Here is your NoSpin Debunker for October 26, 2005
Next, and last, on the firing line is Wholesale Furniture Brokers which sells a wide range of furniture online and via warehouses located though
out the U.S.
A couple caveats—I am not reading every word on every page, but I am attempting
to view each page on the sites being analyzed and hit some highlights and lowlights.
Also, though, some recommendations are implicit in the comments, this is not to
be taken as a complete plan for a revamped or new site. And without knowing the
company’s overall marketing approach, some comments below may be out of context.
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The Good
BRAVO!, says Clint,….”finally, a really fine web site. You folks should check
this site out and listen up to this Debunker. There’s a ton of good stuff on this site,
but here are a few of the highlights:
It’s very obvious what they do from the get-go: they: they sell wholesale furniture
directly to consumers and also to retailers. And we like the tag line: “buy smart,
buy wholesale.”
Contact information (to get people to take action however they choose) is very
clear and emphasized on the homepage and throughout the site. You can contact
the main office by phone, email, online form, or chat—or contact individual locations as well
by phone. YOU CAN’T HAVE ENOUGH WAYS FOR FOLKS TO INTERACT WITH YOU ON YOUR SITE (and of course, then, you have to provide exceptional, timely, professional
follow-up). There’s also a newsletter to sign up for and a contest if you’re a
winner. You can even customize your user experience for subsequent visits—pretty
advanced still even for good e-commerce sites. Note, that they really don’t care
how the sale is made—via their site directly, over the phone, or via one of their
warehouse locations. That’s the way that it should be.
There is a lot of content on the www.gowfb.com site (and a lot of pages which search engines love as well) but it is very well
organized--
Photos are important on a site like this to show actual goods, and each can be
seen in different 3 sizes—not just the puny one size so often seen on other e-commerce
sites. It is highly recommended that your web site merchandise photos are large--but
still highly unusual for businesses selling actually stuff from their site
The www.gowfb.com site currently gets 4000 visitors per DAY. Three years ago they started at zero traffic and traffic has doubled almost
every 9 months. A lot of sites would like to get that kind of traffic in a week
or a month. How does that happen? WFB does a ton of ongoing search engine marketing
work (and this was verified with the company through a follow-up interview):
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Excellent title and meta tags
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Excellent html content on the site (and as mentioned they have a lot of pages
of content that expands the chances they will be found by searches on many engines)
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Links on other sites
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Good url names (that incorporate key words)
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Selective pay-per-click on Google Adwords, etc (this is optional for their warehouses
by location).
As a result of WFB’s continuing search engine marketing work, they have a Google
first position ranking for “wholesale furniture” and good rankings for a huge
number of niche key words related to furniture products, furniture locations,
etc.
The site generates a significant number of contacts and sales—with an estimated
10 to 1 of local sales coming initially from the www.gowfb.com site.
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The Bad
Clint and I hate to be nit-picky, but here are a few observations:
www.wholesalefurniturebrokers.com is owned by the company and re-directs to www.gowfb.com (which is good), but Clint and I are old fashioned: yes, the company’s main
url is shorter but we don’t think memorable—and certainly doesn’t help brand the
company like a good lead url should (yes, the long version is a mouthful, but
we still prefer it).
We also find the contact wfb.cc (and other company) email addresses a bit confusing
for most. Most folks are only used to .com or .org at the end of an email address.
We may be wrong, but one of THE first questions that would pop into our heads
would be about shipping and delivery costs, Yes we eventually found that information
on the www.gowfb.com site but not in the FAQ section (it at least needs to be there as well).
We like the fact that the site is organized by furniture and stores….we were
a bit confused, though, in looking at some items that have a store location on
them (is that the only location?), and the ones without a location (are coming
from where?)
Testimonials are good but I’d have a bunch more that illustrate even more the
range of positive acceptance for multiple products in multiple geographies. There
are no magic numbers, but for a substantial e-merchant, I’d include at least 15-25
testimonials and keep changing them.
The newsletter is also good but we would put the information re: what is in it
(and the contest offer) above the actual contact form.
None of the above are huge deals at all in the grand scheme.
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The Ugly
No Ugly here that either Clint or I can see. As mentioned, in spite of having
a ton of content, it’s easy to get around and find what you need; and the search
function works great
Overall, Clint thinks this is one of the easiest sites he’s seen in quite some
time to find what the heck he’s looking for—and it’s “purdy” as well.
That being said, the primary “North Carolina” blue around the WFB logo is a bit
nauseous for a Duke basketball fan like myself—and I’ve turned Clint into one
as well—he sometimes just shuts down when he sees that putrid “sky blue” versus
royal blue color.
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Overall Grade: A
www.gowfb.com is definitely in the top 1%-tile of sites that you’ll find on the Web. Yes,
they are a bricks and clicks business that depends hugely on e-commerce to market
and sell products. So they had better have a good site, right? Yes, but that’s
no excuse for the huge percentage of businesses (with or without things or services
to sell online) to operate such pathetic web sites.
My sidekick Clint says, “It’s obvious that you’ve put a huge amount of work into
your site. Keep on doing what you’re doing—updating your site regularly, enhancing
it, and trying new search techniques to increase traffic and conversions. More
sales will come."
615-661-6042
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1723 Stillwater
Circle | Brentwood, TN 37027 | 615.661.6042
tom.ranseen@NoSpinMarketing.com
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