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Website Critique   URGENT - Need Help Fast!  
 
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Comparison Shopping Search Engine Credibility
Posted By: dminenko* on 10/13/2006 2:24 PM (CST) 500 Points
Dear Marketing profs,

My traffic observation shows pretty high rate for visitors who leave our website immediately without even trying to use our price comparison shopping search engine for health products like prescription drugs, OTC medications, contact lenses, nutritional supplements. It is especially high for home page visitors. In the office we had several discussion regarding this matter, since we have growing traffic from PPC programs but loose too many of these leads right away.

Major shopping search engines like Nextag, Shopping.com, Bizrate usually can show price comparison from less than five online pharmacies and merchants, while we at HealthPricer can provide comparison from more than 50 online retailers including prices per tablet/box and search flexibility by different criteria.

Please visit www.healthpricer.com and evaluate it by following criteria:

1. Overall look of site (attractive, boring, easy or difficult to use and browse)

2. Credibility (first impression, attaction to try, transparency, trust feeling for search results)

3. Usefulness. Do you feel that it is easy to find products and compare prices? Do you feel it is usefull enough to be bookmarked and referred to friends?

Any comments and suggestions to user interface and graphic design improvements are welcome.

Posted by: W.M.M.A. Member Response
10/13/2006 3:00 PM (CST)
I input several common Rx drug names, and your site showed no matches were found. This can be done in seconds. So, if nothing shows, people leave. No sale. This dramatically drops your credibility as a shopping site.
 
Posted by: AndrewS Member Response
10/13/2006 3:05 PM (CST)
Do you know what search terms bring visitors to your site? I'm just wondering if they are expecting to find something else!
 
Posted by: HDuong Accepted Answer
10/13/2006 3:31 PM (CST)
1. Overall the site looks very clean- very simple: perfect KISS example of what a search site should look like. Although that button for "Hons Code" looks really tacky. You'd be better off with some sort of Etrust symbol.

2. First impression is that the site is legitimate but the attraction factor for was not there- perhaps that is because i didn't need to search for a product but for someone who needs to search something your site seems credible enough from face value for that sort of person to want to enter a keyword.

(Suggestions for enhancement: I. think "Googlesque" and have fun with the images around the name. Similar to how Google search page often times dresses up its name Google with a seasonal garnish during thanksgiving or halloween. Little things like that keep people coming back.
II. Also notice how Google uses slight variations of pastel colors in its tables for mail to maps. This can also be implemented within your current site.)

3. Usefulness: I tried plugging in "Tylenol" and nothing came up and error page didn't have anything to guide me back to something close to what i needed. Perhaps this search was too generic. Then i decided to click on the tab for RXDrugs and tried "Benadryl" and your suggestion box came up.

(Suggestions: I. It would be useful to get more information about the products. Perhaps some sort of partnership with WebMD would be beneficial or a stamp/affiliate link may also increase credibility or even a second tier medical site would work)

All the best,

Henri
 
Posted by: bluehare Member Response
10/13/2006 3:51 PM (CST)
I went to your site through MarketingProfs email. Your main page tells nothing about YOU nor about your services. Also your comments page doesnt send!
 
Posted by: dminenko* Author Response
10/13/2006 4:05 PM (CST)
Hi W.M.M.A.,

Please let me know what drugs did you try to find. Visitor has to put drug name and then choose right category to get search results. Maybe you put non-prescription drug name and search in Rx Drugs department.
 
Posted by: dminenko* Author Response
10/13/2006 4:08 PM (CST)
Hi AndrewS,

Most of the visiotrs are coming using "prescription drugs" or "contact lenses" common search phrases, but many people find us when they are looking for specific Rx drug price. So traffic is pretty targeted.
 
Posted by: dminenko* Author Response
10/13/2006 4:21 PM (CST)
Hi ViaBuzz,

Thanks for spending time writing all your comments. Some comments about your testing.

Tylenol and Benadryl are non-prescription drug and should be searched in Medical Cabinet department (by the way, what do you think about this name, Medical Cabinet, maybe we should use OTC drugs or Non-Rx Drugs?). We have WebMD as one of the best referring sites.

HONcode seal is important for us to post, since it shows that we follow 8 principals of posting only honest, trusted medical info, transparent in regard of ownership, advertisement and sponsorship and do not promote any particular health product, we simply compare prices and provide product info. Since we don't sell these products directly eTrust, BBB seals doesn't apply to us.
 
Posted by: dminenko* Author Response
10/13/2006 4:26 PM (CST)
Hi bluehare,

Google doen's have anything anything about itself or what kind of services it provides too. We have following on our home page:

* Price comparison shopping for your health products
* Get prices from trusted online merchants
*Compare health product prices for free and find the lowest price
*Check ratings and reviews about online merchants before you buy
*Get the health products you need at the best prices

Do you think we should add something else? Something like "First time visitor? Click here to learn more or check our FAQ page"?

