Site Ratings & Reviews - Please critique website!

Author

Please critique website!

Jeff Spicoli

2004-05-14, 12:15 am

Ok guys... Please pick it apart.. My main goals are:

1. Search Engine placement for following main keywords:
childrens clothing
birthday dress
childrens boutique
birthday outfit

2. Keeping navigation / ordering SIMPLE & CLEAN.

I am in the Yahoo Directory, DMOZ. I currently use Google Ad Words. We
average around 150-200 visitors daily... Close to 100 come from Pay per
click. I want to gain more visitors without paying.

I just recently changed the category links to use specific pages (ie.
childrens-clothing.aspx) instead of ProductList.aspx?CategoryID=20, etc.. I
am hoping the next indexing will help with these changes.

The url: http://www.bswanky.com

Thanks in advance!!

--
B. Swanky - Boutique Giftware with Flair!
Specializes in clothing and gifts for infant, baby and toddler. We also
carry upscale handbags and accessories for women.
http://www.bswanky.com

The Doormouse

2004-05-14, 12:15 am

Jeff Spicoli <jspicoli@nowhere.com> wrote:

> http://www.bswanky.com

Coolios. This reminds me of my days at iMaternity.

The Doormouse

--
The Doormouse cannot be reached by e-mail without her permission.

Hywel

2004-05-14, 12:15 am

In article <Xns94E8A8D64EDC1jspicolinowherecom@216.68.8.146>, Jeff
Spicoli says...
> Ok guys... Please pick it apart.. My main goals are:
>
>
> The url: http://www.bswanky.com

You have "Children's" in the logo, and "Childrens" in the menu. Lazy.

It's not particularly visually exciting, but it functions well. The
border around the product detail looks odd - leave it out so that the
description is linked more closely to the photo.

--
Hywel I do not eat quiche
http://kibo.org.uk/
http://kibo.org.uk/mfaq.php

2004-05-14, 12:15 am

Jeff Spicoli wrote:

> Ok guys... Please pick it apart.. My main goals are:
>
> 1. Search Engine placement for following main keywords:
> childrens clothing
> birthday dress
> childrens boutique
> birthday outfit
>
> 2. Keeping navigation / ordering SIMPLE & CLEAN.
>
> I am in the Yahoo Directory, DMOZ. I currently use Google Ad Words. We
> average around 150-200 visitors daily... Close to 100 come from Pay per
> click. I want to gain more visitors without paying.
>
> I just recently changed the category links to use specific pages (ie.
> childrens-clothing.aspx) instead of ProductList.aspx?CategoryID=20, etc..
> I am hoping the next indexing will help with these changes.
>
> The url: http://www.bswanky.com
>
> Thanks in advance!!
>
>

It's all broken into little patches, so it doesn't visually cohere.
In Konqueror there is a big, pink, inverted L on the left side
of the page. Or it would be if it weren't broken toward the top with
a light grey menu and if it didn't disappear altogether toward the bottom.

Bring it together.

Make the background of the light-grey-menu the same pink as the L and change
the text color to something else. Find a way to make the bottom pink
hemisphere touch the rest of the L.
--

Jeff Spicoli

2004-05-14, 9:28 am

m <NOXwebmasterx@xmbstevensx.com> wrote in
news:TEUoc.19345$Hs1.16561@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net:

> It's all broken into little patches, so it doesn't visually cohere.
> In Konqueror there is a big, pink, inverted L on the left side
> of the page. Or it would be if it weren't broken toward the top with
> a light grey menu and if it didn't disappear altogether toward the
> bottom.
>
> Bring it together.
>
> Make the background of the light-grey-menu the same pink as the L and
> change the text color to something else. Find a way to make the bottom
> pink hemisphere touch the rest of the L.
>

Thanks... I will get access to Konqueror and see what you are seeing.

