anglecoral
New member
you guys have a great business but your website is horrid and impossible to navigate . I'm sure this costs you tens of thousands a year because people like easy .....
fire whoever made your website
- Thread starter anglecoral
- Start date
eclecticvibe
Premium Member
If you have suggestions for the website, we'd love to hear them. We try to put as much complete information online as possible. We intend to do some website makeovers over the next year, so we'd like to know what you'd like to see. We've recently added our live chat feature, which seems popular. We're always open to suggestions, so let us know in particular what you'd like to see, and we'll keep that in mind as we grow.
We welcome any suggestions with our website. We would like to know more specifics on it, rather then just saying it's hard to navigate. We have around 3000 specific online products right now, so that is a lot to organize into catagories. We do have a powerful search tool feature and our site has a lot of Miva extra programming to make it easier to navigate.
That said, we do all of our own web work. We do not have a professional web design company making our sites like some of the other places. I think over all our website is layed out fairly easy and still powerful enough to surf quickly. You can save your information for express orders, so you don't have to retype any information.
So chime in with specifics. If it's the overall layout like catagories etc, there is not much we can change, but if it's text, pictures, information, we can change that quite easily.
thanks
p.s. and no ,you can't fire me(smile)
That said, we do all of our own web work. We do not have a professional web design company making our sites like some of the other places. I think over all our website is layed out fairly easy and still powerful enough to surf quickly. You can save your information for express orders, so you don't have to retype any information.
So chime in with specifics. If it's the overall layout like catagories etc, there is not much we can change, but if it's text, pictures, information, we can change that quite easily.
thanks
p.s. and no ,you can't fire me(smile)
I agree that there are various things with the site which could be better. One thing to keep in mind is that when a user is looking for something or browsing around, you want to minimize the number of clicks it takes to find something. There is a finite number of clicks a user will deal with before giving up and moving on.
Given that, I think the intro page at www.premiumaquatics.com is a bad idea. When you go to www.premiumaquatics.com, it should take you directly to the store front.
I really see no advantages, only disadvantages, to the intro page.
If I am looking for an item, I generally navigate the following which seems excessive:
1. go to premiumaquatics.com
2. Enter the main store (combine #1 and #2 to save time)
3. Click on the dry goods category (I think most of your customers come for dry goods, perhaps have this expanded by default to save another click)
4. Click on the category I want.
Most other sites, this is a 2-step process instead of 4. IE, marinedepot.com, 1. go to marinedepot.com 2. click on category
This is my main complaint I think - other than that, it isn't really that bad. Just keep in mind that as a general rule of thumb in web sites, the more clicks the more users that will give up and go elsewhere.
Bob
Given that, I think the intro page at www.premiumaquatics.com is a bad idea. When you go to www.premiumaquatics.com, it should take you directly to the store front.
I really see no advantages, only disadvantages, to the intro page.
If I am looking for an item, I generally navigate the following which seems excessive:
1. go to premiumaquatics.com
2. Enter the main store (combine #1 and #2 to save time)
3. Click on the dry goods category (I think most of your customers come for dry goods, perhaps have this expanded by default to save another click)
4. Click on the category I want.
Most other sites, this is a 2-step process instead of 4. IE, marinedepot.com, 1. go to marinedepot.com 2. click on category
This is my main complaint I think - other than that, it isn't really that bad. Just keep in mind that as a general rule of thumb in web sites, the more clicks the more users that will give up and go elsewhere.
Bob
... button instead of just word /w the underline ...
Hi Bob,
I hear you on the main page. I've never liked the main page and then into the store, but we have did this because of the search engines. Some of them do not index the miva pages, so we left that .html page first for search engines only. I'll do some checking those, search engines have came a lot way recently and may index better now.
I've thought of taking that drygoods link and just making the all the links with livestock at the bottom, so might try that. It's not real user friendly on changing categories though, I'll try. One of the reasons why the listings are not always in alphabetical order.
*Elite* I like graphics too, I've kept the site a little lean for dial ups, but I think more people have broadband now. I can add a small graphic picture to each link. Like we do in the livestock crabs & snails section, then you click to go to the page with a big picture. I could do that with all the products and probably wouldn't slow it down too much.
thanks for the help.
I hear you on the main page. I've never liked the main page and then into the store, but we have did this because of the search engines. Some of them do not index the miva pages, so we left that .html page first for search engines only. I'll do some checking those, search engines have came a lot way recently and may index better now.
I've thought of taking that drygoods link and just making the all the links with livestock at the bottom, so might try that. It's not real user friendly on changing categories though, I'll try. One of the reasons why the listings are not always in alphabetical order.