We also have link to About Us on each page. Do you think it is hard to find?

Look forward to your answer.
 
Posted by: cread Member Response
10/13/2006 4:27 PM (CST)
I tried Xanax, ziac, gelatine, alprazolam with no results.

You should have a "did you mean" for mispellings. Why have different catagories for perscription, medicene cabinet and supplemnets. They are one or the other. You know which list, why should the customer care?
 
Posted by: jaaustin Accepted Answer
10/13/2006 5:14 PM (CST)
I put in femara, lexapro and prozac -- very popular and widely used drugs and they all came back at no match. I was using the rx. Do you really need them to have to specify which category. I wouldn't think there would be any overlap. If I put in femara obviously it wouldn't come up under any category but rx. Like the others, I did my search in less than a minute for 3 drugs. Couldn't find any and left.
 
Posted by: dminenko* Author Response
10/13/2006 5:49 PM (CST)
Hi jaaustin,

Special thanks to you for finding this bug. All drugs mentioned by you are available for comparison if you click on Rx Drugs tub at the top. But it doesn't show up if you choose department from drop-down menu. So our developers are working hard to fix it ASAP. We just added OTC (Medical Cabinet) department and this is probably a reason for this disfuntion.

Thanks again for pointing to this problem
 
Posted by: dminenko* Author Response
10/13/2006 5:53 PM (CST)
Hi cread,

We have to have different categories because all health products are searched and compared by different criteria.
Drugs can be search by price per pill, while supplements can be searched by ingrediants like soya, stevia, etc. Online pharmacies don't compare prices, they simply post them.
 
Posted by: kannanveeraiah Accepted Answer
10/14/2006 12:02 AM (CST)
Dear Dmitriy Minenko,

I am sure, the reply of W.M.M.A. is the right hit on the head of the nail. But, in your clarification to him you are asking for "Which drugs?" and suggesting that the visitor has to put drug name and then choose right category to get search results. Also, for all other respondents too, you are guiding as to what to search and how to search. ....

Don't you get the message yet ?

At least in this forum you could discuss; but at your site this is not possible.

Make your site very user friendly. The visitor should be able to find the comparisons by merely having an idea about its name or about its use or application or brand name. The visitors may not be experts and they may mis-spell. Your site should take care of all these possibilities.

Simply your website should be answering itself to what the visitors could look for, as after all neither they would be inclined to contact you (by any other means) nor your could meet such demands.


Best Wishes,

kannan
 
Posted by: KathySmithFilms* Accepted Answer
10/14/2006 12:15 AM (CST)
Hi dminenko,
I went to your site to check out it's purpose and ease to visitors.
http://www.healthpricer.com/

The problem is people that want to compare may not know how to spell some of the drugs (like me) so then I compared your site to:
http://www.drugstore.com/qxc10658_333181_sespider/low_drug_prices/low_drug_... The drugs are listed.
Back on your site when I typed in drugs I knew about and vitamins such as B-1 the info that came up was not abundant enough with recommendations.

My next point is supplements are not drugs and need their own site or to be separated from drugs or have people know that there are alternatives. So I use this site for nutrients & love it as it works.
http://www.whfoods.com/

Hope this helps. :-) I like your contact lens site so I know you really have the eye for putting up great sites.
Kathy
 
Posted by: dminenko* Author Response
10/14/2006 11:54 AM (CST)
Hi everybody,

Thanks for all your comments, they are really helpful, I will forward them to persons responsible for the development.

Two more questions I want to ask.

When you finally can get to product price comparison result page, how well it is organized, is it easy to compare prices and see other info about merchant?

Another question regarding general font size. Is it big enough for you to read all text, especially if your vision is not 20/20, and you are in 40+ age group?
 
Posted by: darcy.moen Accepted Answer
10/15/2006 10:40 AM (CST)
when it comes to web sites, you can either push a rope, or pull one.

If you choose to push a rope, and your customers will have to navigate your web site your way, be prepared for higher rates of cart abandonment and low page counts with little drill down. In fact, your customers will show web site navigation trends just like you describe.

But, if you can adapt your web site and over come the technological issues, making your web site search more intuitive and more like your customer's natural search habits, you Will be rewarded with 'Sticky' and have customers staying and buying from your site.

Thus is the reward for development. Customers who get what they want, will stay and pay the web site that mirrors or satisfied their search habits. It also raises the bar for your competitors who may not follow you. Thus, you end up with a better web site, and more loyal customers.

Invest in refining your search engine, and make it work more like your customers do. It will be worth it.

Customer Loyalty Network
 
Posted by: Frank Hurtte Accepted Answer
10/16/2006 9:31 AM (CST)
my only comment is that the first screen looks pretty bare and requires a couple of additional clicks to get to the good information. Maybe you need to put some of the most common drug searches right there on the front page.
 


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