21 replies to this topic

[Jerky19]

Hello all!

Would anyone care to review and comment on my e-commerce web site www.karatekorner.com?

General
Is this site completed or under construction?

This site is completed. But it is 'tweaked' on a regualr basis.

If completed:
How long has the site been up?

This messageboard has been online for slightly over two years. The e-commerce site has been online for 13 months.

SEO
Do you have incoming links?

Yes, but I don't have any exact numbers.

What keywords are you targeting?

Honestly, it would be great to target 'martial arts supplies' and 'martial arts equipment' on my homepage. I know I could do a better job with these keywords, yet I have choosen to focus on cleaner home page with less text. On the flip side, I get most of my web traffic from the web site's interior web pages. This site is 100% dynamic and automatically changes from day to day. The site is regularly crawled by most of the major SEs.

Do you want your code reviewed for errors or improvements?

That is not necessary.

Marketing
Who is your target audience? Think about:
Gender
Nationality
Age Range
Income/Education level
Likes/Dislikes

Audience: Martial artists and the parents of martial artists. All ages, all nationalities and all income levels.

The more you tell us about your target audience, the better. We don't know them- you do!

Why is your site different from sites selling/offering similar info/goods/services? Why will someone want to do business you?

That's easy (I hope). I hope a customer would think that our site is "professionally done", therefore secure & informative... with very competitive pricing and excellent customer service. Customer service is why we have as much repeat business as we do.

How important is usability?

Very important. If your site is hard to use, why bother using it?

What is the purpose of the site? (inform, sell, online community, support B&M business, contact info only, etc)

To sell various martial arts equipment and supplies.

Design
Do you want design suggestions?

Sure... what do ya'll think of the site? Keep in mind, it is completely database driven.

Thanks,
~J19

[robmarketshare]

Design and set up look very good to me.
( I would like to see 1 fist of the girl in the topbanner, now it could also be just a telecom or arrobics picture - but this is minor)
You are facing some PR5 competitors on martial arts (supplies-suppliers)
I would suggest to leave out the first "supplier" in the title to give martial arts more relevance. But link building seems to be the way to go.
Check the links towards your competitors and request, and search for more to beat them. More quality links will benefit the rest of your pages too.
Also see if you can give the links in the left and top menu better describing names like martialvideo.htm instead of 4.htm.

There is a bit of unbalance between the top and lower section , made even stronger by the extra link bar between them. I have no quick solution for you but think about it.

Success, and start getting more links, because that looks the most obstructing part. IMO

[arlen]

I really like your site quite a lot. Very clean layout, good balance, good product images, very consistent and easy to navigate. I think you've succeeded in presenting your products very professionally.

I didn't look too deeply, but here's a few comments on things I see.

You could use more thorough descriptions for your products. On many, other than a disclaimer or boiler-plate statement, the actual description is pretty light. This will both help your customers and your position in the SEs. For example, if I remember right from my late teens when I was "working out" (playing around) with them - nunchaku come in different weights, and that is as big a part of the decision on which to buy as the length and whether they are strung or ball-bearing. Doesn't weight also factor into purpose - whether you do performance or principally fighting strikes? My mind is fuzzy, and I was never really that educated, but these are things I might want to know (if I was 25 years younger). I'd think about what things factor into the buying decision and capitalize on that in your descriptions.

Also, I like your "About" sections, but think you could easily expand those too. What are the advantages to the different materials nunchaku are made of? Are there articles on different styles and disciplines of the martial arts you could write an article on. I'd almost bet 40% of your potential customers aren't formally in training, but many might like to be, and you could be a good introduction. <edit> Forgot to mention though, that you break from the format you use on the rest of the site in these About descriptions - that bugged me, because everything else was so seamless</edit>

I also caught a couple of misspelled words (still finding them on my site after many proof readings).

I do like you site though - it has given me a few ideas on how to improve mine.

[Jerky19]

robmarketshare... about your comments...

top banner rotates every day...
> I hear PR doesn't mean so much. isn't that true?

I would suggest to leave out the first "supplier" in the title to give martial arts more relevance. But link building seems to be the way to go.

> not a bad thought. i never really could come up with a good title tag. most of the other pages have dynamic title tags.

Also see if you can give the links in the left and top menu better describing names like martialvideo.htm instead of 4.htm.

> not likely, these are dynamically created. but, that is why I created the "extra link bar". these pages are straight .html, are cleverly named and should do well with most SEs.

ahh, getting more links... isn't that what we'd all like!

thanks, and keep the comments coming folks.

