Please review my 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.
User avatar
CatGirl
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 11:28 am
Location: Roda, Nr Los Alcazares, Murcia, Spain
Contact:

Please review my Website

Post by CatGirl »

Hi everyone

I do this with some trepidation! But can I ask for feedback on my website. It has been in existence for some time but not optimised which is what I am working on now!

www.rodagolf.co.uk
[This is not a commercial site - just mine and a friends]

Having been in IT before retirement - but not at the techy end - the website is "hand cranked" (I hate development tools) so I suspect you will find lots of errors.

I have only just discovered the Validation Service on another post (thanks casasantoestevo) so I am now working my way through the site doing a page at a time. Now done about half and working my way through he rest .

Thank you in advance for any comments.

Cheers

Bev

PS I have a second site on the link in my signature which is for one apartment only and is very similar to the one above but I haven't even started SEO work on this so please don't review this one.
Last edited by CatGirl on Sun Apr 11, 2010 11:55 am, edited 3 times in total.
Sometimes I sits and I thinks but sometimes I just sits

www.roda-golf.co.uk
User avatar
CSE
Posts: 4414
Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2006 3:34 pm
Location: Galicia

Post by CSE »

The first link does not work..the one in the www button does. Are they the same website, but copied? or does one direct you to the other?
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
GoDot
Posts: 57
Joined: Sun Feb 28, 2010 10:23 pm
Location: Normandy / Dublin
Contact:

Post by GoDot »

The first link works for me.
User avatar
CatGirl
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 11:28 am
Location: Roda, Nr Los Alcazares, Murcia, Spain
Contact:

Post by CatGirl »

There are two separate websites - no redirects.

www.rodagolf.co.uk - showcases 2 apartments

The other one in my signature - is just one apartment.

They are based on the same template so do look similar, but have got different titles and descriptions so that Google assesses them separately (I hope).
Sometimes I sits and I thinks but sometimes I just sits

www.roda-golf.co.uk
User avatar
Don Ciccio
Posts: 481
Joined: Thu Dec 24, 2009 11:39 pm
Location: Trapani, Sicily

Post by Don Ciccio »

Hey there.

The following review is based on viewing the site in IE8 on a 10inch widescreen on a netbook - so may be a bit squshed.

I will leave some of the more technical comments to others, but in terms of content you certainly have thought in all directions. And I like that. There is a veritable wealth of information on your site and it does seem fairly well organised. Well done on the hard work collating and writing all this info.

I have two questions/suggestions : The homepage photo is clear, and i can see the justification for wanting to show the position of both apartments, but i wonder if you have a better photo to make people go 'wow'. Someone on LMH told me to do this on my site and I'm about to go out to sicily with a photographer friend to get some new shots that will help make that first impact on our homepage and make visitors stay and look around and hopefully convert into an enquiry.

Your site content feels thorough and a lot like ours which is there to serve as a starting point for the guests who have booked as well as potential bookers - but what about removing some of the more meaty advice and merely summarising it - making clear that you provide extensive information exclusively for guests once they book (have a look at our 'your holiday' page to see what we do). You can then make this info available in PDF form or as a part of your site that only booked guests can see. This reduces the amount of info visitors feel they have to read through (and the amount of website content you have to maintain) and also counts as something extra that they are getting with the booking/rental...

Just me humble thoughts. hope they are helpful. PM me if you want to talk more about this.

DC
User avatar
CatGirl
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 11:28 am
Location: Roda, Nr Los Alcazares, Murcia, Spain
Contact:

Post by CatGirl »

Thanks for your comments Don Ciccio - lots of food for thought. Me & my camera are going for a walk this weekend!

PS did you get my PM? It seems to be in my Outbox rather than my Sentbox
Sometimes I sits and I thinks but sometimes I just sits

www.roda-golf.co.uk
Candy
Posts: 53
Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2010 12:19 pm
Location: Yorkshire Dales UK

Re: Please review my Website

Post by Candy »

Hi
I found it a bit to busy just a little to much information for me. I even got lost on the first page I first thought it was just 3 photos.

But that is me I like a site to be simple.
But you can't please everyone.
Hope you don't mind me saying so.

CatGirl wrote:Hi everyone

I do this with some trepidation! But can I ask for feedback on my website. It has been in existence for some time but not optimised which is what I am working on now!

www.rodagolf.co.uk
[This is not a commercial site - just mine and a friends]

Having been in IT before retirement - but not at the techy end - the website is "hand cranked" (I hate development tools) so I suspect you will find lots of errors.

I have only just discovered the Validation Service on another post (thanks casasantoestevo) so I am now working my way through the site doing a page at a time. Now done about half and working my way through he rest .

Thank you in advance for any comments.

