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Please Review: Online Retail Store

Sunday, Dec 6, 2009 1:25 pm
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Site Name: YourLife Outdoors
Site URL: http://www.yourlifeoutdoors.com
Created with: Designed, Created, Coded by myself
Estimated Traffic: 2,000 - 5,000 hits/month
Areas requested for critique:
Design/Layout, Usability, Content/Text, SEO, Technical Issues,

Posted by NickG21

Please take the time to review my website at www.yourlifeoutdoors.com. It is a newly founded online retail store dedicated to selling outdoor recreational and sporting good products. I am looking for critiques and criticisms as well as recommendations on how to improve user experience and promote sales.

Thank you very much,
Nicholas Girard
www.yourlifeoutdoors.com

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Monday, Dec 7, 2009 2:04 pm

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Posts: 18

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SEO - This could use some work. You have quite a bit of backend coding for javascript, etc., and little textual content to help in search rankings. You can see how little actual content in a crawler simulator ( http://site-critique.com/crawl-simulator.php ). I don't see any h1/h2 tags, or any "alt" tags for your images, which also help in search engines. You may also want to look into using a "DOCTYPE" at the beginning of your html code.

Content/Text - Remember that you want to provide enough information to get visitors interested and continue through the site. In December, is it still grilling season? Perhaps seasonal images and messages would be more appropriate, and generate more interest in items that are applicable for the time of year. Also, some of the item descriptions are rather short, not giving me, as a potential buyer, enough information to make a decision on following through on a sale.

Design - Very clean, but feels somewhat cramped by using such a small area. A larger, or different, main image on the index page would help, as the current one doesn't really show off what you're doing. It seems somewhat generic. Use something that helps to focus on what you sell.

The top menu is convenient, but the text/links don't stand out enough, and the same goes for the sub menus; they are very difficult to read. A darker color would be a big improvement.

In the top, dark colored bar, there is a slight layout difference between IE and Firefox where it says "Your Duffel", but nothing major to worry about.

When viewing individual items, another, larger image might be helpful so that potential buyers can get a better view of the products.

When placing an item in the cart, then going to checkout, there is nothing showing me right away what my payment options are, or anything about secure transactions. I would think buyers want to know this before taking the time to fill in any forms. If you were buying items on another site, wouldn't you want to know this beforehand also?

Overall, the usability is ok, and I didn't come across any technical problems. So my main suggestions would be:

1) Let the main page reflect the season, and offer items for the current season.
2) More text on your pages to draw and keep the potential buyers interest.
3) Easier to read navigation.
4) Show payment options and security messages much sooner, with prominent links to your return/warranty/shipping policies.
5) Do more to sell the products on the product pages.


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