Website failings

[Quattromaster]

Once upon a time there was a website, www.alloypaints.com , this website was 6-7 yrs old, and provided by an ecommerce provider, EKM, it was a bit of a sideline for the owner, with a turnover of 150k a yr, and was plodding along, taking approx 30-40 orders a week, with at least an order everyday. You could count the days on one hand in the last 7 yrs when there had not been an order.

Early Sept the provider EKM suggested some changes, a freshen up, to make the site more user friendly and better for mobile and tablet users, the owner agreed, and so last Thursday the changes were made, for most of Thursday the site was a mess while the owner called EKM and himself altered the many mistakes such as spelling mistakes, missing items and categories, wrong phone numbers and so on. But by close of play it was a lot better, not perfect, but better.

But, here comes the problem, since Thursday we HAVE NOT HAD A SINGLE ORDER via the site, we have done test checkouts to confirm its all working ok, we have checked the payment gateway, all good.

We rang EKM and they say there are no problems, it must be coincidence, we think not. We have asked if the "old" site can be put back, they say yes, but advise not to as its just not right for today's modern internet users and search engines.

So, my friends, any ideas, pointers, suggestions, as we just have no idea.

Thank you.

Edited by Quattromaster on Tuesday 27th September 17:29

[ashleyman]

Quattromaster said:

Once upon a time there was a website, www.alloypaints.com, this website was 6-7 yrs old, and provided by an ecommerce provider, EKM, it was a bit of a sideline for the owner, with a turnover of 150k a yr, and was plodding along, taking approx 30-40 orders a week, with at least an order everyday. You could count the days on one hand in the last 7 yrs when there had not been an order.

Early Sept the provider EKM suggested some changes, a freshen up, to make the site more user friendly and better for mobile and tablet users, the owner agreed, and so last Thursday the changes were made, for most of Thursday the site was a mess while the owner called EKM and himself altered the many mistakes such as spelling mistakes, missing items and categories, wrong phone numbers and so on. But by close of play it was a lot better, not perfect, but better.

But, here comes the problem, since Thursday we HAVE NOT HAD A SINGLE ORDER via the site, we have done test checkouts to confirm its all working ok, we have checked the payment gateway, all good.

We rang EKM and they say there are no problems, it must be coincidence, we think not. We have asked if the "old" site can be put back, they say yes, but advise not to as its just not right for today's modern internet users and search engines.

So, my friends, any ideas, pointers, suggestions, as we just have no idea.

Thank you.

A/B Test.

Get the old site back up and randomise 50/50 the site that gets delivered and see where the orders come from.

[Zoon]

Was the owner not happy with the level of business?
Switch back to the old site and see if the orders start again.
Personally unless I was unhappy with the volume of business I wouldn't let a provider dictate site updates.

[jonamv8]

A/b it as Ashley an says

[uber]

Did they completly nuke the old site content and change the structure overnight? Moving over to the new responsive setup would be the way ahead but a lot of stuff needs done away from the main site making sure search engines have an easy life remapping the site. The original content should still be there for a seemless update

[feef]

it could be as simple as the site structure not being the same, and inbound links now hitting 404age not found errors. When migrating to a new platform, it's always worth ensuring that either the old structure is maintained in some way, it's accurately mapped with redirects to the new content where relevant, or just dumps you out to a search or catalogue page with a brief explanation as to why the link didn't work as expected.

If the sales that were made were due to direct inbound links or search results, it could just be that getting a 404 or not seeing the product expected immediately, they just click 'back' on the browser and try the next result.

Folk are inherently lazy

[Big Pants]

The latest Google update, Penguin 4, also went live on Friday. The algorithm changes are complex but fundamentally if your SEO company have been doing manipulative link building then the likelihood is that your site has been negatively impacted by that. Have a word with them and, if necessary, switch to a Google partner who can explain with confidence what they're doing.

[Andrew[MG]]

Google Analytics is installed so you should be able to see if traffic has fallen off a cliff or if people are still coming to the site but are leaving before checkout.

[Quattromaster]

Thanks for all the pointers folks, we asked EKM to revert back to old site, approx 12.30 pm, by 1.10 pm we had a £600+ order, the first in 5 days.

They still insist it must be coincidence, we disagree.

[Undirection]

Yes, I'd disagree too but it would be worth finding out what caused it as you'll have to update the site eventually.

[davgar]

still #1 on google & bing for the term " Alloy Paints "
very nice.

[Foliage]

So the old site is now live, just gonna say the only thing I can see that would make me go bleh is the text colour being a bit light.

Maybe get the company to host the new site somewhere so you can have a good look at it.

[Dejay1788]

The site isn't working for me. DNS could not be found.

Edit: Think it's the link, the website works when I search through google. As others said try A/B test and check your analytics from last week to find out where visitors dropped of the page.

Can you tell if add to cart / reached checkout was down last week compared to usual?

Edited by Dejay1788 on Tuesday 27th September 17:07

[Zoon]

Dejay1788 said:

The site isn't working for me. DNS could not be found.

Edit: Think it's the link, the website works when I search through google.

The url has a comma in the original post hence why it isn't working.

[Quattromaster]

Undirection said:

Yes, I'd disagree too but it would be worth finding out what caused it as you'll have to update the site eventually.

I agree, we would have loved to have kept the "new" site, looked much more modern.

EKM however just keep saying there was nothing wrong, well in the 6 hrs since we have gone back to old site we have add over £1000 of orders, yet nothing over the last 5 days.

To be honest we are looking at moving provider as from Nov they have increased the charges by 600%., this is the final straw.

[DSLiverpool]

Quattromaster said:

So, my friends, any ideas, pointers, suggestions, as we just have no idea.

Thank you.

Edited by Quattromaster on Tuesday 27th September 17:29

I think its a classic "know your customer" scenario (and I dont know your customer) if they are regulars they know where the stuff they like is, I have only had a quick look but didnt see a account log in so people can repeat previous orders or use a previous as a base new order. If EKM supports this then add it.

So if your local Tesco moves all the aisles around and you cant find your regular stuff do you not go again and buy elsewhere or alternative ? - maybe.

If the majority of your customers are brand new each time then the new site shouldnt matter and its a case of it not pressing the "I am happy to deal with these guys" buttons which is pretty easy to solve.

Let me know please.

[jammy_basturd]

Quattromaster said:

To be honest we are looking at moving provider as from Nov they have increased the charges by 600%., this is the final straw.

Need some help with this?

[Zoon]

Quattromaster said:

I agree, we would have loved to have kept the "new" site, looked much more modern.

EKM however just keep saying there was nothing wrong, well in the 6 hrs since we have gone back to old site we have add over £1000 of orders, yet nothing over the last 5 days.

To be honest we are looking at moving provider as from Nov they have increased the charges by 600%., this is the final straw.

600% is ridiculous.

[loafer123]

When taking a look at the new site, follow the customer journeyed which were most common on the old site (how they got referred, what paths they followed in your old site right up to and including paying), and see where they are being put off, or worse still, where that journey is broken.

[Andrew[MG]]

Did you have a look at the Google Analytics data? If you don't use this then you've probably been missing out on some easy ways to increase traffic to the site and sales.