Free Site Review #8
Review of coffeesh0p.com
Domain Name – Really hate this domain name. I think you’ve made the common mistake of compromising originality for keywords. Obviously two primary keywords there, except for the zero instead of an ‘o’ either you did that to try and add a new twist to help people remember or you compromised having a zero because the domain with an ‘o’ was obviously taken. I think alot of people do this as if the domain name is the only aspect search engines consider, they can be a big help no doubt but you can still outweigh the help of search engine traffic with viral marketing by about… 10 hundred million times. It’s not worth compromising digits and letters in a domain just for SEO value or presumed SEO value and attempted simplicity. Most likely people will type it with an ‘o’ 90% of the time and if it’s not what they remember or wanted, just leave. I would buy a more viral domain name more easy to remember for humans.
Design – Pretty good design, nice subtle color scheme and simplistic graphics. I think maybe… some other color somewhere though just to diverse too much visual blending would go a long way.
Ads – Well seeing as your trying to make money via the use of sales, I think it’s a good idea not to have ads, as you haven’t. But maybe… one or two affiliate links or AdSense blocks integrated smartly would bump up your revenue without being damaging to sales.
Conclusion – In conclusion I think you’ve got a nice idea for an online store, a nice simple design scheme which works and a bad domain name. Change the domain name to something viral, memorable, brand-able and relevant and push it like mad and I think it will do much better. Obviously you don’t have to, just my opinion but I think it’s worth it.
Excellent review, thanks!
Your main point then – domain name. How easy is it to just transfer to a new domain, keeping trust, SERP rankings, PR, etc? Another assessment of our site mentioned that the relatively young age of our domain was a factor to consider when looking at competition. Is it worth sacrificing a 1 year old domain for ease of remembering?
Just buy a new domain and transfer it to your server. Upload everything under your new domain, then point your old domain to that new one, so it redirects. I think the new one will pick up the PR alot quicker. Keep it like this until the old domain expires, but obviously have the new domain as the logo etc.
And yes it’s definitely worth sacrafising a 1 year old domain. It’s not just ‘ease of remembering’ it’s viral marketing value and everything. Think about it, the majority of visitors type popular sites straight into their browser bar so if you’ve got one they can’t remember. Unless it’s an AMAZING site they might just not bother trying to find it.
Any domain suggestions? Thanks for your help.
Hey, sorry about taking so long to answer. Umm, I could probably think of some domains yeh but I think that should be your job lol? Otherwise it’s sort of pointless, I think if you don’t create your own innovation from experience you can’t really learn much.