Our very new and updated website

[964kevin]

Hi Folks,

Haven't been around for a while, bit busy with life's small offerings, and spending time updating our website.

http://www.encantada-vacation.com

Any comments gratefully received.


thanks.


Kevin

[Nemo]

Nice apart from some of the typeface. The green encatada vacation is not nearly legible enough, the writing on grey makes me feel like my eyes are blurring and the tabs again I feel are not really clear enough.

I looked for accommodation details and couldn't find any, I'd love more details or links to all that's on offer in the area but I love the Tom Tom hire. We had to buy one, I tried to do it online beforehand and couldn't. Arriving in the early hours of the morning and not knowing quite where you were going was a nightmare!

[CSE]

There are few code ending tags which are not complete.
Typos like this

Code: Select all

<meta name="description" content="Florida villa rentals, only 5 miles from DIsney, great familt holidays, secluded, secure resort, and loved by all who've stayed here.">  

(plus one of your missing end tags).
No H1 or H2 headings.
No robots.txt found.
No sitemap.xml found.
Google SERP Snippet is about right.
The site is mobile friendly but there are issues to be resolved.
http://validator.w3.org/mobile/check?ta ... ion.com%2F


The font on the menu bar just does not do it. Menus should be easy to read. Even when on a different page to the home page the menu seems to indicate, by the colour) that I am still on the home page.
Home page, could you not have links to give prospective customers more information about the hire of the GPS units? Maybe more about the spashpool?
Gallery, no titles to the photos in the main lightbox gallery. Also if one photo is smaller than the other and you accidently click outside it closes the lightbox and not move to the next photo. A bit annoying.

Contact form, tested it and yes saw an error message, maybe think about adding a back button for those who are not good on the internet. Maybe add validation as the form is begin filled in.



Overall the website presents a nice clean presentation.

[kevsboredagain]

It's a good start but there does seem to be a lot of information missing or in strange places. Most of the fine detail seems to be on the home page, so no chance to expand on the accommodation facilities on other pages.

My grammar is nothing be desired but I'm not sure why you put a capital letter at the start of so many words. It's not German.

The calendar doesn't seem to fit correctly in it's frame. There's always a scroll bar.

The use of Paypal buttons everywhere is rather messy. There are even the names of some of your clients in the drop down menu! Try to make he payments page separate from the main website and give people the link when you want them to make a payment. You can also interface to Paypal from a form so no need for a button or drop down for every unique amount. Even the pricing page has buy now buttons everywhere. So I want 4 nights and it's already booked, do I just click buy now and I'll get it?

As stated already, the contact form does not handle error very elegantly.

I was fine with the fonts and color but the floating menu is not right. It's ok to have it remain at the top but then overlaying it on top of the scrolling content doesn't work well. Normally you'd have a top margin there and the page would scroll underneath the margin, leaving the menu clear to be read.

You used bootstrap so you should have 1 fan at least on LMH

[CSE]

Fan??? Not me. Trying to make it do something we like is frustratingly impossible/difficult/hard. Out of the box it is fine, but would hate to see all websites turning into facsimiles.

[Casscat]

I'm not getting into technical issues, but as as non-techie viewer I have some small comments. As I connected the first image I saw was some kind of car park, which did not immediately sell the dream. Then I realised it was part of a random scroll - which really and truly is distracting. The first impression visitors to your page should get is 'Wow! That looks amazing!!' but that wasn't my impression. On your home page choose the most awesome image you can, as a static - probably the open water view - and invite people to come in and see what they can buy to get that view. I'd lose the 'about us' with cutesy pics because what you want is people to 'move in' for their duration not to think that they are displacing Buzz Lightyear and your infant son.

I just read that back and it sounds harsh. Really it isn't meant unkindly, but you have a great place that you are underselling.

[964kevin]

Thanks for the feedback all, its a bit hard to swallow, but I appreciate the time to assist a fellow Forum member...

I'll digest it all, and update when the time allows, it looks like I have a bit to do, well more than I expected...


Thanks, and yes its all positive in my eyes.

kevin

[Cassis]

In brief, I like it and it's a lot better than some others. I'm not about to throw any stones.

[edinburgh]

Hey

I don't think it's too bad. My partner quite likes the look of the place and we've bookmarked it for future reference.

The prices seem very reasonable, and I'm surprised to see winter being the cheapest season. We used to spend a lot of time in Fort Lauderdale, where winter was considered the peak season.

Do you struggle to sell winter? I only ask, as places used to fill up around Miami/Fort Lauderdale/Boca around that time. Lots of Europeans and Canadians escaping the cold

Anyways, only thing that niggles is the calendar. It's fugly. But then I can hardly talk. Why must calendars be so hard to implement nicely?

[964kevin]

Hey

I don't think it's too bad. My partner quite likes the look of the place and we've bookmarked it for future reference.

The prices seem very reasonable, and I'm surprised to see winter being the cheapest season. We used to spend a lot of time in Fort Lauderdale, where winter was considered the peak season.

Do you struggle to sell winter? I only ask, as places used to fill up around Miami/Fort Lauderdale/Boca around that time. Lots of Europeans and Canadians escaping the cold

Anyways, only thing that niggles is the calendar. It's fugly. But then I can hardly talk. Why must calendars be so hard to implement nicely?

