# your soap website



## todog (Dec 10, 2011)

I was just surfing the web trying to look at everyones soap sites. :biggrin. I am not good at surfing nor am I the best judge of anyones website, but just an FYI, I like simplicity. I prefer a site that shows the soaps up front on the home page. Being a senior I need to see right away what I am looking for and not have to navigate around the site. Remember I am not judging anyones site! :nooo. I am just feeding you info that may help if you are designing a site. I would love to have a site but not at this time. I am however getting ideas from others. Sorry for the rant! Hope this helps someone!


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## Greylady (Mar 28, 2012)

I see most have a facebook for their soaps plus their goats and a website as I do that also lists their websites. The facebook page is a way of advertising and getting your soaps out there if that is what you are looking for. Just search goat milk soap facebook pages and see what you come up with. Here is mine ~ Lottadoe Farms.


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## Angelknitter12 (Feb 16, 2012)

I think that is very helpful and interesting. My homepage is a welcome and introduction to our farm, and then you click a tab on the side to go to soaps and lotions. I found that 99% of my hits never leave the homepage. I am not sure how to change it, and still have it look like a welcome page. Looks like I have some thinking to do. Thank you very much.


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## Greylady (Mar 28, 2012)

I have a welcome page as well and a tab to go to soap page. You made an interesting point. What about a link directly to soap page from the welcome page with a picture of your soaps. Would that make a difference?


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## todog (Dec 10, 2011)

good! i got you thinking. ya,if i go to the first page and it has alot of reading then i just leave and go else where. when i am looking for anything, soap, goats, underwear, whatever, i want to seeTHAT first. show me the product and leave it up to me to look deeper if i want. i am not on facebook so that wouldn't do me no good. not every senior is on social networking.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Darlene,
what you are saying is exactly the advice that I got from my web designers. Product up front. Let people know exactly what your website is for and that you have products for sale; don't make them hunt for that information. "Landing" or "Splash" pages, where you have to "click to enter site" are counterproductive. If they want to know more about you, have that information available, but that should not be the first thing they see. So, my website is for selling soap and other bath and body products and that is what you see on my homepage. Yes, we have goats, and there is info about our farm on my website, but I am not selling goats through my website at this point. There are tabs for more information, my blog, etc, if people want to spend more time looking at that.


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## todog (Dec 10, 2011)

OMGOSH that's exactly what i was saying. i love, love, love your site. if i were ever going to get a site it would look like yours. even the tabs at the top are easy and very noticeable.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Thanks!


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## jdranch (Jan 31, 2010)

hsmomof4 said:


> Darlene,
> what you are saying is exactly the advice that I got from my web designers. Product up front. Let people know exactly what your website is for and that you have products for sale; don't make them hunt for that information.


I was thinking of your new site as I was reading the op


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## jimandpj (Mar 11, 2008)

I'll probably regret posting this, but...

Personally, I think this advice is too simplistic and a good website goes a lot deeper than simply putting your products on the home page. 

There are a lot of people who are drawn by images. There are an equal number of people who are drawn by words. To go after one group without going after the other, is a decision you have to make. But to say it is right to do it one way is simply incorrect. Consumers are much more complex than that.

You need to have a plan. You will attract different types of buyers with different home pages. 

We've had the home page with all of our soaps on it. And we have our current home page which does not have all the soaps on it. In my experience, if you want to build brand loyalty and get people to know you, then there is more to a good website than simply putting photos of your product on the home page. 

Just my 2 cents,

PJ


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## adillenal (Feb 6, 2009)

My website is for customers that have bought from me at shows and festivals. I do not think anyone is going to randomly find me on ther Internet. As such, I have way too many products to put them on the homepage. The radio buttons are on the left side anyway and a customer has no problems picking where they want to go. And if someone isn't going to buy from me because they have to click more than once, so be it.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Oh, I don't mean put ALL of the products on the homepage. Some pictures of representative items, clickable to go to their pages with more info. Basically, the point was that if people who come to your site don't realize its purpose on the first page they see, then you will probably lose customers. There are lots of ways to do that. The "click to enter" comment referred to the ones that don't have any information at all, maybe a graphic, and you have to click to find out ANYTHING.


