Name of Site/Business: Every Gift basket

Site's Main Purpose: Ecommerce/Sales

Please Review the following:
Does the home page sufficiently convince people to go further into the site?

Navigation. Is it clear and easy to understand?

Appearance/Attractiveness

Search engine marketing. Can the pages be reasonably well indexed by search engines?



Additional Comments/Notes
Hi everyone, I am so glad to have found a place to get some helpfull information, I am new to this internet/website business. I would apprecate any help and ideas you can give me. Thanks in advance!
Kim

Hi there

A few suggestions from me:

1. your page title contains the most important words on your web page as far as search engines are concerned. Your home title contains your domain name. This is a complete waste. your category pages contain your domain nmae (again a waste) plus a single word. this is also a waste e.g. the title for your category page should be something like "Birthday gift suggestions" rather than "Birthday - Everygiftbasket.com"

similarly for your product pages - "A Million Dollar Dad  - Everygiftbasket.com" contains no useful keywords whatever - something like "Top Gifts For Dad" would be far better.

2. In your left navigation, the links to your category pages should be at the top and links to pages such as About Us etc. etc., at the bottom. You need to do this so people who want to buy something find their way to your products easily.

3. You have not taken advantage of the alt='' in respect of your category links (another benefit for search engine rankings). So, the alt txt for your corporate page should be something like alt='corporate gifts'rather than alt=''

Nice looking site.

Gr8 site, useful for all occasions. Nice use of simple colors. Overall very good

THANKS FOR THE TIPS, I'LL CHANGE THOSE TODAY.
ANOTHER QUESTION, I'M NOT REALLY UNDERSTANDING WHAT YOU MEAN BY
" You have not taken advantage of the alt='' in respect of your category links (another benefit for search engine rankings). So, the alt txt for your corporate page should be something like alt='corporate gifts'rather than alt=''"

THIS MIGHT SOUND REALLY STUPID OF ME BUT WHAT IS "ALT TXT"?
This being my first site I every built i'm stil learning the lingo..

Here is code for the linked image from your "Baby" category page to your "Baby Congratulations" product:

<a href="http://yourdomain.com/pro1145049.html"><span><img border="0" class="generic-lt-image" style="float: left; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px" src="http://yourdomain.com/library/NG3087sm.jpg" width="100" height="87" alt="" title=""></span></a>

That tells search engines nothing about the nature of the link. You need to tell search engines (if you want search engine rankings) about the nature of the link.

Now, the fact that that code contains alt="" title="" shows me there is a place for you to enter that information for each product. So, an effective Alt txt for that link would be:

<a href="http://yourdomain.com/pro1145049.html"><span><img border="0" class="generic-lt-image" style="float: left; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px" src="http://yourdomain.com/library/NG3087sm.jpg" width="100" height="87" alt="Baby Shower Gift Basket" title=""></span></a> as this would tell the search engines that this image is linking a a page about a "Baby Shower Gift Basket".

Does this make sense?

Similarly, your left navigation links to categories look like this:

<a href="http://yourdomain.com/baby.html"><img src="http://yourdomain.com/images/SInav302365highlighted.png" border='0' alt=''/></a>

This tells the search engines nothing. Again, the web developer has left alt='' in the link which shows me there is a place for you to enter that information. so you would enter say, "Gift Baskets for Babies" in that place and your link should look like this:

<a href="http://yourdomain.com/baby.html"><img src="http://yourdomain.com/images/SInav302365highlighted.png" border='0' alt='Gift Baskets for Babies'/></a>

Note that in the above examples I have substituted "everygiftbasket" with "yourdomain" - just ignore that part.

Thank you so much, I would have never know that, I changed the navigation button and links "I think I did anyways" I'll start the product images tomorrow. I am so glad I was directed to this site, it has been so much help to me already. thanks again.

from an ecommerce point of view, put some products right on your main page, just like at the walmart, pos display is everything

The first thing at the site that got my attention was the text - too small in my opinion and yes what mji said - no products right on front page.

Thanks I'm putting images on right now. Also working on my meta description. I'm open for any more suggests.

make sure you have diffrent titles and metas for every page.

I would also make individual product pages for each product, that would help your SE saturation

if someone looks for july4th gift basket, you want them to go directly to the product landing page,

remember, a single page is only really go for 2 or 3 keywords and phrases, don't try to get everyone to your main page, it can't be done, index product pages

I think that's the way I have it set up, not really sure though, I did link my pic's on my home page with the product page. so it would take them directly to them. Is that what your talking about?

No but that’s a good move.

You do have different tags and titles for your pages, good job, most people miss that. For the search engines you really need to work on the titles and descriptions, especially the titles, more keywords.

From the ecommerce side of things you’re on the right track with the categories, but I would let them buy right from the main page, just 4 or 6 products. Under corporation you have a Northwood Snacks Cheese Basket, put that on the main page. Then if this was my site I would put the pricing like this ( I made up the numbers)
Full retail price 59.00
Everyday low price 49.00
Everygiftbasket special 39.00 until 07/30/07
limk a buy now button right to the check out or cart and keep the more info link to the product page

Give your customers some kind of call to action via an implied special value

This is marketing 101, if you add up all the products in the basket plus the cost of the basket and wrappings that should come to the full retail price, show that

Or

You can take your $39.00 price and add 20% for the full retail price
Then take your $39.00 price and add 15 percent for the competitor’s everyday low price
Then present your everygiftbasket special 39.00, which is your price

Its all an implied value, you still get your money, customers believe they got a bargain, and they act quickly because you set a time limit.

Don’t forget to work on those titles and descriptions for the SE’s too!

I like that you have individual product pages, you can do more with keyword placement, titles and meta descriptions as well as on page content. I know its a lot of work, but the increased SE saturation and good product pages can drastically increase your conversion to sales rate and your average order size.


first you want your se rankings, but then you still have to convert the visitor to a sale.


you also may want to check browser compatibility, your site breaks in opera,

Thanks for the tips! What do you mean by "your site breaks in opera"? and how do I fix it! Sorry I'm having a hard time with the lingo, being a newbie and all. I'll have to figure out how to link to the shopping cart from the home page if I do what you suggested or could i do A banner at the top of the home page giving ? % amount off..I'm already give free shipping with orders over $75.00...I'm so confused!

opera is a browser, like IE. Don't worry about it for now. No, you need to put product right on your homepage. To link to the cart you should be able to copy the code for the add to cart button and put it anywhere.

Put your shipping offer on the main page if that is your "call to action"

but alas, this forum is about SEO, not ecommerce and marketing.

Thanks again...

"but alas, this forum is about SEO, not ecommerce and marketing."

That is not correct. This forum is for site reviews - that includes any aspect of site look, feel and function.