 27, 2007 4:05 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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I read something last night on pricing, and it might be helpful to you.

Psychological Effect of 99-Cent

You can also read my response and some more research on the subject in the 3rd bullet point in this entry.

Mom blogs:
Blogad Network for Parenting Sites
(Their site seems to be a bit slow for me today, so maybe check it later if it`s not working. Their actual ads are displaying properly on sites though.)

CampSteve

posts: 1216

Nov 27, 2007 5:39 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

Points: 0 Vote

The site looks nice. I think Nikole is right in that you have to start marketing to a target audience. Adwords can be effective but you shouldn`t rely on Google`s system to handle your marketing for you. You need to get your site known to specific consumers. Where are they? What are they doing? How can you get involved?

John49

posts: 5

Nov 27, 2007 11:26 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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For your code.... ask the designer to put all the styles into a separte CSS file.

Also, there is a lot of blank lines of code (some people do that to hinder people from copying code, but it is of no value)... have the designer delete those empty lines.

As for the titles.... your ecommmerce program uses the product names and category names for your titles......when someone looks at a category or product. So, for those just make sure teach product has an appropriate name... if you sell brand name merchandise I would use the brand name.

For the categories, it seem your program adds "browsing" to the category name. Ask your designer to eliminate that word.

For your home page you really do not need to use "blue planet kids" because that is your domain name. Rather use targeted keywords..appropriate for a shopping portal.

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