improving hits/sales ratio

[phoog]

Hi UKBS people,
I've got a site up and running and am after some suggestions on what's wrong with it ...I'm getting visitors via google adwords but the sales are slower than I'd like, I'm not really that clued up on ecommerce so any hints, advise etc etc would be gratefully received
thanks :0)
Steve
phoog dot co dot uk

ps this isn't just to drive some traffic I'm actually serious about the advise

[kimmrunner]

You wont like the answer.

Your website does not sell!

In fact it is not even obvious what you are selling!

You have drawn a blank on all the top issues in website conversion

(a) You arent split testing.

(b) Your purpose should be to capture customer details - so bribe them with something valuable NOT an offer of spam.

(c) Your first fold is mainly white space! All the valuable real estate is wasted

So You dont grab attention with any promise - you dominate your first fold with the word "PHOOG" which means NOTHING to your visitor at all - so get rid.
.
Your USP should be there. Your text is small, and does nothing to capture the readers imagination and is hard to read.

(d) You have do nothing to establish the value of what you sell.
In fact You make no effort to present the products in any kind of luxury feel - a lightbox muight help - with a description! Is it a painting? a watercolour? How big is it? Does it come in a frame?

I still have no idea what this "art is

(e) You have done nothing to establish credibility - where are the reassuring logos? Where is your address and telephone number to prove you are not a scammer. Where are the testimonials?

Where is the money back guarantee.

Pretty much every mistake built into a single website

[phoog]

"You wont like the answer"

no I do like ! ...I wasn't fishing for compliments, it's exactly what I'm after ( ok so a 10 step " change this /add that" plan would be good!) I'm totally rubbish at sales/presentation so anything that helps will be gratefully received
what's split testing ?

[Mister B]

Although I am not an expert in ecommerce, I think that Kimmrunner is spot on.

In addition, after having a quick whizz around your site, I would just like to add the following points (as seen through the eyes of a layman!:) ):

1. Text is quite hard to read and subsequently will not encourage people to hang around.
2. Site is quite hard to navigate. For example, lack of return to home button.
3. No search facility. Granted you can search by artist, but what about performer or subject? The first thing that I would on a site like this is punch what I wanted into the search box and let it do the work. Otherwise I would be out of there.
4. Paypal text is quite hard to find due to its size. This in itself, does not shout out that it is a particular secure ecommerce site.
5. You offer free delivery. You should be shouting that the prices include delivery-good selling point. Otherwise it is hard to find this fact out.

I am sure that there will be more of the techy guys around later on to point you in the right direction but in the meantime good luck for the future. Nice to see paintings and not prints:D

Mister B

[Phil_@_MPP]

Just thought I would also add in some comments, although some may have already been said.

- There is far too much white being used on the site. Even just maybe a border of another colour would help. I would pick another colour to blend in with the white and make it more interesting to view.
- The text is quite small yes, but I find the grey colour to be the most off-putting thing about it. Blending white with grey does not help the site at all.
- The alignment for the front text is a little all over the place really, it doesn't seem to fit well with the palette logo next to it.
- Someone mentioned they have little idea what you do. I think the text that says "Real paintings from real UK artists" should be much bigger and easier to read, as currently it looks squashed.
- I see you have added in the logos for the various credit cards you can take, which is good. However they are very small, its always worth making them larger and more visible for the customers to see.

I think overall the site definitely has potential.

Hope this helps.

P.

[WebPageOne-Solutions]

Hi Other than the over powering logo i quite like the site, it has a nice web 2.0 theme and is very easy to navigate.

The pictures are pretty amazing too.

PPC will get you plenty of traffic but is possibly not converting very well.

If you consider organic seo for the site i would be interested in quoting for the work.

[phoog]

Thanks for the time you guys spent looking and the feedback....I'll get to work on it !
The too much white thing was really a throwback to bricks/mortar galleries, i went with the not looking like a "standard" site (os,zen etc) as I thought it might help "lift" it a little and make the paintings stand out, now I'm not too sure, and what you've all said ties in pretty well with the sales !!
couple of questions if thats ok
I sell on ebay ( phoog_contemporary_art ) with big/good feedback ...if I link this into the site somewhere will it help or hinder credibility etc
is putting a mobile number better than not having one at all ?

oh and any other observations still gratefully received

[managedbusiness]

I like the design - if you want advice on your META tags etc post them here ( i cant access them as rt. click is disabled) and im sure people will give you advice.

