When Crawford House Collectibles noted they needed some help in developing their web site they were being very honest with the rest of us. There is nothing on this web site that would entice me to go beyond the Home Page.
So lets begin at the beginning, the Home Page. The Home Page looks more like a newspaper ad, it is stark with very bold red text that tells me this is a place to avoid. The combination of red and blue text also tells me there are hyperlinks, some of which I have already been to, others that are available, but they are not links, just bright bold text. The whole page is off balance visually, with graphical links to invite us into the site, but the bright text is distracting our eyes with tidbits of products. In all the Home Page looks like much of the rest of the web site, pasted together with templates from a third party.
The graphical navigation image should extend farther down the page to include many more of the links contained inside the web site, links where you want to direct the visitor in hope of convincing him/her to purchase your products. You have built a web site around a store, and like a brick and mortar store you have to entice the passerby to enter and browse through your isles. Your Home Page is the first and only opportunity to entice your visitors.
You have your e-mail address listed twice on your Home Page, both listings have different addresses. Which is you? If you are serious get rid of the AOL address, AOL addresses do not speak professional, they carry the connotation that this is a hobby web site. If you want tons and tons of SPAM messages in your “Inbox”, all trying to sell you things like low interest loans, credit cards, and free porn access leave your e-mail address in plain sight of the MLM spyders, you will get indexed into their next $9.95 CD disc of valid e-mail lists. If you want to avoid the Spam Spyders hide your one and only business e-mail with JavaScript, or better develop a contact form where your address is kept secure on your web server.
Your Contact Page again uses the AOL address in plain view, get rid of the AOL e-mail address. Here is your opportunity to communicate with your visitor one-on-one with a contact form. Here you can ask your visitor to include his/her interests in your products, give them choices of your product types, and ask them for suggestions. You can also include in plain text your physical address, phone number, person to contact, etc. If you do not have a FAX connection leave it off.
Your Registration Page. Why should I register? What great benefit will I receive for leaving you my personal information? How do I know my information will be kept private? You have given me no indication what you will do with my information, no feeling I can trust you, and no way to Opt-In to your e-mail program. The position you have taken, that if I fill in this form I am Opting-In to your message service is not enough to convince me you are honest. Through all of your web site you must convince me you are someone I should trust, you have no store policy or privacy statement to convey your business practices, or your integrity.
Your “Enter The Store” link plain turns me off. If I had not agreed to review your web site I would have clicked off to somewhere else.
Your “Products Page” looks more like an index with nothing to suggest I should go further. The color of the links is very hard to see in front of the background image. Clicking on some of the links to view your shopping cart did not help me buy your products. Then clicking on some of the links brought me to one of your products, but there was nothing on the page to tell me I really wanted this clown pitching a baseball. The image of the clown does stand out, but it is in stark contrast with the background. The gold frame around the image detracts from the image. If you really want to entice me to buy this product place him on a display shelf to simulate how he would look in my home or office.
If you don’t have Promotions then get rid of the navigation link, if you can’t get rid of the link create a few attractive promotions.
Some folks would say, “I’m sorry to be so brutal about your creative love”. I am not sorry, and at the same time I do not mean to hurt your feelings. Sometimes we must be shaken rather hard to break us out of our blinders and see what we have really created. There is a ton of improvements you can make to your web site without rebuilding from the ground up. You have a decent start, but you need to overhaul the entire site. Many elements of the site can be saved, but they need work.
Respectfully,
Michael Gordon
Armadillo Web Design http://www.armadilloweb.com/
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