Im Excited about my store

[Draeisme]

Hey, this is my first osCommerce Store. I'm still new at this whole php stuff, but it's been a nice experience. Please give me feedback on my store thanks. Just be helpful.

 

 

http://www.raysebookshop.com/catalog

 

 

Thanks :)

[rush989]

I see that you implemented the ultimate SEO contribution but your store is located one directory down in /catalog/

I don't know how important that is to search engines...

 

Also, you have a picture of a shirt for the product Fun Kids Recipes.

 

Overall, it looks like you've done a nice job customizing oscommerce to your needs.

[Andrew Yuen]

Site Review for: Rays eBook Shop

 

It is important to make sure that each product info page contains unique Meta descriptions and keywords for each product. Although what you place in the Meta keywords tag and Meta description tag does not give any weight in the ranking algorithms of Google, it may affect what appears in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). For more information please visit the link below:

http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/2714

 

Consider your Title Tag as a representation of your core keywords of the most important services and offerings. Make sure that your core keywords stand out in the title of your index page before anything else. Always remember to utilize the title tag on each individual URL for its specific keyword(s) and keyword phrases.

 

Alt tags are important because:

Some of the web users cannot see images, be they blind (convert text to speech or Braille output), color-blind, low-sighted etc. The alt attribute gives them an idea of what's on the page.

Search engines do index alt attributes as well. Make sure each image on your store contains relavent alt tags.

 

A site map makes it easier for indexing spiders to find all of the content on your site. Search engine spiders or bots have a hard time following links that use JavaScript, like mouseovers. A site map with a collection of plain text links to all pages can make it easier for more pages of a site to be included in a search engine index. Consider installing the following module:

http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/2208

 

Check your link rollover/hover colors. They should match your color scheme.

 

Buttons should match your color scheme. Ensure that you are not using the default osCommerce buttons throughout your website if your color scheme is something other than blue.

 

Sometimes simpler is better. Presenting lots of information to users often leads to confusion. I suggest that you reduce the number of infoboxes located within your store. For example, often the currencies and language infoboxes can be removed if only US dollar and English are being offered as options.

 

A Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA) is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine whether the user is human. The main purpose of CAPTCHA is to prevent spam. I suggest installing this module. In addition, if your contact us page contains email addresses, consider removing them. For more information please visit the link below:

http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/4960

 

I suggest switching to an Amazon style login example here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/sign-in.html This form of login in my opinion is very familiar to many online shoppers. For more information please visit the link below:

http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/2073

 

 

Comments:

 

The overall look of your website closely resembles the default osCommerce look. As mentioned above you should remove the standard osCommerce light purple and add colors that match the yellow dark blue color scheme of your website. In the header I would consider removing the blue space to the left and the right of the header banner. On some of your products pages there is a lot of white space to the right of your product info (http://www.raysebookshop.com/catalog/guide-gaining-confidence-p-33.html). Consider removing that additional space.

 

 

Andrew's Overall Score:

64/100 = 64%

[Draeisme]

Thanks rush989, and Andrew. I took your suggestions and looked into my meta tags. I added a sitemap also, and referenced it to my robots.txt. I just used a google xml generator.

Im strongly considering the Amazon login, but i dont know if its something i really need. I also made my index have a permanent redirect to the catalog direction.

 

 

I would really appreciate some more feedback such as friendliness, would you spend your money there, does it look safe etc...

[jbastow]

Thanks rush989, and Andrew. I took your suggestions and looked into my meta tags. I added a sitemap also, and referenced it to my robots.txt. I just used a google xml generator.

Im strongly considering the Amazon login, but i dont know if its something i really need. I also made my index have a permanent redirect to the catalog direction.

I would really appreciate some more feedback such as friendliness, would you spend your money there, does it look safe etc...

 

Safe, yes - I like the SSL link at the bottom, and the fact that you clearly point out that you take Paypal. It looks a little amateurish though :-"

- The colours aren't awful, but kinda fight with my eyes on the screen... the blue is too blue or the yellow is too light (can't pinpoint it). I would enter one of those colours into one of the web design colour picker sights and see what comes out.... slight shade differences can made all the difference in the world.

