Websites are Eternally in Progress. Mr. Bo-Bo's Anyway
Sometimes you think your work is done. But then you step away for a minute, look again, and realize how much more work you have to do. And by 'you', I mean 'me'... although I do mean you, too.
We tend to be so proud of our progeny that we are blind to its flaws and miss out on ways it can be improved.
On my (latest) website (http://InfusiasmStore.com) I was in such a rush to just get it out there that I couldn't see the forest for the trees. Since initially releasing it I have undergone a series of improvements and will probably continue to find things that bug me. Which is okay.. we need to continually update our websites to keep the big G happy, right?
I don't know if this list will be relevant to your website or not, but if you sell products it might be (and if you have more tips feel free to share them in the comments so the rest of us can learn!). These are things I have changed along the way:
- Posted better photos - Number one thing I found lacking on my site. I thought my initial photos were decent... they showed the packaging and I tried to make them look good. More often than not they were crooked or out of perspective... but hey, it was a photo! *so proud* After combing the web I felt like they were amateurish and boring. And I felt like pics of the product would better serve me than just a boring picture of the packaging. Spice blends are much more attractive up close, the customer can see more detail... color and texture.
- Homogenize the descriptions. Instead of trying to remember how I worded something that I repeat in every category (shrub concentrates, spice blends, finishing salts, sweet crystals), I worked on a version that I liked and copied and pasted it into each product description. It gives the website continuity and makes it appear more professional.
- Link the crap out of it. I have heard internal links compared to a spider web that gives structure to a website. Some ways I have linked are linking from products to posts and vice versa, linking to FAQs, etc.
- Add a more obvious call to action. If someone is looking for a product but they're on the fence, I want them to know that I have samples available for sale. That's a less risky purchase. Especially for items that a customer can't smell or taste. So I created a button that links to the sample page, making it obvious and also simple for my customer to find.
- Information. Customers want to know what they're getting for their money... the size of the product, what's in it, in my case nutritional data. I offer sugar-free products, but a few of them contain molasses so I make that obvious and give the customer the option of having it omitted if they want the blend but not the molasses. I also put xylitol in my shrub concentrates and it's highly toxic to dogs so I make sure my customers are aware of that, and I offer an unsweetened version if they prefer other sweeteners.
Some things are obviously out of my control (the cost of shipping, for example), but I'm trying to remove as many roadblocks as I can.
So I close with two requests:
1) If you have additional tips that I didn't cover, please add them in the comments so we can all learn, and
2) If you looked at my website, did anything fall short? Is there any information I am missing? Links I could add? Etc. I haven't updated all of the photos yet, I'm hoping to finish that tomorrow, if you have ideas for staging the products that's cool, too. For the concentrates I plan to show the bottle, a glass of the concentrate mixed and some of the ingredients with a natural background... plants or something.
Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend... I'm watching movies, drinking iced coffee and (as usual) working.
Oh... random and unrelated... I love birds and have gotten some great pics lately. For all that I suck at photos of my products, I take pretty good photos of birds (I think). Here are a few, hope you enjoy them:
Cardinal Richelieu
House Finch
Eastern Bluebird
Junco (?)
Red-Winged Blackbird
Lady Richelieu
Eastern Bluebirds
... The red-tailed hawk keeps taunting me, but never when I have my camera... I'll get him some day.
Recent Comments
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Hi Kristy,
So much of your website is great - especially the photos. I'm drooling.
Now for the constructive advice:
1) The images on your home page slider have different heights and watching the page bounce up and down almost made me seasick. When the images change they become distorted as well.
2) The internal links are great and I don't think you have too many but perhaps you would consider having some of them open in a new tab/window as some people could get lost when they're reading a recipe and the link takes them to a new page in the same window. I know how to use the back button in the browser but not everyone does.
3) I'd like the images at the bottom of the home page to link to the same page as the GO! buttons.
All in all it's going to be a great colorful website and I wish you every success.
Marion
Thank you for the compliments :)
I agree wholeheartedly with the size of the slider images. I am trying to work on that but so far no luck. Even when I make the height the same, it doesn't seem to make a difference after I publish. I will continue to try or come up with another solution though.
I don't have the ability to link the photo as well as the go button, it's set up that way in the theme but I would have loved that too and sometimes when I'm checking links I find myself trying to click the picture...
I like your idea about opening recipes in another window. I think I did that for external links but didn't for recipes on my site, but I get what you're saying and will add that to my list of things to do.
Thanks for your feedback!
Which theme are you using? If it's free I'll put it on my test website and see if I can make the images clickable. Always happy to help a friend.
Thanks. Support says they don't either, but I still do. It's fine unless I click anywhere on the site and then I get a popup.
