Site Review

Hi Guys,

This is my first post and I would welcome some honest feedback on my site.

www.1stchoiceblinds.com

I had this site built for me. I will be honest and say that when I started this project, I really don't have much expertise in website development or promotion. Things that I have learnt and picked up, by reading numerous threads and information leads me to think that I still have a long way to go in terms of making this project viable.

So that I don't lose hope or the money invested, I have tried to remain positive, and believe that this will work. The site "went live" in Feb, but to date I have not had any traffic through, or business.
Currently I am adding more products - should be complete by the end of the week, according to my website developer, as we tweak and simplify processes.

I tried using Google Adwords, but I found the costs starting to spiral upwards, and also found in order to appear near the top I would have to pay quite a lot more than my budget would allow.

I also feel that I have used the right keywords. What else could help me with ranking highly on search engines ?

I recently subscribed to a link program, do these work ? multiple submissions is out, I've kept away from this, I really don't want to get involved with banners or popups, but then again I note a lot of corporates tend to use them, guys like Ebay, seem to swear by them, considering the amount of time I get one pop up from them !!

Sorry If I have come across as negative, but now I find myself scratching my head wondering what to do next.

Regards

Flyboy80

A couple of things:

Drop your screen resolution down to 800 x 600. Around half of all internet users have their screen resolution set to this. You will see that on your site the top navigation bar takes up at least half the viewable screen. you could easily cut the depth of it in half, increasing the space where you can display actual information.
I would also improve the quality of the credit card graphics, the switch and solo glifs are especially bad.

The content looks good and easy to find and easy navigate.
It very obvious what you sell and the advice on what to buy and size options is through.

As for increasing traffic to your site.
Obviously i don't know what you current marketing strategy is but tatics like googleAd words and popup only work for certian product to a specific audience.

Personally i think the best strategy is to make sure all your keywords and other meta tags are set so that the search engines have the best chance of finding and indexing it. Tell all the search engines where your site is.

Then concentrate on targeting your specific market. Advertise the website in blinds trade magazines. Get a link to your website on as many other websites as possible. If you get your link on a kitchen companies site for example, then you will get people clicking through who want blinds for their new kitchen.

You cannot rely on search engines to generate traffic, they are just a helpful tool for the minority of people who have seen your company somewhere else and are looking for you specifically.

Firstly thanks for your response, and feedback, I will drop the res down and try that, just scanning for new gif's, awaiting reply.
With regards to Adwords, I stopped my campaign last week after spending a bit, the problem was that I was appearing on page 2 and three of google, ok I know I could have bid more, but if I had done this I would have spent around £2000 in the same period. I know I would not have got that much in sales.

I am toying with using Overture, as I have heard good reviews compared to Google, and my site doesn'y appear listed unless I pay for it on Yahoo, so kill two birds with the one....

With regards to site maintanance and stuff, would I need to continually updated or change the tags? would it be prudent to use similar to my competition ?


Regards

Flyboy80

Just got meassge back from developer stating that the site is already set for the res to be 800 x 600 ? the scroll bar should be on the right but not at the bottom he says. The reason that all could not be fitted is that I have a large "header" picture that take up a lot of space.