rate my website / give me ideas

No indication of shipping costs unless you add to the basket.

As you're "product light" at the moment you might consider the option to sign up for product updates (via email?).

On the subject of products, growing mediums need something to be put in. I'm sure that you're onto it, but..............

Coir Pots 13cm Pk of 10 - Simply Wholesale UK Wholesaler Product Offer

Coir Pots

Recycled plastic pots maybe?

Just a few ideas.

 

Thanks for all the great advice guys!

I was kinda going for the google look with the white background but now i'm thinking it is a bit stark.

Aesculus: Nice rework! That does look more professional. What font do you recommend using? I used flash because i didn't know how else i could do it. I know flash has a lot of limitations what would be a better way to make a slide show?

Hydrogen: Please the worm has to stay!!

Dim: Thanks for bookmarking the site! I like the compost tea idea, i have been thinking about doing something along those lines, i'll have to do some reading up on it and see what i can come up with.

gcc3663: most sites you go to probably are way more advanced than mine, just they work properly.

clueless: That would be great if you could take a thorough look for me. I need to do a lot of seo work i know. I've screwed around with the page titles so most of them aren't there at the minute, i need to sort that out i know. Plus i need to do some work on the meta tags.
If you search "buy worm castings" or "buy perlite" on google i do come up on the first page tho. I have some broken links i need to redirect too.... ah well, its a work in progress, rome want built in a day and all that

Longk: hmm, do you think i should have a link to a page explaining shipping? I was thinking of doing something like that, just not got round to it.
I've been looking at coir, not thought about coir pots tho! or recycled plastic pots... i like it!

Thanks for the great ideas guys, will spend some time tomorrow trying to implement some of this!

 

Hi, my 2p worth

This is NOTHING PERSONAL, so do not take it as such, you asked for opinions of your website, what follows are my opinions.

Home page
I don't like "your basket" at the top on the first page.
The whole white background is too bland, maybe either a colour or faint pattern?


Flash
Not everyone has flash or the up-to-date version, as some have mentioned they get a black box
The black text can not easily be read in the autumn picture (bad contrast)
Flash is good for demonstration of a product, but not on an introduction

Worm
The worm with the baseball cap, not sure if its a P**** or a T*** it really does you no favours.

Tree
The blue parts of the tree, blue is not really an organic colour, and when did you last see blue foliage, dark green would be better.
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Wormcastings page
The text in general is too small
The links in the last two lines are not obvious at all.

eg: For amounts over 20kg please contact us here for a quote.

Why not have : For amounts over 20kg please click here for a quote.

The link to wikipedia, anyone can put what they like on that, it may or may not be true. I never take what is said there as 100% fact.
Make your own page on your website, it looks better and you are not sending people away from your site.

Too much white space between final text and the tree.
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Perlite page
See above
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Vermiculite page
Totaly different font than the rest of the site, better font, but it looks odd
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Clay pebbles page

Did the printer run out of colour?
The tree is a different colour than it has been before
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About us page
The top tree is much better colouring. (But that makes it different than the other pages)
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In general

The links at the bottom of the page, some are wrong, eg Terms and Sitemap both link to the About us page.

Check out only accepts pay pal, I don't like pay pal, and not everyone has it / wants to sign up. Perhaps you can apply for google check out? or another independent?

With a few tweaks, it could be a better site.

Good luck.

 

ok here is a heartless answer... (but I wish you the best, nevertheless)

Huge white spaces everywhere…

That shopping basket on the right as you come in is like going into a shop and being asked for money at the door…

Very little products…I would not be interested in visiting a website which offers a variety of only 4 items to buy.
I should have more reasons to visit that site or it would be better for the products to be incorporated in a bigger site.

That geova’s witness style images at the centre that, I know, you must like very much, don’t really say anything…

 

To be fair, it does say on the home page that it is a seedling of a company.........

Cracking price on the stuff by the way!

A couple more stock thoughts - enviro friendly composts for specialist needs (ie; orchids, cactus), and fully biological pest control. If someone is paying to ship perlite, they may as well get their monies worth and add a couple of other products too.

Stick at it - you're doing the right thing with this post!

And here's an example of a successful company with an appalling site..............

Grow Lamps

I defy anyone to go from that page to their conservatory plants, climbers or seeds and say that is a good site!
So as you're doing it yourself, spend some time on the web looking at both good and bad sites.

