Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

I find the copy hard to read, and impersonal. I don't like the green, think your site menu should be listed above the product names, with the product hames as submenus of the Product link.

Your copy talks AT me, instead of to me. Answer my questions, engage me. Use third-party stories or testimonials to make this relatable. I disagree about the big photos. You need to lead with some compelling text first.

What kinds of questions do your customers have that brings them to your site? Answer those questions to show they are in the right place.

Your home page has a lot of white space, due to all the stuff in the left nav bar. Can you take some of that extraneous stuff out?

What keywords are bringing people to your site? Are they found prominently on the page? If not, that's one big reason for the bounce. If you have several disparate keywords, you need different ads for each, with landing pages targeted to that search.

Could you provide a little more information? You said "we have a 61% bounce rate and sales are severely lagging."

- How long has the site been selling products?
- Have the sales peaked and then declined or just never started - what has the trend been?
- Has the bounce rate changed or is that what it always was - what has the trend been?
- Have you made changes to the product or web site that may have contributed to a change / downturn in sales?
- What are the larger sources of your site traffic and what keywords are they getting to your site (analytics and logs)?

A 61% bounce rate and no observed PPC campaign and a PR1 on most pages tells me to look at your optimization. I did numerous searches for your products and you're non-existent for a site having been around for almost 2 years and using right on search terms. I feel the quality of the traffic coming to the site is the first place to look - too many tire kickers.

As for flow - I think the site is easy to use, has enough of the basics for acceptable online sales, maybe a little too much info directly but not a killer. We could point out things such as a guarantee, or testimonials but nothing is a deal breaker. Pages don't follow good landing page techniques (Problem / Interest, Solve their problem, provide proof, and make offer)

Where is your traffic coming from now? Are you buying it PPC, or is it Natural Search Engine Traffic, or are you advertising off-line to drive traffic to your website?

Now once you get them there you've got about 10 seconds for that prospect to say "that's for me". To do that you need a powerful headline. So what problems are you solving?

The next problem you have, is that there is no opt-in box so visitors can enter their e-mail address to get your Free Self Analysis Tips, or your Free Report on the "6 Most Commom Mistakes People Make About their Health That Might Cost Them Their Life and How To Avoid Them" or a Big bold "Warning: Without Early Detection of Disease You Could Loose Your Loved Ones...Get Your Free Health Screning Guide for Preventative Health and Wellness".

You should have a Free report for each condition. Now when they opt-in you have their e-mail address to give them good helpful information that leads to the sale of your products. People come to your site looking for solutions, your asking them to make a buying decision immediately.

If you don't want to do Free Reports, then do a Newsletter, or how about getting my free 52 health care tips - one delivered every week automatically, something to get them interested in leaving their e-mail address.

Understand that the majority of visitors to your site are in the process of looking for answers to their problem. Most buying decisions are made over a period of time after carefully weighing all of the options.

You want to capture their e-mail address to you can sequentially give these prospects helpful information that leads to making a good carefully thought out decision because you have positioned yourself as the expert in your field giving good advice that naturally leads to the sale.

Every paragraph starts with Home Health Care Screening...Nobody cares about you or your company, they just care about themselves. They all listen to the same station WIIFM - What's In It For Me. Your copy should be customer focused, what problems are you going to solve. The Formula for your copy is: identify the Problem; Agitate the problem; then provide the Solution. Which of course is your products or services.

You should have a website for each condition, this makes it better for SEO and visitors who are looking for a specific solution. It's easier to buy targeted traffic as well.

There's no audio or video. I don't know how easy it is to administer these products but it's proven that audio and video increase conversion. Show them how easy it is.

It took me about 20 views for me to notice the FDA approved copy. It might help if you took away the pix of the girl in a canoe and replaced it with a doctor in uniform with the FDA in bold beneath that.

Thats a start, but the big opportunity just might be in your existing base of customers. Start sending them a newsletter or health care tips on how to avoid the conditions on the products that they didn't buy. A buyer is a buyer and given a good reason will continue to buy.
Ron Romano
[URL deleted by staff]

You indicated that "sales are severely lagging". I haven't see a definitive answer to: "Have the sales peaked and then declined or just never started - what has the trend been?" All you said was "started full-time with this in June and obviously going broke now." Can I assume that sales have basically no where to go but up?

I've always look forward to Jay's comments and I agree with him. I did asked myself (in this situation), wouldn't persons looking for these products already know the benefits of a discrete personal products. Example: Do we need to have a web site tell us the benefits of Depends Adult Diapers?

It says in the first sentence in bold letters the benefits: FDA approved medical self tests in the privacy and convenience of your home.

Next Sentence: THROUGH EARLY DETECTION YOU CAN TAKE CONTROL OF THE DISEASE BEFORE THE DISEASE TAKES CONTROL OF YOU.

Powerful stuff. But what in the mind of the customer will cause them to lay their money down. No insurance, desperation, discreet privacy, convenience, test accuracy and validity?

Now that we know more about the history, Jay hits a home run with: "Why they should purchase from you".
- Price
- Delivery time and appearance (brown paper wrapper)
- Are your competitors really doing any better?
- Guarantee?
- Ease of purchase (I started a purchase 4 times and the first time it gave server errors)
- Testimonials
- etc. etc.