Hello everyone, I have done some major modifications to my site over the past week and was looking for some input. My goal is to have an excellent customer experience, instill buyer confidence and have a clean and professional look.
Brandonvd has been a great help with getting SEO, Google analytics and some other awesome ideas into motion.
I recently added a twitter link and Facebook groups to the page. Additionally, FedEx and PayPal logos were added to the left column.
I have submitted the site to several search engines and setup Google ad-words campaigns. If you have any suggestions to drive more traffic and help improve my conversion rate please make them as well.
Thank you in advance for your input!
-Zack
website: http://www.monstercableguy.com
website?..
His site is:
monstercableguy.com
Sorry about not creating a link. Some people in the past on here have been real anal about links so I figure this is a safe bet.
Brandon
Any suggestions out there?
My first impression is that it loads really slow. I stared at a white screen for about 30 seconds before anything appeared.
Yikes, I must not have noticed because of my high-speed internet connection. What are you running?
[quote name=‘moka’]My first impression is that it loads really slow. I stared at a white screen for about 30 seconds before anything appeared.[/QUOTE]
Yes, unfortunately it is way too slow to load…
Load time is similar to loading a site hosted outside the USA 
OK, subsequent home page loads were acceptable (perhaps in the 2-3 second range) after your site was cached in my browser. Only problem is the majority of your users will most likely be first time visitors thus the initial first visit load time can be a factor in their perception.
what do you suggest? Should I turn off the built in analytics?
[quote name=‘zackstark’]what do you suggest? Should I turn off the built in analytics?[/QUOTE]
Who are you hosted with, what type of hosting plan are you on?
PS: Even without knowing anything more, installing Smartoptimizer will do wonders for improving the initial first visit load time of your site.
Try changing over to the new caching system in the Labs forum. Also are you using eAccelerator, smartoptimizer or something similar?
Site was fast enough for me.
I think it needs a little color, as in looks too drab.
The main logo is too bury and has no contrast.
The black header is too dark, empty (useless waste of space).
Footer with facebook and tweeter icons looks like it has not been completed, I don’t know, it is just a weird footer like some HTML error made it align in a weird way.
Cyan-green link scheme is a bit unsettling and displeasing in my own personal view.
You have some info tables with specifications in description but when you click on features tab, there are like 2 or three only listed. You can borrow more from these tables…
Do not use picture verifications at first, use only if you will be forced by spam later. No need needlessly make customers do extra steps.
Couldn’t find return policy on main page.
Could not find any warranty length other than the return span for the items.
And my favorite, *py products from a py brand. I hate monster cables with passion for them being complete jerks and suing any business with word monster in it even if it is a restaurant, a ride, a job listing website… List goes on. They are just assholes as a company that files bunch of frivolous lawsuits against regular business people like you and me.
(from wiki)
Monster Cable’s targets include:
* Snow Monsters (a kid’s skiing group)
* MonsterVintage, small used clothing store
* Monsters, Inc., an animated feature film
* Monster Garage, a television series
* Monsters of the Midway, a nickname of the Chicago Bears football team
* Fenway Park’s Monster seats
* Monster.com employment website
* Monster Mini Golf
* Monster Balls Paintballs manufactured by JT Sports
* Monster Transmission
Now back to their products. The 100$ cables they sell are performing as $5 ones from monoprice.com, talking about a rip off.
Tech websites dislike the likes of monster cable, engadget even has a permanent ban on covering Monster Cable products.
[quote name=‘TexasGuy’]
And my favorite, *py products from a py brand. I hate monster cables with passion for them being complete jerks and suing any business with word monster in it even if it is a restaurant, a ride, a job listing website… List goes on. They are just assholes as a company that files bunch of frivolous lawsuits against regular business people like you and me.
(from wiki)
Monster Cable’s targets include:
* Snow Monsters (a kid’s skiing group)
* MonsterVintage, small used clothing store
* Monsters, Inc., an animated feature film
* Monster Garage, a television series
* Monsters of the Midway, a nickname of the Chicago Bears football team
* Fenway Park’s Monster seats
* Monster.com employment website
* Monster Mini Golf
* Monster Balls Paintballs manufactured by JT Sports
* Monster Transmission
Now back to their products. The 100$ cables they sell are performing as $5 ones from monoprice.com, talking about a rip off.
Tech websites dislike the likes of monster cable, engadget even has a permanent ban on covering Monster Cable products.[/QUOTE]
So this guy asks for some constructive criticism, you give some, and then rip his business because you have some personal vendetta against Monster Cables? Nice… :roll:
Right, Zack was not asking for a lesson in “Business 101” as in how to choose the best supplier/manufacturer for a distribution based business! Go easy on the fella… 
[quote name=‘Struck’]Right, Zack was not asking for a lesson in “Business 101” as in how to choose the best supplier/manufacturer for a distribution based business! Go easy on the fella… :)[/QUOTE]
Even though TexasGuy expressed his (negative) opinion of the product, what I took out of what he said was “be careful using the monster cable name in your business name. They have sued companies for less than that before and would probably not hesitate to sue you.” (Quotes are for the voice in my head, it talks to me… be afraid :p).
[QUOTE]what do you suggest? Should I turn off the built in analytics?[/QUOTE]
Zack, I just visited your site again to re-confirm. Again, it is only the initial first page visit to your site which is extremely slow (although IMO by far the most important page visit needing speed) approx 10 seconds here in the midwest on a rather fast DSL connection . After the initial entry page load, page load speed while browsing through your site is decent. I have done a considerable amount of speed testing for our CS-Cart store & tweaked many things, I will guarantee you that installing Smartoptimizer will cut your initial visit page load time in half if not better!
It is extremely easy to install, or, if you are working with our forum buddy Brandon as it appears you may be, then he could install it for you in a micro-minute…
Your site looks quite good overall, the only design type advise I would give is to use a darker text color to give more contrast for the very top link text where it reads “24/7 Customer Service, etc” as it was rather difficult to find. Perhaps just a simple Black color, & perhaps even bold text, your call.
[QUOTE]Quotes are for the voice in my head, it talks to me… be afraid 
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, that has been happening to me alot lately as well, I believe it has something to do with teetering on the edge of genious or something so I just accept it and move on!
[quote name=‘Struck’]
Your site looks quite good overall, the only design type advise I would give is to use a darker text color to give more contrast for the very top link text where it reads “24/7 Customer Service, etc” as it was rather difficult to find. Perhaps just a simple Black color, & perhaps even bold text, your call.[/QUOTE]
How could I move the 24/7 Customer Service text to the far left?
[quote name=‘zackstark’]How could I move the 24/7 Customer Service text to the far left?[/QUOTE]
Put it inside a
You may need to add padding-left as well in that style tag.
What file should I put it in? Right now it is just in the top links section within cs cart admin.
Is there a specific file i should put