koop Posted August 9, 2006 Share Posted August 9, 2006 Could I get some honest feedback on this site. I have customized and mod'd to the best of my ability. I have optimized all images and tried to ensure fast page builds considering the site is hosted off a blowdaddy shared server. http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/ Any recomendations or critiques would certainly be welcome. Besides the obvious you need a real hosting solution instead of blowdaddy, lol. Thanks Koop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharplab Posted August 10, 2006 Share Posted August 10, 2006 1) I Like The Title! It gets the point across, I knew exactly what you were selling immediately. NOW.... - Page is not centered and too big, use the center store contribution to center it for the 800x600 screen and then it should be ok for all sizes. - Bestsellers box is too busy, no more than 3-7 is needed, if people are interested they will shop dont worry so much about 10-20 best sellers on your home page, just clogs up stuff and the info boxes have an ugly layout. - Bottom NavBar - GET RID of the useless "page views" and also "date". What I did was add theme related text to the navbar in place of that useless mumbo jumbo. - THE BANNER - WHY? You have a banner linking to your own store. The banner code just slows down your store and is uselesss. Rmove the banner and the code. It is simple to do. Check Chemos post for "Vanilla Install", there is simple directions in that thread to remove all banner code. It will cut your queries down, speed your store and load times! I LIKE YOUR LITTLE ICONS FOR "MY ACCOUNT" "CHECKOUT" "CART CONTENTS" :thumbsup: NOW.... - Your load times are HORRIBLE! Google and other major engines dont like laggy pages. Here are your load results! Connection Rate Download Time 14.4K 260.50 seconds 28.8K 130.35 seconds 33.6K 111.76 seconds 56K 67.13 seconds ISDN 128K 20.70 seconds T1 1.44Mbps 1.98 seconds You need your load times down around 20 seconds for 56k. You can CUT YOUR LOAD TIMES MORE THAN IN HALF just by optimizing your images. Your image sizes should not be more than 5-10k max! If you want the big images then create links to them within your product description page. Here are the current sizes of your images on your root page! WOW ! 1 4759 IMG https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/bnr/vertical...on_PPeCheck.gif 1 Not found CSS IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/images/prevlabel.gif 1 Not found CSS IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/images/nextlabel.gif 1 39736 IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/i...s/blessings.jpg 1 35820 IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/i...8x60_banner.jpg 1 31699 IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/i...;page=width=139 1 29531 IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/i...;page=width=139 2 24045 IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/i...;page=width=139 1 22167 IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/images/300xlogo.jpg 2 21699 IMG http://ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/image...s_set_small.jpg 1 20591 IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/i...;page=width=640 1 19267 IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/i...;page=width=139 1 18904 IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/i...;page=width=139 1 16778 IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/i...;page=width=139 1 11896 IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/i...headerimage.jpg 1 8331 IMG http://ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/images/witchvox.jpg 1 3803 IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/i.../icons/ebay.gif 1 3318 IMG http://ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/image...PS-Priority.gif 1 3065 IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/i...der_account.gif 1 3015 IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/i...header_cart.gif 1 2981 IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/i...er_checkout.gif 1 1470 IMG http://ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/image...ews_divider.gif 3 114 IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/i...arrow_right.gif 1 88 IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/i...orner_right.gif 2 88 IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/i...corner_left.gif 10 52 IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/i..._right_left.gif 1 43 CSS IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/images/blank.gif 32 43 IMG http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/i...pixel_trans.gif those little tips can get you on your way! :D Steve Current Contributions: Page Cache, Center Store, Ultimate URL's, Header Tags, Product Description , Image Add To Cart - , Store Cache Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
invasi0n Posted August 11, 2006 Share Posted August 11, 2006 The site is very nice. I also noticed the load time of main page. I see you installed Image Magic contribution which is great. Now go to http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/ and check let's say http://www.ceridwensmagicweb.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=21 . After that, go to Admin > Configuration > Image Magic and play with "JPEG Quality - Small Thumbnails" feature. Set it to 85 or 90 (the quality will be almost the same, hard to make the difference), refresh your page and now go back to http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/ to see the difference. Also, if you have space enough, set Auto Clean Cache to False. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matrix2223 Posted August 11, 2006 Share Posted August 11, 2006 Im not so sure I agree with the load times the home page it self is only 4.32k that is very very small. I took me 1.2 seconds to load it the first time I even view the store. I also agree on the footer bit, also within all of you root(catalog) dir. remove the very last </td> I noticed that you had the center shop contrib. I like the ebay info box mind if I ask what contrib that is I have been searchin for something like that. Very clean I like it, Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koop Posted August 14, 2006 Author Share Posted August 14, 2006 Thanks all for the feedback. Sorry for the delayed response but I've been out of town for a few days. I will check my imagemagic settings and try to further enhnace the image size. I thought I really had that nailed becouse for me the load time is pretty minimal. Some delay I think can be contributed to the site be hosted with the econ-blowdaddy account. :'( I will heed the advice and minimize the best selllers down to about 5. This will cut half of what I had. I