Great pictures Kristy,(:missed the K) and I will take your linking the crap out of it to heart:) have a nice "working"Sunday:) Loes
I was actually in the bathroom kneeling down holding my camera above my head so they wouldn't see me, hahaha
Something is going on with your site. I went to check out the salt popcorn and something came on, not related to your site. I thought it was strange, so I check again and everything was fine.
I said let me clean out my cookies and try again and it happen again some iLivid popped up. This is the website. I do not know what is going on.
I would have others look at it and see if they have the same thing. Where is your site hosted, If it's hosted here, I would place a support ticket. You could lose customers because of this.
It wouldn't allow me to add the link in here of the popup.
Now I'm worried about my sites if I have the same thing.
So far no one has mentioned it, I'll try incognito and see what happens when I click the link. That's weird... I hope there's nothing wrong. So iLivid is the name of the website that popped up?
It may be on your computer. I was reading this and it sounds like it's bundled in with software downloads... I hate when they do that and hide it hoping you won't notice (and I typically don't until later). http://botcrawl.com/how-to-remove-ilivid-virus/
I'll ask support though, just in case because you're right, I definitely don't need to lose customers! Thank you for telling me about it.
I just sent a message to support, just in case. Think I'll also scan mine... it's been a while since I initiated one but my anti-virus is supposed to do it on a regular basis.
well we are in the making money from home industry, so there is no telling what is going on.
update it and I will clean my cookies again and see what happens let me know when you updated it.
well I checked it and this time it's a flash player. It says download sbplayers.net
I didn't have any viruses on my computer. I would check all your plugins and make sure they are all updated
Oookay, they told me to flush my DNS and clear my cache so I did that... not sure how that helps but can you try again?
Sorry I was waiting then I went to bed, I cleaned my cookies again and check it and nothing came up. It seemed to have worked whatever you guys did. Glad you got it taken care of.
Good... I was still seeing it... I had support check it, I uninstalled the theme and reinstalled... uninstalled and tried other themes (and HATED THEM)... finally I ran malware bytes and it quarantined a bunch of stuff then rebooted and now I don't see it anymore. THANK GOODNESS! Time to run a backup!
I'm happy, wow I would be soooo stressed out if that happen to me. I was like I have to tell her, she can't have her site like that.
I'm sure you were like FIX IT, with the support. Lol I'm so happy you got everything worked out. :))
I was just frustrated because they changed the theme and that was that. Problem solved... to them anyway. But now my shit looked like crap and I had to start over.
So I asked them why - with the same theme - the mrbobobook.com site wasn't having the same issue. I tried three other themes and they didn't do what I wanted and that theme is perfect... I even contacted the developer... really nice guy, he suggested a couple of things but if it hadn't cleared up I would have been SOL.
That is so frustrating. Especially when you found something you really like. I feel your pain.
The main thing though is that you want users to have a good experience on your site.
You don't want that pop-up stuff coming up. They will probably just leave and won't want to buy anything because they won't trust your site. That's so important.
You're very creative and I'm sure you can work through this. I know it's more work and more IRK. I have my IRK days too. So you're not alone. If you ever want me to check it again, I will be happy to. :)
Well it all worked out in the end. I get to keep my theme and don't have to redo my site. It's backed up and I added more security features.
Thank you so much for letting me know - you're right... last thing I need is to lose potential customers... ever... but especially while I'm trying to build a reputation.
I'm glad it all worked out in the end. No problem about letting you know. I would want someone to tell me if that happen to me. I don't have time for that stuff. Lol I
love your site, I think you're doing a great job! :) I gotta look into the popcorn salt. :)
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Hi Kristy, I love yr site. Thank you for sharing this blog post, great tips. :) How are you today? :)
Thank you :) I'm doing good. In the process of switching hosts so I'm nervous because there are some issues... but it's forcing me to take a day off. How are you?
Thank you Krisy, I am feeling great. My hubby's sites are making sales, so I am super happy, lol. :)
That's awesome!!! I hope to be able to say that about mine... I've made a few but mostly to friends and family. Had a setback where I shipped some bottles and they didn't arrive, reshipped and they arrived broken... turned out that was the first box, but the second box got there a day later and it was broken. So I sort of lost a customer, but I have refunded her money and am sending one last box in the hopes I can recover her.
She's part of the group I'm trying to sell to so she's really important to me and I didn't want to leave on a bad note.
That's kind of you to do that, Kristy. :) Have you tried creating the free blogger site, write a great review on yr product and point the desired keywords to yr present site, that will be a great idea. I can teach you, lol. :)
You'll have to walk me through that
Kristy, I have a blog post on how to create a free blogger site, there is link in the blog post called "How To Start A Blog On Blogger" in blue ink, it has images on it how to do one: Blogger - How To Create A Free Blogger Site To Rank Yr Desired Keywords Let me know what you think, :)
It takes me to your blog page but I don't see that blog
Actually, the link is inside the blog post, but anyway here it is:
http://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Blog-on-Blogger