- I think your images need better optimizing, especially your header (it's grainy due to poor quality... and is it supposed to be Rays or Ray's? - not telling you what your business should be called though! :blush: )... plus a thumbnail contrib couldn't hurt, so your product images don't look so squished.

- You've got a wealth of information in your footer (About Us/Privacy, etc), but because you lose the left and right columns seen in the rest of your site, it feels like I've been taken to a different site altogether - try to see if you can unify this.

- Pick a san-serif font and stick with it... it keeps the page looking nice and unified (in your info sections, you've got Times New Roman mixed in with everything else)

 

As for the Amazon login, it's not a bad idea - I would suggest Purchase Without Account before that, as many people don't like having to sign up for an account to make purchases (esp. for small ticket items like you're selling). I've heard you can integrate the PWA with the Amazon style log in, but it didn't work for me (so I stuck with PWA).

 

Hope this helps! :thumbsup:

 

Janna

[dmacus]

well laid out and easy to navigate, one thing i'd recommend is to make the menu stand out; you can make the text bigger and/or give it a different colour.

[Draeisme]

Thanks jbastow.

I had lowered the quality of the logo to save on loading time, but its at an unacceptable quality, so i put it back to high quality.

I do have a thumbnail contrib. The images are fine, it's the book covers themselves if anything that are low quality. I increased increased each picture size by 10%.

 

Thanks for pointing out the foot pages being different format and content. The footer pages are actually static pages, i just learned how to make new OS pages so i was slowly migrating the over. Your comment sped me up a couple of days though. :-)

 

I am really considering the purchase without account, but with that enabled will it still work with downloads?

I would love to be able to store email and name in the database, but PWA would make the process a lot quicker.

 

-----------

 

Thanks dmacus

 

I didn't realize how small the menu was in IE. I just increased the size form 10px to 13px. It looks better. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

-----

 

Keep the comments coming :thumbsup:

[a1d1l]

i think your site is good, but why you dont put the main page on the main directory?

 

for SEO i think it's better if the main page in main directory too

[homewetbar]

Could maybe use a little help on the graphics but it's well organized, nice start :)

[awinner]

Hey, this is my first osCommerce Store. I'm still new at this whole php stuff, but it's been a nice experience. Please give me feedback on my store thanks. Just be helpful.

http://www.raysebookshop.com/catalog

Thanks :)

 

 

Hi,

 

Are you using a template system? If you go to your site and add a item to the cart, click on cart contents, then try to update the cart. You get a ssl security warning. I had the same problem on my site.

 

Julian

[Draeisme]

Hi,

 

Are you using a template system? If you go to your site and add a item to the cart, click on cart contents, then try to update the cart. You get a ssl security warning. I had the same problem on my site.

 

Julian

Yea i am using STS.

 

Were you able to fix the problem on your site? and what is causing it?

[Draeisme]

Hi,

 

Are you using a template system? If you go to your site and add a item to the cart, click on cart contents, then try to update the cart. You get a ssl security warning. I had the same problem on my site.

 

Julian

 

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

The problem is in STS. It generates a secure cart link, while the update button generates a unsecure link.

 

In

catalog\includes\modules\sts_inc\general.php

 

Change Every instance of

(FILENAME_SHOPPING_CART, '', 'SSL')

to

(FILENAME_SHOPPING_CART)

It should be there three times.

[Draeisme]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. Keep em coming

 

I redesigned the store. Let me know what you think.

 

I also shortened the checkout by 2 steps. I also made the create account page more user friendly :-), the entire color scheme was changed as well.

[desiredin]

I would remove that "David Blaine" magic ebook from your site as it isn't endoresed by David, and can be confusing to those interested in the art of magic. It almost gives the impression that David himself wrote it. Not only that but David Blaine is a trade name, and most likely an unregistered Trade Mark.

[chimol]

Don't you have to have the powered by OsCommerce on your front page to get feedback??? I've been shot down before becuase I didn't have that on my front page.