A (web)site for sore eyes? Opinions Sought Please

[Don Ciccio]

Dear fellow owners,

I have just joined the forum (only just learned of it's existence) and intend to be an active member from now on sharing my experience and learning from others.

It seems the best place to get the ball rolling is here. We've been renting out our villas in Sicily since 1991. We have been online since 2001 and I've built the latest site myself, as we didn't want to be stuck paying design/hosting/editing fees for evermore. Its a bit clunky behind the scenes, but I would be very grateful if one/some/all of you have time to have a look at the site and give me your honest feedback on it.

The addy is http://www.get2sicily.co.uk

Thank you ever so much in advance. Hope to become a useful part of this forum community.

Happy Crimbo and New Year

Regards, Ciccio

[Margaret]

I am afraid I think it looks very old fashioned.

More importantly, to me, it is a lost opportunity. Your home page is your chance to grab attention and get people to look further on your site. A small home page with an 'enter' button really doesn't do it for me. I would use the home page to 'sell' Sicily and exactly what you are offering. It looks like an agency but you are just letting 2 houses? I confess I didn't look further and would not have done if I had been looking for accommodation in Sicily.

[Windy]

I have to agree with Margaret I'm afraid - the design could really do with an update and there are too many multiple click paths. I really wasn't seduced into following them all I'm afraid.

It looks like you have some good content, but you do need to work on the layout and especiallly the photos.

BTW - the "welcome" from the regular crew here can be a bit daunting and off-putting to some. Don't let this put you off - we all really do mean well

Have you looked at the iowners site? www.independentowners.com - they offfer some very professional looking great free web building tools which might be an answer to "we didn't want to be stuck paying design/hosting/editing fees for evermore" and according to an email shot I got yesterday, they have a new reciprocal deal with www.yourholidaymatters.com that might be of interest too.

PM me if you want more details as I don't want to derail this thread.

[Don Ciccio]

Windy and Margaret,

Thanks for such a quick response. I'm aware that others may have views too so will wait a while but as we too have been thinking about junking the 'click to enter' page for a long time I went ahead and uploaded the version of the site I'd modified that jumps straight in to welcome page.

I've also done a quick redraft of the text on the (now) frontpage to get rid of all the text links. Thats uploaded too. I'll have a longer think about a better front page now too.

And I'm not offended! (a little maybe, but this the forum seems to be doing what it says on the tin!) I wanted honest feedback. I agree that the site is a little dated (no CSS and lots of tables) but I've done it in my spare time from basic knowledge of DW MX . All of our 92 guests this year came through our website but we only managed to rent the larger villa and we think the reason is partly the photos of the smaller villa and the layout of the villa pages.

However, I will certainly do some investigating with the sites you have mentioned. As we only have 1 ONLINE 'competitor' in our resort, we have always focused more on content for our visitors than looks - however I do appreciate that many prospective guests are impressed by style over content...

We are currently rennovating one of the villas and taking a professional photographer friend out there this summer to take some pictures as we know that people base a lot of their opinion on this aspect.

Keep the critiques coming! Happy to receive PMs on this if people have the time.

Now, off to make some dinner and prepare for part 2 of the Day of the Triffids!

Later, Ciccio

[e-richard]

.... All of our 92 guests this year came through our website...

Well, that certainly proves that you must be doing something right

Web design is often over analysed, and while the above opinions and criticisms are reasonable, it just goes to prove that its content not looks that really count, and your website may be dated, but it works.

Mind you, I did find the various navigational methods (top, left and bottom) all a bit confusing, so only visited a small proportion of the site - perhaps only a small proportion of the site is what's needed to get the bookings. Wish I could tell you which portions.

Also, looking forward to the conclusion of the Triffids tonight!

[Margaret]

I entirely agree about content over looks. But that doesn't mean that the basic appearance of the home page when you land on it should not be appealing.

I know nothing about the technicalities and am more than happy to pay a man who does! But being able to update the site daily is a key criterion for me. My availability and prices page is a word processed table - it works fine!

[enid]

It look so much better with the new front page. The site is very easy to navigate and has clear and full information so it works for me. The style is a little dated and you could perhaps tweek the fonts and lay out a little but otherwise if it is working well for you - bravo!

[Don Ciccio]

Continued thanks for everyone who has commented.

I will be doing a lot of off-line doodling on the train today about how to make the site a little zappier.

Our old site was much more unique (light blue/dark blue with bigger images) but this summer I rebuilt it with the Verdana font and additional text navigation for usability and white backgrounds to make it easier to read. I know its effectively rolled it back in time, but the simple look was intentional.

I know we have the content, and with a bit more work the front page will be snappier.. its the look of the villa pages I want to overhaul

Bye for now guys and Happy New Year in advance