Review my website

newwifey

Hi all

At long last, after 15 months of work, my self and my partners website has gone live. We would love for you to take a quick look, and respond with comments, observations, positives, negatives etc.

I'm not a computer whizz so obviously had to employ a company to design the site. Would love to know what people 'in the know' think of the site.

www.domeafavour.ie

Naturally, don't all rush to place orders at once in case you crash the server
Thanks

Snookered

hhmmmmm.... :rolleyes: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055552658

newwifey

Hi Snookered
Was advised by mods to post here for a technical review of the site.

As I said, I know nothing about computer programming etc and don't know how well the site functions from a technical, search engine etc etc point of view.

The review in the business forum was from a 'customer' point of view rather than a technical one.

EKRIUQ

The first thing I saw was Dome, not exactly the right tone for a wedding site

Tea_Bag

EKRIUQ wrote: »

The first thing I saw was Dome, not exactly the right tone for a wedding site

I don't get it? DOOM (if thats what you mean?) is very different from dome.
However, if possible, concider Favour.ie or Favours.ie or something. The simpler the better i feel...

jhegarty

I don't care about this unless people put a link in.

W3C CSS Errors : 53
HTML 4.01 Transitional: 7

p

I'd agree about the long name.

Regarding the overall site design. I'll give it 6/10. It's simple, it's plain, it generally functions well as an online shop. It really looks like an off the shelf 'shopping cart' solution though. I don't really mean that as a massive criticism, as it's a perfectly good way to start out, and you've still got some little touches like 'shop by colour' etc.. but it still looks like any other shopping site, just made pink with a few extra graphics.

I'd say you could improve the conversation rate and general appearance and quality of the site considerably by paying a bit more and getting some more SEO work done, but that'd depend on your margins and goals etc... of the site. Things you could improve would be the usability of the buying process, a much stronger homepage, better text to give the site more personality (getting a copyrighter in could help) and generally work on selling the products. Currently you're just presenting the products and people will buy them if they want them. However, a design should really sell them. Just look at the iPod Nano site. It's a different business, you can see how they're really showcasing the product and convincing a visitor to buy just as if you'd try to when they walk into a shop.

Overall though it's good, but that's the type of thinking you need to apply if you wish to take it to the next level, which may more may not make sense depending on your business goals and target market.

Snookered

Hey Newwifey, was just kidding :pac:

Great site - well layed out, and plenty of content and detail on your products and services.
Can't give much advice as I'm working on my own first site at the moment,

Best of luck, hope it reels it in for you.;)

newwifey

First off, thanks for the replies.

EKRIUQ, do you mean 'do me' as in the naughty business people get upp to AFTER they are wed? :eek:

We actually thought the phrase 'do me a favour' was quite catchy, seeing as we are selling favours. You can't please everyone i guess.

I don't care about this unless people put a link in.

W3C CSS Errors : 53
HTML 4.01 Transitional: 7

What in God's name does that mean?
We are hoping to get links established with other relevant sites. Is there going to be a problem with this.

P, this is my first attempt at online sales. Both myself and my partner agree that the site will probably require a total overhall in about 12 months, when we establish whats selling, whats not and in particular the personalisation options available with certain favour boxes.
The colour scheme does not actually appeal to me personally, but with wedding stuff you generally have to appeal to the masses I think.

We are attending some SEO training over the coming weeks and hope to learn a good bit from this. No point paying a company for SEO when its something we should be able to do ourselves.

Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to have a look at the site.

Webmonkey

HTML

CSS

daymobrew

newwifey wrote: »

What in God's name does that mean?
We are hoping to get links established with other relevant sites. Is there going to be a problem with this.

The html errors look quite easy to fix - get onto your website developer to fix them (unless they are related to changes you made). They will not affect links with other sites.

For me (Firefox 3.0.10 on Vista) the "View Basket" link is not completely in the white header area. See attached image. It is possible that the html errors could be causing this - best to get them fixed and see if it resolves this.

jhegarty

newwifey wrote: »

First off, thanks for the replies.

