Can I Please get some help with a unique situation?

[DynamicRevelation]

Until now, my primary focus has been page rank... and it's paying off.

One of my niche sites made its way to the first page of Gooogle for a couple of keywords, and I now need to focus on my sales copy and conversion...

Here's where it's getting tricky for me: It's a blog that essentially doubles as an online store.

I love the attention and the fact that folks appreciate my help, but I know my copy needs help (I've only a couple of ads and "shopping navigation" links- not that persuasive at all).

Were I selling a single product or package, it would be a lot simpler and well within my ability to come up with a decent sales page... but this having an index of hundreds of products- your typical sales letter might not do the trick.

Can someone please take a look and give me an idea as to how I can condition my visitors to be more inclined to follow the purchase links, or at least point me in the right direction?

Other than a brief introduction to product categories- maybe kinda like a "buying guide"... I'm at a loss for ideas.

Here's the URL: restaurantkitchenequipmentsupply. com

Feel free to reply here, or send me a PM if that works better for you.

I appreciate any and all help- Thank You in advance.

[marjwyatt]

Your site's main page layout is organized but the look and feel is too busy. I'd also like to understand what keywords brought you to page 1.

As far as attracting buyers, might you consider a discount coupon or series of recipes in exchange for contact details? You are getting traffic to your site, if price and quality are comparable to other sites, I feel you need to learn more about your audience and gain their confidence through a series of autoresponders that educate them about the nuances of your niche.

Hope this helps a bit. I'm new to this forum but well experienced online. You can connect with me here or on Skype at marj.wyatt.

[tommen]

I have noticed in my 3 years as a blogger that often less is more.If you give your visitors too many options they will often just get frustrated and leave.

Your niche is to broad, you are trying to offer something for everyone.Instead, focus on a small niche.

[DynamicRevelation]

tommen- Thank you for taking the time to help- I appreciate it.Normally, I would agree with you 100% because most blogs need that direction and focus. If the niche were cooking, you'd be correct- hands down. There's a problem with that niche, though- not much room in it to be seen.

My focus is actually specific to restaurant owners and/or operators... it's just that it takes a LOT to furnish a restaurant.

You can't just go out and buy a kitchen knife and a frying pan, expecting to open a business, right?

What I also know is that most restaurant owners or chefs (I hate to say it) are NOT that internet savvy, but they know exactly what they're looking for when they need it. They've already chosen what they want, but not necessarily who to buy it from- so I made finding what they want as easy as I could.

I know it's a HUGE market area, and it's on purpose- that's exactly the experiment... each page being individually optimized for a particular category (niche), with the overall site "super-optimized" for a mega-niche... all at once.

It's a little more work than your typical one-product sales page, but the sheer area that can be covered might prove worthwhile.

Another reason is that it is difficult to find "non-BS" content on anything smaller, making it a real pain to research, but the collection of micro-niches allows for more diverse topics, which keep the crawlers coming back, and they all collectively contribute to the main keywords.

You can only write just so much about gas grills before you run out of ideas.


marjwyatt- I know SE results vary in different areas...
As of 26 May, if I search for "restaurant kitchen equipment," my site shows in spot #10, and if I search restaurant kitchen equipment (without quotes) it shows in spot #21. This wasn't supposed to happen yet- I really wasn't ready.

There are more keywords (products & product categories) that it shows up for, but that's one of my more fruitful ones. All of my major keywords are leaping toward the first page...

...But that's pretty useless if I can't get anyone to buy, or consider buying my stuff. I can write a page to sell an ebook package on how to mate cows with turtles or something- that's pretty simple.

How do you show that "these 26 different models of upright pass-through dishmachines are the greatest thing since steak dinners... except, of course, for the 30ft model flight dishmachine series, with optional dryer attachments?"

I seriously need help with this- for some reason, I'm stupified. The best idea I have is to turn each category page into a buying guide. It's great for information, but not so much for persuasion.

My SEO is handled- my big concern is that my site gained search engine ranking much faster than I expected, and I just want to have my sales copy ready before I get real exposure. It's getting close, and fast.

I'm sort of caught by surprise- I haven't even finished building the doggone site yet! In place of product pages, I have java redirects that point directly to the products.

I know- it's kinda like fixing a punctured lung with a band-aid, and I need to set up some real pages, with real sales copy... and soon (which may also lend to better indexing- *sigh* Gawd help me).

Its initial intent isn't really that of a blog. Think of it as an online store, with a blog attached (I know- I'm still trying to stock the shelves).

One major fallacy of online stores is that they commonly have poor optimization, like "blanket" keywords and description.

