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Hi all,
Vanilla are planning an update to the site on April 24th (next Wednesday). It is a major PHP8 update which is expected to boost performance across the site. The site will be down from 7pm and it is expected to take about an hour to complete. We appreciate your patience during the update.
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New Website to help growth. Please review

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  • 07-07-2010 10:04am
    #1
    Kev O C
    Closed Accounts Posts: 55 ✭✭


    I work for a local business which sales and hires suits for weddings and other functions. We launched a new site to get our name up there as one of the leading suit business in Ireland

    www.tom-murphy.ie

    Could you review the site and please give any feedback possible


Comments

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    #2
    Tav
    Registered Users Posts: 111 ✭✭Tav


    Hi,

    I really like the colour scheme and the blog section is a great idea!

    Thumbs up!


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    #3
    betonit
    Registered Users Posts: 525 ✭✭✭betonit


    i like the site but maybe should have the business type in the name ie tom-murphy-suits/dresshire etc


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    #4
    Kev O C
    Closed Accounts Posts: 55 ✭✭Kev O C


    betonit wrote: »
    i like the site but maybe should have the business type in the name ie tom-murphy-suits/dresshire etc

    Thanks. We considered something like that. The Store name is actually 'Tom Murphy Formal and Menswear'. However we thought that the shorter the domain name, the better.


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    #5
    nellyshark
    Registered Users Posts: 455 ✭✭nellyshark


    Nice design!

    I would be wary of the images you use for stock, for example I chose to view some of the ties and the image were not of a high enough resolution for the product zoom.

    Am I correct in think that Open Cart was integrated as your online shop to WP?


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    #6
    Pixelcraft
    Registered Users Posts: 742 ✭✭✭Pixelcraft


    I'm not a massive fan of templated sites, could be worse, could be better, but one thing I would definitely consider would be another domain name, hyphen's shouldn't be even considered imo.


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    #7
    blue4ever
    Registered Users Posts: 1,254 ✭✭✭blue4ever


    Some elements are looking much better ;) - and some need a little attention still :rolleyes:


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    #8
    Kev O C
    Closed Accounts Posts: 55 ✭✭Kev O C


    nellyshark wrote: »
    Nice design!

    I would be wary of the images you use for stock, for example I chose to view some of the ties and the image were not of a high enough resolution for the product zoom.

    Am I correct in think that Open Cart was integrated as your online shop to WP?

    We see the problem you are reffering to with the zoom. It seems good for the suits, shirts etc, but the ties are a different story. We got the images from our supplier in a PDF format. We are trying to fix this.

    In regards to WP, I assume this is Wordpress? We have a web developer who set all this up. We use 2 different admin panels really. One for the products uploading & editing and orders etc
    The Word Press is then used for the general content such as our blogs or welcoming page.


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    #9
    Kev O C
    Closed Accounts Posts: 55 ✭✭Kev O C


    Pixelcraft wrote: »
    I'm not a massive fan of templated sites, could be worse, could be better, but one thing I would definitely consider would be another domain name, hyphen's shouldn't be even considered imo.

    We should have integrated suits perhaps or something else. However we chose a hyphen as we thought it would be easier to remember. There are already 2 other Tom Murphy domains without the hyphen. One is .ie and the other is .com


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    #10
    Kev O C
    Closed Accounts Posts: 55 ✭✭Kev O C


    blue4ever wrote: »
    Some elements are looking much better ;) - and some need a little attention still :rolleyes:

    What d'you feel needs more attention? I'd appreciate any input. Thanks


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    #11
    Pixelcraft
    Registered Users Posts: 742 ✭✭✭Pixelcraft


    Kev O C wrote: »
    However we chose a hyphen as we thought it would be easier to remember. There are already 2 other Tom Murphy domains without the hyphen. One is .ie and the other is .com

    Seriously? I've never heard a hyphen being associated with being easy to remember.

    If you're advertising there's nothing worse than saying 'Just log on to TomHyphenMurphydotie'

    It's also a massive usability issue, some people won't remember the hyphen, some people won't know how to access a hyphen on a keyboard, and some won't know what a hyphen is


    edit: if you feel you should have integrated the word suits, why not do it now?


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    #12
    Best Price Accessories
    Closed Accounts Posts: 35 ✭Best Price Accessories


    Hi,

    I really l like the site. The blog showing pics really is a good idea - to be honest, it made me more likely to buy from you.

    I think the domain name may prevent you gaining exposure nationwide and could mean only getting local support where the brand is known. When you are competing with the big names - it might make sense to have a domain name that is a bit more intuitive.

    Hope that helps


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    #13
    MrMatisse
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,743 ✭✭✭MrMatisse


    Its a nice site but there is something about your logo thats a bit 1974 and kind of doesnt fit with the modern clean site.


