www.dimensionfurniture.co.uk

Byzantium · #1 (**permalink**) 08-21-2005, 05:57 PM

Hi - this site http://www.dimensionfurniture.co.uk/ is one I did for a cabinet maker friend of mine.

I have put a fair bit of effort into SEO.

Appreciate any comments on what I could do to improve the site or further optimize it.

Thanks!

JKomp · #2 (**permalink**) 08-21-2005, 06:32 PM

Pretty good stuff, nice simple design, not top of the line but it does what it says on the tin.
Maybe the cabinet maker could try smiling next time though.

Byzantium · #3 (**permalink**) 08-21-2005, 07:17 PM

Thanks jkomp - be interested to know what it would take to make it top of the line though...

CJacobson · #4 (**permalink**) 08-22-2005, 12:08 AM

It's a lovely site. I particularly like the ruler (dimension.gif) at the top of the page, the color scheme, the photography, and the way text descriptions appear above the navigation buttons on mouse-over.

Usually I don't like webpages that scale themselves to use my whole window width. Yours manages to look good, even at extreme width, although it's still hard to read lines that are thirty words wide. Do you know that your "contact us" page DOESN'T scale to window width?

On links out of the site such as the wikipedia article on Arts-and-Crafts furniture, I'd probably open a new browser window, like you did for Arboreta.

It's obvious you've optimized (and maybe over-optimized?) for the term "bespoke furniture". Maybe that's perfect in Surrey, but the term is totally obsolete here, and I can't believe it's fully understood by casual English buyers... I'd suggest you define it and emphasize how "bespoke furniture" is different from "custom furniture". (As I understand it, the word bespoke means that the material for tailoring something has been reserved for a customer, whether the design is one-of-a-kind or not.)

SEO is one thing, but ad copy is ad copy - and the text on this website wasn't written to sell. The sentences on the home page are way, way too long - one sentence after another. I think the shortest sentence is "Please see our gallery for examples of bespoke furniture we have produced in the past." I hope you can look at this sentence objectively and understand that it contains 9 words too many. You should challenge yourself (or whoever writes the copy) to write an occasional five word sentence that really hits hard.

You especially need a stronger "call to action". Tell potential customers what you want them to do in very direct terms. (Example: "Call now for superior custom hand-made furniture!")

I didn't see any customer testimonials... and I think they're conspicuously missing. A good testimonial is priceless! The statement "References available upon request." also seems to be missing.

Blackicicle · #5 (**permalink**) 08-22-2005, 01:00 AM

I hope that Im not repeating CJ but I just couldn't read all that.

I like the design and colors.
The menu is simple and easy to use.
The Picture shadows are a great touch but not overdone

However the contacts page seem to be broken.

If you have time please review a friends site for me.
Click Here

Byzantium · #6 (**permalink**) 08-22-2005, 08:46 AM

Blackicicle - thanks - and I have reviewed your friends site. Can you tell me in what way the contacts page appears broken? It's fine for me.

CJacobson - thanks for such a comprehensive review. I really appreciate your taking the time and I'd like to respond to some of your points:

Quote:

Usually I don't like webpages that scale themselves to use my whole window width.

I tend to the opposite view: Why would you not want to use the whole screen?

Quote:

Do you know that your "contact us" page DOESN'T scale to window width?

The contact page has relatively little text and the text is centred, but the header and overall page (borders etc) should scale - can you clarify?

Your comments on 'bespoke furniture' vs 'custom furniture' are interesting. The site is really for UK market and 'bespoke furniture' is still very much a current and competitive term here - though same meaning as custom furniture - which may be used by youger (more US influenced) audience.

I will take on board all your comments about selling, short sentences etc - but I think that is partly down to cultural differences. Many English (UK) people are completely turned off by the in your face, hard sell approach which is common stateside. I will try and build in a stronger call to action though.

The customer testimonials thing is a very good point to and I will take up with the client.

Thanks again for a very helpful review.

CJacobson · #7 (**permalink**) 08-22-2005, 02:35 PM

Quote: Why would you not want to use the whole screen?

