Day 2 Assignment, Bootcamp #4 - Review "Fairy Cardmaker"

[iCraft Admin]

Today's assignment is similar to yesterday's assignment, so I am repeating instructions here.
We are all going to take a closer look this time at another store. Even though we already did some optimization work on this store some time ago, it will not hurt to review and tweak it again. Fairy Cardmaker, I am also curious to find out if last optimization work helped you with sales or traffic at all?

Anyway, please review this store from buyers' perspective and post your comments on what you think should be improved.

Fairy Cardmaker

Here is what we want to evaluate:
(I am making this list of questions generic, so we could re-use them on all stores):

• Your first impressions
• Store Title & Description.
  Is it clear why these products are special and why you'd want to buy them? Is there enough copy to describe variety of products in this store?
• Target Keywords.
  Are the keywords currently used in the copy accurately describe all items? What keywords you'd use to describe products in this store?
• Store Policies.
  Do you have any issues with any of the stores policies? Is it clear if you can return products to the seller?  
• Product Photos.
  Are they good quality photos? Can you see what you are buying in a detail?
• Product Titles & Descriptions.
  Are all Product Titles unique? Is there enough copy describing each product? Do you understand why those products are special? What method or technique did the seller use to make them? Who most likely would appreciate them and why? What occasion are they for?
• Product Prices & Shipping.
  Are they too high? too low?
• Any other comments you have

Please post your comments below. We'll review all comments and summarize what needs to be done at the end of the day. Tomorrow we'll take a look at the next store in the list and so on, until we review all six stores.

[Jewelry by Kat]

Cute title and is very clear on what is sold.  Policies are very clear.  The photos are clear and crisp all details showing.  The only thing I find distracting are the black stones in almost all photos.  They go with some cards like the dinosaurs and train. Handmade friendship card with flowers has a misspelled word.  Great store with little to change......Kat

[Silver Workshop]

You've clearly put a lot of work into your store. Very nice copy for your store page and your item pages. I agree with Kat about the rocks, they take the focus away from the cards a bit.

Your cards are so nice, I almost wish I didn't have to click on every product to get a clear picture of what's on them. My suggestion would be that as a main picture for some of them, put close ups of your cards. For example, for the halloween card with the skull, you could use the second picture which is a close-cropped one as your main, or for your Monster Birthday Card Masculine, use the third picture as your main. He's so cute, but you can't really see that when just looking at the main store page (cuteness is a huge draw for me). Your cards are so clean and crisp it would be good to see that on first impression.

Another thing I've noticed is in the product descriptions, you don't mention they're made in Canada. I love to buy locally made cards so something like that might be a good thing to include. Maybe you could do a small paragraph about how and where they're made and include that in your listings like you did for your policies. You could include something like that in the tags too, like Made in Canada.

After all of this, I just noticed your banner. It's a nice banner but compared to the rest of your colourful store, I hadn't really noticed it. It might be nice to have something colourful there too, keeping the same fairy and text, but with added "cardboard cutout" colours or something. This is something more personal and subjective so take this with a grain of salt.

Everything else in the store seemed very clear. Nice job!

[Red Rock Designs]

Forgive me, I have a really stupid question....I noticed the word "copy" used many times in the posts from yesterday & today...but I'm not familiar with this word in terms of selling online.  Does it relate to the photos or descriptions?
Thanks

[Silver Workshop]

Copy refers to the written text (something I'm terrible at!).

[Red Rock Designs]

Thanks Silver Workshop.

I like this store and the store announcement.  I like the banner, it’s not too busy but I do think a pop of colour wouldn’t hurt.

•Store Title & Description.
It’s good that you’ve made the announcement kind of like a branding comment, about “paper presence”, then repeating it in the store description.  As a customer who knows nothing about paper or die cuts, I don’t know what “archival quality paper” is…does that mean the paper has that aged brown look to it?  Or is it more hard construction-paper type sheets? 

I do like that you’re providing the option for the customer to personalize and add their hand-writing to the cards.  But do you mean their hand-writing can be embedded on the front of the card as apart of the design? Or that the message & signature would be embedded on the inside of the card? I personally would need a little more clarity here. 
 
