Upgrade Host's Website

[Misny]

Our host www.pilkguns.com, would like to upgrade their website, but don't have anyone capable close to them. I'm not a computer whiz, but I bet some of you are. Anybody have any suggestions as to how our host can get his website upgraded to be user friendly? I'm sure that the difficulty in navigating his current website is costing him customers.

[RyanA]

Hello,
I would recommend using shopify. I've never used it before, but I was able to get a test store up and running in about 30 minutes.
https://acme-target-shooting-concern.myshopify.com
I am also in the market for a Steyr evo 10 E Compact:)

Ryan

[CTurner]

Some choices are going to come down to monthly volumes when you look at the turnkey solutions like shopify and bigcommerce as well as TOU. Some may not like a firearms or related services and it is likely that many will not allow the use of their payment gateways which will mean additional costs above the base monthly fee for their service account.

[Chia]

PM sent.

[Frank Petronio]

I used to be in the dot.com industry in the early days but it's passed me by. Nowadays it is hard to justify the price of a custom website... you really have to spend well over $20K to get something good, otherwise the lowball shops are only going to adapt some template and do stuff that is maybe only one notch better than what a common sense amateur could do by reading the instruction book.

What a lot of people do is run their forum on one platform, use free social media as their "blog" or news update and marketing connection, while keeping a bare-bones shopping cart type site for actual sales. So maybe you'd land on a simple static Pilk Guns home page and click through links to the forum, shopping site, Facebook and Instagram (and whatever else, maybe YouTube or Flickr).

For that matter he could leave what is already up in place for ongoing reference material since search engines have already indexed it and it's not hurting anything, even if it doesn't play well with mobile devices it isn't the end of the world. And he could always cut and paste the content into his Facebook feed, as it would provide a steady supply of free and new marketing content.

I've had good luck with Square Space but I don't know their level of hoplophobia. I certainly like hosted services that take the headache out of maintaining security.

From a marketing point of view I doubt anyone looses much, if any, business from having a dated website for a niche audience. This isn't that competitive a marketplace, and most of the air gun sales sites that have better websites are selling cheap consumer guns, not $2000 air pistols. If anything Pilkguns presents itself to me very well, I can tell they care about competition shooting and aren't wasting their time and money on fancy websites and branding. Once you drill deep and get the hardcore enthusiasts involved they could care less about the website. Or the beauty of your logo, etc. They are much more forgiving than a mass consumer audience.

For that matter, look at the Yellow Forum or Airguns of Arizona ~ those websites are atrocious from a design and coding aspect yet they still get a lot of devotees in spite of their shortcomings.

If everything is working maybe all Pilk needs to do is some housekeeping, not new construction. There are people who will help you do this but you have to interview them very carefully, it is as much about philosophy as anything technical. So talk to a few web gurus and ask them what they see as the most important things to do and what is do-able for a small budget? Get them to tell you and judge them based on merit and your ability to communicate with them successfully (some of these people are brilliant but can't articulate what they want to do).

[gwsb]

I feel reasonably certain there are competent web developers in Chattanooga about 20 miles away. Also in today's world why do you need close physical proximity to the customer to develop a web site? They can design one in New Delhi over night.

All they really need to do it develop a budget, and check on line for web companies.

And if they can't find anyone in Chattanooga they can drive 15 miles the other direction to Tullahoma and ease their disappointment at the George Dickel factory.

[slofyr]

Our host http://www.pilkguns.com, would like to upgrade their website....

From a member's view, I'd have to ask why? This site stands out because it is clean and simple, and appears to function well. If an upgrade is necessary to keep pace with the IT rat race and display ads, then so be it. Otherwise, IMO, adding bling and complexity is annoying and would be a downgrade. Less can be more.

[rmca]

From a member's view, I'd have to ask why?

Just compare this two sites:

Our host http://www.pilkguns.com
Another one http://www.schiesssport-buinger.de/shooting/Home

Better doesn't mean more complex...

[Misny]

Our host http://www.pilkguns.com, would like to upgrade their website....

From a member's view, I'd have to ask why? This site stands out because it is clean and simple, and appears to function well. If an upgrade is necessary to keep pace with the IT rat race and display ads, then so be it. Otherwise, IMO, adding bling and complexity is annoying and would be a downgrade. Less can be more.

I don't find the site user friendly at all. Have you ever tried to find a specific product and price? Of course one can always telephone the store during their normal hours and ask for this and that, but then why bother with a website at all?

[Misny]

From a member's view, I'd have to ask why?

Just compare this two sites:

Our host http://www.pilkguns.com
Another one http://www.schiesssport-buinger.de/shooting/Home

Better doesn't mean more complex...

This is a great example. One website is easy to navigate and the other not so much.

[Chia]

Okay wall of text time. Sorry Rover, but I need to to explain why this type of stuff is important to people who may not own a small businesses and don't understand the impact of this type of thing.

I disagree with the site being fine "as is." This isn't from a personal perspective, it's from a business perspective. I very much appreciate this forum and his main one, but there is little question in my mind that things are hard to find on the main website. Sure, it can be "prettied up" with fancy images, but that's way less important than a functional, easy-to-use website. Photos don't make a website better (unless you're a model like Kate Upton...).

Why does Pilkguns need a functional, easy-to-use website? Considering that a major target audience for competition shooting seems to be youth shooting in the U.S., it is essential to have an easy-to-understand website, both for the children and for the parents who have day jobs. They're not going to spend all day figuring out a website's design just to help their kid purchase a gun or pellets. They'll just move on and find someone else who stocks the item, like amazon (yes they stock pellets and cleaning supplies) or another competitor website.