EKRIUQ, do you mean 'do me' as in the naughty business people get upp to AFTER they are wed? :eek:

We actually thought the phrase 'do me a favour' was quite catchy, seeing as we are selling favours. You can't please everyone i guess.

The problem is that words can run into each other when someone views them the first time.

A famous case of this expertsexchange.com / expertsexchange.com

The same name can be ready two very different ways. That site put a - in it's name is avoid the confusion.

You are so involved with the site you will already read it with the intended name.

newwifey wrote: »

What in God's name does that mean?
We are hoping to get links established with other relevant sites. Is there going to be a problem with this.

There is links at the end of your page to test for those standards. Not very important (imo) , but the links to say you are complaint are there.

MOH

daymobrew wrote: »

For me (Firefox 3.0.10 on Vista) the "View Basket" link is not completely in the white header area. See attached image. It is possible that the html errors could be causing this - best to get them fixed and see if it resolves this.

Not happening for me (3.0.10 on XP Pro) - it looks OK.

I like the name, but something like favour.ie or weddingfavours.ie would be easier to remember and less ambiguous (as in the dome comment above). Although I'm not mad about "Cead Mile Failte to Do me a Favour". "Cead Mile Failte to" just sounds wrong to me.

You could also do with listing a few more fillings. Smarties and Dairy Milk don't fill me with a sense of "Celtic romance and Greek tradition". It just seems a bit unbalanced - you've put a lot of work into the presentation side with a wide range of boxes, but I think you're letting yourself down slightly on the fillings side.

I really don't like the change in colour when you go to the blog. I actually find the bright green painful to look at for any length of time.

Not sure how well the search is working - 'filling' and 'fillings' both return 0 hits.

Only tried a couple of different box types, but none of them had any option for Smarties fillings, just variations of the other 5 tyes. I'm also not sure about defaulting the 'Quantity per favour' to 1 - I'd say 2 would be the standard for most wedding favours, so I'd put that as the default.

Couple of spelling errors on the Details and T+C page - "confectionary" should read "confectionery". Also, on the T+Cs, it states "They will be taken securely by [credit card processing company]" - should be replaced by "Paypal".

The postal address on the T+Cs page should also appear on the contact page.

Good idea - good luck with the site!

tricky D

newwifey wrote: »

We are hoping to get links established with other relevant sites. Is there going to be a problem with this.

It's not a relevant site and is an outbound link from your site. You should learn more about this in your SEO course.

Otherwise many of the comments made by myself and others in the other thread still apply.

MOH

MOH wrote: »

Not happening for me (3.0.10 on XP Pro) - it looks OK.

Ah, the "View Basket" problem does happen for me if I zoom in (Ctrl +) by one level (and also if I zoom out (Ctrl -) by two levels). If I zoom in further it's OK though.

Eoin

I only had a quick look, so have probably missed a few things. Is it a design masterpiece? No. But it's a clean design, quite well laid out and easy to use. I'd probably lose the black writing on the dark pink background as I don't think the contrast is strong enough. It looks so much better with a white background like on other pages.

Thinking of the people who will actually use this site, rather than just web design & development professionals, I think it's a good site and would be dead easy to use.

I agree with MOH about the blog - it's a genuinely painful banner, it would take no time at all to make it look more like the main site.

Snookered

newwifey wrote: »

We are attending some SEO training over the coming weeks and hope to learn a good bit from this. No point paying a company for SEO when its something we should be able to do ourselves.

Hey newwifey, you say your getting SEO training shortly,
do you mind if I ask where your getting this training?
As I have been looking for similar training myself

Cheers,

watty

I'd not ask this lot here to review any of my websites

You're brave!

Webmonkey

watty wrote: »

I'd not ask this lot here to review any of my websites

You're brave!

We are highly critical alright but it is all constructive :P

noreds

Hi

nice site.
the only thing i would change would be to add a bit of padding on both sides of the main content. It seems all the text and images are very close to the edge.
A little bit more empty space will help it not feel as cramped and people tend to take more time reading your content then.

