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Website Critique     
 
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Would You Buy This Product?
Posted By: Thyme on 6/10/2006 2:25 PM (CST) 250 Points
I have a site that has not been launched yet. I would like to have it critiqued but, I don't want to post the address. Would someone be willing to look at it and post comments here?

Thank you.

Posted by: Chad Kerlegan* Member Response
6/10/2006 5:47 PM (CST)
Tea,

Be a little more descriptive about your site. This way if people want to look at the site, they won't be afraid of what may pop-up...
 
Posted by: Thyme Author Response
6/10/2006 10:34 PM (CST)
The site is for a natural beverage. Because I am a start up with limited product. It was intended to be a site for the community I service. The business is all me and I don't want to take on too much. This product is new to this area so I want to make a good impression. I may also feature local businesses here that carry my product. I opted not to go with ecommerce. I will be using a virtual terminal. I was concerned about the wording. I wrote the text. This is my first site and I want it to look presentable. I think it needs something else, color maybe. I'm not sure.

Thank you.
 
Posted by: rbauman* Member Response
6/11/2006 9:15 AM (CST)
It is difficult to critique your site without the URL.
 
Posted by: Thyme Author Response
6/11/2006 2:13 PM (CST)
Please be very critical, with exception of the desperately need spell check.

Thanks again.
 
Posted by: Frank Hurtte Member Response
6/11/2006 3:32 PM (CST)
I like the content... i am not wild about the color. If you expect people to act/react I suggest bolder colors.

Frank Hurtte
 
Posted by: KSA Accepted Answer
6/11/2006 6:49 PM (CST)
Tea Cloud,

Here are a few things that immediately came to mind.

If you want to be found in the search engines at all, you'll need to make a few changes. Your home page is a graphic file as opposed to text, and your page title isn't optimized. Search engines will have no way of knowing what your site is about.

Also, from a visitor standpoint, there is nothing on the home page that indicates what the site is about. I'd never know you were selling tea just landing on the home page. I'd suggest adding an introduction to the purpose of the site, your competitive advantages, a call to action (what you want the visitor to do next), maybe a featured tea, etc.

I also didn't see any way for a visitor to purchase anything. The "Tea" page lists types and prices, but no way to purchase, unless I missed something. Is your goal to have visitors purchase the tea online? If so, how will you facilitate that?

Hope this helps.

Kathleen
 
Posted by: jpoyer Accepted Answer
6/11/2006 8:58 PM (CST)
Tea Cloud,

Here are some of my ideas/critiques.

1. First of all, I actually like the color scheme, I think it fits your product. (Maybe I because I am a woman in my 30s and might be your target audience? :) ) Although the design looks a bit template-ish, which might take away from the uniqueness you are attempting to portray with your product.

2. I agree with Kathleen, you definitely need to make sure your front page has some text describing your product, with a call to action, and not just a graphic. Not only does it make your page load slower, it also kills your opportunity for good SEO implementation. You can incorporate that font into the page in other ways, so you won't really be losing the look by putting in regular text.

3. Another thing is your graphics all need to have alt text added to the image tags. This will also help if you end up getting serious about promoting your website with search engines.

4. The yellow highlight on the mouseovers on the buttons does bother me a bit, it doesn't really make sense as there is no other yellow in the site.

5. I also believe that you should include how much tea the ounces make. So if I buy 1 ounce, how many cups of tea can I make with that? At first, I was thinking one ounce of liquid, which of course I realized immediately it was one ounce of tea leaves, but just for a second ... Others might make that same mistake.

6. I do think it is a mistake to not collect online orders. The less people have to do to buy your product, the more chance you will convert viewers into buyers. I noticed in your FAQs, you mentioned that it helps keep your pricing down. However, you can do this in PayPal for very little cost. It is free to use, but when paypal processes the order it takes 3% plus .30 USD for each transaction. It definitely has helped my business to be able to accept credit cards without having to pay the monthy merchant fee. I used it on my company's resume site (http://www.xprtresume.com/student/packages.shtml), so you can see what it looks like if you want. We haven't really finished this site yet, so eventually the buttons look more like the site graphics, but this works for now! :)

7. The "Teapots" category doesn't really make sense to me. If you had it as a highlight or a sidebar maybe on the tea page, unless you are planning to sell teapots. It just doesn't seem to be as important as the other main categories, yet it carries just as much weight. (?)

8. Link from your other pages text to your purchase page - the page with the prices. Not just from the menu, but from the actual text. For instance, on your "mission page" Our Mission is to provide a complete experience of some the world's best tasting teas and their benefits to our customers ..." "worlds best tasting teas" would link to your products.

9. What is your Tagline or Slogan? You have two competing tags, "Alivitea for your body and mind" and "rejuvenation ... refreshment ... vitality ......" I think for your branding efforts, you should pick one and use it exclusively. [also, why the 6 elipses at the end of vitality? Just wondering if there was a purpose for the extra elipses.]

10. Link the "Alivitea" graphic at the top of your pages to the home page.

11. Finally, you might consider getting a custom logo designed, because it will really help to make your site look more customized instead of like a template. Could really add to your product feel.

Best of luck to you, I hope this helps.

Jennifer
XPRT Creative
 
Posted by: deni418 Member Response
6/11/2006 9:58 PM (CST)
I was nterested in the teapot section, but was confused. I could get no futher than the half teapot. Is that what is representing all your teapots. Do you have different types? Just couldnt figure it out. Good luck with you products.
 
Posted by: Thyme Author Response
6/11/2006 10:59 PM (CST)
Thank you. Thank you. This is definitely a serious endeavor so I need it to be right.

The site looks alot template-ish. I'm paying for a custom site so that's what I want.

