La Fumade website

Get some feedback on your site or ad from other rental owners and techies. Also a library of online resources so you can make DIY improvements to your web presence.
baylor
Posts: 51
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:06 pm
Location: Herault, Languedoc, France
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La Fumade website

Post by baylor »

Hello all-

Any thoughts on our new site would be quite helpful. I haven't published it publicly yet--so it doesn't work if you just go to the basic url. (The one that's there now is from the old proprietor.)

http://www.la-fumade.com/file/Welcome.html

A few notes:
-I don't have pics of the twin bedroom, sadly. I am aware of this and am planning to have them as soon as possible. The other bedrooms are all represented.
-Our target is probably mature families--probably not toddler-age kids as the garden isn't necessarily toddler-friendly--and groups of adults.
-The house is set in a completely isolated location, which was a selling point for us and we'd like to communicate as a selling point for renters.
-The pool and the spa (hot tub) we hope mean that folks can enjoy the house much of the year.
-I have not put it together yet, but my plan is to put together a list of local amenities for folks who might not be familiar with the area. It's basically in the heart of the Languedoc wine country and the High Languedoc Natural Park, so there are almost unlimited outdoor activities around. It is also about an hour's drive to the Med so fairly easy access for a day or afternoon at the beach.
-The site has been created in iWeb and I haven't done any search engine work yet.
-There aren't many other large houses in the local area, so this is kind of a unique offering.

Thanks for any help or insight folks can provide! =)
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Ju
Posts: 1949
Joined: Mon Sep 27, 2004 6:56 pm
Location: Vendee, France
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Post by Ju »

Nice clean site - I like the look.

First point, and my particular bug bear, is that you need to tell people what you are selling up front.

Holiday rental (or gite or villa, which ever word you prefer) sleeps 12 in 5 bedrooms with private heated pool.

Should be on your front page before anything else. I had to read through half of the second page to find out it sleeps 12, most potential renters won't get that far.

I also think your 3 photos on the welcome page are not good enough. These three photos are what will sell your place and none of them do. you have much better pictures on your photo page, in particular the photo of the dining table and the photo of the house from a distance.

I leave the technical stuff to the others.
KAB-Dennis
Posts: 613
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2010 10:55 pm
Location: Beaches of the East Coast
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Post by KAB-Dennis »

Hi
Beautiful home
Great photos - clean crisp and they tell me all about the property and area
Not sure if it was my connection but when I clicked on one photo it took awhile to show the full size and then when clikcing from one full page to the next it was very slow again

Cant comment on any content etc as I am not a techie but just viewed it as a potential guest would
Best of luck with your new property

ENJOY!
Kate
USA
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CSE
Posts: 4414
Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2006 3:34 pm
Location: Galicia

Post by CSE »

I have a quick glance at eh website.
In addition to the above comments I also looked at the HTML and CCS. The former passed with flying colours, but there were a few errors in the CCS. Here is the report for the first page only. Nothing too drastic though.
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/vali ... lcome.html
It seems there are no or very little in the way of meta tags. If some of these are missing you may find your website being invisible to search engines. Things like a description tag robots text and site map are all missing.

My final comment is not about the website but something that may help you get more French guests. I see you have a U.K. mobile phone number maybe gat a French one two? You can always use a dual SIMmed phone to save carrying 2 phones around.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
baylor
Posts: 51
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:06 pm
Location: Herault, Languedoc, France
Contact:

Post by baylor »

Dear all- thanks so much for the input! Much appreciated. I will think about the photos and definitely change the landing page to say what the property is.

I'll look into the meta tags for the site, thanks for the insight there. I have no idea how to do this in iWeb but will, I'm sure, work it out in time.

I'll put a French number up too, so folks can ring us on it from France. I suppose I should put a UK landline really, but I don't know... what's people's experience with phone numbers? Do most people only take e-mail enquiries?
ccazes
Posts: 578
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2009 5:02 pm
Location: France

Post by ccazes »

Hi Baylor,

For SEO you have to look online for free software to compliment what Iweb does.

I used www.ragesw.com for meta tags etc but you have to pay for the sitemap so I used www.xml-sitemaps.com for that.

I also found this site that has good tutorial videos that explain what a meta tag, header etc is.
www.theiwebmedia.com/resources/videos.html
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wallypott
Posts: 1421
Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 9:50 pm

Post by wallypott »

On the La Maison page there are quite a few faults in the left hand colomn
deux not duex pg3, chambres with an s
salle à manger not salon
Piscine avec chauffés, would be piscine et spa chauffés/avec chauffage.
Arbor not used in French
Caractéristiques without an h in French
Complètement accent in other sense (in the main text)
Cuisinière accent in other sense

I think the spell check should have picked most of those up.

Hope that helps.

I started with the intention of doing saturday to saturday, but I have rather given up with the notion, and last summer it seemed to all sort itself out. But I was not in a position to be turning my nose up at much and had a very late start in the year (June), in two small properties.

Like you I have a large property too, which sleeps 12. I am on the coast but don't have a pool. If I did I would be charging over 2k€.

I have only looked at a couple of properties in your area, but at high season they seem to be charging considerably more than you. Do you think you might be undercharging?

Otherwise good effort, simple but effective content.
la vache!
Posts: 11065
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 7:22 pm

Post by la vache! »

Your property looks fantastic from the photos on the photo page, you need more of them on the homepage to attract people. Also more about the basic information that people need on first glance, as Ju said.
The French version isn't good, far too many mistakes. In additions to those already mentioned, "disponsibilité" should be "disponibilité".
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elena
Posts: 434
Joined: Sat Aug 26, 2006 2:48 pm
Location: PERIGORD NOIR
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Post by elena »

I agree that the photos on the photo page look great although the slideshow didn't work for me.

Personally I wouldn't mix the navigation bar with French and English - I found it a bit confusing. When I clicked on the bienvenue button I expected to get a complete French site & at first I thought you'd forgotten to translate the rest of the bar.
Maybe better to have an obvious French flag or something to take you straight to the French site.
It's looking good though - good luck!!
Elena

Dordogne Holiday Cottages
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