Please Review Custom Tailored Hand Knit Fashions Website

bythevineyard · #1 (**permalink**) 08-01-2005, 12:07 PM

I finally got it all together.

I would like to hear your comments and suggestions.

I am aware that the front page is loading slow. I did a little too much slicing. That will be resolved (or has been).

Thanks a million.

Dave

www.bythevineyard.com

Also looking for comments on my other website...

Chocolate Cherries!
www.chukar.com

a12c4magic · #2 (**permalink**) 08-02-2005, 12:59 AM

You need to change the title <title>hometemplatepsd</title>
You have no doc type declared
I couldn't find your privacy notice (needs a link at the bottom of the page to your privacy notice)
I would suggest you run your site through http://validator.w3.org as you have 7 errors on the front page

Paul B · #3 (**permalink**) 08-02-2005, 02:36 AM

By using only images - even for text and no alt attributes - you have made your opening page blind to search engines. Otherwise you have an excellent customization of osCommerce for your store.

The only advantage of your index.html page is for search engines - in this case it is useless and all it does is make entry to the shop more complicated. I would drop the opening page and put your store in the root folder...

Evic · #4 (**permalink**) 08-02-2005, 06:24 PM

http://bythevineyard.com/

I find many of the sections on your website to be pretty much useless (specials - this info should be prominently displayed near a checkout area). I also found the location of your products a bit awkward. Usually when you visit a retail website they have all of the products listed in the main content portion, with example pictures, etc. You have words in the top-left which give me no idea what any of these products are.

If I was a random visitor looking for something for a gift, why would I click on any of these pages?

Also, the color scheme throughout is not maintained. Some pages have blaring white content areas, while some have dark pink. Immediate confusion ensues and screams, "this site isn't done." I'm not sending a site that isn't done my money.

You also need to add some better contact information within that section (ie. address).

I also can't see my shopping cart without clicking the checkout link. What if I have forgotten if I've added this product to my cart or not?

Finally as everyone else has mentioned, good luck getting listed on a search engine - you have no data for them to collect keyword from.

Overall design looks good. The modifications to osCommerce are impressive, but definitely not a company I would send money to.

http://www.chukar.com
Much better here. The sub-sections of the site are consistent and the entire site gives off a theme of luxurious, upper class, chocolate.

Once again, you have severely limited your ability to be listed on search engines with your index being images. This is somewhat fixed by the large amounts of textual content on the other pages (which in turn link to the index page), but it's still bad practice and will hurt in the long run.

I'd like to see a shopping cart better implemented - at least detailing how much I have spent on every page. So I don't have to click the checkout page everytime.

Other than that, this page is 100x better than the other, and I could see myself conducting business with this company.

bythevineyard · #5 (**permalink**) 08-02-2005, 11:05 PM

Search engines are not my concern. I am already top 10 on most.

Chukar #2 of 3 million on Google for cherries.

Bythevineyard #2 after three days of install on Google for Babini Kuki Fashions, License Plate Purses # 4, etc etc

Other terms are up there as well.

If I had more orders, I would have to hire someone to help me....

Thank you for your other suggestions. I will definitely take action on those.

Dave

webhost1 · #6 (**permalink**) 08-03-2005, 12:19 PM

Site loaded fast for me.

Why not have your site logo at the top and to the left.

About us probably should be a page by itself.

Our disginers also could be a page by itself.

Samething for our products.

**Ne0** · #7 (**permalink**) 08-03-2005, 03:04 PM

Hey I like it... :D

Everything loaded quickly, it's visually appealing, (great pics) I noticed you changed your title / alt tags and the only thing I have to suggest is to insert <meta tag keywords> You have none right now ;) Oh yeah and I could see the pics this time on FF and IE6 :D

L8 M8

NeO1