Category Page Design

thank you for joining us I am noticing a page focused on sealing solutions it was submitted by a woman named Ruby Ruby we want to help you today and we're looking for transferable principles that will work for many of the others who are joining us as we do live off I haven't seen this page before today and I'm moving swiftly through it asking myself a simple question what is the most important change you could make to this page now think for just a moment in fact if you look at yourself you might ask yourself the same question there are ways we can help improve its performance but what is the most importantly now if I look at the breadcrumbs I get a sense that this is a classic category page in e-commerce some of the most important pages for us to optimize are the product pages the category page of course the home page but also the about Us page from any shoppers goal in order to get that extra sense of reassurance in this case the category page is functioning I think as a landing page I say this because search results indicate that a lot of people visit here directly from a keyword term that is important in the competitive space so if they come here what is the first thing they should see well at the top you see custom wood ceilings properly as a category page it is focusing on title this is where you're at the problem is it stops there it doesn't give me any sort of connection or dialogue most importantly in in introducing that dialogue it doesn't connect me with a value proposition now I've come to this page I know what it is but I don't know why I should engage here indeed what's to stop me from leaving this page and going back into the search engine and looking for something else nothing the two most important headlines outside of the sort of confusing hero shots at the top is custom wood ceilings and overview noticeably there in all caps which classically gets in the way of quickly assessing meaning I think you can with those but in the blue box carve out a truly unique ceiling with sizes shapes and curves made your specifications I think that dick Euler phrase becomes very difficult it's sitting in a box next to two other box so I don't know if it relates to that box only or to the other two or to the page so far I've used a large portion of this page up without getting any of the most important question answered when I come to your site the most important question you can answer after I have clearly got a sense that I'm in the right place is this why should I stay here rather than consider any other option indeed that question connects to the value proposition of the site itself and of the products represented on the site the primary question that should be answered throughout the site is this if I am the ideal customer why should i purchase from you rather than any of your competitors that question forces the merchants to understand an ultimate reason to communicate the primary argument for shopping with them if the merchant doesn't have a good answer Ruby if you don't have a good answer then you shouldn't spend your money on marketing you should spend your money on improving your product mix and your offering now I'm going to assume that you do have a good answer and and if that's the case the problem is you're assuming that answer into the design of your page and you are not helping me as a visitor understand why this is the best place for me to look for my solution so you have two kinds of value propositions that should be communicated one is the primary value proposition of your organization and the other is the product level value propositions associated with custom wood ceilings so how do you do that well first of all beneath your title which I would probably make slightly smaller I would have a strong headline that draws me into the page and suggester implies enough to get me to want to read what happens next in fact the goal of a headline is to capture attention and convert it to interest if it does that it gets me into a dialogue your job is the merchant is to get out of your metrics program and onto the page which is to say in the same room with me having a dialogue anticipating what's in my mind anticipating what I'm and helping me solve for the problem I came to this page and the problem that was on my mind when I typed the term in the search engine Ruby I would have a headline a sub-headline I would not let those boxes at the top of the page take up so much of my real estate and get in the way of the communication and I would have a strong value proposition for this category and the products represented on it with perhaps two or three evidential x' for instance i have no idea if you have a complete selection I have no idea if in customization you do particular work that no one else can do I have no idea how long you've been in business and whether or not I can trust your enterprise I have no idea if your cost is particularly attractive to me or if you're a little bit more expensive than someone else why you are why that's justified and why it's been my money with you now you can't answer all of those questions in a single statement but you can take the most important answer and put it in front of me see as a marketer and as a merchant your job when I come to this page is to identify what lever in my mind needs to be pulled that will stimulate my action my action my desired action would be to engage in this page to try and understand your particular products and then from there I move further up the thought sequence but I have a reason to do so at this point you're leaving it up to me to make all the meaning and that means that I've got to work too hard and I will tell you your most motivated segments might do this but you're at least motivated Sejal or not so the first thing I do is get a headline a sub-headline I'd move those three boxes I wouldn't just say overview it's not strong enough this paragraph put your spin on the traditional look of a wood ceiling by selecting wood words customs wood ceilings in the sizes shaped curve I'm not gonna keep waiting do you see how long the sentence is do you see that I still can't make meaning out of it do you see that it doesn't lead with what I get it tells me to do something and put your spin on the traditional look is a lot of words before I get any meaning whatsoever that connects to my important needs it's marketing speak and it doesn't do anything to particularly identify with me appeal to my specific needs or to make your case the value proposition the reason I should be here and then it says count Donna you inspire solution center what is that and why do I count on it am I on that page already didn't I come here for that or is that something else and if I click on it where do I go and at Armstrong stealing's helped bring you one-of-a-kind ideas to life one-of-a-kind ideas is marketing drivel I'm gonna summarize my time is almost up one get a headline and a sub header potentially to move those big boxes out of the way three give me a value proposition some bullet points and evidential four improve the copy that I see under the overview section don't call it an overview give me a much more attractive title use bold in your paragraphs to give me an eye path communicate what matters most eliminate confusion and then help me understand I see four boxes and I see four categories beneath this category do I have to click in deeper what does this mean are there more offers there why do I look there you haven't told me what it is you haven't told me what to do I'm stuck on this page just trying to figure it out for myself take the work out of it and give me the reason I should stay and engage really if you try some of these things and you'd like to get our comments talk to the market experiment staff we'll do our very best to help you maybe you can run a test we want you to be able to win we also want people who are listening to this to be able apply it to their own pages thank you