Site Review Please

[WildRover]

Site has been on line for a while - but my sales are pathetic.

Its about time I did something about I say.

Firstly, except for the LOGO which is poor - what do you think of the layout?

Need to optimise SEO - don't know how to - anyway. Here is the url:

www.rcsmodels.co.uk

[guccij]

I'd have a look firstly at the very first paragraph on your home page. There's a mistake. And leave out the exclamation marks - they are so not needed and there are FOUR of them in that first little section.

Your product section and some product pages are too long. Too much scrolling, sorry.

Then I'd look at the wisdom of having a PO box as your contact address. It puts people off.

Then I would ask why all your product titles look as if they should be links - but aren't.

Your checkout pages confused me. I couldn't work out why nothing was being added to the cart - until I saw the "confirm" button. It seems an unnecessary extra step, especially when I've already clicked "add to cart" on the product page.

Be more upfront about your shipping charges - they're pretty low, so tell people that right at the beginning. Don't let people get to the checkout to find out what they have to pay.

Lastly, I would suggest that in the current climate, the sort of products you sell are not going to feature high up on people's shopping lists. Not your fault - blame the greedy banks.

[parklifeclothes]

Find somewhere on at least (but better if all) front page to display your delivery costs, so many people base their decision on this cost so very important. your costs look pretty good so maybe displaying it would grab a few browsers.
Switch to single product per page, gives you much more ability to rank better, each page having the product name in the page title and description.
Make sure both the product cost and delivery cost is in line with your rivals
A phone number is also a good idea to have visible on every page and having a P.O box will put some people off, customers want to know how to make contact.
tell people how to pay, what cards you accept etc
throw in a timely promotion, xmas is just around the corner.

Maybe include some videos or link to youtube of some of the cars in action.

hope that helps a bit

[WildRover]

Really appreciate your comments and I agree about the goods and the climate.

We've been considering another shop - but with something that we all need.

I'll get our postal charges up front - phone number and revise our address.

Question: Single Product per page - unsure how to do that so will do some research on that.

Thanks again - I have some work to do! :cool:

[parklifeclothes]

if you have a aston martin as in the new bond film maybe stick that on the front page with a bit of text about how the car features in the film

[leehack]

Everything about the left menu is wrong, the look, the shear length and the colours. Take a look at the successful sites in your industry, take some free tips just by studying each of them and what they do. There is an SPP tutorial on my site you may find useful to explain the concept and how you do it. Once you have done that (if right for you) you will then need a content boost, and by boost i mean a big big rocket, not enough content or text and when there is a possibility to do so, you take people off your site and onto others instead to read up about things.

[RuralWeb]

Many of your products have a more info link which takes you to another site - this is total madness as you are giving away your customers who will not come back as the sites they are directed to open in the same window and are much more interesting than your site. All the info they have should be on your site.

And where is the catherham - missed sale there;)

[WildRover]

Yep, I know the colours on the left menu are wrong. The Yellow doesn't work at all. And I will look at your tutorial.

Thanks about the links - will remove them.

We had a Yellow Caterham on site - surely the GT-R is the car of the moment. :)

[Stereo Steve]

Google has indexed the non www version of the site and not the www at all! If you have any www. links they will not be adding any weight. If you have an apache server you need to get a mod rewrite in there quick.

[WildRover]

Thanks Steve - I'll get onto that.

[pmasonscip]

Your checkout pages confused me. I couldn't work out why nothing was being added to the cart - until I saw the "confirm" button. It seems an unnecessary extra step, especially when I've already clicked "add to cart" on the product page.

I've been struggling with this - how do I go about removing this step?

[pinbrook]

Google has indexed the non www version of the site and not the www at all! If you have any www. links they will not be adding any weight. If you have an apache server you need to get a mod rewrite in there quick. just go to google webmaster tools and tell google your preferred domain is www.

whilst you are there add a sitemap, and after you've done your SPP go for a googlebase upload too

[pinbrook]

I've been struggling with this - how do I go about removing this step? the extra step is because you chosen quantity on confirmation page - change this to product page, Design Menu - design options

and change quantity always 1 on Business settings Ordering tab (untick)

don't you want people to order more than 1?

a combination of changing these 2 options will remove that extra step.

[bamboo]

Here's something else that you should do. Watch this video (http://www.marketingexperiments.com/images/multifiles/articulate/webclinic-10-08-08/player.html?=meblog) twice. Yes it's an hour long but it is worth giving up two hours of your time for

* Warning*
It is learning and you have to act immediately on what you learn whilst it's still fresh or all you will have done is wasted your two hours.

Onward and upwards!

[Darren B]

You dont have any product descriptions, its all packed away in the extended info.

If you go for SPP's with descriptions then use that, if you decide not to then add some text to the product, theres nothing telling me about the cars.

Perhaps change the buttons for some better images, plenty on the web or make your own.

change the menu colour, lose the black and red

try the background colour #808080
and menu text this #000040

these are not the best colours but the contrast i feel is better and in keeping with your sites colours, play with the colours theres millions of shades , Red i find is very harsh.

this site might help you http://www.degraeve.com/color-palette/ chuck the url of your company logo or an image with colours that are pleasing and it will sample it for you
http://www.degraeve.com/color-palette/index.php?q=http://www.rcsmodels.co.uk/acatalog/RCSheaders.jpg,183B5B145F9CF4F5F6B2B1B3A86E64,002272002BC3FFFFFFDDDBE0D34028

[WildRover]

Guys I took some advice and had a go trying to make my site slicker.

www.rcsmodels.co.uk

I have to say using the Actinic skins has blown my mind away though - nothing works as it should.

Not impressed at all.

1) When you goto checkout the REMOVE box is covered by an image box (with Cart on it).

2) After enablng New Products - all I get is text and no pictures on the right column. This is after making selections under Site Options.

I need help or some new hair?

[WildRover]

Also, if I do enable New products.

I get it on the Homepage and no matter what I select under Setting - Design - Site Options - Layout or Properties + Design Wizard will the New Product section go where it should.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

[WildRover]

Thanks - managed to sort the problem - needed a swift G & T and that got the old grey matter working.... :)

[bamboo]

needed a swift G & T
I thought you had had one too many as you are talking to yourself on a public forum :D

[guccij]

Thanks - managed to sort the problem - needed a swift G & T and that got the old grey matter working.... :)Why not post your solution here so that others in the same situation can see it?

I think the site is a big improvement on the old one, by the way. Your next step will be to move to SPP (single product per page) and that will really help move things along.

[WildRover]

All I did was reduce the product width to 600 pixels.