*Elite* I like graphics too, I've kept the site a little lean for dial ups, but I think more people have broadband now. I can add a small graphic picture to each link. Like we do in the livestock crabs & snails section, then you click to go to the page with a big picture. I could do that with all the products and probably wouldn't slow it down too much.
thanks for the help.
Jason, if you need to keep the front page for the search engines, you can use a meta tag to autoforward. I think ideally this page just shouldn't exist, but the autoforwarding would be better than nothing.
example:
[edit]Ok well, the forum doesn't like the example at all hehe. If you don't know how to do it i'll gladly email it to you. Its just a basic refresh meta.
Peter
example:
[edit]Ok well, the forum doesn't like the example at all hehe. If you don't know how to do it i'll gladly email it to you. Its just a basic refresh meta.
Peter
A quick look at the search engines shows that they are currently indexing all of the miva pages at premium aquatics. For example, search "protein skimmer site
remiumaquatics.com" at the major search engines (without the quotes) and you will see that the miva pages are indexed (and that the old style pages from a few years ago come up on top).
Bob
remiumaquatics.com" at the major search engines (without the quotes) and you will see that the miva pages are indexed (and that the old style pages from a few years ago come up on top).Bob
thrlride
Aka lemmywinks
Jason,
it was mentioned earlier that you have customer service chat now available and I really liked this. I used it the other day and spoke with a Jay, I don't have a clue if that was you or not though.
That being said, I do not like the first page either.
Categories...
when I was navigating your site I had a hard time finding the items I was looking for. In particular, I was looking for the reef optix III pendants. I had to go through several different lighting areas to find it and it could have fit in any of them. It would be great if there was some way to integrate them better or mix them.
it was mentioned earlier that you have customer service chat now available and I really liked this. I used it the other day and spoke with a Jay, I don't have a clue if that was you or not though.
That being said, I do not like the first page either.
Categories...
when I was navigating your site I had a hard time finding the items I was looking for. In particular, I was looking for the reef optix III pendants. I had to go through several different lighting areas to find it and it could have fit in any of them. It would be great if there was some way to integrate them better or mix them.
Hi ReefMonkey,
That would of been Jay on chat. We have me (Jason), Jay, Jeremy, John, Rob, AJ & Carlos. 4 of of us with starting letter J.
I agree with you on the catagories. They can get too deep and branched out. We have just had so many new products come out in the last 2 years we have been tyring to organize it best we could. I'll try and figure out a way to organize those better.
thanks
That would of been Jay on chat. We have me (Jason), Jay, Jeremy, John, Rob, AJ & Carlos. 4 of of us with starting letter J.
I agree with you on the catagories. They can get too deep and branched out. We have just had so many new products come out in the last 2 years we have been tyring to organize it best we could. I'll try and figure out a way to organize those better.
thanks
dcoufal
New member
I know this is a little vague... but, I don't care for any sites that use MIVA.... There's just something about it that causes the sites to look "cheap".
No offense to PA - they're great!
On a side note: I don't care for Dr.Mac's site either.... Product is great - site is horrible.
But, that's just my opinion.
Dwain
No offense to PA - they're great!
On a side note: I don't care for Dr.Mac's site either.... Product is great - site is horrible.
But, that's just my opinion.
Dwain
I think overall the PA site is above par. Where it lacks in style, it makes up for in being straight-forward and simple. There is no excessive flare or hidden drop-down menus. You click where you want to go, and you get there. And you get there fast thanks to no extra baggage. I have had problems with some of the menus not showing products though. I can't remember the exact menus, but I want to say that some fish don't show up (maybe gobies) and the corals.
Where I think PA really shines as far as a website goes (and I really want to see it stay this way), is that they come off very honest and down to earth. What they write about their products is very straight-forward, and I appreciate that greatly. I like to know that if they think their live rock is only "ok" right now, they will tell me. I like to know what they actually think of the products, and not some cookie-cutter sales description. This is something that PA offers that most other sites don't (in all forms of business), and is probably one of the reasons they have become so successful. A little bit of heart can go a long way for your business, don't lose it.
Where I think PA really shines as far as a website goes (and I really want to see it stay this way), is that they come off very honest and down to earth. What they write about their products is very straight-forward, and I appreciate that greatly. I like to know that if they think their live rock is only "ok" right now, they will tell me. I like to know what they actually think of the products, and not some cookie-cutter sales description. This is something that PA offers that most other sites don't (in all forms of business), and is probably one of the reasons they have become so successful. A little bit of heart can go a long way for your business, don't lose it.