For most sites I recommend a fixed layout of 800 pixel. One reason is that it can be a pain to read a line of text that's thirty words long - the same reason newspapers present text in columns. Another issue is that many people use smaller monitors (especially on laptops) and windows. On websites that mix text and images it's usually easier to get a consistantly attractive format at a fixed design width. Like I said before, you don't have this problem (except perhaps on your contact-us page.)

Quote: the header and overall page (borders etc) should scale - can you clarify?

Try viewing the contact-us page on Firefox or Netscape 7. On Firefox it'll appear quite narrow (just wide enough for the text "For further information or to discuss your requirements please contact:".) On Netscape your contact-us page will appear about 80% of window width. On both, it'll appear uncentered, with white space to the right. I think you're missing a margin definition in your CSS file, and it's only effecting this one page because it's the only page on the whole website where you don't have long wordy spans of text. (wink!)

I'm still doubtful that "bespoke" and "custom" have the exact same meaning. I note on the home page (near page bottom) have a link to "bespoke-furniture.htm" and a seperate link to "custom-furniture.htm". Is that only for SEO reasons?

(I suspect the keyword "bespoke furniture" is less competitive; a wiser target for a smaller or newer website that can't generate inbound links as quickly or easily? I wish I could get my friend "KB Thomas" to change her pen name. Try competing for that keyword!)

I totally comprehend that your target market will want more information and a "softer sell"... but I still think most of the text on this website is wordy and over-stuffed (with keywords). Short sentences zing! You can use them to emphasize points you think are particularly important.

Again, it really is a lovely website. Websites like this one make me want to quit my day job and do web design.

JKomp · #8 (**permalink**) 08-22-2005, 02:47 PM

Just a quick point, using a mixture of short and long sentences is common in all literature, English, American or otherwise.
Use longer sentence to give details and to bulk out a deal. Use shorter sentences to quicken the pace and wake the reader up for a sale.

clivemcg · #9 (**permalink**) 08-22-2005, 06:54 PM

Hi, nice site and I like the colour scheme but, re the text and ignoring sentence length, I'd be looking to make the content more easily digestible: maybe have text blocks on the right and left of the photos - breaking up the page a bit for easier reading.

For example have the photo of your happy carpenter with text in a block on the right followed by pic. of an item of furniture on the right with a block of text to the left.

Let's be honest as well, you are verging on being over-optimised text wise - it doesn't read naturally, but that's possibly my reading it with an SEO hat on.

As an Englishman I understand your, or your client's, keeness to use the term 'Bespoke' (meaning: made to a customer's specifications rather than from a template ;-)

I would suspect however that a potential site visitor is more likely to type the term 'hand made furniture' or 'handmade furniture' into an SE box rather than 'bespoke furniture'. Why not run a cheap Google Adwords campaign for a week or two to see if that's the case?

I too am building a site for a Master Joiner specialising in 'hand made kitchens' 'hand built kitchens' but he insists on the word 'bespoke' being used everywhere. We're still arguing about it (amicably) and suggest you do the same.

Your META stuff looks good too.

Anyway good luck and good job!

clivemcg · #10 (**permalink**) 08-22-2005, 06:58 PM

Sorry my mistake - you've got lots of nice 'handmade furniture' text and ALT tags in there - might get MY client to check out your site to convince him that Bespoke is not the only option!

CreditFN · #11 (**permalink**) 08-22-2005, 11:46 PM

Hey,

There are a couple of edits I would make to the SEO on your index page.

For your title line you might want to consider adding a special wood used, to make your furniture stand out for a niche market. Replace the word "by" with a - (hyphen). Replace the , (comma) used with a - (hyphen). For your meta list, add commas between keywords so the robot can read them individually.

Good luck, if you need further assistance contact me or visit www.SearchEngineOperator.com .

pagetta · #12 (**permalink**) 08-23-2005, 04:36 AM

On the subject of the term 'bespoke', I would agree that it isn't all that well known - I only know it as I have started working for a company who offer bespoke databases, but when I use it very few people know what it means!

I think the site looks really good though - maybe on the home page it would be nice to have a featured piece, that changes regularly with a call-to-action and some sort of headline. Although it is clear what the site is, you often need to guide people into the route you want them to take.

