My Strider Website

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Wow, is that pretty! and classy! Only one comment... I'm not liking the font on the home page for the paragraph that starts "we are a family owned 4th generation..." It looks like the inter-letter spacing is odd. Maybe just changing the font size might fix it??
 
Color? or Colour? Who is your target market? Do you live in the US or Canada/UK?

The 'u' on us at the bottom right needs to be capitalize.

That main image I can't see in the html, so no alt text for image. I am not a SEO expert but if you were to slice that large image up in Photoshop, you could give each one a alt text name.

the alt text for flower-1.gif is spelled flowr:
<!-- <img src="images/flower-1.gif" alt="Flowr" title="Flowr" align="left" />

I like the colors, the image, scroll work, but a lot of empty space up top. Meta tags look good. I looked at in a 800x600 resolution and it looked bad. I have not seen stats for the amount of people who use this resolution anymore, but a few years back is was a lot.

There should be $ signs on the links on how much money people want to spend.

......page won't load now.

If I remember your old site, it was a WS cookie cutter one.. this new one is 100% better. :) Keep up the great work Joan.. almost there!
 
Very nice, just a few things.

The image took a little long to load.

I agree with Beth about the text, maybe a little fancier, with all the scroll work. Although I do understand the necessity for the simplier fonts.

Biggest things for me are the balance in the header. I'd move the Search Bar down off the orchid into the white space below.

Also, I'd move the shop name down, off the pretty scrollwork into the white space below.

The menu is a little hard to navigate, the mouse over feature causes cursor to pull up something besides what you wanted, a little irritating for someone trying to order.

Thanks for asking for the input, this helps all of us having sites built or building our own.

By the way if your thinking about a website, let a professional do it unless you have an endless amount of time to spend on it. It's harder than you think, ask Ryan.

Love the color and scrollwork!!!
 
Nice!

Safe to assume that's a temporary title tag?

Be sure to fix that right away - very important.

I also agree with the Daze - too much real estate taken up at the top pushing products below the fold.

I would also move the text of where you deliver to the bottom, but maybe that's just me.

I also would repeat at least some of the menu choices at the bottom with simple text links with descriptivve anchor text to help with interior pages being found - but I'm personally not a fan of javascript menus that have to be rolled over. Opinions vary on whether they index well, so I choose to be more cautious of them.

There's a missing image on the shipping page. Your image sizes are huge - thumbnails are 16-18K and larger product images 85K and they're not that big of images - need more image optimization for load times. (I try to keep my thumbs under 5K and larger images around 20K)


Please take as constructive feedback...Websites are always works in progress...Nice look...Congrats on being independent

thanks
 
Joan,
Isn't is nice to have an audience of professional florists here to help you tweak your website.
Not familiar with your previous site, but a few things jumped out at me.

1. I'd like to see your shop name take up the entire top line. Being immediately hit with the dark brown box on the left that says 'shop by flowers, shop by color etc.' distracted me.

2. Typo in Flowers Lovers. Would think it should be singular Flower.

3. I'd like to see one typeface used throughout your individual pages. Each page that I clicked into (from the box on the right) used a different type style.

4. colour/color, neighbour/neighbor. Not sure why you're using the 'u's'.

Love your enclosure card idea tab and vase recycling program.

Please take my comments as constructive feedback as well... jenny
 
I think it looks great. Do you have more than one pricing option on your bouquets, i had a look on a few of them and could only find the one price. I would be tempted to give the customer a few options. But, i may have just not seen it, i only clicked on a few designs.

Love the colours!!
 
Hi Joan... congratulations on the site. It looks lovely and except for some of the comments above (colour and neighbour excepted) it's a keeper.

One thing I noticed... under the Romance banner you have White Roses and Lilies. However the picture is an Orchid plant.

V
 
Why did you change from a WS template?

The reason I ask is that I see a lot of FTD and TF images, which is fine.

I just question why spend the money on a new site if you are just going to use WS images anyway.
 
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It's a beautiful site, and how wonderful to have so many knowledgeable folks helping you get it perfected! The only negative thing that popped out at me in my quick look was what Florita mentioned, duplications of images in the same category.
 
I would shut off occasions that are not relevant ie Halloween Etc.
I would include add on items, Mylar, Candy, Full size greeting card on items
I would offer Deluxe and Premium size on items.
I think your same day cut off is to early. 800, FTD and Tel are all 2 pm
to your delivery area.
I would add a tag line under your name that promotes you. Tell us your
in Syracuse in the header.
Why is your address not on the home page?
Upload some custom images. It's very easy in the control panel.
 
Joan.... I love the look! Great stuff...

One thing, your BLOG link is throwing a 404 error (not found)...
 
congrats Joan, and great suggestions by all!

I went live with Strider on Aug 1, and I still have a long way to go too! I remember in the begining it was a bit overwhelming! My guess, is Joan has plans to do a lot of tweaking, give her some time and experience and she will get all of these things tweaked :)

It will take time to build your own photos, its ok to use WS images at first to get you started, time is on your side!

Feel free to contact me also, if you ever need any help :)

GL & Congrats! Looks nice!

Adam
 
Why did you change from a WS template?

The reason I ask is that I see a lot of FTD and TF images, which is fine.

I just question why spend the money on a new site if you are just going to use WS images anyway.
Good question Joe :)

My guess is , eventually she will make her own images, but that takes a lot of time so she is filling in WS images until then??

The main reason I dropped TF site was the per order charges!
I avg about 90- 100 internet orders a month, with TF that was $2.95 per order internet fee! Thats almost $300 a month in per order fees....thats a good enough reason alone to drop WS site!

I will say though, it takes up a lot more of your time, loading your own site, but just in the begining, once you get that out of the way, you can tweak it weekly, monthly, or every day, like myself :)

I enjoy having complete control of my website :)
 
Yeah, I am going to use mainly tf images until i can get some photos i am happy with. Every time i take a photo of a bouquet i think it looks really ammateur but i intend to stick with trying so that eventually there is a good mix.

I think the main thing is to go live and then work on each page properly..

Like Adam says, time is on our side...
 
The main reason I dropped TF site was the per order charges!
I avg about 90- 100 internet orders a month, with TF that was $2.95 per order internet fee! Thats almost $300 a month in per order fees....thats a good enough reason alone to drop WS site!

O.K. that is a good reason. thanks.


I will say though, it takes up a lot more of your time, loading your own site, but just in the begining, once you get that out of the way, you can tweak it weekly, monthly, or every day, like myself :)

and this is my dilemma ..... i don't have that much free time, so some stuff needs to be farmed out.

joe
 
Very nice. And a Google page rank of 2 already? Jim Stowe told us that our new site will be up 12/10. I can see that its going to be another big learning curve. Most of the technical stuff mentioned here goes right over my head. However, I know that we made the correct choice with Strider.
Mike
 
CONGRATULATIONS JOAN!!!

A great new beginning for you.
since our site went live in December a few years ago, I very much appreciate what you are going thru right now. Take a deep breath....it does get easier.

!. There are some duplicate items on each category. (Candy Cane Lane is shown 2xs in christmas, for instance. ) should be an easy fix.

2. Your categories should be able to rotate, so that what ever is the current holiday (Christmas & winter now) should be at the top. Holiday shoppers do not want to spend a lot of time looking for where they want to spend $$ -- if they don't see the category quickly, they will click off.

3. JB mentioned delivery areas & about us at the bottom of the page. I agree. It means that your pics will be visable sooner. Again, ease of use by the consumer.

Good luck to you.....It's a great beginning & I know how exicted you must be.

Cheryl
 
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