In today's world, a business owner has to have a website that works and is easy to update. We all have real jobs (you know, making money and all that) and I don't know a single business owner that doesn't hate keeping their websites updated (I've been slack about mine, but I intend to change that today.) We all need to collectively suck it up: those updates are critical to retain customer interest. Sure, most of the older crowd knows who Pilkguns is, and the people who run the competition circuits know who pilkguns is, but what about the newer body of people who want to know about competition shooting in the wake of the Olympics?

Like Pilkguns, I am in a low-volume, high-value industry. Each individual sale matters a lot for the bottom line. Referrals are a crucial part of business. For us, the basic process works like this:
1. we have a pool of people who know about us.
2. We have a smaller pool who likes us (the first impression might have been good: somebody talked about their experience with us, or they visited our website and liked it), and
3. an even smaller pool that has grown to trust us (this group is thinking seriously about estate planning and we are near the top of their list, whether due to a recommendation, our website in comparison to others, or other factors such as personal connections.)

That last pool is the one that we get clients from. Part of earning that trust is ensuring that you are competent in the area you state you are, and for better or worse, first impressions are very important to establishing that trust. Once we get a client, our customers are almost always highly satisfied, but we have to get that client first! And since the first experience most people will have with Pilkguns is through the website, the website's first impression is critical.

So now that we've established why a good website is important, let's talk about what a good website is. Website design boils down to this: get the user to what they want to find in as few clicks as possible, and make the experience nice and aesthetically pleasing.

Let's take two users of Pilkguns and break down what they have to do to get what they want.

User A wants information about a Steyr LP10. He goes under the drop-down menu of "our products" and select "pistols and gear." This takes him to a smaller page called "Pistol Menu." Out of those options, he clicks "World Class AP." He then has to scroll down to the LP10 entry under Steyr. It has a number of buttons including one that has a list of prices. But here's a problem: A User has NO IDEA that Pilkguns includes a technical section containing blowups and manuals for the LP10. To get to that, he has to go to "our services" then "coaching and info" then "10P files" then click on "Steyr" to access them.

From a design perspective, why not just include a button linking to the 10P Steyr section in the LP10 entry and save that extra effort and clicking? Sure, not everyone needs it, but since serious purchasers of pistols would generally appreciate the ease of accessing sophisticated information without having to stumble on it while looking for other things. Also, that entire list, from our products to the Steyr LP10 could have been accomplished with a single nested drop-down menu. User A clicks once, he is at the Steyr LP10 area. That's the ideal to shoot for.

Now for User B:

User B wants to buy pellets for his air rifle. He's a hobby shooter and doesn't need much more than the basics. He highlights "Our Products" and selects "targets and pellets" (which, by the way, should be reversed since more people will be looking for pellets than targets. I shoot five-ten pellets a target.) He is now at a page that talks about Vogel pellets, but there is nothing about price? Confused, he clicks the link to "price list and buy" at the bottom of the screen, which leads him to the part of the overall price list containing pellets. "Ah! Here we are, finally!" User B thinks. He buys the pellets.

The sale was successful, but it's not all roses. I want you to stop and think about what User B is thinking. This is not a position you want customers to be in. Instead of making his job of buying pellets easier, he has had a difficult time finding them. While the website did its job (it sold pellets and made money), it did not make a good first impression. User B is less likely to come back in the future for larger purchases, such as that new gun he's been saving up for. There are other websites out there that sell the exact same thing that are easier to navigate. Once again, a nested drop-down menu would solve this problem, taking User B directly to a menu that contains ONLY pellet selections. Also, some basic content information explaining the difference between the different diameters of 4.5mm pellets would be helpful to our hobbyist, since he probably has no clue why he would choose a 4.49mm over a 4.50mm.

That sort of stuff doesn't show up in statistics as it's pretty much impossible to track, but it is what drives a small, low-volume high-price business. And this is only a small taste of the insanity involved in web design. I'm not even going to talk about search engine optimization or merchant security. But those are all very important things that can matter a huge deal.

So in summary:
1. Website design matters to people who have not met you before.
2. The website is the most likely place that people who have not met you before will learn about Pilkguns.
3. Like any professional businessman, you should make their experience as smooth and easy as you can so that the new prospective customer likes you. Having an aesthetically pleasing website is a consideration, but planning out how users will access content is critical. Also, make sure you know how to change content to keep with events and set aside time to do so.
4. You should have informational content that is easy to access so that the customer who likes you can learn to trust you.
5. This will drive sales of products and form a long-term relationship with the customer that will bring them back for consumables and repairs.
6. The customer will recommend the website to any friends he has that are involved in air pistol or air rifle. And so the cycle starts over again at #1.

[rmca]

Part of earning that trust is ensuring that you are competent in the area you state you are, and for better or worse, first impressions are very important to establishing that trust. Once we get a client, our customers are almost always highly satisfied, but we have to get that client first! And since the first experience most people will have with Pilkguns is through the website, the website's first impression is critical.

+1

Chia,

This paragraph sums it up!
No need for the rest... ;)

[gwsb]

You people are kidding about the need for a new web site right?

Almost every shooting related web site is bad, but this one is the worst. Full of broken links, obsolete equipment "for sale" ect.

Example: click on

Home - Rifles - Precision AR, it takes you to a page for Steyr LG 110 which would be ok if they only sell the one air rifle but they don't even sell that according to what they told me in the spring. Then you click on "price list and buy" and it takes you to Steyr pistols not Steyr rifles.

In addition there is only one list of items for sale shown in more or less alphabetical order.

I believe if they want to sell things instead of just service guns (which they do very well), an investment in a new, better, and cleaned up web site would provide a good ROI.