Hope this helps

NickNolte

W3C validation is a bit of a silly, brute force way to critique the quality of a site's mark-up to be honest. It's a good starting point but 7 errors isn't the end of the world provided the code is semantic, accessible and well formed for the most part.

Webmonkey

Not the worse, but it really helps to have it valid by the standard. It will ensure things look consistent cross browsers. Well at least help. When ya start going against standards, things might start looking a bit different.

Chardee MacDennis

Webmonkey wrote: »

Not the worse, but it really helps to have it valid by the standard. It will ensure things look consistent cross browsers. Well at least help. When ya start going against standards, things might start looking a bit different.

lol:D

p

MOH wrote: »

I like the name, but something like favour.ie or weddingfavours.ie would be easier to remember and less ambiguous (as in the dome comment above). Although I'm not mad about "Cead Mile Failte to Do me a Favour". "Cead Mile Failte to" just sounds wrong to me.

I understand the thinking behind this, but think 'do me a favour' is more effective. As a URL it looks a bit weird, but if there's a double entendre that can be a funny thing to help people remember. Literal URLs are boring. For example, Google.com and daft.ie are much more effective than searchengine.com and houses.ie. That way you're building a whole brand, not just a domain name.

newwifey wrote: »

P, this is my first attempt at online sales. Both myself and my partner agree that the site will probably require a total overhall in about 12 months, when we establish whats selling, whats not and in particular the personalisation options available with certain favour boxes.
The colour scheme does not actually appeal to me personally, but with wedding stuff you generally have to appeal to the masses I think.

Sounds like a very sensible attitude overall. It'd be great if you keep us informed on this forum of your progress as it goes, good or bad. Personally, I know the design side of the web well, but less about the business side, so it's be great to hear your experiences and trade knowledge.

All the best with it!

GG66

Good luck with the enterprise.. always good to see someone taking some initiative..

A little advice..

Your site name is not clear. the text on your main banner is hard to read, there are better script type fonts that you could use ...

I'm not going to comment on the design from a colour scheme but you should take another look at your checkout page...

It shows the order details and then there are about 4 paragraphs of text before I can enter in my details. That's a lot of scrolling and some of your shoppers may not scroll down so far and you will lose them... I nearly did!

Also, you ask for full contact details and then delivery address, if these are the same it's a true pain entering the data twice

Another very important part of selling online is building trust. I know you don't have a bricks and mortar shop but you should have a postal address. I would never buy from an online source that does not have a verifiable business address... even if it's your home address

newwifey

Hi all
First, thank you all for having a look at our site and posting comments. The time taken is truly appreciated.

Snookered, the SEO training is being given by the web design company. It was included in the price from the outset. However we did attend a web site promotion course some month ago that was provided by our local county enterprise board for a nominal fee of €80 or something. Check out your local board to see if they are running something similar.

As regards the blog, I don't really understand the concept of how this helps our business but my partner seems to. To have the colours and schemes match from website to blog we have to pay a small fee to upgrade our package. This is something we will definately do soon.

MOH, some of the favour boxes are quite small and will only hold one of the larger truffels. Thats why we have a max quantity of one with some favour boxes. Its also quite difficult to have options for all the variables. One truffel or 6 smarties or 20 dragees. Decided to limit it to 2 on most of bigger boxes. This is something we know we will have to address at a re-design stage in the future but will test the water with it as it is for the minute.
Had noted those typos also and will be changing them this week.

Will also include our address on the contact page. This was an oversight.

Just as a matter of interest what would you like to see as a filling option? Thought we had covered a good cross section of fillings. Traditionally 5 of those horrible tooth cracking sugar coated almonds were given as favour fillings but they don't go down well here. Wouldn't be seen as a 'generous' filling.
We thought having dairy milk miniatures (best selling irish chocolate) would appeal to most - which by the way you can only source in the UK! Smarties are aimed at kids, celtic disks are an after dinner mint kind of thing and the truffels are more up market.

GG66, I appreciate your comments about the text between the shopping basket and delivery details. Will bring it up with designers as it is certainly relevant.

Once again, thanks again for taking a look.