Review of website would be appreciated!!!

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.
AndyH
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Review of website would be appreciated!!!

Post by AndyH »

Hi, We are very new to this game, and with the renovation work on our house due to finish soon I have put together a website to advertise for next year.

www.lapagerie.com

I would be very gratful for people's comments - good or bad. I'll brace myself.............

I've done a review of other sites to advertise on using this sites recommended way and have come up with a short list, and will be decorating some more rooms in December so that I can include more inside photographs.

Also considering advertising in The Lady magazine.

Thank you in advance for all your comments!!

Andy.

-----------------------------
www.lapagerie - it's taken a while but we're getting there.....
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debk
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Post by debk »

Hello, Andy -

Congrats on all your work.

I like your site. It is attractive and easy to navigate.

The home and area look lovely... but I can't be certain because the photos are all quite small. :( I very strongly recommend that you have a link to a gallery with larger photos that sell your place and the surrounds. Get folks into the "gotta get to France" mood via your website!

Also, I usually exit quickly from any website that won't show me an availability calendar. But that's just me...

Hope that helps. Congrats, again.
debk
AndyH
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Post by AndyH »

Thank you for your comments.

To be honest I was caught in two minds about an availability calendar, thinking that if the week that the potential customer was looking for was already booked they would go elsewhere, but if they contacted me anyway then I could perhaps talk them into renting another week.

However, now thinking that I should add one!!!

Will update the site to have a photo gallery though!!
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www.lapagerie.com - Holiday house to rent
www.sompt.com - The renovation of our house
AndyH
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Post by AndyH »

Oops. Just realised that this posting should really be in the website reviews section. Sorry. :oops:

Any chance it could be moved Paolo?
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www.lapagerie.com - Holiday house to rent
www.sompt.com - The renovation of our house
gh
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Post by gh »

Hi Andy,

Nice to see another owner from Deux Sevres. Like the layout of your site, like you say, when you have finished inside and add more pictures, it will be better still.

Lots of different views on calenders, we prefer one and yesterday got an enquiry for dates already booked out :roll:

On listing sites, we find for our area that HL are getting us the enquiries.

Good luck with the decorating, look forward to seeing the pic's.
AndyH
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Post by AndyH »

Thanks Johnel!! When you say HL, do you mean http://holidaylettings.co.uk

They came 3rd in my survey and are not a bad price for a years advertising. Thank you for your information!!

Regards
Andy.
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www.lapagerie.com - Holiday house to rent
www.sompt.com - The renovation of our house
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Jimbo
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Post by Jimbo »

ah20206 wrote:
www.lapagerie.com

I would be very gratful for people's comments - good or bad. I'll brace myself.............
Sorry, I have to agree with debk, your small and unexciting images wouldn't encourage me to linger.

Imagine if you had no text - just your heading and the pictures. Do you think your images do justice to the efforts you've made to get your property ready for rental? If potential guests are flicking quickly through a couple of dozen sites, it's likely that they're not reading the text at that point and it's the quality of the photographs that will make them want to read it. Otherwise, they're gone. Forever.

People tend to assemble their info and design their website first - the pictures are an afterthought. A bit of a nuisance. Imagine doing it the other way round - spending several days shooting some great pictures, ruthlessly editing them and - and only then - designing your site around the cream of your images. How would it look then?

Good luck with your venture.

Jim
gh
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Post by gh »

ah20206 wrote:Thanks Johnel!! When you say HL, do you mean http://holidaylettings.co.uk

They came 3rd in my survey and are not a bad price for a years advertising. Thank you for your information!!

Regards
Andy.
Sorry Andy I did mean them.


Helen
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Topcat
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La Pagerie

Post by Topcat »

Just one or two additional comments. They both relate to your links page.

To my mind there are too many links. Now, I don't know much about this, but I've read somewhere that too many links can have a negative effect on Google. Somebody can put me right on that.

Why are you offering links to other areas, other properties, b&bs etc? Unless they're paying you commission, I can't see what you gain, and I can certainly see what you MAY lose.

Although the site is generally easy to navigate, I found that, from the links page, I was stuck. I did realise of course to click on the cancel button (or whater you call the little X in the top right hand corner), but if you were able to provide a return link instead I think it would work better.

Other than that I agree with the other comments. Looks a nice place. Good luck with it.

Pauline
Debut novelist at http://tinyurl.com/or89jle

http://wivenhoewriters.blogspot.co.uk/
Contributor to anthology 'In a Word: Murder'
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

This thread has been moved to the website reviews section...

From a web standards standpoint, I think it's very good. If I'm not mistaken, you've done the whole design with CSS, which should earn you excellent placement on search engines among other property websites.

In my browser (Firefox/Linux), the text comes right up to the edge of each image, without any margin at all... I'm not sure if this is also true in Windows or with IE, etc...

I also agree that your images should link to larger images, so that people can see more detail if they want, and perhaps just be displayed a little bigger on your main pages. In some cases, you should fiddle with the brightness/contrast/saturation to make the images more crisp, and perhaps in other cases a new photo would help.

Cheers!
Brooke
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AndyLucia
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Post by AndyLucia »

vrooje wrote: In my browser (Firefox/Linux), the text comes right up to the edge of each image, without any margin at all... I'm not sure if this is also true in Windows or with IE, etc...
The same is true with Firefox/Windows, but there is some margin with IE6/Windows.
AndyLucia
If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all!!
AndyH
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Post by AndyH »

Thank you for all your comments - they are very much appreciated.

vrooje - yes I have used CSS which I am told would improve the indexing by search engines.

I have been making a list of changes that I need to make, which are as follows:

1) Test the site using FireFox and ensure that it works equally well in both this and IE
2) Take some better photographs when we are back at the house in December, and finished some more decorating. I know it's not the best month to be taking photographs but hopefully the sun will shine for a bit!!
3) I have removed the links page - you were right that I was advertising other accommodation sites without getting anything back!!
4) Add an availibility calendar - I think this is for the best
5) Add a photograph page, after completing number 2

Thank you once again, you have been of great help and I hope I can do the same for other sites in the future.

Andy.
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www.lapagerie.com - Holiday house to rent
www.sompt.com - The renovation of our house
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