Scuba website help

[Ted S]

What's bringing your users to the pages in the first place? Search engines? Direct links? If so, what sites and what pages?

The first trick to realizing why people are leaving is to figure out what they are expecting to get when they get there.

 

[S. starfish]

I haven't read everything that's been posted so i may be repeating some things.
Here's my advice, redesign the site, not with the products in mind but with the user. remeber, the point of the site is not to tell the user everything about the product, it's to give them an easy way to see what you're selling and to buy it. Whenever I design a website i try to design it for the "most needy" user and try to keep these thigns in mind.
1) The user will be mentally challenged, so navigation has to be really easy. Don't clutter your pages either, you'll just confuse them and they'll leave
2) The user will be ADD - make your site load as fast as possible or they're gone. This means reducing the amount of info on each page and reducing the file sizes of your images so they load faster.
3) The user will be a pansy - Make the site look friendly, harsh red bars ona white background are not friendly and kinda hard on the eyes. If your site is pleasing to the eye people will stay longer. I recommend trying colors that are less "radient" let's say. You'll notice that the red on scubaboard isn't as bright.

Also keep in mind that just because it looks good on your computer doesn't mean that it looks good on someone elses, try and make it so that all of the info on your page will fit on an 800X600 screen. My screen is set to over 1000 pixels wide and the current one still doesn't fit on it Sideways scroll bars are evil

Good luck

 

[PePaw]

It's already been mentioned...but your prices are on the high side. I'll muddle through almost any site regardless of appearence to find a good deal !

Good-Luck to you !

 

[Scuba Jerm]

You guys are awesome! Thank you so much for your help. I've started working on it already, and hopefully the changes will work. I won't change everthing all at once, just planning on testing each change, if it works, then I'll do another one.

As for our prices, not a ton I can do there. The manufacturers hound us if we go below whats called a minimum advertised price, we've gotten our hands slapped for not raising our price when they do, so in order for us to remain in good standing and not deal on the "grey" market, we feel it's best to be honest with them, and do it right.

Anyway, thanks so much for the help so far... keep em' coming.

 

[Codyjp]

i was looking at the tanks page and first thing off, i like things organized vertically and sortable. i really like the way i can click on features on leisurepros.com (wouldn't buy from them though). that way i am able to select aluminum, high pressure, etc. So #1, get rid of the grid.

i also noticed in the descriptions of the xs tanks at one point it says XS sells exclusivly luxfer, then the X7-80 it is make by worthington. this isn't a really big deal but it is the details. i think the product descriptions have already been convered. i love details details details but it MUST be organized i similar way for each product.

i did notice that the X7-80 is cheaper with you than anybody else i have found.

-C

 

[fire_diver]

As for our prices, not a ton I can do there. The manufacturers hound us if we go below whats called a minimum advertised price, we've gotten our hands slapped for not raising our price when they do, so in order for us to remain in good standing and not deal on the "grey" market, we feel it's best to be honest with them, and do it right.

Anyway, thanks so much for the help so far... keep em' coming.

Tell the manufacturers to butt out. They already have been paid, they are your products to sell now.

FD

 

[shakeybrainsurgeon]

A trivial point: eliminate the "don't tell my boss" about the free shipping line. Does anyone believe that employees are giving away free stuff without the boss's knowledge? This sort of has a "used car" salesman ring to it.

 

[dhampton82]

I dont think this has been mentioned and it might just be something that I dont like, but on the front page, you have the pictures of the hoods, gloves, lights etc... and the names (hood, gloves, lights, etc....) is OVER the picture.

Like I said, it might be just me, but I have to have the words under the picture or I will go to another page.

Just remember, this is constructive criticism, and WAY better then I could ever do on a wetpage!!

 

[PhilEllis]

Hi ScubaJerm.........I am going to introduce you to your new best friend.......

http://inventory.overture.com

Learn to love him, learn to call on him for plenty of help, and ALWAYS listen to what he tells you.

Most of our visitors enter and exit on 2 of our pages... www.onestopscuba.com and www.onestopscuba.com/divebags. I've learned on average they only stay for about 1.5 minutes.....

I think you have the answer to your questions right in the information you provide in your post. Others have told you already about the 'appearance' of your pages, so I will leave that alone. I will talk to you about WHY people come into your site on these two pages, and ONLY these two pages (maybe with a very few exceptions)

<title>Mesh backpacks, waterproof duffel bags, rolling duffel bags, and more!</title>

People come to pages on your (or any) website basically from only three places......(1) direct URL entries of your URL in their browser window, (2) direct links from other websites or HTML documents, and (3) from search queries from a search engine. So, the people that enter your website at www.onestopscuba.com come there because they directly enter you URL in their browser window. People that come to you website at www.onestopscuba.com/divebags come there from searches in search engines. Do you know why? The only page on your website that provides the search engines with the information they need to index your site is the bag page! The answer is in the quote I provided above from the header of your bag page. All of the rest of the pages supply the search engines with information that tends to imply that your subject matter is about "add to cart". Of course, Google has identified you as a spam site under the mysterious duplicate content rules because you have so many pages that search to "add to cart" queries.

Clearly, organization on any website can be improved. My site is pretty amateur compared to many, but that is my cross to bear and mine to improve. You are in the same situation. It is important to remember that the BEST ORGAINZED page is useless if no one visits. To get visitors, the game is Google, Yahoo!, Ask!, MSN, and all of the rest. Please don't let anyone fool you into thinking that they can "get you top 10 placement" on the major search engines. You can't buy that....that takes hard work.

Spend some time searching for optimization topics on the internet and you will learn a lot about the power of cross-linking your frequently visited pages to other pages, writing relevant content statements, properly structuring page titles, and the rest. Don't worry to much about the "keywords" META tag......it no longer has much impact on placement and indexing. Worry more about making your indivdual product pages relevant and so enticing to the search engines that they are FORCED to give you high placement. With a few changes, you will rapidly see you number of unique visitors soar! And always remember you new best friend.............

http://inventory.overture.com

If you want to chat sometime, give me a call. If my store is open, I am here. Thanks and good luck.

Another VERY Important Thing to Remember: Search engines hate spam, they hate cute tricks, they DEPLORE attempts to improve search performance through duplicate content, and they punish HEAVILY those that do the things they hate. Expecially SPAM! When writing, stick to the rule of 7....don't repeat the same thing more than 7 times on a single page. (actually more then 3 times will make your viewers sick to their stomach, but 7 times and your page will be thrown into the "lost web page file" by the search engines.

Phil Ellis

 

[Scuba Jerm]

Thank you so much everyone! Phil, thank you for your insightful SEO tips too! They are being implemented today.