please critique my website

[Redline21]

Hey all, I just launched a new e-commerce website that sells an earth-friendly waterless car wash...basically you can wash your car without a hose, bucket, etc and there's no harmful runoff- eco touch – waterless car care

Right now I'm patiently waiting for google to index my site. In the meantime looking for any feedback on usability, navigation, etc.

Thanks!

Jim D.

[Caveman Joe]

Nice layout. Logical and intuitive front page. One small niggle - you have three boxes on the right. To get inside any of the sections that the boxes represent, I have to click on "More," rather than simply clicking anywhere inside the box.
Unfortunately from there it all goes downhill rather quickly, and the big reason is that you don't appear to have a single capital letter anywhere on the products page; not even the first letter in a paragraph is capitalised, let alone a sentence. Sort that out and you'd have a pretty nice site.

[Redline21]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm going back and forth on the capitalization...primarily because our name "eco touch" is all lowercase. So when I start adding caps it makes it less prominent.

But you're not the first to tell me it needs caps, so seems like it might be worth doing

[CeciL]

It is operational and tasteful, I give it an A but could use a few tweaks...

Make a site map.
Also get setup with Googles SiteMap - One of the best things you can do to get in good with Google. https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemap

I do not see a picture of a car period, I get the environment friendly picture, but seems to be lacking on car exuberance.

I am using IE7 and on occasional load the drop down nav menu appears in the wrong place until refreshed. Also with the menus take out the anchor text when you mouse over to reveal the menus, sort of annoying and covers the menu list.

Some H1 tags

Now for the golden tip...

Create an article about the toxins and damages of car wash cleaners and that there are alternatives. Then take that article and submit to as many article directories you can find. (Just google "article directory") Then submit to appropriate categories. Most have "car" and "environment" categories.

You will get tons of good backlinks, which will get you higher up Google as well as a better PageRank. Plus all the targeted traffic you'll get from the articles being placed on related sites. At this point this is the BEST thing you could do for your site.

[CeciL]

One more thing... You should maybe go at it with a different angle also. Make another site but emphasize on the waterless and performance instead of eco friendly, sure it's a benefit but drop it from being the main feature. The reason I say this is most car enthusiasts unfortunately aren't environment friendly nor do they intend to be. They won't weight the buy decision on if it is eco friendly, sure it is a perk but not the decision maker. Shoot in a lot of circles bring up the environment and you are called a "tree hugger". Personally (being a car enthusiast) I would go for the eco friendly stuff as I base my actions on logic, but from real world experience the majority wouldn't... My point is expand your market a bit because you have the product for it.

[Redline21]

Cecil thanks for all the tips, so much to learn, so every bit helps

Question for you though...are you suggesting that I actually create a sitemap through google? I signed up and verified I was the site owner, but had trouble actually creating a sitemap. I'm pretty clueless when it comes to programming so not sure what to do there.

I had about 6 articles released a week prior to the website launch which has helped build traffic. Do you use any specific directories? I've done ezine and a few other big ones.

I agree with you that most car enthusiasts don't take waterless products seriously (yet). They aren't even my target market for that reason. I have some other segments which I think are better suited for this kind of product. I'd love to share, but can't say much more over the forums...

[bellbird]

Jim you have done very well I reckon (but then I'm not a website whizz..). Looks like a great product that has the potential to do majorly well. Congrats. I like the clean and concise look of your website and easy to find. I agree with the above posters on the ad a car pic (hey it can be a green one kidding). Good luck to your venture.
ps: Do you have a rep in NZ yet? Sounds interesting...... I might know someone (no, it's not me)

[Gemini15]

Jim

I like the idea of the product, the video just showed part of a car being washed, so it was hard to tell how well it works on the whole car.

The product sounds great. In Southern Australia we are having a long drought. In Victoria every town and city is under some form of water restriction. In my town it is stage 4 which means no water is allowed to be used for outside use at all. That means no water on lawns, gardens, car wash etc.

