Yesterday, I posted a business profile on Clean Green Solutions, and today I’m following up with a free site analysis. If you would like a free site analysis for your business or website, please send me an email from the contact page.

Domain name:

The domain name http://www.workinagreenspace.com is relevant to the company’s products and services.

Also, http://www.livinginagreenspace.com is displaying the same content in a frame. Instead, this should be a permanent redirect to http://www.workinagreenspace.com

Site design:

This is a sharp looking design and from a visual standpoint it’s great. However, from a usability standpoint some changes need to be made.

1) The site should have a footer. Currently it ends abruptly and there’s no margin at the end of the page.

2) The site navigation should be changed a bit. There is an great set of graphics on the “closing the circle” page, that are hidden unless the visitor comes through on the front page.

3) Offer an alternative to the PDF files for information on your products. I would suggest making the the text below the product photos, link to a html page where this content can be read. Below that text you can offer the file for download via PDF.

Meta tags

Some pages are missing Meta Tags. Also, the same set of Meta Tags are being used throughout the site, these should be customized to the individual pages.

Content:

The site could use more content related to the individual green cleaning products, and also regarding green cleaning in general.
I would add a case study and/or green cleaning news page where relevant and fresh content can be added on a regular basis.

URL Structure:

The URLs are relevant and descriptive of the pages and content.

Sitemap

The site should have a sitemap to make it easier for search engines to crawl your site.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics should be installed. Analytics will be used to track your keywords, the source of your inbound traffic, and help you to calculate your ROI should you choose to utilize pay per click marketing.

Also, Google Analytics will help to track which keywords you are NOT receiving traffic for.

Link building

Right now this site is in need of plenty of relevant inbound links. The only way it is being found is through the search engines or via word of mouth.

Directory Submissions

The site should be submitted to various relevant directories.

At least once a week, I like to profile a business and it’s website here on Boston CS (regardless of whether or not I have a working relationship with them). This week, the profile is on a Boston Green cleaning supply company.

Company name: Clean Green Solutions, LLC

Your name: Bill Scherer

Company location: 8 Mitchell St. South Boston, MA

Years in business: 1

Number of Employees: 2

Company description:

Clean Green Solutions specializes in ONLY green commercial cleaning products. The Rochester Midland Corporation, established in 1888 introduced their first line of cleaning products in 1986. The award winning Enviro Care bio-based products are Green Seal and EcoLogo certified and are dispensed via a traditional chemical dispensing unit for just pennies per quart. If you’re looking for a green alternative to a traditional cleaning product, we have it!

What was the inspiration for starting this business? Did you start it to solve a problem? Was it something you had always wanted to do? What made you finally pull the trigger to bring the company from a dream to a reality?

The Green Wave. CGS creates a solution for business’ looking for all green cleaning products.

What is the biggest obstacle that you have faced so far? How have you overcome this obstacle, or is it something that you still struggle with?

Internet clients

Why should people buy your product(s) over the competition?

Our products are Truly Green, meaning they are green seal and eco logo certified and surpass the EPA’s criteria for green cleaning products. The products cost less than traditional products and in most cases, work better.

What is your best selling green cleaning product?

All of the products do very well. I would have to say the Proxi Spray and Walk Away carpet spotter.

Who is your typical customer?

My typical customers are hotels, property management companies and maid companies.

Feedback

Clean Green Solutions is in a very hot niche right now. As he mentioned, Bill’s biggest problem is a lack of new customers coming in through the Internet. Check back tomorrow when I publish my analysis of Clean Green Solutions’ website.

Would you like to have your business featured?

If you would like to have your business and/or web site profiled on the Boston CS blog, visit our contact page and drop me an email.

Here is a site analysis I have prepared for Gifted (http://www.madebymarie.com). If you would like one prepared for your business website, please visit the contact page.

Domain name:

The name of the company is Gifted, but the domain name is madebymarie.com. I would suggest you choose one or the other. Either keep the name Gifted and purchase a new domain name (I have a few suggestions which will not be published so that someone else does not scoop them up), or change the name of the company to “Made By Marie”.

Changing the domain name shouldn’t cause a problem if you use a permanent redirect. This will automatically send both the search engines and people attempting to visit madebymarie.com to the new site.

Site design:

This appears to be a template driven site. I would suggest a redesign of the template as right now it has a mix and match feel to it. Visitors that do not know the business owners personally, might be hesitant to make a purchase based on the design. If it is within your budget, I would suggest a custom built site. If you have a modest budget, there is nothing wrong with taking the existing site and customizing the template. If this isn’t allowed by the hosting company, Yahoo! merchant services is a viable alternative.

Meta tags

I would go for more niche meta tags. Broad words like “pottery” are too difficult for a small site to compete for.

Content:

The home page needs to be redesigned to include more textual content related to your products. I would also redesign the front page to include the following…

-A spotlight product or sale (buy 3 get 1 free or something along those lines)
-An email submit form where visitors can subscribe to a newsletter and/or special sale notifications
-A few paragraphs describing your store with links directly to specific products that you mention

I would also suggest integrating a blog where you can draw traffic into the site, with the goal being to funnel visitors to your store. This can be accomplished by generating content relevant to the products you sell.

URL Structure:

The URLs should be adapted to be a bit more descriptive of the product pages. For instance, instead of being “/123456.html”, something like “/glasspumpkin.html” will be more search engine friendly. Also, potential visitors from other sites will be more likely to click, if they hover over the link and get a descriptive URL as opposed to a catalog number.

