Crit Time: Our First Major E-commerce Site

[Mark Atkinson]

Thanks so much, Mike.

I'm particularly glad you commented on the load time. That's something we worked really hard on.

Everything loads faster on Firefox/Chrome.

[vieome]

Great Site, often sites trying to sell product are just too busy with content, banners in the wrong places, video etc, but your site is great.

You say 50% of all traffic is coming from search what key words do you think people are using to find the site.

In google for bfore I notice it does not bring up the facebook page for the site, as per discussion the the google using more social network sites in rankings thread This thread not that is has too, but wondered if that was something you could exploit.

Pushing it here...
Also in terms of SEO optomization is it moral or legal to hijack say a viral video on you tube, meaning you post some one else viral video and put a link to the site ?

[Mark Atkinson]

Great Site, often sites trying to sell product are just too busy with content, banners in the wrong places, video etc, but your site is great.

Thanks, vieome.

You say 50% of all traffic is coming from search what key words do you think people are using to find the site.

Long tail keywords mainly. Specific product names. This is exactly how we would expect a site of this nature to start out.

In google for bfore I notice it does not bring up the facebook page for the site, as per discussion the the google using more social network sites in rankings thread This thread not that is has too, but wondered if that was something you could exploit.

I'm not really concerned about it not showing up in the rankings. The page is indexed, though. In any event, Google will be picking up on the social signals, as it is the links that people paste on their own pages that are the ones that are likely highly valued.

Social strategy is a big part of the whole Internet marketing strategy that we've got going on for BFore, so we've made sure that the page is easily shared.

Pushing it here...
Also in terms of SEO optomization is it moral or legal to hijack say a viral video on you tube, meaning you post some one else viral video and put a link to the site ?

Definitely neither moral nor legal. Your Youtube account will be locked as soon as the owner of the video, and subsequently Youtube, figures out you've taken it.

[dfsa]

Welldone Mark, It looks brilliant, clean, fast loading, nice open spaces, easy to navigate. PP, T&C are clear easy to read. SSL is good and active.

If you want I can go through the online Credit App and check everything. Will just put fake info, but mainly go through all aspects. Let me know.

[Mark Atkinson]

Thanks dfsa.

Don't worry about testing the loan form, I had one of my employees fill it in every day for about a week. Because there are so many things that could go wrong, it had to be completed literally hundreds of times, testing each calculation, condition, etc. Strangely enough we're still having a problem with the file size of the uploads, but it seems that has to do with the hosting company. Hopefully that will be fixed soon, but otherwise it's all good.

That form was a total nightmare, though. Completely underestimated and undercharged the job.

[Dave A]

Looks good!

I did notice one small thing though:



That highlighted bit is part of your header image - which links to the homepage.

Having the header image link to the home page is perfectly normal. However, I had thought the Cellphone contracts | Laptops | et al would be clickable links to categories and found clicking on them and keeping on getting the home page a little... disturbing. (Please pardon me, but old school web page design means this particular style of presenting text links is deeply ingrained in my psyche).

Once I'd figured out what was going on, I did regain my equilibrium but I think it would be a good idea to turn those "not links" into category buttons. I doubt I'll be the only one that'll be foxed - and it introduces some useful functionality in a prime location.

[Mark Atkinson]

Thanks Dave.

I think that's a good enough suggestion. Going to work on getting that done.

Initially those words weren't there at all - we added them simply to let visitors know at a glance what it is that BFore sells. I don't think we anticipated people actually trying to click on them. I can see how easily it could happen though.

[Arramack]

Hi Mark,

The site looks good. My only beef is with the logo.

1) The exact same thing that Dave did, I did as well. I also tried to click on those "links".

2) I don't like that your logo is mirrored to the left. The first time I opened your website (even after reading your name as bfore.com), I struggled to read that logo. It really hurt my brain, so I just ignored it and continued on with the rest of the site.

I'm not sure if I am alone on this, but if more people feel this way it will probably lead to less people remembering the name, Bfore. Maybe make the left side of the logo (the inverted part), a little bit more transparent. I don't know if that will look bad.

[IMHO]

For what it is worth, I liked the logo again. Different and make you pause to see what is going on, but only for a second, then you can carry on. So, a good thing in my book, as you are forced to look at the logo.

One crit. My first impression is that they sell cellphone contracts. If I was not compelled to look at the site via this thread, I would just have left, as I am locked in with Vodacom. (Where is the vomit icon).

[Mark Atkinson]

Thanks, IMHO.

The logo is a combination of our initial concepts and the owner's own direction given. So there's not too much that can be done in this instance. The mirrored "B" is used as the symbol for Bfore throughout all its marketing efforts. I think it's easy enough to recognise.

Also, if that was your first impression them I am more than happy - because that's exactly what the focal point is supposed to be. They sell cellphone contracts. They sell them mainly to people who can't get contracts through the cellular providers due to their stringent requirements. They make it affordable by facilitating the financing of the phones, so your monthly payments end up at a similar point (sometimes slightly inflated) to those when going directly through MTN.

[Dave A]

1) The exact same thing that Dave did, I did as well. I also tried to click on those "links".

Phew! I'm not alone on that one

[Mark Atkinson]

Phew! I'm not alone on that one

Fear not - it's on our to-do list!