I may get told off for this, but this is an example of a good site...........

Buy plants online, including rare and exotic plant varieties from Hill House Nursery

Simple to navigate without bells and whistles.

The payment issue is going to be hard to please everyone. I've had my account ransacked and only use my card online if it's unavoidable.

 

I would have said you have it perfect...............

Perfectly wrong (I am not looking for an argument)

The site you don't like has everything laid out nicely to see, and central, price of item at the top, no big spaces.

The site you do like has everything pushed over to the left, leaving lots of wasted space on the right.

But like I said, lets not argue the point.

 

Nice clean site and good on eyesite .

Well done and good luck.

 

lol, good job i've got a thick skin eh! So do you suggest i shitcan the whole site and start from scratch? :D Seriously, thanks for taking the time to give me your opinion of the site, it's a good help.

One thing about paypal checkout, you don't need a paypal account to use it, you can just enter your credit card details like any other payment processor. It was just the easiest/cheapest solution at present.

The trees are meant to be a different colour, if you notice the colour scheme changes on every page. I was just trying to make it a bit more interesting.

 

I'm not sure how easy it's going to be to get rid of the basket on the home page with how i've built the site. I'll have to look into that one but i take your point.

I'm not that in love with the slideshow at the start, i did take the pictures myself and made it from scratch so am kinda proud of it, it's just the best i could do :o


This is the site i kinda based my site on The Balcony Gardener | Supplying ready-made Container Gardens & Outdoor Living Accessories

they use a white background, as does Google and i think it gives a very clean uncluttered finish, but at the same time can look a bit stark if there is not much else going on.
I think if i can add some more products the site might start to not seem so stark.

I decided to get a professional to take a look at it for me to see what they came up with and this is their rough draft Freelancer.com | Online Jobs | Freelance Employment | Outsourcing Services | Programmers | Web Design | Freelancers

i really don't like it :( I don't know if i am just being sentimental to my site cause i built it, plus i like kinda wacky, colourful stuff, that is not everyones taste.


Anyways, back to the drawing board me thinks, thanks for all the advice guys!

 

Watergarden - let's not argue! What is pleasing on the eye will always be a subjective matter. But to be honest I'm not after a table ornament from a website. The company in the link that I dislike have been the subject of comments on other forum chats that I've been in - some of us knew they did seeds, but not plants and others visa versa. Not once did it come up that they had a third string to their bow.
The problem is that nobody really reads the home page - the side bar is the most important tool for navigation of a site.

On the second site, the entire site is accessed through the side bar. The site may look a little "homey", but it works!
I will admit that it is one of my favourite nurseries and I do sing its praises at every opportunity. But of my other two faves, the Burncoose site is reasonable and the Crug Farm site awful!

As I say, these are just my thoughts!

 

Organic grow shop - maybe the quote below is an issue.

"This is the site i kinda based my site on The Balcony Gardener | Supplying ready-made Container Gardens & Outdoor Living Accessories "

That site to me seems to be aiming at the "boutique gardener" market, whereas I think that your target is possibly the "get our hands dirty" market.

 

Why not use ebay until everything is sorted,it would give you the chance to get a foot hold in the market at very little outlay and a wider audience.

 

I don't see their version of your site, just their home page.

There's your problem.

You based it on some one else's site. Big mistake.

No need to start again, you have the building blocks, its just you need to change a lot of it.
When a house gets re-furbed, often the only things left are the walls, keep the walls of your site and change everything else.
But changing colours / fonts on each page is in most folks books a no no, unless it is in text to emphasise something.

Oh, its not the pictures I don't like, its the black text on the autumn picture, you can't read it, and that bit does take up a large part of your home page.

 

Hi guys,

I've updated the product pages on the website, take a look and see if you think its better??

I've still got lots of adjustments to make, not sure why the text is still bold, got a css issue somewhere i got to figure out.

Lazydog: I do already sell on ebay, thats where i started actually, just trying to expand a bit now with my own website.

watergarden: they have only done two test pages, not a whole site. this is the contact page they have done Freelancer.com | Online Jobs | Freelance Employment | Outsourcing Services | Programmers | Web Design | Freelancers

 

you can link your website to ebay ... not sure how it's done, but worthwhile checking