New site launched... hope it works this time.

[kitkat]

Hi all,

The gite Guru has kindly re-vamped my site using Wordpress and between us hopefully it will be more succesful than our old one for SEO and attracting guests. Would love to hear LMH's feedback so far.

[Musetta]

oooo...I love the clouds!! very dreamy

[kitkat]

Oops, looks like I posted in the wrong section... is it possible to move it to 'Website Reviews'?

[la vache!]

I've had a little look - as usual it is a very comprehensively laid out site by GG2!
Some of the things I personally didn't like though (and it is aesthetic)
Black font - it looks really harsh, I don't like it on any website
Different fonts - a big no-no for me, I like uniform text throughout a site
Twitter and Facebook logos are too 'in your face' and look a bit tacky
It is very 'blue' maybe too many blues on one page?
The photos on the homepage - do you have one of the outside of the gites at all? And the white plastic table and chairs photo...it doesn't look very nice, I personally wouldn't have that on the homepage.
The only other thing are the header photos that change all the time - is there really a beach with palm trees in the Dordogne?
I think the text is fine and the other pages with more photos are better, it is just the homepage that doesn't grab me at the moment, too much non essential stuff in prominent places, not enough attractive photos.

Also, is it possible to add some reviews to the homepage? I think those, where the Twitter and Facebook stuff is would be better. I have to say that a lot of my customers have never heard of Twitter and most probably wouldn't use it even if they had.

[kitkat]

Hi La Vache - thank you for taking the time to go over my site and your comments.

I knew the home page wasn't brilliant but couldn't 'see it myself', I was pretty blown away initially by GG's work. The 'over blue' theme is probably my fault... it wasn't like that when GG originally done it. I seen the 'fluffy white cloud' background on another site and asked if I could have it too. I guess it is a now a bit much. I'll re-think the colour scheme.

I'll re-take some photo's today of the outside of the gites and see how they come out.

Not quite sure what you mean by 'different fonts' - would it be the highlighted bold text on the homepage? I've a sinking feeling though that it's where I need to re-do some of the text on other pages where the 'cut and pasting' from the old site has got buggered up with formatting??? GG did mention this to me and I keep forgetting it / putting-off sorting it.

Know what you mean by 'is there really a beach with palm trees in the Dordogne?' It's a lovely shot isn't it and my husband thinks it's very naughty of me using it on the site but it was taken at Lake La Jamaye which is about 20km from us and proven very popular with our guests for the odd day out.

With regard to the FB & Twitter logo's - I've asked GG about also adding Digg and del.icio.us so have suggested they are less prominent and perhaps at the bottom of the page. Also suggested we loose the 'search' button.

Thanks again... much appreciated.

[la vache!]

Hi Kitkat, if the header photo is from somewhere near you then fair enough, keep it! It looked more like a Caribbean island to me and so I was surprised to see it in there. Regarding the text - it isn't the bold, it is the mix of different font types in the main body of text - Times new Roman as well as Arial possibly another one, and all different sizes. I think one font type looks cleaner and neater. Maybe you could try a different shade of blue, to contrast more with the sky rather than looking like a mismatch? Or maybe another colour scheme completely, something a bit softer and more subtle for the Dordogne, like this website for example.

[SummerStays]

looks great!

[Windy]

Yes - I noticed the Caribbean beach too (unless of course Biscarosse has changed a lot, what with global warming and all, since my last visit 4 years ago)

I think on the whole I'm with LV on her colour comments except for the one about black fonts which I actually like.

I too am not a fan of mixed fonts although I am led to understand that current wisdom says that they can be a good thing. I remain unconvinced though.

On the Le Ble page your numbered list is not indented and is a bit close to the picture IMHO.

Its a nice clean site though with easy navigation and nice pictures, so any changes are cosmetic and down to personal atse really. Nice job GG2.

[la vache!]

I've just had another look and it is much better now, less in your face blue, no black fonts (so harsh on a website IMO, but maybe its a girl thing). The font size still seems to change a little, but it looks much more ordered. And much better with the Facebook and Twitter links further down the page.
Pool shot is nice - the only other thing I'd do is swap the photos of the gites around and use their names rather than Gite 1,2,3 in the photo title. I think the exterior shot of Gite 3 is nicer than the other one and there are some flowers on it.
Nice work!

[La Chouette]

Is it me??? Maybe I've been out in the sun too much this morning, but a couple of your page headers say 'Bed Breakfast Dordogne'.

I thought you had gites.

Jan

PS Nice clean, easy to navigate site though

[chrisj]

Hi kitkat

Bit late on the thread but thought I would comment anyway.

Agree with others that the site looks and works well but the picture at the top needs to reflect your area and the blog links on side of pages are a bit to much.

Hope it works well for you.