51 replies to this topic

[scouseflip]

Hi

Not sure if I qualify for a site review yet - read the thread and think I fit the criteria so we shall see!

Site can be found at www.justdine.com/justdine/justdine2/

General
Is this site completed or under construction?

I asked a question in a different forum recently and got some fantastic advice so although this site is still incomplete, I want to try to get any further advice now so I don't have to do as much backtracking later on!

SEO
Do you have incoming links?

The site is a replacement for an earlier effort that was pretty rubbish! That site has a few links - no particularly great ones but even the earlier version of the site has only been around a and I'll set up redirects when the new version is ready to go live. Most the links are through directory submissions and (dare I say it) reciprocal linking. No paid links as the site is still a project and has 0 budget.

I know some will not like this kind of linking and I do have more legitimate link building plans lined up but not until I have asite that I am confident is worth promoting. Problem is that the nature of the site will make it difficult to naturally gain quality links.

Previous version of site currently ranks ok on google - 2nd page for most main phrases - but the keywords are not all that competetive - to get decent traffic from the site, I know a I will need to get to at least the first page.

What keywords are you targeting?

conservatory dining furniture, cane dining frniture, rattan dining furniture and related (tables chairs etc)

Do you want your code reviewed for errors or improvements?

Yes please.

Marketing
Who is your target audience?

Conservatory owners of Britain!

It's slightly tricky as this particular brand has never been used except by me in order to get practise building websites - we advertise the range through our two main brands. Because of this it's hard to pin down the exact audiemce, but for the purpose of the site I have aimed at 35+, fairly well off, men and women but we find women are the decsion makers when purchasing our products, educated with high expectations regarding service, quality etc.

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

It's a niche market and few others specialise solely in this area. We offer nationwide delievry with a competetive turnaround on the orders, our main selling point is that we buy direct, cut out the middle man and pass on the savings (50% off MR prices). Other benefits - no payment until delivery, 7 day home trial, we have nationwide show sites (something not offered by our competition) and have been doing this for about 20 years.

How important is usability?

Very! But the site is very simple/straightforward so I hope it won't be a big problem.

What is the purpose of the site?

Mainly data capture through a brochure request. I don't want to give too much away on the site as I want people to enter their details by requesting a brochure. Information wise, it is also an opportunity to promote our showrooms, provide their address and contact details. The articles/info section will include things such as maintaince tips, how the product is manufactured etc as well as news about the company.

Design
Do you want design suggestions?

Definitly!

I'm pretty thick skinned so say what you think (as if I have to say that)!

Thanks in advance...

[1dmf]

I'd already checked out your site before, very nice, simple ,clean, usable, again, pinky/purple -> matter of taste I guess, but it doesn't offend me.

I've run it through the validator so all's good there.

As for Copytext, that's not my best subject as you know.

But all in all i like it.

[rolf]

Haven't had as much time as I'd like to look at code and such but from a quick look I have to say that I have no real criticisms. It's a nice clean looking site that clearly states/shows what it's about without any messing about

The only thing I feel I should comment on is your slogan "can't be bettered".

I'm a little dyslexic and one of the symptoms is that sometimes my brain rearranges words/letters and occasionally throws a few of it's own imagined letters into the mix too, which makes proof reading a lot of fun and explains why I once bought some cat treats thinking they were crisps (luckily I noticed before I ate any, but that's another story)

Anyway, I had a look at the page the other day when you were having some CSS hassles and I looked at a few pages today and the slogan caught me unaware several times and I thought it said "can't be bothered". This is probably something that is unlikely to happen to many people, but I thought I should mention it.

That aside, good job.

[scouseflip]

Thanks Rolf and 1dmf for your comments - quite encouraging so far!

1dmf - the colours have been a bone of contention to be honest. I ain'y no graphic designer (as I'm sure is evident!) and really srtuggled with the colours (you should have seen some of the combinatuions I tried earlier on - Shocking!)

Rolf - that is something I had not considered to be honest as I inherited the slogan from one of our main brands. Certainly raises some questions as 'can't be bothered' is NOT the message I want to be giving out (it's far too close tp the truth !)

Thinking cap time!..

[1dmf]

"can't be bothered".

