Web Site Design

fixing what I broke

[grandpa]

I thought that before I implement any new site designs I would ask the experts. A couple of months ago when I took over maintainance of this site, the first thing I tried to do was correct the Titles and meta misinformation on the pages. My one mistake was to create new pages to replace the existing pages, that is to say that widgets.html became newwidgets.html. Of course I changed all the links on all the pages to correspond to these *new* pages.

I realize now that was a big mistake, but after a few months I also see where my new pages are being indexed, and the serps are being nice to me.

So, after taking some time to review Webmaster World and maybe pick up a few tips, I'm beginning to layout a new site design, and as I stated, would like some feedback.

I plan to revert my *new* pages pack to their originals, because these are also indexed. The original pages would include my Title and Keyword modifications. These pages are where I will sell my widgets.

My current *new* pages would be linked from the original page as widget description pages. Here I would fully describe my widgets. These pages will be content rich pages with their own keywords and titles. I look at them as a way to double my presence in the serps.

Another option I'm considering for the description pages is to have a link on the photo of the widget that opens a pop-up which allows the user to purchase the specific widget. I'm thinking these little individual pop ups will give me 2 advantages:
1 - another page with item specific text for the SE's, another doorway to my site, and,
2 - another sales opportunity

With this design plan I'll have 12 pages instead of the current 1 page (for a current page with 8 items on it), text rich pages for the SE's and 2 points to purchase an item. Admittedly, I'm not sure I want to start including those little pop up pages from my description page, but I do like the addition if a second point of purchase.

Any thoughts?

[tedster]

I'm thinking these little individual pop ups will give me 2 advantages:
1 - another page with item specific text for the SE's, another doorway to my site

Make sure there's a non-javascript link to those pop-up pages, and some navigation on them for the direct traffic to find its way your main pages.

It can work very well - the traffic to this kind of a page can be so precisely targeted.

[victor]

Bear in mind that a lot of people run pop-up blockers.

For them, pop-ups don't exist. If the site needs pop-ups to work, you will be excluding a fair proportion of potential customers.

If the pop-ups are simply an additional navigation aid, then give them a whirl see what happens.

[grandpa]

I tested my popup with IE and the Google bar popup blocker. Google appeared to get all excited (the icon changed) but never stopped my page from loading.

However, testing in NS opened a whole new can of worms. My popup opened, and so did another full size page of my popup content. Not good, I thought. I tweaked some more and really broke it, so while I still like the idea of a popup as a point of sale, it's back burner for a while.

[g1smd]

You need a return(false); in your popup code to prevent the dual display.

I hate popups, so try to find another solution first.

[cyclone]

try ur popup on opera, it got a great popup blocker, and alot of ppl i know are moving to opera, because it offer much much more than ie.. if you want to include popup, state clearly in the intro page that the site needs popup to be enabled to work properly...

[grandpa]

I think if I put text next to a picture, "Click Image to Purchase Item" then the stigma associated with a pop up should be removed. I'm still thinking about about using this last page in the string of pages - whether it should be used or not - is it worth the extra effort for coding hundreds of the little buggers, etc., but other stuff is getting in my way of working on it... broken javascript and unvalidated pages right now.

Thanks for the tip g1smd, I'll get it pasted in and tested in a few days time.

[moonbather]

I think you'd be better off using innerHTML or iframes, instead of popups.

[g1smd]

There are two types of popup:

1. You click a link and a new, smaller, window pops up with some content in it.

2. You click a link to visit a site, or a new page, and as that page loads, a number of other windows popup without asking.

I do not mind "type 1", but I do immediately leave any site that does "type 2".

[tbear]

When I've used pop ups, as you suggest, in the past, I have always had some kind of warning nearby.... just to let visitors know what's happening.

[ergophobe]

Speaking from my experience as a user, rather than a designer (i.e. tlaking about my daily frustrations with bad sites), I have to agree with tbear. Popups can be helpful, but they must carry a warning. Personally, I open most windows using CTRL-click (open in a new tab in Mozilla). This doesn't work with Javascript popups and that annoys me to no end - I'm constantly looking at my status bar to find out if the link is going to work as expected or not (as with Flash, etc that *often* break the basic model of web IMO).

That said, done well (with proper warning on the link and so forth) I appreciate a popup
1. that I control
2. that tells me what it's going to do.. as in "View image (new window)"

As much as I hate popups and run blockers and so on, I think that such popups, properly done can be a significant UI enhancement. Like so many things, it's not necessary to throw away the tool just because it's usually improperly used.