I found that the linking structure of Wordpress with a couple of plugins might make it more ideal for SEO, and its CSS / PHP is simple enough to manipulate into just about any style site you want. Yeah, I'm using Wordpress for her body... it's true.

This whole site really started as an experiment in SEO that is apparently working quite well. At this rate, you might find an IM product of mine soon, who knows?

[John_S]

My focus is actually specific to restaurant owners and/or operators... it's just that it takes a LOT to furnish a restaurant.

What? ....Kids Cooking ....Gift Ideas ...College Team Logo Shop

Restaurant owners under 12-years-old looking for college logo emblazoned gifts would be a very narrow niche ...I suppose. Otherwise Adult restaurant owners might not be convinced of your focus.

When Googlebot gains sentience (and a wallet) you're all set. Until then, don't design for search engines -- design for how humans search when buying.

I don't even want to get into the difference between SEO and SEM, raw traffic and maximum conversions OF Properly Targeted traffic.

What we're talking about here is visual merchandising. How humans shop. And you seem to be confused as to what your target customer wants. Chewy Cookie recipes? What, exactly, are you selling? That's the first impression I got.

Because I thought it was restaurant owners. Usually adult. Usually with some specific goals. Usually looking for restaurant equipment.

I would love to understand what evidence there is, above anything relevant you could put in a major section of the site, the absolute best keyword for targeting people buying equipment for a restaurant is chewy cookie recipes. Or, once there, the absolute best thing to have take up a huge chunk of screen real estate is a cookie.

Let's try pretending you are a restaurant owner looking at equipment. What are you likely looking at? What I'm looking at when clicking Fryers is skimmers, not fryers. Visual merchandising design suggests buyers looking for fryers are looking for fry cookers first and foremost. Not skimmers, no matter if you sell a lot or not.

Once you click through, it's not so bad. The one fryer I looked at hits on some important feature, like dimensions. What's not there a restaurant owner might like? Energy use.


And ...hello? USED EQUIPMENT. ....Hello? ....Recession - H-E-L-L-O?!?!

And it's the little details like that which will convert and keep customers. Otherwise, the site is set up like a vending machine. Unless you're the Walmart of your niche, with the pricing muscle to actually deal with the buyer who knows exactly what they want and looking to buy at the lowest price, you have chosen a tough row to hoe.

Even then, there's no context to indicate these are the lowest prices, so, I'm gone. Off to look to see what you're prices are In Context. I might be back. But probably won't.

I suggest eliminating all the nav links which fairly scream "I don't know who my customer is" like Father's Day Gifts. Instead, replace them with links which indicate you are on their wavelength, like low energy restaurant equipment. You won't get the large amount of traffic you would for a keyword like, say, "Male Impotence," but I think you'll convert more once they reach the site.

Google doesn't need a clear visual hierarchy, humans do. The layout is confusing and doesn't help the buyer or the shopper easily deal with a large selection. Google doesn't care what the text size is, humans do. Replace the article "feed" with something that isn't a readability nightmare -- article style.

I don't even want to tell you what happened when I tried to actually Use the search box. If I were a restaurant owner who knows what I want, I'd leave based on this alone.

Related:

The WEBstaurant Store gets the SEM right, and manages to also have a pretty good layout for humans as well.

[DynamicRevelation]

John_S- Thank you for laying it out for me. That's the kind of advice I'm looking for- raw, uncut, and to the point. I like that.

I didn't expect the search engines to love this thing quite that much, and so didn't put a lot of serious effort into it (obviously). Seeing that they do, I'm thinking, "Let's polish this turd, and make some use of it!"

When spending hours at a time working on different things, I tend to get "tunnel vision" and miss the obvious. A fresh pair of eyes is a wonderful thing to have whenever you can get them.

I think you nailed it right on the head. I was in fact giving all of my attention to bots, and almost completely overlooked how real people would receive the front page (or any page, for that matter).

Yep- it looks like crap. Can't argue there, lol. I agree- the site also lacks focus. I'm thinking that by giving it direction, that might actually help the cosmetics find their place.

I'm still writing my actual product pages, so I'm really glad you corrected me as soon as you did. Thanks to you having pointed some things out to me, I can weed out a lot of confusing and counterproductive inventory, and save myself some time.

Like you pointed out, it does have that "vending machine" feel to it, doesn't it? I want to pull it away from that, and give it a more comfortable, informative, and "humanized" appeal. I know it'll be a lot of work, but I'm okay with that.

Price comparison... I actually shopped around for myself, but didn't even consider incorporating it into my copy. Good idea.

Now that I've actually tried it, I agree- the search box leaves a lot to be desired. I remember seeing a search tool for WP a while ago... maybe by gooogle or yahooo... that I can put in its place. That could only improve it, I'm sure.

John, Seriously- Thank You!