I also agree that in the UK the hard sell doesn't go down quite so well, and testemonials are regarded as quite an American thing (at least amongst myself and my piers) as you are promoting traditional hand crafted furniture this may not be the best approach -perhaps show magazines you have been in, or bespoke pieces you have made in situ?

The only other design thing is that the links are in the generic IE colour of bright blue - its just a personal preference, but I think they look a bit sleeker if put in a colour to fit in with the rest of the site - the green is quite subdued but the blue of the links is VERY bright!

V nice site though - really easy to use and good pics of the furniture. Good luck with it all!

Byzantium · #13 (**permalink**) 08-23-2005, 10:17 AM

Thanks! I'm overwhelmed by the quality and depth of your responses! (and also by the amount of work it will be to implement all you suggest...)

To respond to some of your suggestions:

The bespoke / custom thing: In the UK, amongst cabinet makers, the term 'bespoke furniture' is seen as a prestigious term that denotes quality and craftsmanship. Unfortunately that makes it a relatively competitive term too - so I have not yet succeeded in getting a top 30 ranking for that. I was targeting custom furniture (higher KEI) but suspect that attracts mainly US visitors - not much help for a UK cabinet maker. I have had more success with 'handmade furniture' and 'hand made furniture'.

Pagetta - thanks I will try changing the link colours and see how it looks and think about your other suggestions.

CreditFN - I have changed for hyphens as you suggest. To be honest I thought 'by' and ',' would be treated as blanks anyway - but you seem pretty sure and convinced me...

clivemcg - yes - the text is over optimised and doesn't always read well. Now that I am in all the main engines and have reasonable backlinks i should be able to start stripping out the worst excesses of keyword stuffing...

As to most effective keywords - I did a lot of research on wordtracker and on overture - but neither of these are as accurate as I would like them to be. They don't always distinguish between single and plural forms, provide geographic usage variations (bespoke & custom), or distinguish between 'hand made' and 'handmade' - but the search engines do...

How could I use adwords to find this out?

CJacobson - on the fixed width / liquid layout thing I think we will just have to agree to differ. If I get presented with an 800 wide column on my screen i just think why are you not using the rest of my screen? Why are you wasting the money I spent on getting a bigger screen?...

The contact us - Ooops - yes that doesn't look very professional on Firefox - does it? And the last place you want to mess up is on the contact us page... Will fix!

Bespoke furniture is tailor made furniture - designed and built for purpose - which I think is the same as custom furniture?

I did quit my day job (well - got made redundant) - and I am doing web design. Now all I need is to get paid for it too!

Thanks again!

CreditFN · #14 (**permalink**) 08-23-2005, 05:16 PM

Hey,

For your meta-tag keywords, be sure to place commas in between the specific keywords you would like the search engine to trigger. For example:

<meta name="Keywords" content="english handmade furniture, england handmade furniture, bespoke custom cabinet maker, dimension hand made wood, handmade oak dining table, traditional contemporary furniture, UK, Surrey London">

I only took your existing meta and made modifications to it, but I would add types of wood used, target markets in England, etc. If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me.

Good Luck.

Byzantium · #15 (**permalink**) 08-25-2005, 08:50 AM

Thanks Zachary,

I did read somewhere that commas or spaces were valid delimiters and no need for both - but I think I'll take your advice - because you were spot on about the dashes.

Many Thanks

Byzantium · #16 (**permalink**) 08-31-2005, 09:17 AM

Hi - I made some changes to this site - largely as a result of feedback on another forum - to try and brighten it up a bit. I don't know if it's better or not though - what do you think?

old:
the site as it was is at http://www.dimensionfurniture.co.uk/

new:
an updated home page is at http://www.dimensionfurniture.co.uk/index-new.htm
(just the home page for now)

Which do you prefer?

Thanks

ran_dizolph · #17 (**permalink**) 08-31-2005, 09:49 AM

Hi...both are decent sites...easy on the eyes.

one thing...you mention in the 'about the site' section that care is taken to make sure it validates...but your main page doesn't. you may wanna look into that.

hope that helps!

check out my windsorhog.com thread if you have a chance.

thanks

CJacobson · #18 (**permalink**) 08-31-2005, 02:22 PM

I think I actually prefer the old color scheme, overall. (Not that it couldn't be brighter!)