Sitemap:

The site should have a sitemap to make it easier for search engines to crawl your site. It will also help visitors who can’t find something specific through the front page navigation.

Search bar:

Currently, there is no method to search the catalog on site. A search box should be integrated into every page.

Google Analytics:

Google Analytics should be installed. Analytics will be used to track your keywords, the source of your inbound traffic, and help you to calculate your ROI should you choose to utilize pay per click marketing. Equally important is the fact that Analytics can show you what keywords your site is not drawing traffic from. These are the keywords that you should work on.

Utilize Google Product Search:

This is just as important as being in the Google Maps search results. This could put a direct link to your product, as well as your pricing, prominently displayed in the search results. Best of all, it’s free!

Link building:

…and lot’s of it! Off site, the blogosphere should be good for this. There are plenty of gift related blogs that I’m sure wouldn’t have a problem writing a post about a product and linking back to the site.

On site, I recommend starting a blog where you can link internally to different products after you write about them in detail. You could write about the inspiration for the product, the materials that were used to make it, and so on.

Notes:

This is a SEO site analysis, without having access to the site’s infrastructure or statistics. A detailed Internet marketing plan would also go hand in hand with this.

Today’s featured business is Gifted, based out of Boston, MA. I happened to find them on Twitter, so you can add this to your list of reasons to use Twitter.

If you are interested in having your business or site profiled here, please visit the contact page and send me an email.

So, let’s get right to my interview with co-owner Marie Corcoran…

Company name: Gifted

Company location: 53 Dartmouth Street Boston, MA 02116

Company description:

Gifted is owned and operated by two local artists; Marie Corcoran a potter and jeweler, and Luke Adams a glassblower and jeweler. We carry handmade crafts by local and U.S. artists as well as items that support different causes locally and world wide.

Years in business: 6 months

Number of Employees: 2

What was the inspiration for starting this business? Did you start it to solve a problem? Was it something you had always wanted to do? What made you finally pull the trigger to bring the company from a dream to a reality?

Luke is an established business owner of Luke Adam’s Glass and has done wholesale and retail throughout the years and Marie has owned Endless Art by Marie for three years dealing with solely wholesale. I personally wanted a local store where we could sell our product and also carry the works of talented artists we’ve met along the way, this also allowed me to cut back on the traveling and shows required for wholesale.

Luke and I always had an interest in starting a retail store and were lucky enough to reach that dream early on. We had briefly started to search for a store location and toss the idea around when a friend of ours needed to give up her store front because she was starting a family.

How did you come up with the company name?

After brainstorming for weeks on a store name, Luke came up with “Gifted” last minute and I think it’s perfect. It represents the talent that the store has to carry and the idea that we are a gift store.

What is the biggest obstacle that you have faced so far? How have you overcome this obstacle, or is it something that you still struggle with?

Figuring out hours and advertising. Being the sole employee, it can be trying to work the hours that you feel the business should be open. If it were up to me we would be open 24-7!

Advertising is our biggest conflict. So far we have only done one ad in a small local paper for two weeks before Christmas. I’ve personally gone around and handed out coupons to local businesses and homes. I also try to do as much networking online as possible since I feel like that’s where the majority goes now for information.

Why should people buy your product(s) over the competition?

Everything we carry has a person working behind it. They have come up with an idea, executed it and labored at getting it out there to share it with the world. Most of our artists are moms and dads, or young artists looking for their place in the art world. For Luke and I, we both find joy in making our work and want to pass that on to you so that the colors and shapes that inspire us can do the same in your own environment.

What, if any, forms of social media does your business currently use? Does your business have any plans to use social media in the future?

We currently use solely online media. We have our own website www.MadeByMarie.com, a Facebook page, a Yelp page , a Twitter page. We are also on Google search, Citysearch, Povo.com, Surfitlocal.com, local Yahoo.com, and many more.

My feedback

First, of I think it’s great that Marie and Luke finally pulled the trigger on starting this local business. They already have experience in running a business, which I’m sure has helped to curb the learning process as they fine tune this operation.

Strengths

Gifted has chosen to go the Internet route with their marketing plan. They can give themselves a pat on the back for this. It seems they have all of the essentials covered for getting the Gifted brand out there.

Another strength is that they are currently owner-operators of this business. I don’t have any insight as to the financial state of the business, but the fact that they do not have a payroll is a huge benefit.

From what I can see, the biggest competitive advantage that Gifted holds is that fact that they are in a very niche business. This means they have the opportunity to capitalize on less competitive long tail keywords. Madebymarie.com might never become a high traffic site, which is irrelevant given that the site has the potential to convert a lot of it’s traffic to sales.

Areas of Improvement

The extent of my suggestions pertain to the design of the site and SEO work. Check back tomorrow for my free site analysis of MadeByMarie.com.

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Wow. The Celts put on a great show tonight at the Garden. Best of all, I had the chance to sit in Paul Pierce’s suite, compliments of the Truth himself and Twitter. Also I happened to bump into my friend Maureen who works in premium ticket sales, and the Celtics won, so overall it was a great night. FYI, if you’re company hasn’t rented a suite at the Garden for a C’s game yet, Maureen is the girl you want to talk to (shoot me an email and I’ll put you in touch with her).

So the game was awesome, Big Baby deserves some Band-Aid endorsement money after the performance he put on, and everyone in the suite had an absolute blast. Just want to give a huge thanks to the Truth, and if you haven’t done so, join Twitter and follow the man immediately.

Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter by clicking here to go to my profile.