Your opinion is valued: www.diamonds.uk.com

www.diamonds.uk.com

I would appreciate your expert opinions on the design, usability and general feel of the site.

I am puzzled as to why it's not high on G (although it was high for most of the relevant KW about 8 months ago, and a whole year before that, but never managed to get it back up!) It's doing relatively well on MSN and Y!

I personally don't think that the fact that the site is actually a subdomain is an issue, but would welcome comments on this too.

Also, any constructive comments from an ecommerce point of view about dos and don'ts re maximising conversion rates would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

 

Have a look at it at 800 x 600 resolution 40% of surfers still use that screen setting the right side of the menu gets cut off and creates a sideways scroll.

The girls face is cut off at the eyes in firefox.

There is a lot of stuff on that page which is quite over whelming...can't you break it up a bit and give everything a bit more space?

The look is very professional apart from that but from a users point of view maybe a bit too much going on...think about who is going to be interested in that page and will they be able to navigate around it?

 

The girl's face is meant to be cut off at the eye level in both IE and Firefox, hehe.

I find the pages to be too busy as well. A bit slow to load as well because of that. I'd would place less content on all pages but make sure your sitemap is comprehensive enough

 

So far from what I have seen I think the site yes does look a bit crowded but I dont think that minds a lot unless you got the most important items you want definitely to sell stand out of the rest. Im seeing that the top banner has some weird color background , the color aint white or is that intended to be so?? Outline text, titles. Use the same or maybe just two different size of fonts and type of fonts. Your table borders, the little black lines, aint at the same height .I mean the one on eye level the two horizontal onces. Make sure there is symmetry, as for example the top navigation part: the title of the navigation menu isnt right above the rest of the text. I personally would outline the text right above one other and might even consider to play around with the texts font and size. Most of all what I have noticed what disturbs me is that your search box and the other two boxes, are really close to the line above it , give them a bit more space. Ever tried using some more friendler colours?? It looks a bit dull to me. Check some other shopping sites who sell diamonds as well and you ll know what I mean. Check this Its still not the best color combi I have seen before but it gives you a idea of what I like more. You might want to give the your footer of the page a bit more white space. That way it will look less crowded with text. People who are interested in the footer will find it trust me. I secrtly not only looked into your index page but I jumped to a product page as well. Ever noticed that your sub products are below eyelevel?? I would suggest to move the navigation menu or to the left Most people are common to navigate using the left side of a page. By removing the top navigation menu you will be able to display your sub products as well. People wont have to scroll down. Where are the colors on that page ? Its looking again a bit dull if you ask me. Remember Im just a visitor looking at your website and I do like to look at something that not only navigates well but it the eye does like to get some attention. Get the colors in and keep it going as your doing now. I think your website overall looks nice. Good quality of used pictures, a white background , simple fonts... That's a good start.

 

crazyhorse, try hitting return a few times! he he he he!

The site in question looks pretty decent.

I don't like the navigation at the top. Try running it down the side. And maybe a blue background would be nice too.

Ok, I added something to my basket...HOW DO I CHECKOUT? you need to make that easier. Add a checkout button/link.

Nice site, good luck!

 

Color contrast needed so that readability is assured - background color after the margins can be set to something more darker.

Errr... what is this in the code???

<base href="http://www.diamonds.uk.com/"/>

change it to <base href="http://www.diamonds.uk.com/">

<table> and <tr> tags not properly nested. Best thing would be to switch to XHTML.

Why isn't google ranking you? Exchange links. Your links section needs to be worked upon. What sort of sites do you need to exchange links with? Since your site is dealing with diamonds, then exchange links with sites that sell Opal, Emerald or any other precious stone. If you ship only to the UK, then you can exchange links with Diamond sites which do not cater to the UK crowd.

The rest others have mentioned...

All the best with your rankings.

Regards,
Dilip Samuel

 

Thank you all for taking the time to write. Your comments are really constructive and interesting. I will start working on some of the issues raised straignt away.

As you can see we beccame over-zealous with content on the homepage, hoping that this would make the difference with G and drives us back to the top.

 

"Diamond Forever" lol