A user’s first impression of a webpage is based on what’s visible in the first screen, which sounds self-evident but it’s amazing how often a designer overlooks the first screen. While the designer knows what else is waiting to be scrolled to, if what I see on that first screen isn’t inspiring, I’ll click “Back” rather than bother scrolling down. If I were looking to buy handcrafted items, I would want to see some samples of those items on the first screen. Sandi’s T’s site, while offering a very unique product, does not maximize the screen real estate on any of the site’s pages.
Suggestions to improve the homepage would include moving the logo design attribution to the bottom (and take it off the interior pages). It’s fine to give credit, but you want the first text appearing on a page to pertain to YOUR business, not be a link to someone else’s site. Put an image of a whole shirt (even several shirts being worn by people) on your first screen. Put your introductory words around the image. Remove the animated gifs (bookmark site, email, flag, etc.). They really don’t add to your purpose of selling shirts, and they increase the load time of your page.
On the interior pages, the icons across the top are nice for navigation, but the animation was distracting at best. Non-animated icons would be an improvement. The interior pages are the ones where you need to showcase your products, and again, your products don’t show up unless you scroll down. Get rid of the “Welcome” centered text that takes up half of the page, and the cutesy horizontal rules that separate each product. The repeating elements at the bottom of each page were annoying (“tell a friend,” “join mailing list”, the icons to the organizations you belong to, etc.). Put them on a separate page and display them once.
The ordering process is not clearly evident. If a prospective buyer is looking at a particular product and wants to purchase it, s/he has to scroll all the way down to the bottom to see the “How to Order” link. Put a link next to each product to an order page. I understand this is not an e-commerce site (maybe someday?) but you can’t make a sale if the buyer can’t figure out how to buy.
According to the Description Metatag, Sandi’s T’s sells “unique hand-crafted shirts with designs using appliqu and cutwork”. “Appliqu” and “cutwork” appear to be crucial keywords, but they don’t appear in any page except the Links page. Your product really looks unique, but the images just don’t show it clearly enough. What IS the “snip snip” technique? Have a section where you explain your technique, not enough to give away your trade secrets, but so that a prospective buyer understands why s/he would want to own your product. Use images that show how a design changes – when it’s new, after one wash, after 5 washes, whatever you think will best represent how the product improves with age. (At least I think that’s what happens!)
Your search function is very nice, although you pick up hits on your links/webrings page in addition to your products (for example, if you search on “angel”). Ideally, you want to keep people on your site until they purchase! It looks as though you are using some search tool through Frontpage, and I’m not familiar with Frontpage, but maybe you could filter your search results to show only those pages, which contain YOUR information.
I hope you are able to utilize some of the suggestions (mine and others!) to boost your sales.
Carol Harkins
www.CyberGnarus.com
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