www.shaz-x-stitch.co.uk

Sdeeley · #1 (**permalink**) 06-18-2004, 03:44 AM

PLease check out my site

gsmanzi · #2 (**permalink**) 06-18-2004, 10:13 AM

Hi! I don't like the color scheme (It's only my opinion...) but the navigation it's something hard.
there's a good SEO work, only the relevance text/keywords it's too low (17%). Remember that a web page with frames is difficult to follow by search engines.

Have a nice day!

davebarnes · #3 (**permalink**) 06-18-2004, 01:13 PM

Sdeeley,

1. Either you go to a white background or you learn to create product images that are designed to be placed upon an orange background. Right now, it looks "tacky".

2. Move the javascript to an external file.

3. You have almost ZERO words on your homepage. Search engines will not be able to index your page in a meaningful manner.

4. Why do you have HTML code in Deutsch on your (obviously) English website?

5. On your checkout page, you have:

Code:

Name (First/Surname) :	  	
Company Name :	 	
Street :	 	
City :	 	
State :	 	
Postcode :	 	
Country :

I have to laugh.
a. I have never seen a UK address that was as simple as Street + City. Most UK addresses need at least 2 address lines and sometimes three.
b. State? You mean County don't you. Or did Tony change the counties to states in his admiration of Bill Clinton?

6. If you go to the trouble of building a framed site why did you not contain the PayPal page within your website? Another reason to use a white background.

,dave

jucamiloso · #4 (**permalink**) 06-18-2004, 01:16 PM

I liked the site because it's not overcrowded with stuff. I'd change the title, it just doesn't look very professional. Great job.

hal · #5 (**permalink**) 06-18-2004, 01:44 PM

Hi,

I took a look at sales@shaz-x-stitch.co.uk , and the previous posting has merit. Frames technology has not proven out to be a favorite with search engines. There are work-arounds, but it takes just a bit of effort.

I am more concerned, however, with how you want to be found by search engines. Just what should I enter in order to come up with your site right away?

You have no key phrases, only discrete words. These, in turn, are not even used to any great extent in your body text. For that matter, nothing is discussed to any extent in the Home page's body text.

I would suggest that you insert some info on your Home page which explains what you are about. The purpose is ostensibly to give the visitor an idea of what to expect at your site. The important purpose, however, is to provide something useful for search engines to latch onto, using key phrases.

What phrases should you use? Looking at just a handful of your competitors, I came up with cross-stitch, free patterns, counted thread, tips and tricks, stitchery techniques, cross stitch designs, counted cross stitch, cross stitch patterns, christmas cross stitch, flower cross stitch, nostalgic cross stitch, old fashioned, etc. Of course, what applies to your site depends upon your product line, services and clientele. But that's what I came up with in just 5 minutes of springboarding. It should be easy for you. Include your company name and community in your keywords. Have everything in your keyword list appear in the body text.

Yeah, I know, you have simply fallen into the trap of using a shopping cart's basic template. Please note. Those vendors are not in the business of making you successful -- they spend their time only on making their cart sell... to you. Just as every store in your town has a personality -- on exhibit in their display windows -- so should your Home page give your own personality.

Meanwhile, the title of your Frame holder page is the same as your Main frame. Would a spider consider that to be duplication, and thus spam? Ditto for your description and keywords meta-tags.

OK. I'm picky. But it is important.

Good luck with your site.

Hal

cyberious · #6 (**permalink**) 06-18-2004, 01:49 PM

Besides the fact that the site was done in frames, and on an all orange background with images in white boxes, I agree that you definitely need some more text content for search engines and your visitors.

I'd also recommend adding descriptions to the Kids Crafts (I would have bought something for my daughter if I knew what these items were) and the product images are too blurred. Could be that they were saved at lower resolutions.

It's a good idea to optimize your site properly. You can even optimize your images (by adding descriptive content to "alt" tags).

mythman · #7 (**permalink**) 06-19-2004, 07:21 PM

I agree that you should change the title. Like ad-men's headlines, the site name should be something that picks out your 'section of the market' and invites them to something that's at the same time "interesting" and "of you."

matthewdean · #8 (**permalink**) 06-20-2004, 07:56 PM

Hi,

Good point about addresses.

Also good point about colours -- I think they need tweaking. The yellow needs to be brighter or the orange darker. And the pictures of your base web material need redoing to make them more visible.

I don't like framed sites and in these days with high-powered tools like Dreamweaver you don't really need them. Might want to rethink that. The benefit to your website in terms of visitors referred from search engines is highly significant.

One important detail you might want to address is the Search buttons: the tooltip text doesn't work in NN7.1. This is because the attribute that generates tooltip text in IE and NN is different. My workaround on this in the <img> element is to use both alt and title attributes with the same text in both.

Cheers,
Matt