Store Policies are clear. I love the option of having the items sent to alternate shipping address if given as gift.

Photos:
I agree about the black stones in the photos.  Perhaps other props would work better, like for birthday cards, some deflated balloons or candles (even the numbered candles if the card specifically indicates age); for the get well soon/ looking up cards, maybe a fake flower or small teddy bear…you can probably find small props at Dollarama…just a thought.  I do also agree that some of the photos should have a close-up as the main photo. 

Product Titles & Descriptions:
Using the different occasions in the titles is good, if I were to search for cards, I’d search: birthday card or wedding shower card.   Some of the titles do need a bit more clarity for their purpose.

The “2 paper die cut foxes” title doesn’t indicate what these can be used for; and the description indicates “scrapbooking embellishment” in the last sentence.  I would put “Scrapbooking embellishment – 2 foxes” as the title. 

The “Quilled Snails in Love Card” title also should have an occasion provided….like “Just because I love you” or “Celebrating romance”, or “Here’s to us”. 

Pricing & shipping seem on par with other vendors on this site.

[Delightful Suds]

Fairy Cardmaker, I've also told you before that I like your shop. I'm still trying to really figure out what my first impression of your shop is. On the one hand, I really like the softness of colours in your banner, but on the other I'm sort of looking for more "punch" of colour. It almost looks a little too mellow, but maybe that's just me (I love colour!).

I do really like that you've mentioned the charity bit, and the "NO GST/HST!" in your store description. That is definitely a positive that makes me like your store more.

Your cards are actually very fairly priced for such unique handmade creations. Shipping prices are great, and policies are clear. I also think your photos are excellent. Descriptions are also very thorough.

Good job!

[JaJeJems]

You have a lovely store and I really had to dig to come up with some comments!  Here they are:

Store title and description
I love your name - it evokes a pleasing picture for me of a fairy making beautiful cards that will enrich my life.  I think that your banner is nice, maybe a bit understated, but I really love your opening statement about "paper presence".  I think that says it all in terms of what your cards can do for me.

I think your description needs to be expanded to really sell who you are and what you make.  In the first paragraph "neat and tidy" could describe any card bought in a drugstore - yours are much more than that. How does "neat and tidy" relate to visual appeal - your unique designs do that.  I also don't see the connection of "neat and tidy" to minimizing mailing costs.  Wouldn't the size or weight or quality of paper do that?  Tell me as a customer why your cards have visual appeal and will be cheaper to mail.  What do you mean by handpicked handmade card - are you referring to the customer choosing it from your store - not sure that is clear but the end of that sentence is good!

The third paragraph does not really make it clear that you are talking about my being able to buy not only a finished card but your die-cut pieces so I can make my own card or use those pieces in scrapbooking.  As a customer I may start out to just buy a card, but when I find out that I could make my own unique cards from your lovely pieces, that opens another door for me. Your wording is a too vague.  

I think you could also use this section as an opportunity to explain what you mean by terms such as die-cut, quilling and archival - not everyone will understand what these mean.  Don't assume that all of your customers are experts like you are.  Some may be but the majority, like myself, aren't.

Keywords
I think that you need to continue to work on keywords in your description and titles of your photos.  I don't think that you can say handmade or handcrafted too often in your description.  The titles don't all have handmade card in them.  Other keywords would be the occasion that the card was designed for, maybe the colour or what is on the card.

Store Policies
When I look at specific items there seem to be a variety of store policies - could these be summarized under general policies?  they are not always consistent e.g. looking at 2 die-cut pieces, one spells out the rules for using this in my own work and another doesn't.  Maybe this should be addressed in your general description.  You have consistently spelled self-assessment wrong.  

Your return policy is clear and fair.

Product Photos
Good but even though I understand why you used the stones (I read your posting about photography) I don't think that they add anything and they actually detract from some of your pieces.  I find it frustrating that I can't read what the cards say - maybe a close-up of some would help.  I also prefer the cards shot at an angle.  The wedding card with the white background does not show up at all at first glance.