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## todog (Dec 10, 2011)

Well,speaking for me, staceys website is the perfect mix!


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

My beef is no information. How am I supposed to know I am supposed to click on a goat for more information, to click on a cute logo to enter your page if it does not say 'enter here'. Just like playing Mario with my son the first time, days after it came out...I kept asking "How do you know you have to hit your head there to collect coins, who told you you could fly in the air....young folks know, us old folks have no clue, and we are the ones with the money to spend on your wall


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

And even if the logo does say enter here, why have that page to begin with? It's just dumb.


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

Stacey, do find that having your website professionally designed like that has improved your online sales? My site is just an information site, although you can click a link to my etsy shop. I have never sold much online. My bigger orders come from people who have bought soap from me at markets and festivals and then orderd more online. Since I've decided that I want to spend less time traveling around the country trimming horses, and more time at home with my soap business, I've been trying to figure out how to increase online sales...plus planning my strategy for wholesaling for the coming year. I have not tried to wholesale yet because I absolutely hate the idea of someone breathing down my neck...I know, wrong attitude. But anyway, as I am going forward, I do want to optimize my online presence. $2500 is a lot of money to spend, but if it dramatically increased sales/accounts, etc. I would do it.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

My online sales have improved, yes, and I am getting more wholesale inquiries. Not all of them have panned out (very small stores, for example, that aren't familiar with the costs of handmade soap or aren't prepared to order a minimum of 24 bars of soap) but some have.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Do you recommend your designer Stacey? Do you want to share privately or publically what your soap page cost? Is she doing your whole site or just your soap section. I am still looking for somebody to do my soap page, I don't want them to touch the rest  V


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

It's a team of two guys, actually. One is a work-at-home-dad (his wife is a nurse) and the other is a small farmer. They did my whole site, handled domain transfers, all of it. I am not using my site to market goats, though there is information about them there. It was a very good experience; they have really worked hard to make things the way I wanted them, and they continue to work with me if issues crop up. A whole website design might run $2500 or more. http://reginawebsolutions.com/


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

For that amount of money you would be number 1 on google, bing etc. Most companies in that price range are marketing for you and you get a contract that you will be on the first page of google, bing etc.

Thanks Stacey I will check them out.


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## jimandpj (Mar 11, 2008)

Vicki - that's simply not true. $2500 for a website is actually very little and will definitely not get you first place on the search engines. At least not for anything meaningful. And nobody can guarantee you first place unless they are using ppc advertising. That will get you first place if you're paying high enough.

But... $2500 will get you a nicely designed website (if you use the right people) that with a lot of work on your part *could* achieve first place on google. But you've got a lot of work to do building pages and inbound links and reliability. 

Or you could go after very low ranking search terms.

e.g. One of Lillian's pieces of advice that she used to give out was that you should register your domain name as your state plus goat milk soap. Ok fine, so you rank high for "Indiana goat milk soap." But guess how many people search for that? Too low for google to even give you a number. So who cares? And those searching that are often your competitors anyway. 

Have a domain name that your customers will remember. Much more important. With the way the web is evolving, you can do little things and get to number one for short periods of time, but it doesn't last. Strive for a high quality website, that's what gets you up in the search engines.

PJ


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

We have two quotes from two different web designers, one used by someone we know. In checking them out since July, the electrical company who referred us to the one, has been on the first page of google every time I have check, and is always near the top. We know he is a real company because my husband met him this last year when we were in N.C. for the week. He does zero work on his website because like me he wouldn't even begin to know how. 

