Webmaster forum - page 1 on google but with dissapointing results!!

Author

page 1 on google but with dissapointing results!!

2twins

2007-03-26, 7:21 pm

I've designed, re-designed and tweaked a website for a few years now
with dreamweaver. It's a design-you-own cat bed (it has a dog bed side
as well) online business that uses a shopping cart. It has been
moderately successful and I have now gotten it to page one of google
for "cat beds" and "cat bed" search. That's up there with the biggies
like petsmart, petco, target, etc. I'm happy with the page rating!
Here's my dilemna... as the search engine ratings have gone up, the
orders have gone down. Drastically! I was wondering if any of you
could take a look and give me your opinion. Is it a design issue, is
it confusing to order, a shopping cart issue because I use paypal? I'm
sort of at a loss. Any help or thoughts would be greatly
appreciated!!!
thanks

Sally Thompson

2007-03-26, 7:21 pm

On Mon, 26 Mar 2007 17:45:31 +0100, 2twins wrote
(in article <1174927531.766555.299560@n59g2000hsh.googlegroups.com> ):

> I've designed, re-designed and tweaked a website for a few years now
> with dreamweaver. It's a design-you-own cat bed (it has a dog bed side
> as well) online business that uses a shopping cart. It has been
> moderately successful and I have now gotten it to page one of google
> for "cat beds" and "cat bed" search. That's up there with the biggies
> like petsmart, petco, target, etc. I'm happy with the page rating!
> Here's my dilemna... as the search engine ratings have gone up, the
> orders have gone down. Drastically! I was wondering if any of you
> could take a look and give me your opinion. Is it a design issue, is
> it confusing to order, a shopping cart issue because I use paypal? I'm
> sort of at a loss. Any help or thoughts would be greatly
> appreciated!!!
> thanks
>

<looks around> Nope. Can't find it anywhere. Did you forget something? :-)

--
Sally in Shropshire, UK
bed and breakfast near Ludlow: http://www.stonybrook-ludlow.co.uk
Burne-Jones/William Morris window in Shropshire church:
http://www.whitton-stmarys.org.uk

2twins

2007-03-26, 7:21 pm

<looks around> UH - that was really stupid!!! Sorry 'bout that -
here's the missing something:

http://www.catinthebed.com/

Els

2007-03-26, 7:21 pm

2twins wrote:

> Here's my dilemna... as the search engine ratings have gone up, the
> orders have gone down. Drastically! I was wondering if any of you
> could take a look and give me your opinion. Is it a design issue, is
> it confusing to order, a shopping cart issue because I use paypal? I'm
> sort of at a loss.

From another message:
> http://www.catinthebed.com/

Not sure if it is cause for lack of sales, but I do find the route to
take from start to shopping cart confusing.
On this page: http://www.catinthebed.com/_beds_cuddle.html there is
nothing above the fold that tells me there is a next step, but the
heading on the page is underlined. As it reads "Design Your Own
Cuddle-Up Cat Bed", and it looks like a link, that's where I think I
should click to 'design my own cuddle-up cat bed'. So, it isn't.
When I scroll all the way down, there are two sets of dropdowns, two
messages saying I should first pick a fabric, and one 'add to shopping
cart' button. I didn't even notice the first set op dropdowns to be
honest, I looked at the ones next to the cart. I chose pink polka dots
from the dropdown, and then was distracted by the white arrow saying
"LUXURY Minkee: Choose Your FABRIC First: go".
So, curious, I clicked that link, and a new page opened in a new
window, showing all kinds of coloured fabrics.

It's just now that I look at it again, that I notice:
- the first white arrow to choose fabric first is not about luxury
minkee, but about standard cotton
- there is also an add to cart button below the first set of
dropdowns.

I think that in order to make it less confusing, you could:
- take the underlining off the heading at the top of the page
- let people first choose between cotton and luxury minkee, then let
them choose the fabric, and only then show the add-to-cart button.
It can be on one page, as long as it's clearly marked 'step 1', 'step
2', etc. so people don't have to guess which link/dropdown/button to
follow/choose/press first.

HTH :-)

--
Els http://locusmeus.com/

Matt Probert

2007-03-26, 7:21 pm

On 26 Mar 2007 11:11:18 -0700, "2twins" <gemelli2@verizon.net> wrote:

><looks around> UH - that was really stupid!!! Sorry 'bout that -
>here's the missing something:
>
>http://www.catinthebed.com/
>

Oh that is perverse! Not only do you have a cat in the bed, but it's
in bed with...A DOG! <bg>

Seriously, do people buy these things? (He says, asking of a nation
which holds funerals for pets, has pet psychiatrists and the like)

Assuming they do, a price on the front page, like "Starting from just
$40!" would be helpful.

But I never buy ANYTHING through paypal, it comes across as
amateurish, and so does the site. Not so much the design but
references to "Linda" rather than "Company name", make me think of a
housewife, rather than a trustworthy corporate (like Enron or BCCI)

Matt

--
Documenting the banal to the bizarre
http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com

2twins

2007-03-26, 7:21 pm

<looks around> UH - that was really stupid!!! Sorry 'bout that -
here's the missing something:

http://www.catinthebed.com/

Red E. Kilowatt

2007-03-26, 7:21 pm

Matt Probert <comments@probertencyclopaedia.com> wrote in message:
46080fe2.44922031@news.freenetname.co.uk,

> On 26 Mar 2007 11:11:18 -0700, "2twins" <gemelli2@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>
> Oh that is perverse! Not only do you have a cat in the bed, but it's
> in bed with...A DOG! <bg>
>
> Seriously, do people buy these things? (He says, asking of a nation
> which holds funerals for pets, has pet psychiatrists and the like)
>
> Assuming they do, a price on the front page, like "Starting from just
> $40!" would be helpful.

