Store review

[ladykaren]

Hi everyone;

 

I'm close to wrapping up the building of my new store.

There's still a few tweaks here and there that need to be

done, but I'd like to open up my store for reviews.

Here's my site http://ladykdelights.com/cart

 

I'm open for any suggestions, comments etc if anyone

would like to take a look.

 

Thanks to those who have helped this newbie in the

past and take care,

Karen :)

[jpweber]

Okay Karen, you won't get many replies 'cause you site is not a complete site; it's under construction, and you're only supposed to put complete sites here. Just print this out, 'cause you have a lot to work to do, so here it goes:

(1) On your (catalog)/index.php, your footer is screwed up. Now I can't even see the picture. Anyway, the bottom of this page should look something like this:

<!-- right_navigation_eof //-->

</table></td>

</tr>

</table>

<!-- body_eof //-->

 

<!-- footer //-->

<?php require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'footer.php'); ?>

<!-- footer_eof //-->

<br>

</body>

</html>

<?php require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'application_bottom.php'); ?>

 

(2) http://ladykdelights.com/cart/Links.php .... you put a links page in ... in attempt to grow backlinks. Instead, you haven't even altered the instructions on the page yet. It'd be better if you submitted your site after it was complete, as opposed to being under construction.

 

(3) http://ladykdelights.com/cart/more_gifts.php has broken images. Another page under construction. What's the point of this page, anyway? All it does is list your categories. Just didn't know what the point of it was. I'm trying to think like a customer, not an OSC developer.

 

(4) No SSL? Karen, how serious are you about this store? It appears it's a passing hobby to you, and you've done little research in regards to SSL or "how to make a horrible OSC site". I have these two articles in my signature below .... but something tells me you don't plan on reading them. SSL stands for "secure socket layer" which encrypts data. When your customers put a credit card number sequence in, you better believe you want this data encrypted with SSL! SSL with e-commerce is non-negotiable; it's a mandate.

 

(5) Uhm ... some of your categories don't even have products!

 

(6) http://ladykdelights.com/cart/product_info...products_id=355 ... the products pages' pictures don't work.

 

(7) contact_us.php page. Why are you linking that typing-computer animated gif thing to an external site? Would you like your customers to not contact you, and go to that site instead? And who are you? Are you a human being, or are you some robot in a basement with no face and no name? Why not consider putting your physical store address there? In the contributions section -- this is located at http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions , there are links for better contact us pages. Just type in "contact us" in the search box, and search through the various contributions until you find the one you want.

 

(8) Consider moving your site to the root. This means eliminate the /cart/ folder and move all your files on folder closer to the root. Better for SEO. This will only take 10-15 minutes.

 

(9) Mandated contributions you haven't looked at yet, but should download and install:

- PWA - Purchase Without Account ... customers don't wanna have to create accounts to buy a candle.

 

- Ultimate SEO URL's ... will change your links from like http://ladykdelights.com/cart/product_info...products_id=355 to http://ladykdelights.com/cart/candles_pint..._jar-p-355.html ... this is better for SEO (search engine optimization).

 

- Header Tags Controller will allow you to have unique page titles for each page .. important for SEO.

 

These are just starters. I could recommend more, but you have enough work cut out for you just to get your site up to par -- if you even have the motivation to. Good luck, Karen.

[ladykaren]

Thank you Jason for your semi constructive review. As I said I am in the process of wrapping up the site build. I didn't say it was finished yet. I wasn't aware that only live sites could be but up for review as opposed to the ones the builder would like to make sure things are working properly etc before going live. I did post this topic in the General Support and I believe it was you who directed me to post here. My mistake.

 

As for your comments/suggestions on the follow issues you stated :

 

1) Footer on index page being off ..... I checked the code in the index.php file and it is as you have it written. I've asked for help via the General Support forum regarding this with no reply. Which is not unusual.

 

2) Links page ..... Actually I did edit this page after the install of the contrib with the exception of the line that appears now so to remind myself when I'm ready to do a full edit which file I need to go into. One of the tweaks I still need to do.

 

3) More Gifts php ..... This page works fine for me in both AOL and IE6 browsers. The catagories on this page links to other pages which feature affiliate banners. I thought this way would be more organized instead of cluttering the site with a bunch of banners/links.

 

4) SSL .... I'm in the process of communicating with my host server to find out what, if anything special I need to do, before generating the CSR to install. CSR stands for "Certificate Signing Request". Ut, I'm sorry ... I shouldn't know what that means as I've done no research. And yes, I read your "Horrible OSC Site" several months ago when I started this "passing hobby" of a site.

 

5) In what catagory are you NOT seeing products?????

 

6) http://ladykdelights.com/cart/product_info...products_id=355 What product pictures are you talking about not working? The "click to enlarge picture"? Or the pictures for Scents and Why Soy? Did you try clicking the WORD under the picture where the link is?

 

7) Contact us page ..... I have a contrib picked out to replace this page. Actually there are 3 contribs I plan to use.

 

8) I do plan to move everything to the root directory and eliminate the /cart. I'll do this before I take the store live.

 

9) I DO have PWA as well as Reviews without Account. These are the contribs that I have installed so far ......

 

Attributes Plus, Box Enhance, Guest Reviews, More Pics 6, PWA, Tell Friend About Site, Average Rating, Graphical Borders, Links Page, OSC Newsletter, Print Reciept, Review Approval and Wishlist 3.5 and PayPal IPN.

 

I also have a SEO contrib picked out as well as the Header Tag contrib. There are also several other contribs I'll be doing later when the retail side is done and I begin the wholesale end. That is of course if I can "generate enough motivation" since I've only been working on this site since last July on a daily basis.

 

But thank you anyway for your somewhat rude review. Even though it really didn't help with anything. But hey, we all PMS sometimes.

[jpweber]

If you want, you can e-mail me your (catalog)/index.php page,and I'll fix it for you so your footer isn't broken. Other than that, the minor changes have your site looking better, already.

 

Hey, you didn't have to take that animated .gif picture of the computer typing. YOU have to be happy about YOUR site.If you think it's cute, put it back up there! All I was suggesting was to not link it to an external site. Keep customers on your site and focused on your products. So you can put it back up, but make sure there is no <a href=" .... </a> tags around the picture.

[ladykaren]

Actually to be perfectly honest, I hadn't even noticed that there was

a link to the gif. I had put that one in when I was first starting the

build on the site. An experiment shall we say until I somewhat got

the hang of things. There's a diferent gif I eventually plan to put in

its place when I finsh working on the contact page today. When I

get that done I'll PM you my index.php for you to take a look at and

see if you can help with correcting the footer.