--
B. Swanky - Boutique Giftware with Flair!
Specializes in clothing and gifts for infant, baby and toddler. We also
carry upscale handbags and accessories for women.
http://www.bswanky.com

Karl Groves

2004-05-14, 5:34 pm

"Jeff Spicoli" <jspicoli@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:Xns94E9550C1CD48jspicolinowherecom@63.223.5.245...
> m <NOXwebmasterx@xmbstevensx.com> wrote in
> news:TEUoc.19345$Hs1.16561@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net:
>
>
> Thanks... I will get access to Konqueror and see what you are seeing.

Are Linux/ Konqueror users in your target audience?
While I can certainly understand & agree with the idea of making a site work
with as many browsers as possible, if the markup is valid, well-formed, and
avoids the bugs in the most major browsers, then that's good enough to me.
If you were in business, would you make your decisions based on <1% of your
customers?

-Karl

Jeff Spicoli

2004-05-14, 5:34 pm

"Karl Groves" <karl@NOSPAMkarlcore.com> wrote in
news:c82mm0$81i$1@ngspool-d02.news.aol.com:

>
> "Jeff Spicoli" <jspicoli@nowhere.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns94E9550C1CD48jspicolinowherecom@63.223.5.245...
>
> Are Linux/ Konqueror users in your target audience?
> While I can certainly understand & agree with the idea of making a site
> work with as many browsers as possible, if the markup is valid,
> well-formed, and avoids the bugs in the most major browsers, then
> that's good enough to me. If you were in business, would you make your
> decisions based on <1% of your customers?
>
> -Karl
>
>
>

94% is some flavor of I.E... I get a ton of AOL users...

--
B. Swanky - Boutique Giftware with Flair!
Specializes in clothing and gifts for infant, baby and toddler. We also
carry upscale handbags and accessories for women.
http://www.bswanky.com

Neal

2004-05-14, 5:34 pm

On Fri, 14 May 2004 10:55:57 -0400, Karl Groves <karl@NOSPAMkarlcore.com>
wrote:

> Are Linux/ Konqueror users in your target audience?

Assumes a particular demographic is inseparably connected to Linux. Not a
safe assumption for my money.

> While I can certainly understand & agree with the idea of making a site
> work
> with as many browsers as possible, if the markup is valid, well-formed,
> and
> avoids the bugs in the most major browsers, then that's good enough to
> me.
> If you were in business, would you make your decisions based on <1% of
> your
> customers?

If it can be done, sure.

Example: WalMart has a pretty good camping section, but if you want real
solid backpacking equipment you need to go to a specialty store. It's not
cost-effective for them to keep high-end gear in stock for the few who
will buy.

However, what's the overhead with coding to allow access to all browsers?
There is none, except a few hours of time adjusting the CSS and perhaps
the HTML. With a sufficiently large customer base (and the WWW is
certainly sufficiently large) that's a pretty cheap investment for a major
possible return.

2004-05-14, 5:34 pm

Karl Groves wrote:

>
> "Jeff Spicoli" <jspicoli@nowhere.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns94E9550C1CD48jspicolinowherecom@63.223.5.245...
>
> Are Linux/ Konqueror users in your target audience?
> While I can certainly understand & agree with the idea of making a site
> work with as many browsers as possible, if the markup is valid,
> well-formed, and avoids the bugs in the most major browsers, then that's
> good enough to me. If you were in business, would you make your decisions
> based on <1% of your customers?
>
> -Karl

Mozilla does exactly the same thing.
By this point my guess is,-- so might Galeon, Epiphany, Camino, and
Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox. I leave it to you as an exercise to check
the rest out.

> based on <1% of your customers?

Statistic source?
And, most non-IE browsers have the
ability to tell the server that they are IE, among other
things. I'd like to know how the sampling for such
a statistic was designed!
--
m at http://www.mbstevens.com/

2004-05-14, 5:34 pm

Karl Groves

2004-05-14, 5:34 pm

"Neal" <neal413@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:opr7zw7raa6v6656@news.individual.net...
> On Fri, 14 May 2004 10:55:57 -0400, Karl Groves <karl@NOSPAMkarlcore.com>
> wrote:

> However, what's the overhead with coding to allow access to all browsers?

That depends on what the issue is.

> There is none, except a few hours of time adjusting the CSS and perhaps
> the HTML.