That's good advice.

> But I never buy ANYTHING through paypal, it comes across as
> amateurish, and so does the site. Not so much the design but
> references to "Linda" rather than "Company name", make me think of a
> housewife, rather than a trustworthy corporate (like Enron or BCCI)

Oh, you're such a curmudgeon Matt. :-)

This is a niche market and I think her personal touch is an advantage
here. These are not imports from China. This woman sews each one to
order. She cannot compete on price with the crap from China, so it's to
her advantage to let people know that she does all the work and how much
care she puts into it. I'd personalize it even more; add a picture of
her, talk about materials and methods, how each one is custom made, etc.

The site does have some problems that need to be fixed; i.e.
http://www.doginthebed.com/_shipping.html
Some of the graphics are missing.
These links don't work: "Flower Beds Donut / Round Beds Scallop Top Beds
Cuddle Up Beds Bunky's Bed "

--
Red

Phil Payne

2007-03-26, 7:22 pm

> The site does have some problems that need to be fixed;

Well, it has two no-nos that (I have believed until now) act to
penalise a site.

One is a broken Google meta tag - see http://www.isham-research.co.uk/broken_metatag.html
and one is a pragma no-cache.

And here it is on page 2!

I'm going to get drunk.

The little lost angel

2007-03-26, 11:20 pm

On 26 Mar 2007 09:45:31 -0700, "2twins" <gemelli2@verizon.net> wrote:

>could take a look and give me your opinion. Is it a design issue, is
>it confusing to order, a shopping cart issue because I use paypal? I'm
>sort of at a loss. Any help or thoughts would be greatly
>appreciated!!!

Hmm my first main problem with your site is wholly subjective and
personal. I love cats but the cats and dogs pics used are all quite
scary and doesn't give me a cuddly in bed comfy kind of feel :/

How about somethings like these instead?
http://files.myopera.com/I%20Love%2...%20%2811%29.jpg
http://files.myopera.com/I%20Love%2...s%20%282%29.jpg
http://files.myopera.com/I%20Love%2...s%20%287%29.jpg

I tested by using the cuddle up cat bed.

The first problem is it's not quite obvious what on earth does Fabric
1 looks like. Since the first instinct is to look at the drop down
list as the most obvious interaction piece.

It took a moment or two to realize you have a line above it containing
3 pieces of information including the link. I would suggest instead of
the "fade into background" greyish white arrows, you use some other
solid colour to make those arrows stand out. And perhaps arrange the
information in a different way say

Standard Fabric: Cotton
For pictures of other fabric types, please see this link first.
[drop down]

Also perhaps more descriptive name for each fabric than just #1, #2,
more like those you use for Luxury Minkee. If you're comfortable with
javascript (or a hack by making each pic a form with a 'Use this
button' for submission), you should make it so that users can just
click the picture and get it set as the choice instead of trying to
remember which one of the few dozen fabrics they wanted, especially
since it's all #1, #2, #3 in your drop down list! :P

Adding to the confusion is, your numbering does not run sequentially!
I see Print 88 followed by 89, 304, 123, 18, 270, 271, 254 on page one
alone. It's like "erm, you trying to test my cognitive ability or
something?"

Adding more to the confusion, why do you need a drop down list for
"Please Select" and "Standard $35"? I kept trying to add Fabric #1 to
the cart and getting nowhere because it seems to be if I want to
select my fabric, I should leave it at "Please Select" and if I choose
"Standard $35", I would get some default fabric instead.

It's confusing and if I wasn't deliberately looking to make things
work, I would have just gave up and assumed your site/cart's broken.
Which I expect more than one customer probably did.

The better way IMHO to do this would just to have it something like
this

Standard Catbed: Cotton Made US$35
Please select a fabric [dropdown list for fabric] [Add to Cart]

Luxury Minkee: Plush Fabric US$42
Please select a fabric [dropdown list for fabric] [Add to Cart]

Also since you are dealing with international clientele, please mark
your prices with "US$" or equivalent instead of just $.

--
A Lost Angel, fallen from heaven
Lost in dreams, Lost in aspirations,
Lost to the world, Lost to myself

mbstevens

2007-03-27, 7:15 am

On Tue, 27 Mar 2007 02:52:45 +0000, The little lost angel wrote:

> Hmm my first main problem with your site is wholly subjective and
> personal. I love cats but the cats and dogs pics used are all quite
> scary and doesn't give me a cuddly in bed comfy kind of feel :/

http://www.mbstevens.com/test/two_sisters.jpg

The little lost angel

2007-03-27, 7:15 am

On Tue, 27 Mar 2007 04:16:44 GMT, mbstevens
<NOXwebmasterx@xmbstevensx.com> wrote:

>On Tue, 27 Mar 2007 02:52:45 +0000, The little lost angel wrote:
>
>
>http://www.mbstevens.com/test/two_sisters.jpg

YEAH! that's the kind I'm talking about!!! ^^
--
A Lost Angel, fallen from heaven
Lost in dreams, Lost in aspirations,
Lost to the world, Lost to myself