I’ve been asked to change the wordpress theme for a friends websites, it seems that he’s not getting much ‘click thru’ traffic, and even less sales. Currently he uses a modified the ‘viroshop pro’ theme on sites such as, http://www.comfortshoessite.com. as well as another theme ‘Kelontong’ on another site. Both themes aren’t converting very well. So my question is: Do you have a wordpress theme that converts well? If so Which one do you use?
I don’t think the problem is the theme if I’m honest.
1. The banner/logo is terrible.
It’s been well documented that the perceived quality of a site is directly relevant to the trust relationship a site builds with its users. That banner looks blurry, and looks very unprofessional. You put that on any good theme and it will cheapen the overall look of the site.
2. There’s absolutely no contact information
This site looks like the equivalent of a street peddler selling “authentic” replica watches. There’s no apparent recourse to contact them with questions or customer service issues. It simply looks like a scam waiting to happen.
3. The site is slow
Site speed is another major factor in a site’s success. The overall experience is slow, whether it’s initially loading it, or clicking on a category, or clicking on a product’s detail, it’s quite slow.
4. The prices seem to be off
http://www.comfortshoessite.com/men/americana-casuals/buckle-velcro/marseille-black-shoe/ $130 there, but then you click on more info:
http://gravitydefyer.com/Marseille-Black and it’s $99.99
5. Specific problems with the theme itself
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All of the call to action buttons are “read more” or “more info” or “add to wishlist”. They should say “Add to Cart”, not that I think this will have a dramatic effect, it’s just one of those subtle things that tells users the site is actually selling something rather than an information blog
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The navigation is slow and confusing. Those categories should be in the header bar to the right of “Home”, and they should have dropdown menus instead of the the slowly animated click-to-expand menus they have. The first thing I current notice when I visit the site is that it only has one main navigation link. It immediately makes the site look empty. Plus, why are some of the left-hand navigation items gray, while there are a couple which are blue? What is different about those? They actually end up matching the color of the sub-menu that opens when you click on a gray category, so it’s a bit weird that they’re blue and just sitting there by themselves.
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The login information is currently sitting above the left hand navigation menu and is taking up a lot of space. Even though that left-hand navigation shouldn’t exist and should be in the main navigation bar next to “Home”, having the login information sitting above the left hand navigation gives the impression the site is more social than it is commercial. Again, this is another subtle cue that makes people wary of the site’s legitimacy as a store.
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The prices should be in bold text, not normal text. This will help them stand out more and also further reinforce the commercial nature of the site.