Thanks Jennifer, I am marketing to women in our age group. At least I got that right. The graphics seem a bit big to me. I was going to use virtual terminal for orders because I was told my customers would otherwise have to pay for one item at a time with the paypal buttons. Now that I know that's not the case I will have to make changes.

I had nothing to do with the ellipses.

The graphics for the teapots have not been placed yet.
I will be featuring a tea for each month.

Thanks again everyone.


Tea Cloud
 
Posted by: harzkek Accepted Answer
6/12/2006 9:19 AM (CST)
Tea Cloud,

There have been many good and constructive comments here already, here (I hope) a couple more.

The think I disliked about the site was the graphics. Particularily the home page graphic which to me (who is admittedly not a tea drinker) looks like mulch.

If you want to communicate health, vitality, energy, etc. I would suggest showing people who are healthy, vital, energetic, happy, relaxed (and preferably drinking something that looks like tea) on most pages. The pictures of the Tea, while nicely composed are not very distinctive. They don't make your tea stand out from any other teas out there. Don't just tell people what your teas will do for them, show them.

I also agree with the comment about using text on your home page. Having nothing but graphics will sabotage your serach results. I would take it even further to say that your homepage should act as a "sampler" page for the rest of your site. Include introductory information about the other areas of the site with links in the text as well as the navigation. This gives people a little more info about what to expect whent they click on a link such as "Tea and Health" (which needs content by the way). The easier it is for someone to find and obtain the product they are looking for, the more likely they will.

I would not include anything in you main navigation that leads to a page without content. "Teas and Health" is a perfect example. Instead, I would suggest contacting these orgainzations and seeing if you can get permission to re-publish (with full attribution) some related articles on your site. Tell them you will include their logo and a linkback to their site. It adds legitimacy to your product, content to your site, improves your search results, and educates your target market on the benefits of Tea. Be sure to communicate how your product is an excellent way to get the benefits mentioned in whatever article you choose.


I also have to agree with Jennifer about taking online orders. There are inexpensive options available to take online orders. You also need to realizie that taking online orders, while there may be expenses involved, also GENERATES revenue. Many younger people (especially Gen X and younger) are much more comfortable with making orders online. They also do not want to waste time making a phone call or mailing an order when they have gone to the internet to find the answers they were looking for. By all means, take mail order and phone orders as well, but STRONGLY consider taking online orders.

Good luck,

Kurt
 
Posted by: darcy.moen Accepted Answer
6/12/2006 9:31 AM (CST)
If you truly want to come across as a serious endeavor, you'd better have your own domain name. Riding along as a splinter directory off of a cheap (or free) hosting company is a sure sign of 'wannabe'! I hope that this is just the demo site from the design company.

If this is just the demo or development site from the design company, have them remove their 'EZprohosting' credit from the bottom of the page when you go live on your own TLD. If you paid for web site development, you shouldn't have to advertise their services on your site. If they insist on leaving it on, ask for a sizable discount to promote them.

Under the heading Tea and Health, I'm expecting to see information that relates to Tea and Health, instead I find links to a couple tea associations. Wot The?!! Why not have a 'Links' directory and put your links to other sites there.

Your reason for not ordering online is not a reason, its an excuse. Online orders usually are lower than retail and keep costs down as its a shorter delivery chain and direct to consumer. If you tell anything, tell the truth. AS for ecommerce, or even getting in touch...at least have a simple form to fill out. A mailto: ref is so lame.

To be frank, I hope the design company is charging very little to develop this site as it is nothing spectacular. You would have more interactivity, more features, and a heck of a lot more functionality going with an opensource Content Management System instead of a static web page. You web site administration is going to cost you a pretty penny, if it gets done at all, and you are already lacking many features in your web site that 14 year old kids have with a simple install of PHPnuke. I haven't even touched on search engine optimization as that is a whole other story.

First steps out of the gate, and you are already behind. You would get way more out of a website from these guys: www.webdesign600.com

Sorry to be so harsh, but...you asked for input.

Darcy Moen
Customer Loyalty Network
 
Posted by: Thyme Author Response
6/12/2006 10:56 AM (CST)
Darcy,

This is a demo site.

You were very harsh, but I would rather have the truth than wind up with a piece of trash. Thank you. By the way, with the information that was provided to me, it was my understanding that the above process about ordering would be less expensive in the long run to my customers. I suppose a lie is a lie whether you know if you are telling the truth or not.

I wouldn't have hired someone if I could do it myself.
 
Posted by: NuCoPro Member Response
6/12/2006 1:21 PM (CST)
Tea Cloud,

We can be sharp in our critiques here, but that's what you asked for. I have to agree with several of my colleagues about providing online ordering.

I looked at that description of your teas and was intrigued, but I would not call you to order. However, I would probably try out a couple, IF I could order online.

If your web designers didn't have a serious discussion with you regarding this, they did you a disservice. If you are NOT going to provide online ordering, then you are wasting a lot of time and effort putting up a web site.
 
Posted by: Thyme Author Response
6/12/2006 1:54 PM (CST)
Hi everyone,

I do understand that your helping me and I'm not offended by any means. As I said before this site is a first for me. I do like the "pretty pictures" but, it needs to functional and user friendly. Because I'm a small business servicing a local community, I didn't think of online ordering being so important. Thanks to you now I know and when you know better, you do better.

Thank you.
 
Posted by: darcy.moen Member Response
6/12/2006 10:01 PM (CST)
I know I can come across as harsh, but, not any more so than potential clients. I'm glad you could take my severe spotlight...the stronger the comments, the better the end results I've learned.

Oh, one nice thing about a CMS...not much technical skill needed...if you can drag and drop and operate word processing, you can administer content on your site. And one more for the road...there are three e-commerce modules that plug into the one I'd recommend that create a full ecommerce website.

Darcy Moen
Customer Loyalty Network
 


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