Site Review please thebigpartyshop.com

[wonderland]

Hi guys looking for a site review for http://www.thebigpartyshop.com
Fairly new to using actinic. The site is mainly for fancy dress costumes so trying to push that side of it along with 70s fancy dress and sexy costumes. Would like to know what to do to improve the site and whether certain layouts can help in the "seo". At the moment we only have access to the client version, want to add promotion codes discount, is this not available in the client version. Be grateful for your ideas!!

[wonderland]

Come on guys any ideas please!!!!

[RuralWeb]

Oh no not ANOTHER fancy dress website - bumping will not make you any friends here

[wonderland]

Yes I know they are everywhere. Just after some ideas about the layout of the site, alot of work needs to be done to put each product on separate pages etc. After some expert advice from people such as yourself. Thanks

[bamboo]

Yes I know they are everywhere. Just after some ideas about the layout of the site, alot of work needs to be done to put each product on separate pages etc. After some expert advice from people such as yourself. Thanks

There is already loads of reviews and advice on here so use the search function, read, learn and implement. It's not rocket science but it is work. :)

[Mark H]

I've said it before on other reviews, but I'll repeat it again, I think it is very important to put your address and phone number (even though the latter is already on the page) on your "contact us" page as well as in the T&Cs. The first thing I look at when buying from a site is a physical address, and the first place I go is "contact us". If I don't find an address (or worse, found a PO Box) there, I don't buy from the site.

You have a couple of technical glitches on the home page, but I presume you know about those.

[wonderland]

No Marc I don't know about these gliches I am very new to using actinic. Can you tell me a little more about these.

Thanks alot!!

[leehack]

Where you have more than one size for sale on any particular garment, offer the sizes in a drop down box on just the one product. It's not great to have very little text about a product and also to list that exact same product (bar the size), multiple times on the same page. Get your designer to save a lesser compressed image for the header, it's very blurry and not too clear.

[acompton]

The index page looks a little like keyword spam and isn't easy on the eye.

The 'brand' pages (Leg Avenue, Coqette) have blurb text at the bottom of the page, when it should be at the top.
I'm guessing you've used a fragment, and the placement defaults to the bottom. There's an option that will place the products/sections underneath the fragment.

The images on the section pages are of varying widths, which gives a ragged appearance.

[wonderland]

Thanks Lee, the orginal designer designed it with products multiple times on the same page. I have been trying change the main sections first with drop down menus and need to more of a description about each product.

Do you have any advice about the index page

Thanks Lee

[leehack]

It's not too sure what your site is selling from the below, can you clarify it a little, you may need to add fancy dress in a few more times?

FANCY DRESS COSTUMES - 70S FANCY DRESS- SEXY FANCY DRESS- PIRATE FANCY DRESS and FANCY DRESS ACCESSORIES

Read that and tell me what you think when you read it?

[wonderland]

Hi Alan

I did use a fragment and I wanted it at the top of the page but did not know how to do that. Any ideas?

Thanks again

[wonderland]

you are right Lee what do think I should have as a title

Thanks

[acompton]

I only know V7 and I think its different in V8/9.
Try searching the forum for 'fragment postion' as this question comes up a lot.

[leehack]

"Bacon & Egg Sandwiches With Brown Sauce Only £1.99" would be infinitely better that what you currently have (and that is not a joke). The whole page just looks spammy, reduce your keyword density, it must be up at about 30% from just a glance. Spamming like that was rife years ago, it should be dead in the water now, it simply will not achieve anything long term unless you are are discounting Google for search results. Even then it may not do too well with Yahoo and MSN.

[grantglendinnin]

The way I put fragments to the 'top' of the page (ie. above products) in v9 is by clicking on the fragment in the content tree, hold down Shift, and drag the fragment to the top of the section. This will then cut and paste the fragment to above the products.

Though this may only work with my site because of the way the design has been coded.

[wonderland]

Hi Grant just tried moving the fragment holding shift and it still goes to the bottom of the page. I am using V9.

[leehack]

If it is on a page with sections not products, then you need to reverse (swap them round) the top and bottom sub section list layouts in site options.

[wonderland]

Sorry Lee could you explain to me a little more about this bit. I'm in site options-layout, what do I need to change it to.

[leehack]

Find the selector for both the list layouts I mentioned and reverse them.

[wonderland]

Thanks Lee great advice