Website feedback welcomed

Hi

I'm new to this forum and have just found this thread.

I have posted on a previous thread that I am struggling selling things online through my shop (I think it was on the thread about whether or not you can make a career out of making and selling jewellery), and was wondering what I am doing wrong?

As mentioned (in another post) whenever I do craft fairs I seem to do well and am getting quite a few views online (I know through my google analytics), every day.

Even people that I know who want to buy jewellery from me contact me directly and don’t seem to be buying through my shop! This is frustrating to say the least! :(|

There are currently not many items for sale (but you can see the visuals) as I have them in a shop in the Bullring, in Birmingham (Created in Birmingham shop), on a sale or return basis.

Any advice, criticism and help would be amazing! www.teastained.co.uk

Thank you in advance. :)

Lilly x

Lilly, the fact is that a website is really just a shop window and there is so much jewellery on the web that it's difficult to make many sales that way. Having said that, your site doesn't really contain enough text - and certainly not enough of the right text to be attractive to the web bots. Search engines such as Google send out things called spiders or web bots that index all the pages on your site. To do this, they 'look' for sets of words so that when somebody searches for, say, 'silver jewellery' all the sites that contain those words will show up in the search results.

You should decide on a couple of keywords for each page of your site and then use those words and associated words in the contents of that page. Don't go mad and overdo it (something known as 'stuffing') but just use the words naturally as you write. Images aren't terribly google friendly, although you can improve on that somewhat but giving them something known as 'alt tags' which google will read as text and use for indexing.

The other thing you could do is incorporate headings and links - the bots like this and use them for indexing too. Links within your site are good but rather than say something like see here and using the 'here' as your link word, use a searchable phrase. Just looking at your site, for instance, you could link your rock and roll pendant to a matching bracelet with the words 'now all you need is a rock and roll bracelet' The words I've shown in italics would be the words you used as a link. See too if you can get some incoming links from popular sites. Imagine that your site is a junction on a spider's web - the more links you have to other points on that spider's web the more people will find you.

I hope that helps a bit - this is not an easy subject to explain in short and sweet style!

Hi Lilly
Firstly the positive - I love the shop banner and the pieces are really unique,
it says handmade (which is great)
A few things you could do....
Though it says handmade it doesn't say how...e.g.do you make the main charms yourself?
Are the designs from vintage fashion books, or are you the artist?
They mention laser cutting ~ is this done by a local company?

People like the stories of who makes the pieces (at least somewhere on the site)
e.g (making something up that probably doesn't apply)
The artwork on my jewellery is designed and printed by myself on a robust polymer base
before being laser cut by local a craftsman. Quality findings and genuine swarovski crystal
is then added to make this unique *****.
If you prefer sterling silver chain or alternative colours please contact me and I'll make a custom
piece just for you!

In person it's easier to see the whole view e.g. people will look at the back and have a close up view
so if there's a way to add more pictures / close ups that might help too :)
Nic

Hi Lilly, welcome to the forum. You'll find it really useful with lots of really knowledgable peole on it.
Now for your website.
The Good news!
easy to navigate (very important)
checkout process very simple (also very important)
lovely jewellery (really, really important)
The Bad news

sorry but don't like the logo. The robot top left has nothing to do with jewellery...thought I had landed on a toy site (sorry...I can be a tad blunt BUT if you follow the advice from posts above you may land on page 1 google...so stick with me)

The links bottom right...none of them work. Not good

Lots of stuff SOLD OUT...also not good.

Links. Do you know what they are? You have 15 (according to yahoo) which means a)your site is new or b) you have done diddley squat to promote it (sorry....being rude again). Get some links pointing to your site.

Now for the easy bit. Your meta title and description need tweeking. Title should be 70 characters or less, description 170 or less. Now, lets say you want to optimise for the term 'kitsch jewellery' which would see you on page one for that term you need to set your meta data to this:

Kitsch Handmade jewellery. Buy Now!

Kitsch and handmade bracelets, earrings, necklaces and jewellery. All kitsch and handmade. Fast delivery.


Add some content to your site et voila! job done!

Hi,

Thank you all for the great advice it is really helpful - I really appreciate you taking the time to have a look at it.

I’ll start chipping away at trying to fix the site, add content and get more links asap. :)

Lilly x

Links. Do you know what they are? You have 15 (according to yahoo) which means a)your site is new or b) you have done diddley squat to promote it (sorry....being rude again). Get some links pointing to your site.



How do you find out how many links there are to your site via Yahoo? Does anyone have any tips and pointers to adding links to your site?

Stu x

Hi,
bing, google and yahoo all do backlink checkers but yahoo is the most reputable. In yahoo search box type:

site:yoursite.co.uk search Web Hosting online

this will take you to site explorer. Where it says 'results' there are two clickable boxes underneath it:one says 'pages', the other 'inlinks'. Clink on inlinks and it will detail who is linking to you.

here are some really good articles about getting backlinks. Remember backlinks are hard work, but getting good ones will really help your site in the search engines.

Creating Linkworthy Content

How to Create Amazing Backlinks | WordStream

Media Links | Link Spiel

Thanks for those tips thats great. It looks like i have go alot of work to do then. Bring it on i say. I have been busy doing some link work already while i await the completion of the website, just looking forward to getting it online now.

thanks for your words of wisdom.

Regards

Stu x