Product prices and shipping
I think that your prices for your products and shipping are reasonable and compare well.  I notice that you have different shipping prices for smaller items which I would appreciate as a customer. In your general shipping policy you mention that the price includes handling - do you need to say this or is this to justify the price you are charging for shipping?  Why is it important for me to know that you use recyled packing materials? Just wondering.

I really like the fact that I can have my package delivered to someone other than myself and thank you for letting me know up front that it may take 10 days for the package to arrive!

My general comment - wow you have really worked hard at this store and it shows!

[Delightful Suds]

I also agree with JaJeJems, I don't know what die-cut means either...

[iCraft Admin]

Thanks everyone for great feedback!  

I think there are no major problems with this store, mostly minor tweaking. I wouldn't focus too much on the banner. It will not make it or break it when it comes to traffic or sales. I'd focus mostly on providing descriptive product titles and page copy (which is very good already). I am not going to repeat what others have said already. I'll just add a few points from SEO perspective.

Store Copy
It's well written, but if possible, I'd double it in length.

There are a few product lines and competing keywords mentioned here - handmade cards, die cuts, scrapbooking embellishments + same products for multiple audiences and occasions.

As I mentioned before, optimizing pages for search engines means we focus on 1-2 main phrases, repeat them twice or maybe 3 times in different variations (if there is enough page copy) and then use other words (synonyms etc) to reinforce the page theme.

Fairy Cardmaker, what phrases would you prefer to focus on? It looks like you sell mostly cards, so maybe focus on them more? Repeat those keywords related to cards and them mention other products, like die cuts, only once.

Here are some Keyword ideas for you:
handmade cards - 201,000 global monthly searches    (this term is too competitive on its own. Should be used in combination with other terms)
handmade cards for christmas - 40,500 (not too bad)
paper die cut - 6,600 (very good one)   
paper die cuts - 1,900 (very good one)   
handmade valentine cards - 9,900
wedding greeting cards - 27,100   
baby greetings cards - 6,600
kids birthday card - 49,500
scrapbook embellishments - 8,100

I'd use these individual terms to optimize individual product pages for each of them:   
christmas angel card - 1,000 - https://icraftgifts.com/handmade/24570/christmas-angel-card-blonde-on-red.phphandmade-joy-angel-christmas-card-blonde-on-red.php
valentine love card - 1,300 - https://icraftgifts.com/handmade/20179/handmade-love-card-paper-quilled.phphandmade-love-card-paper-quilled.php   
butterfly card - 9,900 - https://icraftgifts.com/handmade/31670/butterfly-card-someone-special.php (this page is actually well optimized for this term, so don't change it much)
handmade easter cards - 1,000 (not sure if you have easter cards, but this is a good term if you do)

Examples of optimized pages:
I already mentioned Butterfly Card.
This page is well optimized because you used good term "butterfly card" with 9,900 monthly global searches. You started your Product Title with this phrase, and then you repeated this phrase nicely, at least twice, in the product copy.

So Christmas Angel Card should also have this phrase in the beginning of the Product Title - something like "Christmas Angel Card - Blonde on Red", instead of "Handmade Joy Angel Christmas Card - Blonde on Red".
 
We are choosing "Christmas Angel Card" term because we know that people search for this term (at least 1,000 of them per month) and we also know that nobody is searching for "Handmade Joy Angel Christmas Card" or "Handmade Joy Angel", and that generic terms like "Handmade" are too competitive.

So small changes in copy can potentially make big difference in bringing targeted traffic to your store. Imagine you are ranking on the Google's first page for term "Christmas Angel Card" with your product page? This term is not competitive, so not many people will fight you over it, but for you getting even half of 1000 users per month, who are searching for this term, means that much more monthly targeted traffic that one single page could bring! Now multiply that on 50 products in your store.

I know it's a lot of work to optimize all 50 pages like that. (You'd probably have to keep a spreadsheet to keep track of all those terms and rankings for each). That's why I am saying choose just a few pages initially (store page and 3-4 product pages), optimize their copy (+do some link building - second part of the Bootcamp!) and start monitoring your traffic to those pages, then do the same for other pages one by one, each time picking slightly different terms.

