Rob_H":2z3903e0 said:
Just to cover a couple of points - it's not a woodie site I have - I'm an antiques dealer (part time - mainly 17th and 18th c country furniture).
I have linked in to twitter and facebook for marketting and need to get the site ranked on google - I suppose through increased traffic.
I'm worried the site doesn't look professional enough - I may well drop Tom a line. It's a site I need to be able to update myself almost daily as my stock changes. Thanks for all of the advice so far.
I'm intrigued having had some experience with antiques and web sites (for antique dealers)... What sort of traffic are you expecting the site to drive? Enquiries leading to visits to your premises or pure sales? I realise a sale is desirable but is that what you are EXPECTING? A few years back we found that the site prompted quite a few international sales that subsequently failed to go ahead because of the shipping costs. Meanwhile, a lot of UK people visited the shop saying they'd seen the website. Some travelled quite a distance demonstrating a reluctance to buy over the web. This was a few years back - have things changed in your experience?
There were some other odd phenomenon around site design that I'll not go in to here because our observations were purely speculative and coincided with a significant drop-off in the antiques market a few years back so could be coincidental. However, suffice to say, beware of appearing too professional... I would not invest a huge amount of effort in making it look too professional until you're confident that is does, in fact, lead to more enquiries.