If the product is really good it should do really well here.

Good Luck

[Redline21]

Originally Posted by Gemini15

Jim

I like the idea of the product, the video just showed part of a car being washed, so it was hard to tell how well it works on the whole car.

The product sounds great. In Southern Australia we are having a long drought. In Victoria every town and city is under some form of water restriction. In my town it is stage 4 which means no water is allowed to be used for outside use at all. That means no water on lawns, gardens, car wash etc.

If the product is really good it should do really well here.

Good Luck

Yeah that's what I've heard about Australia being under some seriously tight water restrictions...actually that is what prompted me to start the business over here.

Seems like only a matter of time before us water-hungry Americans realize that water is not some unlimited resource...

[escapee]

When i used IE 6 with (1024 x 768), the hyperlinks on top seem to overlap with the main image . Other than that, the site looks great and professional with firefox . Congrats.

[Scumbag]

this is funny. my thread got deleted when i wanted my website critiqued by jirianthony or someone like that.

[da1prophet]

Originally Posted by Scumbag

this is funny. my thread got deleted when i wanted my website critiqued by jirianthony or someone like that.

I remember that...I was going to look at it and give my thoughts. Maybe they were concerned that since it was your first post that you were just using the forum to promote your website. Then again, the guy who originally posted about *his* website doesn't have a whole bunch of posts either. Sounds like something of a double standard to me......

[joelyle]

...nice

This is a worthwhile venture which will be rewarding on many levels.

[Redline21]

Thanks The first few orders started to flow in today after months of hard work. Now just have to get my google ranking up there...

[vtgorilla]

Very nice website design. I like the layout and design.

However, I have noticed that the navigation bar is overlapping some of the pictures. I am using IE, so it might just be something that needs an IE workaround.

I hate how all the dumb browsers use different standards to view sites...can't they all just get along

[Redline21]

Cool thanks, my web guys are still trying to debug that little issue.

Originally Posted by vtgorilla

Very nice website design. I like the layout and design.

However, I have noticed that the navigation bar is overlapping some of the pictures. I am using IE, so it might just be something that needs an IE workaround.

I hate how all the dumb browsers use different standards to view sites...can't they all just get along

[mustard76]

Your site looks great!

[Dani]

Originally Posted by vtgorilla

Very nice website design. I like the layout and design.

However, I have noticed that the navigation bar is overlapping some of the pictures. I am using IE, so it might just be something that needs an IE workaround.

I hate how all the dumb browsers use different standards to view sites...can't they all just get along

They do, all except IE. Every other browser usually works perfectly fine with most sites.

Microsoft got very fat and lazy in the browser space after they trounced netscape. Even IE 7 barely has the features most other browsers had 3-5 years ago.

You ask any web developer on the planet which Browser they hate, and which is the least compatible, and you will get a unanimous -IE-

IE is currently holding back advancements in web development because it is still one of the major browsers and people are too afraid to exclude it and the thousands of people who don't realise how badly it sucks.

Websites could be so much richer, and more interactive, interesting and most of all more useful, if IE wasn't lagging behind so much.

Because it comes with windows by default, people just use it without thinking, and without realising that by using IE they are helping to cripple the internet.

Pretty much no professional IT person uses IE, except as a testing browser, it's only people who don't know any better who use it for real browsing.

[Dani]

Originally Posted by Redline21

Cool thanks, my web guys are still trying to debug that little issue.

I go the impression that you built it and that's why we were critiquing it. I didn't realise you had an IT team making it. Kinda spoils the image..

[Redline21]

Originally Posted by Dani

I go the impression that you built it and that's why we were critiquing it. I didn't realise you had an IT team making it. Kinda spoils the image..

Did I "code" the site? No. We don't have an IT team, just a company I used to help lay the foundation for the site.

Did I design the layout, look + feel, copy, user interface? Yes