There is no way I am going to put that much money into a website, why I asked the question, because my goal is not to go after internet sales. Unless there is a difference in marketing a website nationally done by the web marketing departmet and a state site like his and ours will be, our quote was just less than $2,500 which includes a month to month so you can cancel if you are not happy with your standing on Google, Bing and Yahoo, Yandex, Ask, AOL, Lycos a huge list. If you do a contract fees drop dramatically from there on for your web marketing. 

I know you spend a lot of time on your web marketing.


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## jimandpj (Mar 11, 2008)

If you've searched for him on google, he's going to come up for you regularly because google remembers what you previously searched for. And who knows who else is even available in your area as electrician. So yeah, he may be the best electrician site in your area, which is why it's returned number one. Not for something magical they've designed into his website.

For "goat milk soap" I just don't think it realistic to think you can invest $2500 and beat me, Alabu, Canus, etc. Just look at the inbound links I have - The Today Show, Oprah, The Doctors. Do you know how much weight that gives my site? You can't "honestly" replicate that by putting up a well designed website. Now, google may like knew things so you may see yourself on the first page (and that's a big "may"), but what are you going to do to stay ahead of me?

Plus, if you're working on your site and looking at your site regularly, you will appear on the top of the search engine results when you search for stuff related to your site.

Your website should always be about your customers. Not your search engine ranking. Google wants to return the sites as number one that customers perceive as number one. Focus on your customers and let the rest follow. 

But it does take having a well designed site that is easy to navigate and well coded. That is a very important first step.

PJ


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

One thing that I have found about what Lillian said, however, is that I DO get wholesale accounts because of it. I have no desire to be anywhere as big as you, PJ, or probably even as big as Vicki.  But local businesses who would like to carry locally made GM soap, find me.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Oh, and if anyone would like my web guys to give you a call, you can PM me and I'll let them know.


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## jimandpj (Mar 11, 2008)

Stacey - but you don't need your domain name to do that. All you need on your website is a page dedicated to "Kansas Goat Milk Soap". 

PJ


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## SherrieC (Oct 26, 2007)

Alabu? Canus? I went and looked and found Canus, Yuck on their bar soap >
Ingredients: Sodium Palmate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Aqua, Glycerin, Fresh Goat’s Milk, Fragrance, Palm Kernel Acid, Sodium Chloride, Potassium Sorbate, Tetrasodium EDTA, Tetrasodium Etidronate, Titanium Dioxide.


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## jimandpj (Mar 11, 2008)

Canus is manufactured goat milk soap, but there in a lot of places and come up high on search engine results. Google doesn't care about the quality. LOL

PJ


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

I'm finding this discussion informative. We're having our website completely redone early 2013. We had to change web hosts earlier this year and things did not transfer well. We don't even have a shopping cart now.....just a listing so you can see what you want then email for me to send you an invoice. Even with that we've managed to double last December's sales. I'm looking forward to getting a good site up and running and hopefully something *I* can maintain. That's really important to me because I'm always doing something new or changing things up and I want to quickly be able to get it out there.


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## CindyB59 (May 1, 2011)

As a buyer (don't make my own, never will) - these are my thoughts. Not sure that they'll help anyone, but it might give a little different perspective.

When I first wanted goat milk soap, I did a google search. "Goat Milk Stuff" was one of the first that came up. Web site was easy to navigate, informative, and very interesting. Ordered and got lightening fast customer service (which is a biggee!!) and great products. In the past 1.5+ years, I've ordered from many other places, only a couple of which I didn't care for very much (nobody on here). I still look for ease of navigation on the website, information such as ingredients, size, etc -and love the personal touches like family/goat info. I also like the pictures of the actual soap (not clip-art type pics), and a description - especially when they are named something that has nothing to do with the scent. I'm not going to order "fluff balls" if there is not some kind of description of the scent. So for me, a plain list of scents doesn't result in my ordering.

I still search for new places, and a lot of times I'll search "goat milk soap WA state" or what ever state I want to try. You get totally different results that way.

I've totally converted quite a few friends and family to GMS, so a random internet buyer can turn into bigger sales.


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