Hey - I borrowed something from your site the other day! I remodeled my navigation bar with links and mouse-over descriptions like yours. So... thank you!

You might want to check them out. Here's a link to the "topic": http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=51581

Another thing you might want to look at is the way I define font size, etc. (in CSS) for those buttons because I think it works better across browser platforms. When I view your site on IE, the link-text is noticeably larger than in Netscape 7.0 or Firefox. When I mouse-over "Home", the description actually underlaps. (The word "furniture" gets partially covered by the button border.) This doesn't happen in Netscape or Firefox, where all the text appears smaller. Also, Netscape is showing the descriptions with an underline, which makes them harder to read.

Keep up the good work!

Byzantium · #19 (**permalink**) 09-01-2005, 01:32 PM

ran - fixed the validation prob - thanks.

CJ -

Quote:

I think I actually prefer the old color scheme

That was the wrong answer!!

Glad to hear you found something worth copying from my site. I couldn't replicate the problem you describe though. What screen resolution are you running?

I had a look at your site but didn't really get what you were doing with font size - give me an overview if you can. I use relative font sizes so they scale for accessibility...

da8iwr · #20 (**permalink**) 09-02-2005, 04:40 PM

OK I’m a newbie on this site, I have just sat and read all the comments on the site for review, and I have noticed that 50% or so of people, are talking about the word bespoke.

If you look at the Thesaurus for the word Bespoke it means

Specially made
Commissioned
Made to order
Custom-built
Customized

I’m sorry but ever since I was a kid the word bespoke has meant exclusive, special, hand made, made just for one person.

The word custom to me means it has been modified to fit. You would customize a car you would use a body kit and alloy wheels, but a bespoke car is hand built from scratch, and designed as a one off, chitty chitty bang bang is bespoke not customized, and those cars from fast and furious are customised.

Well your furniture is as bespoke as your going to get, if it was just basically the same design but the sizes were to order to fit into a room or something, that would be custom.

Byzantium, keep the word bespoke, as it reflects your furniture. And I have to say, it is excellent products, it really is. I think some people need to go back to school and learn English.

The design
I’m not sure why but design is starting to become very stagnant. It seams that it is now becoming the norm to put a menu on the left with a title bar across the top. Don’t get me wrong it is a very pleasant site, but it doesn’t go wow, and grab you by the short and curlies and say stay here.

I am building a site at the moment that will be finished soon for a friend of mine that is an ice sculptor. I tried to make it slightly different to show the class and difference, so I made this for him.

http://www.subzeroiceart.com
here is a magazine we made for them
http://www.newworlddesigns.co.uk/det...=132&subID=153

I also designed a site for a local hotel
http://www.rokerhotel.co.uk

I’m not saying these are superb in any way, but they serve there purpose. I tried to make the products the site, rather than the site just a display of products if that makes any sense.

None of my sites are SEO, as I have found over the years the more I try to SEO them, the less they work. My own portfolio site http://www.quicktimevirtualreality.com, it is not optimised, has never been even attempted to be and is just a load of text I typed in. It is now top (for no reason I know of) of all the search engines, as it shows on the index page of that site. Some times I think with what I have experienced, is the more natural the site is the more the search engines prefers it. How many times have you typed in something quite major and it has brought a little site from a one man business to the top of the rankings above all the PLC and INC companies.

There are even many sites out there, that have no visible content as it is all images or flash, and they hit the tops of the search engines, as these are related to incoming links and the content etc on the incoming pages.

I think site design needs to be different, needs to be a way of capturing people’s attention and make them think I need to stay here and have a look around, and then send an email to their friends to say, hey look at this site isn’t it great.
At the moment it doesn’t do that. You have a perfect product to do this, that most designers would brake a leg for, give it a go, and see what you can do.

Best ideas are have a look at some of the world fashion and jewellery industries sites, where there image is everything. They have usually spent a lot of time and money (like millions) finding the best designers to make a site. You will see how they have displayed their products etc, and you might get some ideas you can use.

But honestly not a bad attempt