Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

Brandon,

Your home page has no "Call to Action." It's chock full of information and if I wanted to know anything about lobsters, I'd visit. When I search on Yahoo for "Buy Lobster" you come up - but it's a buying guide and recipes. In the organic section, you're below sagamorelobster.com with a headline, "Buy Maine Lobster, Order Live Lobsters Online, Lobster Tails, All ..." and lobsteranywhere.com with, "Buy Live Maine Lobsters - Fresh Seafood Delivery, Unique Corporate ..." and buylobster.com with, "Buy Lobster," not to mention the oodles of PPC ads. Your headline says, "Buying Lobster Guide - Your Guide for Buying the Perfect Lobster" and "Lobster Recipes, Cooking Lobster Guides at LobsterHelp.com." If I knew what I was buying and how to cook it, I would pass you up. And if I didn't, I'd go to your site and browse through all the helpful information and then MISS that you are selling too! I knew what I was looking for and it took me 30 seconds to find your store.

Other than that, great site!

I hope this helps.

Wayde

What is your goal? To sell lobster or advertising? Or both?

It looks like you have a lot of good info, but I probably wouldn't think to go to your site to buy lobster.

You need a call to action on every page and direct people to the conversion you want them to make.

Good luck!

Where are people going on your website? Recipes or purchases?

The graphics that you have are competing with too much text on the page. My eyes skip over the buy now button and jump to the pictures and banner. Make it easier for people to scan what you're offering. If your goal is to sell lobster, make the Buy Now button more obvious and remove the graphics from the left column.

There are a number of competing ads on each page of your site (Google Adsense as well as sidebar ads) that could very well be cannibalizing your own sales.

I would suggest deciding on your strategy as mentioned above, whether you are in this for the direct product sales or the advertising revenue, and which would be more impactful to your bottom line. Once you've decided on the priority for the site, be sure that on each page the user is directed toward a call to action that is immediately clear and simple.

Also, the top banner graphic makes the site appear less professional than it could be - if I were ordering food online, especially a seafood product that was going to be delivered, I would want to know immediately at first glance that this is a reputable company with an actual location. Perhaps photos of your location, and/or logos of restaurant organizations you belong to would be helpful in showing that visually.