I would love your opinion on my MHSE site

[Snazza]

Hi There

I run site called Mystery Home Shopping Experience

I would really appreciate some feedback on how easy or hard it is to understand and any suggestions on improvements.

www.mysteryhomeshopping.com.au

Thank you

[Lis Sowerbutts]

OK this is just my 2c
* obviously your target audience is Australia - but none of your keywords mention australia so you are competing against the whole world for hugely competitive terms like "home shopping" - I would start with something easier like "home shopping Avon Melbourne"
* Its not clear to me on your front page who your key audience - those who want to book a party or people who organse parties -if both you probably want to make that clear on the site navigation
* you highlight that you made the papers - but then tell me to go elsewhere to see the reference - hyperlink on the announcement so I can see it with one click
* the fudge is nice but its taking up far too much space and I have to scroll (14" screen) to read below it - its a waste of real estate "above the fold" - make it smaller and flow text around it.
* the design seems very narrow - even on a small screen I have lots of white space to the right and have to scroll a lot to read
* the overall design feels a bit old fashioned to me - all the navigation on the right- no structure to the navigation I don't think there is enough content on the front page
* remove the google ads at the bottom - they've never got a click anyways I guess. Presumably you want people to book thru your service not earn you 5c a click - so lose them they aren't adding to your user's experience

[Snazza]

Hi Lis

Thanks for your feedback.

Yes my target audience is Australia. I am not sure what you are meaning by my keywords. In google I have Australia mentioned in my keywords. I can't really go using Home Shopping Avon Melbourne as I don't use brand names of products when advertising due to copyright reasons. Avon would fall under the general cosmetics area.
I mix in a alot of websites that are Party Plan related and everyone to date has understood the site is there to give you a fun shop at home experience by choosing eith a mystery or specific party but I am taking what you are saying on board and will look into it further.
The Brownies on the front screen is only a temporary measure and to date I have had a lot of feedback about how yummy they look. This has also thus far attracted people to booking.
I did have a site pal on there and that is where there is a large gap toward the bottom. Recently I have switched computers and am having alot of trouble with adjusting the site at present. Obviously some setting the new computer has doesnt like the editor.
Yes the design is overall old fasioned perhaps but thats just me. Its a simple format the does the job at present. I actually have someone working on a newer updated model on joolma and will go with that when its completed.

Thanks for your thoughts

[Rhia]

Hi Sharon

I think your website is great. I would make a few changes in an aim to maximize your conversions. Nothing major just a few little tweaks which can make a huge difference. Some that are jumping out at me include:

A more 'benefits' focused headline: Studies have shown that you have about 3 seconds to grab someones attention and the headline is one of the first area on the site that people see. If tell them instantly what's in it for them you have a much higher chance of them sticking around and converting them.

your "opt in" form for your mailng list is down the bottom of the page and doesn't really incentivise me to join- perhaps if you offered a free report or promise to give updates on 'best deals' etc it may increase conversions. I would also make it a little more prominant on your site and perhaps move it to the top third. I think it's fantastic that you have one on there though. Your list can absolutely be your business' most valuable asset.

i also think that it's great that you have included testimonials on your site. i would perhaps consider moving a couple to your home page and even including some viseo testominials. Perhaps next time you are at one of these parties, take some footage of the party and a few people saying how much fun it is etc. These can be really powerful.

We have a video that we have put together on some ways that you can really make the most of your online lead generation. If you want to watch it I can send it to you, just PM me or email me- it's only short (about 15 minutes) and all things that are really effective, that you can do yourself.

Cheers,

Rhia

[Rhia]

hi I'm really sorry- just realised I spelt your name wrong, I hate it when that happens to me.

R

[Rhia]

Hi there,

lol again. I almost forgot that Lis was right about your keywords on your site. If you "right click" on the page and view 'page source' you will be able to see your code. If you look through the 'meta data' you will see (towards the top) "keywords". These are the words you are effectivley trying to rank for. It's great that you have them in there, however I think you will find you get much better rankings if you include the location. Eg 'party plan' V's 'Party Plan Black Rock' or 'party plan Victoria'

Cheers,

Rhia

[Snazza]

Hi there Rhia

I will let you off about my name hehe :) Even though sharon has been a pet hate of mine for as long as i can remember LOL!! :)

Thank you so much for your review of my site. I will look into the keywords. I noticed with changing the title on the site to party plan at its absolute best that it actually showed up under party plan when i googled and thats of course the audience i am looking for. That and Home Parties. As its Australia wide and not just victorian based how would i word that? I will see if i can work it out.

I like the idea of some testimonials on the front page and will look into doing that. Still having a bit of trouble editing the site on this new computer so will hope on another one tomorrow and have a fiddle.

And yes I will pm you as i would love to see your video

Thanks again for your comments.

[Rhia]

Hello,

If you are national then there are a couple of things that you can do- you don't want to compete against the rest of the world for rankings so you need to localise. You can do this by putting your keywords as 'party plan australia. However thinking about what I would search for personally- I would consider keywords for each state eg Party Plan Vic, party plan WA, party plan nsw etc. Of course you will need to do some keyword research to find out what people are searching for etc

Let me know if you need any help with that :-)

Cheers,

Rhia

[quantiva]

Hi,

I'd like to contribute my thought on your images (on the frontpage). Instead of scaling it, you can resize it before you upload it. That way the site will load faster.

If you do use photoshop, scale it to your desired size than save as web..


Hope this helps

[The Website Analyst]

Hi Sharyn,

My first impression of your website is that it doesn't scream party plan. I'm not sure if it's the colours or the background having butterflies, but it just doesn't get the message across. I was initially confused as to whether you organise party plans or if you are looking to recruit people to start their own home shopping company. To be honest, your home page is too text heavy.

Simply stating what you do and making it standout so it's the first thing the user reads will stop any confusion people may have. You need to work on the flow of your website; clearly state what you do, point form the benefits of what you do with links to more information, acknowledge your target market and link them to more information. This is called creating a path through your website, each page in the path builds up the amount of information (at the request of the user) yet each page will have the same call to action, in your case you want people to book a party. Visit my website to see how I build a path for my visitors.

Navigation - too much. Needs to be categorised into a simpler and more logical structure.

I think your website has a lot of potential but just needs some help to boost its professionalism, message and trust. If you can afford a professional design then I would suggest to do that. If not then work on building the path through your website.