will also remove the date and time from the footer. The ebay current auctions section is from "current auctions v2.1" I have found that having it on the site that they feed each other, if the auctions are running high they will come to the site to buy and if not they will purchase on ebay through the auction process. Also I had center store installed, not sure why it wasnt centered, it has always looked correct to me. But again the only browsers I have viewed it through is Fire Fox and IE6, maybe I need to experiment with a few more to ensure compatibility. Again thnx for the feedback, any other peeps want to add their .2 feel free.. ~Koop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EatDVD Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 Very impressive, its given me a few ideas on how to improve my site aswell. I love the graphics, is all the artwork done by you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koop Posted August 14, 2006 Author Share Posted August 14, 2006 Thnx for the compliment!. Actually my wife is the artsist and I'm kinda hip at Photoshop. So Ill take her artwork and build some stuff out of it that I think works well for the osC shop. I just wish I understood .php stuff as well as I knew Photoshop. ;) ~Koop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baghunterDotCom Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 hi This may seem a silly question to u...but how do i install these contributions....i have just used the link to check the loading on my new site...i would appreciate it if you could spell it out for me...totally new at this :blush: www.baghunter.com thnx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koop Posted August 14, 2006 Author Share Posted August 14, 2006 hi This may seem a silly question to u...but how do i install these contributions....i have just used the link to check the loading on my new site...i would appreciate it if you could spell it out for me...totally new at this :blush: www.baghunter.com thnx Lol, well for one there will be a readme included with all contributions. So mostly just follow uthe directions to install the contribs. Plus you will find a support under the correct area in this forum for contributions. I know this answer is rather vague but I think with this info you should get pointed in the correct direction. ~Koop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baghunterDotCom Posted August 15, 2006 Share Posted August 15, 2006 Lol, well for one there will be a readme included with all contributions. So mostly just follow uthe directions to install the contribs. Plus you will find a support under the correct area in this forum for contributions. I know this answer is rather vague but I think with this info you should get pointed in the correct direction. ~Koop thnx i will loook into that...hopefully i dont mess up my store....i have already had to redo the whole thing twice...thnx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToyStore Posted August 15, 2006 Share Posted August 15, 2006 What is the cool function that is causing the images to enlarge like that? Is that all part of Image Magic? I like the feel, looks good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koop Posted August 16, 2006 Author Share Posted August 16, 2006 thanks for the compliment. The image effect is a php script call lightbox you can find it here> Lightbox Hope that helps Koop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koop Posted August 16, 2006 Author Share Posted August 16, 2006 um, try here instead, sorry it's early here, lol lightbox link ~Koop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToyStore Posted August 16, 2006 Share Posted August 16, 2006 um, try here instead, sorry it's early here, lol lightbox link ~Koop Thanks! I actually looked at your source and installed in my shop as well. It is the post on here now about "Updating Site - Toy Store" The image effect is cool, and does not seem to slow anything down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 16, 2006 Share Posted August 16, 2006 Excellent product line. Great job on the site thus far. I love the "tell a witch" instead of "tell a friend" - cute ;-) This is just a personal preference, not necessarily something you HAVE to do: Move all your right hand column boxes to the left, delete mention of right column in all your root catelog files, and thus expand out the main part of the page. I did this - Lots more room. Love the product description details - make sure they are keyword dense. Install the Ultimate SEO URL contribution - makes your urls throughout your site html = search engine friendly. Have you installed the Header Tags Controller contribution ? Another SEO necessity. Also - dynamic sitemap and all products - give the search engine spiders and bots plenty to play with. Switch out the default buttons with something that matches your site theme - perhaps little pentacles next to "continue", "add to cart", etc etc. Header - although those are nice "your account", "shopping cart" and "checkout" buttons - they don't match your store's theme and they are redundant since the text links are right below them. In their place, you could do a .gif image that revolves 3-5 of your products. I've seen that Lightbox in action on a couple of sites. I also love it. Although, it does'nt love dialup visitors too much. It took nearly 30 seconds to load. Love what you did for the categories when you click on them, their header title ...... great job! Use that touch on your contact us page and other such info pages - keep it consistant throughout your site (which you did on the wholesale info page). Right column, Artist Info infobox, the Steel Goddess one totally enlarged the wide of the right column, distorting. Wholesale info page - at the bottom for new artisans - the "contact us" link is white, thus it looks like a blank spot. The Title art for that page needs to be moved up so it's in line with the raven. Otherwise, you have a large white space there at the top. On all your root catalog pages, perhaps decrease the table size for the main section of the pages .... perhaps to 90%, this will pull your text and such away from each of the columns, makes it a little easier to read, a little cleaner also. You're doing a great job - keep up the great work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koop Posted August 16, 2006 Author Share Posted August 16, 2006 Wow, thnx for the great feedback! Thats just what Ive been looking for. I am going to try and impliment all your suggestions. If I happen to paint myself into a corner with some of the contribs, I may ask you for a bit of help or advice. Again thnx for the feedback! ~Koop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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