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    #14
    Grumpypants
    Registered Users Posts: 7,750 ✭✭✭Grumpypants


    Like the site i wouldnt worry about the hyphen (have one myself :D)too much as long as you are number 1 to 3 in a google search for Tom Murphy. Most people now google everything rather than typing direct links.


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    #15
    tombull82
    Registered Users Posts: 910 ✭✭✭tombull82


    Also like the site. Clean and very visual, SEO looks good in everything apart from the domain name.

    Really needs rethinking IMO, Shorter is not always better. You need to try get some of your keywords into your domain.

    Tom


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    #16
    Kev O C
    Closed Accounts Posts: 55 ✭✭Kev O C


    Ok lads.Thanks a mill for all the feedback.We would consider changing the domain at some stage and i would love to drop the hyphen and call the site tommurphysuits.ie or tommurphymenswear.ie. I am looking to go international with this so if this has to be done i would consider it.However i am hoping to see if i can get serious traffic to the current domain .Am i right in thinking changing the domain again would push us down again.We have gone from about 100 hits a week to 500 this week so it would be great if we could keep this up.The analytics shows us that we are getting strong hits on the suit hire side of the site.However the online shop where we sell suits,shirts etc is attracting less traffic and people are leaving the products pages quickly.There must be something i can do to keep people on the page longer and convince people to buy.I know suits are a hard sell online but i believe it will work.I know i must offer a bigger choice in the product areas.Anything else ye think i can do?


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    #17
    Newsite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 820 ✭✭✭Newsite


    Kev O C wrote: »
    Ok lads.Thanks a mill for all the feedback.We would consider changing the domain at some stage and i would love to drop the hyphen and call the site tommurphysuits.ie or tommurphymenswear.ie. I am looking to go international with this so if this has to be done i would consider it.However i am hoping to see if i can get serious traffic to the current domain .Am i right in thinking changing the domain again would push us down again.We have gone from about 100 hits a week to 500 this week so it would be great if we could keep this up.The analytics shows us that we are getting strong hits on the suit hire side of the site.However the online shop where we sell suits,shirts etc is attracting less traffic and people are leaving the products pages quickly.There must be something i can do to keep people on the page longer and convince people to buy.I know suits are a hard sell online but i believe it will work.I know i must offer a bigger choice in the product areas.Anything else ye think i can do?

    Woah, you have a lot of Facebook fans! Good stuff, and very nice site too. Who designed it for you though and why does it have no meta keywords and what is with the meta description?

    Have to agree re domain name - don't ever think of adding hyphens! If you choose another domain name that is reflective of your service you should do better in Google.

    I would say suit hire is always gonna be bigger than purchasing clothes, simply because people will always just prefer to pop into your shop instead, as you know. The online offers you are doing though are a great way to get round that.

    Will take another look over later.


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    #18
    tombull82
    Registered Users Posts: 910 ✭✭✭tombull82


    Kev O C wrote: »
    However i am hoping to see if i can get serious traffic to the current domain .Am i right in thinking changing the domain again would push us down again.

    No you will still own the tom-murphy domain so you can just setup a redirection to your new address and this will automatically "redirect" anyone that goes to your tom-murphy domain to your new one.


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    #19
    Driven4aLivin
    Registered Users Posts: 34 ✭Driven4aLivin


    I had a quick look at your site just now. I agree with the other posts....a nice clean site with a focus on visuals. It's exactly what you'd want in a clothing-related site...little blah copy and lots of strong pictures.

    The blog is a nice touch - one small thing on that would be to make sure you use proper paragraphs and perhaps bold key things or add bullet points where relevant to break up lengthy posts.

    You might want to have something about the 'free delivery...' on the homepage to lure people in to the site. You don't see it unless you click 'online shop'.

    The "100% hassle free returns" is a great idea but you might want to have a FAQ section on the site where the text you have in that "100%..." section is presented in a different format i.e. with the questions at the top allowing people to click on the question they're interested in and go straight to the answer...without having to scroll through all the text.

    All in all though...nice job on the site and best of luck.


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    #20
    Kev O C
    Closed Accounts Posts: 55 ✭✭Kev O C


    Lads-Thanks a million for the feedback.I think ye are all agreed on the domain name issue.I will speak to the web develepor james about the possibility of redirecting to a new domain called tommurphysuits or something similar.By the way his company is abeo web solutions and i would highly reccomend him.You all seem to really like the site which is great news.The meta tags and keywords are being sorted.We left them to last because they no longer really influence search engines.Nellyshark you are correct-it was opencart and i have to say its very user friendly.Lads ye are correct about the blogs etc needing more paragraphing etc.Also the about us and i must do something with the picture of us with the heineken cup because there is no caption to say it is the cup and we fitted the munster team for suits.Perhaps as some of u suggested we need to get something on the homepage to get them into the online shop.Any thoughts on the actual suits pages and why people are not spending a lot of time on them?Do u guys think the images of our products are strong enough to tempt peopple to buy?What about the choice?
    A thing that is worrying me a little is
    -We are still not appearing well in search engines.I have done a lot of seo work and done everything that is advised.I know for a fact that nearly all the sites ahead of us are doing no seo work and their sites are a outdated.I have blogs etc that i am updating with frwesh content,proper page titles which the other sites do not have.Any ideas why its taking so long to get up the pages.


