Got a moment to critique my all-new website?

[KerryAll]

I found a local web developer and we pretty much have my totally redesigned website up and running. I'm changing the domain name to KerryAllPouch, although it still shows as Kerry Woodworking (http://www.kerryallpouch.com) right now, as most of my business is pouches and covers now, so I thought it appropriate.
I respect many of the posters on here, and would appreciate any comments or suggestions.

Thanks.

Lloyd

[KristineS]

This is a pretty good little site. It answers questions people might have, shows demonstrations of the product and has a nice friendly tone to it. Most of my concerns at this point center around the e-commerce portion. Calculating shipping the next day and e-mailing people may keep some people from purchasing. Also, I don't think you need to go into why people should use PayPal. It's a common enough tool now that I don't think it matters to most people. If it were me, I would definitely look into getting an e-commerce platform for the site and allow people to place their orders online.

Overall, though, nice job. The site looks like a good sales tool for your business.

[TanaB]

Hi Lloyd,

This looks like a good site. I struggled a bit with the font in some places (a bit too small sometimes, like in the About page) but it looks good.

I guess what I would add is some of the testimonials on your landing page. Maybe to the right of you picture. It will add to your authority as a seller and help convince buyers that you are the person to do business with.

Good luck!

[DeniseTaylor]

HI

I think it's pretty good. Could get you some business.

Some easy, near-passive ways of promoting it would be -

1. Links in your forum signature
2. Links in your email signature (every email gets to spread the word).
3. Facebook/Twitter
4. Google Places
5. Perhaps some Craigslist ads?

Good luck!

[KerryAll]

This is a pretty good little site. It answers questions people might have, shows demonstrations of the product and has a nice friendly tone to it. Most of my concerns at this point center around the e-commerce portion. Calculating shipping the next day and e-mailing people may keep some people from purchasing. Also, I don't think you need to go into why people should use PayPal. It's a common enough tool now that I don't think it matters to most people. If it were me, I would definitely look into getting an e-commerce platform for the site and allow people to place their orders online.

Overall, though, nice job. The site looks like a good sales tool for your business.

Thanks for your feedback, Kristine, I really appreciate it.
I have including shipping costs on all my products where it's feasible, to avoid just what you said about keeping some people from purchasing. These are all standard sizes, but when it's a custom cover, it's too hard to estimate the weight. Hopefully this will not deter too many people. So far, when someone contacts me, they're not sure if I can even make a cover for their specific piece of equipment, so they usually don't mind the initial contact.
When I did switch to included shipping where feasible, I did notice a slight increase in sales, as they can click on the buy now link and go to PayPal in one trip. I will probably also make that suggested change on the PayPal details.
thanks again!

[KristineS]

People who are ordering custom goods understand things like waiting for shipping charges, so I don't think that would be where a potential problem would crop up. For the standard stuff, including shipping is definitely the better option. Anything that removes a step between seeing the product and purchasing the product is a good thing.

[ReganP]

Overall it's a nice site and the aesthetic matches the product, which is great! I would consider replacing the "Why Did I Create the Kerry-All Pouch" on the homepage section (one of the 3 categories at the bottom) with your testimonials because why did I create it and why use it are very similar. If someone is actually wondering why bother with this product they will want to see that others are using it and reaping the benefits.

Also, tone down the punctuation in that area, there are a lot of ...'s and ?!! which looks a bit like a 13-year-old girl wrote it. Along those same lines, I would recommend changing the font for the navigation bar at the top, it looks a bit juvenile and feminine, and I'm guessing most of your customers are mature outdoorsy men. The same thing goes for the in-text font as well, only that doesn't stand out as much so, if you're in love with it you don't have to change it.

Lastly, you don't have a lot of internal links, meaning links on one page of the site to another. This is important for SEO purposes. I'm not sure if you'll be relying much on search traffic, but, even if you aren't, it doesn't help to make your site more search-engine friendly and a lot of times it makes it easier for users to find the information they're looking for. If you have other SEO-related questions, feel free to message me. (Yes, I work in SEO and yes, I will answer your questions to the best of my ability for free. For anything I don't know I will try to point you to resources that do.)

All in all, good job and good luck with your site!

[KerryAll]

Thanks Regan (and everyone), I really appreciate the comments. This is the first draft of the new website, with some polishing of course. The website guy I'm working with did more of the physical stuff, and we copied quite a bit of stuff from the old site. I'll definitely put some of your suggestions to work,. especially font and punctuation, and the SEO advice. I'm totally new at that, and may come to you for answers on the subject. One of my goals is to drive more traffic to my site, as many of my products aren't readily known to people. I keep thinking back to a show on CNBC ("how I made my Millions", perhaps?), where the business man sold high-end cowboy boots. Lots of people Google 'cowboy boots', but how many Google 'plywood pouch', 'cover' whatever.

I probably learn more from half a dozen responses on here than I would with two hours and Google.
Thanks again.