Few hours of whose time? A hobbyist working on his own site is free. A
freelancer or company employee can be worth - in some instances - in excess
of $100 USD.
Is that much to spend? Probably not, if the site was created right in the
first place, but that isn't the point

>With a sufficiently large customer base (and the WWW is
> certainly sufficiently large) that's a pretty cheap investment for a major
> possible return.

I'm not getting the impression that you understand what "sufficiently large
customer base" is. Don't take this the wrong way, but unless you're working
on a site that's pushing out about 500,000 *page views* a month or more,
then you've not even begun to tap a "sufficiently large customer base".

If you've seen the server logs of a site that has that much traffic, you'll
see that Konqueror usually isn't even registering enough hits to form a
valid statistic of how much it is used to access the site.

Again, why would you make a business decision based on so few customers?

--
Karl Core

Link of the day:
http://www.mightymoocow.com/werbung.mpeg

Karl Groves

2004-05-14, 5:34 pm

"m" <NOXwebmasterx@xmbstevensx.com> wrote in message
news:YG5pc.324$H_3.214@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> Karl Groves wrote:
>
>
> Statistic source?

Server logs

> And, most non-IE browsers have the
> ability to tell the server that they are IE, among other
> things.

I already know this. So what's the point you're trying to make?
Oh that's right - you want to point out that an even smaller population of
people may skew the results?
As I said in my response to Neal, when you're talking about a large site,
you're not likely to see enough konqueror users to even register a valid
statistic.
If you'd like to imply that some Konqueror/ Galeon/etc. users are flubbing
the user-agent identity, that's fine. You're now talking about an even more
miniscule amount of people.

What it boils down to is the target audience.
Would I care about Konqueror users if my site was Slashdot? Definitely.
Would I care about Konqueror users if my site was Amazon.com? No friggin
way.

--
Karl Core

Link of the day:
http://www.mightymoocow.com/werbung.mpeg

2004-05-14, 5:34 pm

Karl Groves wrote:

>
> "m" <NOXwebmasterx@xmbstevensx.com> wrote in message
> news:YG5pc.324$H_3.214@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...
>
> Server logs
>
>
> I already know this. So what's the point you're trying to make?
> Oh that's right - you want to point out that an even smaller population of
> people may skew the results?

For Konqueror it might be the majority -- I'm running both Mandrake and
Slackware, and both came out of the original system-install identifying
themselves as Mozilla.

However, I actually did test the page in question
with Mozilla, and it had the same problem. Since the first two browsers
using the same rendering engine had the same problem, I don't think it would
be a bad idea to fix it. People using Macs, PCs, Unix, and Linux will be
visiting using browsers based on the same rendering engine. I do
occasionally see some minor differences between the browsers presentations,
but Mozilla alone has enough of a base to make the corrections to the page
useful.

Edwin van der Vaart

2004-05-14, 10:29 pm

m wrote:
> Karl Groves wrote:
>
>
>
>
> Mozilla does exactly the same thing.
> By this point my guess is,-- so might Galeon, Epiphany, Camino, and
> Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox. I leave it to you as an exercise to check
> the rest out.
>
>
>
>
> Statistic source?
> And, most non-IE browsers have the
> ability to tell the server that they are IE, among other
> things. I'd like to know how the sampling for such
> a statistic was designed!

Repeating your self?
--
Edwin van der Vaart
http://www.semi-conductor.nl/ Links to Semiconductors sites
http://www.evandervaart.nl/ Under construction

2004-05-14, 10:29 pm

Edwin van der Vaart wrote:

> m wrote:
>
> Repeating your self

Sorry, Edwin. Knode occasionally does that when used by
persons with thick thumbs.

Edwin van der Vaart

2004-05-15, 7:28 am

m wrote:
> Edwin van der Vaart wrote:
>
>
> Sorry, Edwin. Knode occasionally does that when used by
> persons with thick thumbs.

Apology excepted :-)
--
Edwin van der Vaart
http://www.semi-conductor.nl/ Links to Semiconductors sites
http://www.evandervaart.nl/ Under construction