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    #21
    tombull82
    Registered Users Posts: 910 ✭✭✭tombull82


    wait until you have your new domain and then submit it to each search engine so the are aware your site is up.


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    #22
    Cianos
    Registered Users Posts: 4,850 ✭✭✭Cianos


    Don't think I can add much more to this but one thing I thought was that the mannequins look a bit cheap really. I think it takes away from the charm of the suit. I would probably either photoshop the mannequins out or stick to only photos with actual models.

    If it's a choice between tommurphysuits or tommurphymenswear, go with the former. The less words in a domain the better.


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    #23
    suey71
    Closed Accounts Posts: 805 ✭✭✭suey71


    Hi OP, I just put in a search for "suits Cork" on Google and you aint doin to bad. No.3 on the 1st page behind "Fitgeralds" and "suits.ie". and I put in a search for "suits" and you are only halfway down page 2. Again your competitors are the well established companies, like "Louis Copeland and "Oxendales" so your not doing too badly.

    These seem to be your main competitors am I wrong?

    These websites look like they cost a good few grand to develop and they look very professional with lovely sharp images.
    They look bespoke and I'm sorry to say yours looks like a template.
    Nothing wrong with that but you get what you pay for.

    I'm not knocking you or your website and I wish you great success, but you/or your boss needs to put a bit more money into the look of the website.

    The images of the shirts look real bad, lots of moire in the stripes.
    Never use stripes in a photo.
    I'm from a printing background and stripes are a nightmare to get right.

    I'll be looking for advice and opinions in a short while on my new website, my first, and I would appreciate honest feedback, so I hope you'll give me some constructive feedback when I post it here.

    I am really sorry if I come across as being harsh, I don't mean to be, but I'd like to see you do well.

    Best of luck to you.

    PM sent.


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    #24
    tombull82
    Registered Users Posts: 910 ✭✭✭tombull82


    I dont fully believe that the less words the better is "always" true.

    Not nowadays the way search engines are pulling sites from domain names.

    Shorter is better for customers who know about you where as more discriptive is better for people searching for your product or service.
    the above is all just my opinion.

    you seem to be set on having tom murphy in the domain so what I would do is to goto google trends and do a search on different words related to your business. i.e suits then menswear then shirts etc.

    you will be able to see which word is searched more and I would strongly advise to use which ever is the most searched combination of them.

    on the other hand dropping The shop name in the web domain may allow you to use better keywords in the domain bestsuithire.ie tailoredmeanswear.ie etc

    Tom


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    #25
    MagicMarker
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 32,865 ✭✭✭✭MagicMarker


    Not to be pedantic but you can see reflections of people in the glass in the pic of the guy with the city in the background on the main page. :)


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    #26
    Kev O C
    Closed Accounts Posts: 55 ✭✭Kev O C


    Lads -Thanks again for all the comments.I really appreciate all this feedback and constructive criticism.Suey i love to hear the bad things as well as the good but i must respond to your analysis.We have spent fairly big money on our site.It is at 8 grand wheras some of the competitors u mentioned in cork would have spent very little.We have wordpress,opencart,blogs and a full cms system.All the products have to be photographed professionally and then photoshopped-it all costs time and money.Most other people have said our site is miles ahead of our competitors.That was our aim when we developed it.I appreciate some of the photography could be better and we are working on that.Also i take the point lads on the mannequins being a bit ghostly looking but the cost of hioring a model evrty time we want to put in new stock would be higA pro took the photos and we paid 800 for on day.About not photographing stripes-this is not possible as 80 percent of shirts have stripes-they are very much in fashion.Thanks for the advice on the domain in the pm-i really appreciate that.


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    #27
    padocon
    Registered Users Posts: 2,218 ✭✭✭padocon


    I like the site. Although some images are out of proporstion and some are not even working.
    Eg Here


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    #28
    Kev O C
    Closed Accounts Posts: 55 ✭✭Kev O C


    padocon wrote: »
    I like the site. Although some images are out of proporstion and some are not even working.

    Thanks for pointing that out. We believe we've gotten that sorted by now. The image in your link will not work now, but we've changed the page so if you weret to go onto it through the site now the Gallery will work fine


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