Review for selfcateringcrieff

[sallyandalan]

Hi,

Just joined the forum, and I'd like to get some comments on our website. It's for a self-catering flat in Crieff, Scotland which has been running for a few years now. We get a reasonable amount of enquiries through the site, but I'm looking for ideas on how to sharpen it up a bit, or a lot.

Holiday Flat in Crieff

Thanks in advance,
Alan

[kendalcottages]

Hi Alan and welcome to LMH.

I'm only vaguely familiar with Crieff, having stayed at the the Aviemore Highland Resort on a couple of occasions. Nice part of the world and I loved watching the salmon leap over at Buchanty Spout which is near you (yet which most locals I asked about didn't seem aware of!).

As for your website, the thing that strikes me most first of all is the pictures. I'd like to see bigger and better pictures. For instance, it's hard to make out the bedroom shots all that well, and they're not all that well lit and would no doubt benefit from a wide angle lens. The pictures are crucial IMHO so I think that's where I would focus my attention.

(After comment: I wrote the above after having looked at the homepage and clicking on 'Accommodation'... not having noticed 'Pictures' at the end of the navigation. How about putting some of those larger, better pictures more at the forefront?)

[Margalide]

Hi,

I like the floor plans - how did you make them?

[sallyandalan]

Thanks for the ideas, I'll work on getting some better pictures on the front page, and make it easier to find the rest of them.

If I remember right the floor plans were done with SmartDraw, but it was a while ago.

Alan

[kendalcottages]

For floor plans, also take a look at http://floorplanner.com/

[CSE]

Google draw would be another suggestion for floor plans.
http://sketchup.google.com/

[sallyandalan]

Hi,

Thanks for the ideas, I've now tweaked the layout of the index page to get some pictures on there. If this layout works I'll now try to get some more/better photos for the slideshow on the right hand side.

[Wendy@NorthIdaho]

Hi Alan,
Beautiful place! As an American I am wondering if the floors are American 2nd and 3rd? also I had no idea where Crieff was but was able to use your location map and just keep zooming out to see where it is in relation to Scotland, you look as though you are on the top of the world! Would be fun to explore that part of the globe...

Those were the only 2 questions I had had when looking at your website and the one was easily remedied and the other (as to the floors I think I know since I've been to Europe) but Americans who don't know that the 1st floor to some means the 2nd to us might be surprised that they may have to walk up steps to get to their apt.

Nice and easy to use website!
Wendy

[cottageguru]

I too had no idea where Crieff was and wondered if, instead of using the address in your h1 header, you used something like:

Self Catering in Crieff - Beautiful Scottish Highlands

This should help your SEO as well as offering an easy to see location without site visitors having to read the text to find out.

The site is easy to navigate with appealing layout. I liked all the area information too. Had you considered including a blog to keep visitors up to date with what is going on in your area?

[sallyandalan]

Thanks for the ideas, I've revised the title to make it clear the accommodation is in Scotland. We get a lot of guests who are visiting friends and relatives, so already know Crieff well, I hadn't thought of how it would look to those that have never heard of it.

I don't think I'd have the material to keep a blog going, but there's a "things to do" page that does get quite a lot of interest, and which I try to keep up to date with local happenings.

We don't get a lot of visitors from the US, so far the only ones have been from Alaska retracing their Scottish roots. When the Ryder Cup comes to Gleneagles in 2014 I think we'll get a few more.