Some advice, opinions and guidance needed

[ParkerC1]

Hello. I have set up my own on line business selling unique baby gifts (.millieboo.co.uk)and I hope you could give me some advice/ constructive critisism on my site, I have been live for 2 weeks advertising by googleads and have had 25 orders!! Would like to know any changes that could be made to increase sales, any other ways of advertising that would be effective.
Thanks

[Chris Jones]

Hi parker would love to look over your site but whats the URL? Put it into your profile.
Welcome to ukbf by the way.

[Chris Jones]

Either i did not see the URl the fist time or you have just edited your post. I'll have a look now.

[Chris Jones]

Hi parker, just had a look at your site and it looks quite nice also its easy to navigate. i assume you have some more products to put on the site as some of the categories are looking at bit bare. Other than that i can see no reason why i wouldn't buy from your site, you even have your tel. number on there which is good as i never but from a site without one.
From an SEO point of view you really need to put a title and description tag in as these are the first things that the search engine spiders will read.
The title appears in the blue bar at the top of your screen and at the moment it just reads "clothing millieboo". it needs to have a selection of keywords includes which comes across as a very brief description of what your site is offering. The description is much the same but can be larger with more keywords but don't make it read like a long list make it so it still reads like a well constructed sentence.
If you need any help advice then please get in touch.
Best regards.

[PintoPotts]

Hi Parker

Really like the site, very colourful and user friendly.

I would strongly suggest you take on a Search Engine optimisation company so you can start appearing in the organic results in Google.

Although with a new site this can take a while.

If you want details of a reputable firm who don't charge the earth drop me a PM.

[ParkerC1]

Thanks for this advice, will start to get the changes as suggested made- I am a little concerned that you send some of the categories looked sparce all categories have at least 5 items in them.
Let me know if there was anything specific that did not look good!
Thanks again, really appreciate the advice

[ParkerC1]

Thanks for your advice I will start looking into this!!

[Chris Jones]

Hi Parker
i was referiing to the clothing category which only had hat and onsies, But as i said the site looks good.
regards

[manicmama]

You are welcome to add a link to millieboo on my site for parents. All you have to do is sign up and click on "Add a Listing" on your User Page.

You get a one way link and all I ask in return is that you add one or two places or comments on places for kids :)

(There are further details about how to promote your business on the Groups page.)

[lewey]

Once you're happy with how your google ads are performing, and that you are getting sufficient conversions from them, take you best ads and place them on Yahoo too. The volume of clicks you will get will be much lower, as much fewer people use Yahoo, but as you only pay per click, every little helps.

[Chris Kaday]

I think the site is great and the concept too. You have also understood that if you are selling product you have to put products and prices on the home page for people to buy them. Something some of the folks on here still do not seem to understand. Well done I am sure it will be a great success.

Regards to all Chris Kaday

[arun]

Hi Parker

Really like the site, very colourful and user friendly.

I would strongly suggest you take on a Search Engine optimisation company so you can start appearing in the organic results in Google.

Although with a new site this can take a while.

If you want details of a reputable firm who don't charge the earth drop me a PM.

BE GRATEFUL FOR DETS OF A GOOD SEO FIRM?
AZ

[Bradk]

Hi,

I took at look at your website and it all seems vey well layed out. I am a father to be. and my wife caught me looking at this site. she thought i was being a proactive father.... but i was working! shhhhh

I run a company called iSite TV and we produce online product video content. Is this something you have thought about?

[Chris Kaday]

BE GRATEFUL FOR DETS OF A GOOD SEO FIRM?
AZ

Wouldn't we all matey

This site is littered with the same pleas

I wonder why? Look at some of the threads on here and you will soon see.
Come on you SEO guys surely you can put together some simple quotations which do not require your customers to jump through hoops at prices they can afford.

Chris Kaday

[sabian1982]

Parker,

As mentioned the site looks great however there are a few things (specifically SEO based) that could make an improvement.

Firstly page names - main category pages have rather long urls such as:

http://www.millieboo.co.uk/osb/showitem.cfm/Category/5/

Obviously this could well be a restriction of the shopping cart used, however if these were made search engine friendly and encorporated keywords ie www.millieboo.co.uk/bedroom-furniture (http://www.millieboo.co.uk/bedroom-furniture) this would help when doing se promotion in the furture; your baby services sub menu is perfect in this regards!

Secondly a good rule of thumb is allowing any user to access any page of your site within 3 clicks! This is done easily by adding a sitemap. As a young site you will find that search engines will only search so many internal levels deep; a sitemap not only allows humans to navigate to any site but it also allows those search engine robots to reach all pages, meaning more indexed pages hence more prominence in the search results.