Excellent, and funny you mentioned it, because I actually had to ask the missus if 'bettered' was a word!

It is , she tells me , it just struck me as odd, I am not dislexic, just dumb , especially with english literature / grammer / spelling etc.. but funny how the same word both made us do a double take, so maybe there is something in it!

I looked at the code also, seems clean CSS coding , so yeah good job!

[adybee]

nice site 1dmf -

Really like the colours and styling but I'd look at making the main image smaller so that it fits in with the body text and moving the the nav menu up further so that it's more obvious and allow you to see the round_msg.gif much more easily. At the moment ithis gif is below the fold and it contains important info and a call to action (50% Summer Sale)

[scouseflip]

Thanks adybe

Funny you should say that as I initially had the layout like that - the menu alongside the main image. It was a colleague of mine that said that it looked a bit odd with the image offcenter and I amended off the back of that advice. It's funny also you mention about losing the call to action with the menu lower down - I was commenting on Idmf's review earlier and basically said I try to kleep my call to action prominant... I had missed that entirely in this site! Cheers for pointing it out.

Not sure if I'll revert to the old layout - I'll set up a second version of the default page shortly and see what the consensuus is. Either way I'll find a way to make the call to action more obvious.

[scouseflip]

Right!

I've made some very crude amendments to get it to look a bit more like adybe's suggestion (at least in IE - doubt it will work in FF with the rough changes I made) with the menu alongside the main image:

www.justdine.com/justdine/justdine2/default2.aspx

Am interested to know if people prefer this to the earlier one (www.justdine.com/justdine/justdine2/default.aspx).

I like having the round_msg gif visable - even if I revert to the old format I will have to find a way to incorporate it. Might change the text in the sales_msg gif to reflect the 50% summer sale and change the round_msg gif to include the voucher offer?

[1dmf]

Adeybee - > It's not my site, it's scouseflip's !

Scouseflip -> I think that works. ok the page isn't truely symetrical, but why should it be it's not a statutory requirement and it doesn't look odd.

The call to action is more obvious and you don't have to go looking for the menu.

you could always set it up as a Google website optimisation test and see which one gets better results.

[scouseflip]

Right its up now ... www.justdine.com.

I left the structure the same for now and redirects all in place and functioning! Also added some simple validation to the brochure request form (which I also shortened considerably in order to aid conversion)! When I have more time I'll make another version with the menu alongside the slideshow and test to see which works better.

Either way I changed the sales message at the top right and made it link to the brochure/conversion page. The other messages are still below the fold but I hope that having the main message at the top will be a strong enough call to action.

[dropin]

cool site, not too bad. i like the colors. maybe you could add some dimension to the page though? also the navigation isn't bad, but i think you might be able to make it a little more attractive.

[adybee]

Adeybee - > It's not my site, it's scouseflip's !

Scouseflip -> I think that works. ok the page isn't truely symetrical, but why should it be it's not a statutory requirement and it doesn't look odd.

The call to action is more obvious and you don't have to go looking for the menu.

you could always set it up as a Google website optimisation test and see which one gets better results.

oh well it looks fine anyway

One note the alternate text for the 20% sale isn't quite descriptive enough for me -

SUMMER SALE NOW ON! Save up to 50% off MR prices - click here to request your FREE brochure

should this not be

SUMMER SALE NOW ON! Save up to 50% off conservatory dining furniture prices - click here to request your FREE brochure

[Golferstube]

Its nice to view a site that is easy on the eyes. The aspect I like most about the site is it is basic and easy to navigate. I even liked the pictures. Too many people try to add to much text to thier homepage and it takes forever to read through everything. I really like your site. Simple and basic.

[rose77mary77]

Looking good, calm, clear, attractive but the colors used is disappoinment, the contrast should cover the user attraction, it hurts because of its light and blinking, put the font to more bold...........

[maleman]

Overall, it's looking good from here. The only complaint I can muster is the body text font-size. I'd have to increase it so that the default size would be at least 12px.

Folks with tired eyes or not-so-perfect vision would be grateful.

Not saying to use "px" as the format just that the size would be about 12px. I don't use "em" so I don't know how to say it with "em".

Lately, I've been using "font-size: small" for body text.