[danmorton]

One thing I noticed right off the bat is that your title and tagline are hard to see. You could probably make them a bold white, or close to.

How about considering a friendly non-direct-selling landing page? Maybe something that explains the site, while providing links to important pages or products.

Dan

[DynamicRevelation]

Yeah, the whole visual effect right now is cluttered, but it's a work in progress.

I've been experimenting with the title color. After having been through the entire rainbow, there is no color that shows well.

I've decided that maybe it's best to be rid of the photo altogether and replace it with an easy-to-recognize logo.

I'm designing that now.

[Jon Steel]

1) Headline and header clash (hard to read)
2) Lots of small text (hard to read)
3) Way too many options (Very Frustrating)

Honestly, you site gave me a headache even looking at it. I say this primarily due to the very small text, stuff is all bunched up with no spaces between it, and there are too many options. It really frustrated me -

js

[Daniel Scott]

In regards to your header - I'm wondering if making it "black and white" would help words show up better over the top of it. Just a thought.

Regarding the rest of your site, I can't be of much help. John pretty much nailed it all, and my experience is in direct-response single-product copy... not a "brochure" style thing like this.

-Dan

[John_S]

I'm wondering if making it "black and white" would help words show up better

Wonder no more. Readability testing indicates it won't.

[Daniel Scott]

Hey John,

Thanks for the info.

Where'd you learn all this stuff?

-Dan

[MyOnlineSuccess]

You have to put yourself in the shoes of your prospect and try and imagine being them. Try and follow the process they go through from typing in a keyword and what they are hoping to find as a result on Google and then what they expect when they get to your site.

If you try to sell everything to everybody, you will end up selling nothing to nobody.

I think that you need to identify your top 80% of visitors and find out what they are looking for. Then focus a small amount of products, preferably ONE and put that in front of them.

Forget about clever copywriting. If people are looking for physical products online, you probably don't need to convince them to buy. You simply need to create trust and give them a good price.

[Loren Woirhaye]

This is a fairly typical case of a blog trying to do anything
and everything to grab money from anybody... and turning
out a mess.

You can fix the header easily by making a box on top of it
to contain your site title. Personally I like to use the header
space more dynamically than you have here, to make
a direct-response offer, for instance, of a free goodie
in exchange for a name. Happy Chef in his happy kitchen
doesn't do anything for you here except provide the smiling
face looking out. That's good. I think the kitchen background
is too bold with contrasting surfaces - while it might look
good in an Ogilvy-style ad with the graphic up top, here
it represents valuable real-estate.

"Work Only With The Best Kitchen Equipment." is meaningless
puffery - but also dull.

When dealing with food you have huge opportunities to do
fun, engaging writing. Copywriting genius Gary Bencivenga
has retired... except for writing letters for a gourmet food
club. I'll bet he does it just because it's so much fun to
write about food.

Anybody with marginally misbehaving eyesight (like me) is
going to find all your tiny navigation text hard to read and
pull meaning from. I seldom go below 12 point in my own
stuff... and while it does decrease the onslaught of information
you can throw at a visitor, it also makes the site look
friendly and readable.

[John_S]

Where'd you learn all this stuff?

For print, a book I can recommend is Type & Layout: Are You Communicating or Just...
This is different from copy testing, in that is more like design testing.

Readability Of Websites With Various Foreground / Background Color Combinations, Font Types And Word Styles

[DynamicRevelation]

First, I want to thank you all for your input- it was a huge help.

Thank you- I appreciate it a LOT.

I changed the design and general feel of the site, at the expense of my search ranking- more of a relief than anything. Feel free to take a look, but don't expect much as content goes- that's not published yet (it's still on notepad).

My next venture is trying to find that "sweet spot" between valuable content and commerciality.

What I mean by that is I want to provide a degree of entertainment, some useful information, and meanwhile gently persuade visitors to buy something as well. I know it's most easily done by manipulating the theme into a general direction, but wow... there's so many little pieces in this puzzle, lol.

This might take a while, as I have to work it into Wordpress- likely coding it up by hand, for the most part. Not hard, but very time-consuming.

Now that it's listed way back at like 54-58, I can make changes virtually unnoticed- that takes off some pressure.

I initially intended to use the blogging script to power an online store (because the search engines seem love it so much), but am reconsidering that approach. I'm thinking maybe less of a store, and more of an "online hang-out" site for fellow culinary artists.

Thoughts, anyone?

[Topgunb]

I honestly think the blog is ok - if you want a place to converse with people.

I want to provide a degree of entertainment, some useful information, and meanwhile gently persuade visitors to buy something as well.

I suggest you setup a dot.com based website and run it side by side. Put a link from your blog to sales pages on website etc.