Set Google Analytics up on the site and youll have very detailed reports about who is visiting your site.

[phoog]

I like the design - if you want advice on your META tags etc post them here ( i cant access them as rt. click is disabled) and im sure people will give you advice.

Set Google Analytics up on the site and youll have very detailed reports about who is visiting your site.

I'm using ATstats, a joomla com/mod seems to work ok, so I can see how people arrived, pages they viewed etc

Metas are

Buy Contemporary, pop art, abstract affordable art and paintings
Buy real paintings direct from our Devon studio

Keywords

pop art, abstract art, contemporary art , buy art, buy pop art, sunset art, surf art, wholesale art, Devon, Cornwall, art for restaraunts,paintings,


I don't really know the first thing about this sort of thing so any advice would be great !!!

[GreatSEO]

Phoog

Have you thought about getting yourself an 0844 number that you can divert it may look a little better than a mobile number.

Other than that i would put a contact us email address as well.

Hope this helps

Regards

Dave

[Baby's Best]

I think improving your website slightly will certainly help but I wouldn't say that slow sales are all down to your website. I really like your website! (Once Christmas has passed I might even consider becoming a new customer:D)
What other marketing strategies do you have apart from adsense? Any blogs, articles about the scene, new artists, new themes, etc. People want to read, want information - after all, that's why the internet was developed in the first place. Try and make the people be part of it - those who are interested in art are interested in information about what is going on. Adverts. have you got any? Editorials, etc. I don't think marketing yourself on the internet only will help at all.
Good luck!:rolleyes:

[WHUK]

Along with designing and all the suggestions made by forum mates try to make your site more SE friendly, Use your important keywords within your title tag, h1 , anchor text etc...try tro get relevant backlinks and concentrate on SEO, surely you will get good traffic from SE's.
Try to update your blog as frequent as possible with helpful content so that your visitor may bookmark your site and may give a revisit for your site.

[ukstudent]

I think people have offered some great suggestions. I feel, first of all, that all the info is crammed into the middle in small type... and that's not compelling at all. Decrease your margins and increase your font size... for starters.

[schumi]

yes,agree above,you have to improve your site greatly though i'm not a expert in that,surely they gave some good suggestion,and starting a survey in your site or other places can make some sense,and i want to know how many ip views do you get every day?and what about the order?usually when 100 people visit your site,maybe just one of them will buy from you,that's the ratio,what about yours?

[phoog]

Thanks for advice,
Anyone know what the best width is for a fixed width site, it's currently on 840px, if I increase it won't I alienate any users browsing with 800 resolutions.
I'm setting up a freephone number and re-writing the copy from scratch !!
can't tell conversions as I had a whole heap of US hits from stumbleapon which have screwed up my working it out !

again
thanks for all the advise
http://phoog.co.uk/index.php

[phoog]

I,ve re-done a whole load of the site now, if anyone's got any advise/obsevations/tips etc etc they'd be greatly received,
Thanks
Steve
http://phoog.co.uk/

[Steve2507]

Hi Steve,

I like the site but there are three problems:

1 - There is a coding error - line 420, char 181, error unterminated string constant.

2 - The front page still doesn't sell anything to me. You need to make an area in the main part of the screen that actually tells me to buy something. The scroll underneath the basket is great and may increase the basket size, but will peole look at it if they haven't added anything to the basket. I would add 2 or 3 products on the front page with prices etc, so it really encourages users to go deeper.

3 - Change the logo so that it is a clickable return to the homepage. This is pretty standard now and users expect it.

Hope this helps.

[She Says]

Wow, I love the Sea meets Sky section, gorgeous!!!

I think you need to swap the top links with the Buy Art section on the left. It took me a while to find the links and work out that I could buy from the site.

What sort of keywords are you using for google adwords? I would think people take their time buying art, viewing different websites and coming back time and time again. Also there is alot of art to look through so perhaps people are taking their time deciding, or there is too much and it becomes overwhelming?
From what I can tell from a quick look the price range is around £100+. Perhaps you could offer smaller pieces for a smaller price bracket?

I love the use of the word 'unpretentious'-perhaps you could include that in a tag line?

All the best
Sharon