[Jerky19]

arlen, thanks for the kind words.

so, where are the typos... please let me know.

as far as product descriptions, I inherited a database of over 4000 skus. I am slowly, but surely re-writing them to make them as search engine friendly as I know how. i'm basically rewriting the most popular/profitable items first and working my way to the all of the others.

just so I know, what ideas where you able to gleem from my site? i'm just wondering what you liked!

thanks for the review... keep 'em coming folks.

[arlen]

Tried to back track, and the only spelling mistake I could rediscover was " 8 inch lenght" on the "12 in. Round Black Speedchuck" page. There were only a couple others that caught my eye, but I don't remember where they are.

I did notice a distinct difference between some descriptions, so I can see you are expanding them. You're managing many times the number of product items I am, so I can empathize..

Ok ... put me on the spot ... you know I could have just been saying that ,lol.

I have been working on "tightening up" my site slowly (very), and I like the way you've handled some of the issues I am trying to address.

I like your shop by brand graphic, it reads really well, gives interest, and is useful. I'm not quite ready to implement search yet, but I really like your popular searches links ... really nice & useful set of links w/o using much real estate.

I discovered w/ my last significant site update, that providing "recommended accessories" on each product page increased the size of my average order something like 15 or 20%. (actually, that might be a suggestion for you, I'm pretty sure I bought a case when I bought my 'chucks. I see your related products link, but it's small and I don't know that it is enough). I've planned to add "You might also like" linked images at the bottom of my page ... you've got twice as many as I intended to provide, but it works really well and I like it. I was surprised at how many times I navigated from page to page simply because I saw another shiny thing that piqued my curiosity.

I've got to admit, I like the fact that your pages are quite short ... mine tend to grow pretty quickly, and I'm working to compress things and split stuff off to make them more manageable. I also like the idea of a directory page w/ images for articles (your about pages).

Something else I had intended to mention earlier is I think the text on your primary nav button bar is either too small or should have an easier to read font.

Hope that's enough ... I'm pooped, lol.

[robmarketshare]

> I hear PR doesn't mean so much. isn't that true?
It is always a factor and in a heavy competion market everything helps.
IMO PR is still a way to compaire to the others, but link building a such is more important.

> rotating top banner - I always wonder why, since I like to recognize a page when I revisit.

Didn´t look deeply but wonder how SE deal with dynamic generated titles?

[Jerky19]

robmarketshare...

rotating top banner - I always wonder why, since I like to recognize a page when I revisit.

... It's just a graphic w/ various people performing martial arts that changes, all else stays the same. I do it to keep the page looking 'fresh' to the customer more than anything.

Didn´t look deeply but wonder how SE deal with dynamic generated titles?

... Just so you know, they are indexed perfectly and I have gotten much better results since I have done so since each page is 'tailor made', so-to-speak.

Finally, link building is important! That is why I developed this page: (scroll down a bit, you'll see what I've made. )

http://www.karatekor...on/linktous.htm

Thanks again,
~J19

ps, hopefully, some of the 'heavy hitters' on this site will weigh in with their thoughts. keep 'em coming folks.

[robmarketshare]

I noticed a lot of your >titles< start with "karatekorner.com"
This makes them competative with all other pages on your site, rather then with the competition. Better use more of the keyword-phrases over there.

[Jerky19]

robmarketshare...

Oddly enough, I believe it was Jill Whalen who wrote somewhere that I should try to include my domain name in the Title tag.

Could this be a case of a conflicting 'gut feeling' on what to do with Title tags rather than an accepted SEO 'rule'?

[Jill]

Oddly enough, I believe it was Jill Whalen who wrote somewhere that I should try to include my domain name in the Title tag.

Huh? It definitely wasn't me!

It's possible I said that if you want to brand your company that it's fine to put your company name it in the title tag though.

[Jerky19]

Hey Jill, I found your post to me with regards to Title tags. Check it out.

PS, do you have any thoughts on the site?

http://www.highranki...indpost&p=84855

[JohneeMac]

If you have a strong brand and find a lot of your guests are finding you from searching for Karate Corner then you may want to include on a page title or two.

Have a look at your logs and see if you are found by that term.

There would be no need to include it on every page though.

[Jill]

Hey Jill, I found your post to me with regards to Title tags. Check it out.

You'll notice I said it should be your company name, not your domain name. You said domain name again here, which is why I said I didn't say that, as I never tell anyone to put their domain name in their title tag. It's already in their URL afterall!

Jill

[Jerky19]

Just testing ya Jill!

Seriously, I originally went with the idea and recently removed it. We'll see what happens. Do you ever review sites yourself? Or do you leave it to other members to do so?

Thanks a bunch,
~J19