Sorry, this all might sound confusing, but I am trying to get you guys into a habit of writing copy with SEO in mind. Hopefully, eventually it will become a second nature for you.

Please everyone ask questions, if you are not sure what I am talking about. I know SEO is not an easy topic, but If you could learn at least how to choose right Keywords and to optimize your pages for them, that alone will be huge.

[JaJeJems]

Well I admit I really know very little about SEO but I am starting to get the idea now. So far this process is pretty exciting! Looking forward to the days to come!

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

First, I have to admit, iCraft helped once before to optimize my store description.  I also got the idea for a "slogan" type thing in my announcement from an article iCraft did.  I can make the description longer, no problem.  I just didn't want to bore the reader, even though bots don't get bored.  I guess so long as the "mission critical" stuff is upfront, it will be fine to extend.

I have tried to keep up what I've learned from the last optimization in my listings, but I know I do get lazy about it.  You can see that in the inconsistency of my policies in the listings themselves.  I was told they are too negative but I keep them because I don't have business insurance and there's no general policy page to put it on.  I was trying to shorten them, however, so some talk about resuse and some don't.  I will work on consistency.

I did not realize the part about adding a hand-written message in the listings was vague.  I'll just take it out and say that the inside is blank, period.  That is simpler and easier to convey.

I am a tad disappointed that the banner appears so bland to people.  I had meant it to be neutral, but not necessarily bland.  I'll keep that in the back of my mind if I find a better way to represent the shop.

I am surprised the rocks are so detracting!  I did put them there for white/black balance, but I could put them to the side and try to crop them out.  I liked them in there because I thought it brought some consistency to my photos.  I wanted to avoid real props because I don't want people to think they are getting the prop too!  I am fiddling with my photo set up of late.  I moved my studio to a larger room in the house and have to find another well lit position.  I'll play on a go-forward basis.

I like the idea of close ups as the main shot.  I will try that.  Thanks!

Anyone looking to buy a die cut will know what it is.  It's a specific scrapbooking (and slightly card making) term that other crafters will search for.  I might consider adding it to my store description.  Thanks.  Paper quilling, I think I explain that in each listing, but perhaps I should move it to my store description.

iCraft, for the suggestion of Christmas Angel Card - my goal was to keep "Christmas" and "Card" together.  But, if Christmas Angel Card is well searched, I'm open to using that.  Here's my question though: What should I do when I list another angel card?  I have about 3 I want to put up for the season (it's a matter of deciding what else to take down).  Can I repeat "Christmas Angel Card - [insert different description]"?  One is Asian, one is brunette, for example.

RE: Traffic:
I'm not sure how I'm supposed to track traffic is GA is broken?  From the last optimization, however, I think there was an increase in traffic.  Not much increase in sales.  I do get more custom inquiries through iCraft than Etsy, however, which is easier to complete via Paypal without issues of fee avoidance.  I would love to come here to toot my horn and give iCraft the credit for generating the lead, but.... it's really quiet here and I already post a lot.  Figure people are sick of me, lol.

I believe the newsletters are actually an effective way of generating traffic too.  That's why I try to always put forward a product if I have one that fits.  I know it wouldn't be fair to be always chosen, but there is zero chance if I don't at least try.  (Free advertising people!  Check the forum announcements more often!)

[Fairy Cardmaker]

You have consistently spelled self-assessment wrong.

Eeep!  Thanks!  That's what happens when you write it once and then copy/paste, heh.

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Fairy Cardmaker,

That's exactly it, the "mission critical" stuff have to be at the top, preferably in the first 2 sentences that people see on your store page. The rest will be shown in a pop-up when people click on the "Show More" link. However, search engines can still access this information and use it for ranking your page.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

I don't know what die cut means either.

Oh!  I see.  It is in a lot of my product descriptions too.  It means it is cut from a metal die and pieced together.  However, mine are cut with an electronic cutter (designed on the PC and then I tell the cutter to cut the lines.  It's like a printer with a precision blade instead of ink.)

I will change it to "paper pieced" [item] in the descriptions.  It's easier to picture.  Thanks for noticing.

Where I am selling an actual die-cut shape separately, I will leave that as die cut since it is crafters looking for those.