Third, perhaps go through and get a alt tags added to all images (the logo image specifically).

Finally, as mentioned by a couple of others, unique titles (which use your keywords) and unique descriptions will all help improve the exposure of your site in regards to the search engines.

Hopefully the above initial small pointers are of help.

Mike

[RedEvo]

BE GRATEFUL FOR DETS OF A GOOD SEO FIRM?
AZ

Wouldn't we all matey

This site is littered with the same pleas

I wonder why? Look at some of the threads on here and you will soon see.
Come on you SEO guys surely you can put together some simple quotations which do not require your customers to jump through hoops at prices they can afford.

Chris Kaday

I've quoted for every SEO job I've been asked to quote for and supply free how to's and fact sheets and assistance in here.

We are not all bad ;)

d

[Tin]

Come on you SEO guys surely you can put together some simple quotations which do not require your customers to jump through hoops at prices they can afford.

Chris,

If I wanted a new home extension for my house and I had no experience of how to achieve that I'd need to employ a builder to do the work for me. Whilst 'he' would be the provider of all required skills to attain the goal it is inevitable that he would require decisions from myself as to the types of materials used for the contruction. I would need to know the size of extension I wanted and many more details even though I wasn't the skill provider, what my options were in terms of materials used and the standard of finish I required. If I could not come up with clear decisions about these issues then the builder would be very reluctant to proceed as there'd be too much room for error through incompatible decisions being made ultimately leading to an extension not fitting it's owners requirements.

Seo is not much different to that scenario. Sure, the seo can provide the skill set but you still need to provide much needed info. If you really just want someone to do the whole thing without your input this IMHO, is neither helpful to you and may even deliver poor value for money.

Apologies if I'm reading your post the wrong way, it is just fundamental, as I see it, to ensure that the seo company you use has an understanding of the intended result before embarking on what could be a very expensive exercise.

Ray

[Chris Kaday]

If you really just want someone to do the whole thing without your input this IMHO, is neither helpful to you and may even deliver poor value for money.

I think you are a lovely chap Ray who ads huge value - you already have to me for which many thanks.

I have never said I did not want to add input. Indeed I have put up threads here on how people would search for me and got a lot of valuable feedback and adjusted my words accordingly although this is still apparently insufficient hey ho. I also have a good understanding of the stages of SEO - have read enough about it on here.

However there must come a time when the talking has to stop and the quoting and delivery begin. The SEOs who can make it simple for the client and where necessary ask relevant questions and propose appropriate solutions at realistic prices are the ones who will get the business particularly as the market and competition grows.

It is no coincidence that there is such huge dialog and confusion around SEO on UKBF and in many other forums too. SEOs surely have to carry part of that responsibility. A great opportunity for those that can see the rabbit to build very good businesses too.

Incidentially if your building analogy was accurate Ray only buildings commissioned by knowledgeable people who knew one building material and finish from another would ever stand up and this is clearly not the case. I have not had a house built but I have been briefing services companies on my requirements for many years and actually helped some FTSE clients improve their briefs and supplier relationships too and I have never seen such a cerfuffle as their is with SEO. Can't all be down to the clients surely?

Chris Kaday

[sirearl]

Chris although Ray's analogy was pretty good,its much more complex than that.

we have people come to us with an infinite variety of business's,in fact allmost any business that exists in the world,so as you can imagine every case is different in terms of competition and variety.

and our learning curve about what may be an entirely new area is pretty sharp and intensive.

so don't be surprised that we seem a muddle headed lot as far as pricing is concerned,because we are often going into unknown waters.

Hence why I gave up pricing work sometime ago.:)

Earl

[Chris Kaday]

OK Earl

Chris Kaday

[WebPageOne-Solutions]

I think SEO is a fascinating and challenging subject, one of the main reasons I got into the game.

Lots of different opinions which often lead to disagreements.

For me SEO is all about achieving conversions for my clients.

I must say that the most effective tool for conversions will always be your content. Creating high visibility is relatively straight forward, but its conversions that count.

No One can guarantee 100% from SEO Services, so beware of those that do ! Why, because the search algorithms are always changing, hopefully to give us better and more relevant results.

SEO is a constant ongoing task of research, change and improvement IMO.

[Chris Kaday]

For me SEO is all about achieving conversions for my clients.

Now this is something I can agree on! Conversions rather than conversations. Great!

Chris Kaday