Thanks.

With regards to the calendar, I've not seen an elegant solution yet, and this one although awkward allows me to update it remotely even from my HTC One....I've suggested they update some code, and am waiting for this, I paid only $8, so its no big deal.
Winter, can be difficult to book, Jan to March is snowbird time, and that's fine, we do get these bookings.
The market is hugely competitive, so much so that in 5 years its hardly breaking even (another story) tried higher pricing, no bookings, listed on HL.HA.OD, Tripadvisor, local management etc, wasn't working till prices became more realistic...


Thanks for the feedback.

[964kevin]

There are few code ending tags which are not complete.
Typos like this

Code: Select all

<meta name="description" content="Florida villa rentals, only 5 miles from DIsney, great familt holidays, secluded, secure resort, and loved by all who've stayed here.">  

(plus one of your missing end tags).
No H1 or H2 headings.
No robots.txt found.
No sitemap.xml found.
Google SERP Snippet is about right.
The site is mobile friendly but there are issues to be resolved.
http://validator.w3.org/mobile/check?ta ... ion.com%2F


The font on the menu bar just does not do it. Menus should be easy to read. Even when on a different page to the home page the menu seems to indicate, by the colour) that I am still on the home page.
Home page, could you not have links to give prospective customers more information about the hire of the GPS units? Maybe more about the spashpool?
Gallery, no titles to the photos in the main lightbox gallery. Also if one photo is smaller than the other and you accidently click outside it closes the lightbox and not move to the next photo. A bit annoying.

Contact form, tested it and yes saw an error message, maybe think about adding a back button for those who are not good on the internet. Maybe add validation as the form is begin filled in.



Overall the website presents a nice clean presentation.

Cheers, going through the items, and the Google pagespeed items now, I hadn't realised how long it was going to take, but the code beneath looks like a big thing for Google, so I'll put some more effort there..

Kevin

[964kevin]

Nice apart from some of the typeface. The green encatada vacation is not nearly legible enough, the writing on grey makes me feel like my eyes are blurring and the tabs again I feel are not really clear enough.

I looked for accommodation details and couldn't find any, I'd love more details or links to all that's on offer in the area but I love the Tom Tom hire. We had to buy one, I tried to do it online beforehand and couldn't. Arriving in the early hours of the morning and not knowing quite where you were going was a nightmare!

Odd, although I must admit I'm doing this from an IMac, and a reasonably sized screen, that's most likely my issue, I only have this and my HTC phone to view..

I'll look to organise more effectively, and have updated some of the typeface this morning.

thanks

Kevin

[964kevin]

It's a good start but there does seem to be a lot of information missing or in strange places. Most of the fine detail seems to be on the home page, so no chance to expand on the accommodation facilities on other pages.

My grammar is nothing be desired but I'm not sure why you put a capital letter at the start of so many words. It's not German.

The calendar doesn't seem to fit correctly in it's frame. There's always a scroll bar.

The use of Paypal buttons everywhere is rather messy. There are even the names of some of your clients in the drop down menu! Try to make he payments page separate from the main website and give people the link when you want them to make a payment. You can also interface to Paypal from a form so no need for a button or drop down for every unique amount. Even the pricing page has buy now buttons everywhere. So I want 4 nights and it's already booked, do I just click buy now and I'll get it?

As stated already, the contact form does not handle error very elegantly.

I was fine with the fonts and color but the floating menu is not right. It's ok to have it remain at the top but then overlaying it on top of the scrolling content doesn't work well. Normally you'd have a top margin there and the page would scroll underneath the margin, leaving the menu clear to be read.

You used bootstrap so you should have 1 fan at least on LMH

Oops, yes hadn't noticed the uppercase lower case debacle, homepage should be remedied now.

the floating menu works mostly, but I'm struggling to get the screen size alterations fitting all types, for example on my phone, its perfect, on the Imac, its great at Half screen estate, take it lower and the menu falls into the next lists, even with all the div coding organised, I'm struggling to be honest, but I'm not one to be beaten too easily.


Can't seem to get the php coding to work on the email error, but will investigate how to manage more effectively, php isn't my bag in reality..

thanks


Kevin

[964kevin]

I'm not getting into technical issues, but as as non-techie viewer I have some small comments. As I connected the first image I saw was some kind of car park, which did not immediately sell the dream. Then I realised it was part of a random scroll - which really and truly is distracting. The first impression visitors to your page should get is 'Wow! That looks amazing!!' but that wasn't my impression. On your home page choose the most awesome image you can, as a static - probably the open water view - and invite people to come in and see what they can buy to get that view. I'd lose the 'about us' with cutesy pics because what you want is people to 'move in' for their duration not to think that they are displacing Buzz Lightyear and your infant son.

I just read that back and it sounds harsh. Really it isn't meant unkindly, but you have a great place that you are underselling.

Car park, oh dear, the ideas of the images and order was to guide you in, and then around our home. Epic fail I imagine on that part......

Understand about Buzz, he may have to be withdrawn at some point.....

underselling, yes, you are right, but that's me all over, once the website was called Fiona Bruce by one chap, albeit in a kindly manner, can you guess I don't work in sales.....


thanks


Kevin