Cheers

Bev

PS I have a second site on the link in my signature which is for one apartment only and is very similar to the one above but I haven't even started SEO work on this so please don't review this one.
GoDot
Posts: 57
Joined: Sun Feb 28, 2010 10:23 pm
Location: Normandy / Dublin
Contact:

Post by GoDot »

+1 on the comment above about the new landing page.

There's no logical structure to it. I didn't even read the text in the centre at first because my eyes weren't drawn to it.

Personally, I would set the homepage to http://www.rodagolf.co.uk/index-home.html, or at least redesign the current homepage. I don't think it serves any real purpose as it stands.

I'd try adding paragraph breaks to make the text look less cluttered. Take http://www.rodagolf.co.uk/OtherGolf.html as an example. Inserting breaks between the headline, sub-headline and paragraph text at the top would make it easier to read.

The same again on this page. There should be breaks between all of those headlines and paragraph text. - http://www.rodagolf.co.uk/index-home.html
User avatar
CatGirl
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 11:28 am
Location: Roda, Nr Los Alcazares, Murcia, Spain
Contact:

Post by CatGirl »

Thanks you GoDot and Cotterdale - this is a new landing page and seems to be getting the big thumbs down. I only put it live earlier this week in response to the fact that
http://www.rodagolf.co.uk/index-home.html was too busy.

I'll have another go!
Sometimes I sits and I thinks but sometimes I just sits

www.roda-golf.co.uk
User avatar
DrRichard
Posts: 168
Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2008 7:17 pm
Location: San Diego, California
Contact:

Post by DrRichard »

I'd say the layout is a bit packed but from an SEO point of view, you've included a lot of useful content on the site so this will help the search engines to rank your pages. There are a couple of tweaks that you could make:

- change the page URLs so they are quite descriptive and match the content of the page

- make sure page headings are coded with an <H1> tag and make sure this is as descriptive as possible about what is on each page. This helps Google & co to understand exactly what's on the pages

- links back to the home page should go to the root domain, rather than any page called *.html - this directs all the 'link juice' properly at your main domain

These should help a lot with any search rankings. Best of luck with the site!
User avatar
HenryG
Posts: 110
Joined: Wed Jul 02, 2008 3:48 pm
Location: Tuscany
Contact:

Post by HenryG »

Hi,

I would lose the w3c validation badges.

It means nothing to most people, unless you are a web designer.

Also your property is on Spain.

It took me a while to suss out that, so the fact that is in SPAIN should be the first thing a person will read or see. Should be loud and clear.

Lastly,

Never have a 'Useful Links' section,

They may be helpful (for them), but at the expense of you losing SEO, and traffic due to their fleeting attention.

Unless you want to embark on reciprocal link exchange stuff. THat would be one exception.
User avatar
CatGirl
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 11:28 am
Location: Roda, Nr Los Alcazares, Murcia, Spain
Contact:

Post by CatGirl »

DrRichard wrote:- links back to the home page should go to the root domain, rather than any page called *.html - this directs all the 'link juice' properly at your main domain
Help! I am now confused. What do you mean by 'link juice' and how do I direct back to the root domain without using the full http address in the link - which people say slows your site down and is not to be used?
Last edited by CatGirl on Fri Apr 23, 2010 7:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
Sometimes I sits and I thinks but sometimes I just sits

www.roda-golf.co.uk
User avatar
CatGirl
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 11:28 am
Location: Roda, Nr Los Alcazares, Murcia, Spain
Contact:

Post by CatGirl »

HenryG wrote:Never have a 'Useful Links' section,

They may be helpful (for them), but at the expense of you losing SEO, and traffic due to their fleeting attention.

Unless you want to embark on reciprocal link exchange stuff. THat would be one exception.
Any advices on how to get round this? Many of the sites I advertise on insist on a link on my site in order to have a link to my site on my ad?
Sometimes I sits and I thinks but sometimes I just sits

www.roda-golf.co.uk
User avatar
HenryG
Posts: 110
Joined: Wed Jul 02, 2008 3:48 pm
Location: Tuscany
Contact:

Post by HenryG »

Only request links from sites (or directories 'hint hint') that do not require a link back

Source your links that way.

Don't link to anyone - you want people in, not out. And doing that will increase your Page Rank also.

If you absolutely need to link to something then let it be a service like Google Maps, etc.

There are many ways to get links one way in ..
GoDot
Posts: 57
Joined: Sun Feb 28, 2010 10:23 pm
Location: Normandy / Dublin
Contact:

Post by GoDot »

CatGirl wrote: Help! I am now confused. What do you mean by 'link juice'
I wouldn't worry about it too much, it's Google Page Rank. 'Juice' is a colloquial name for the amount of Page Rank (PR) a site has. You get more 'juice' by having quality links coming into your site. This 'juice' can then flow out of your site through external links to other sites.

As a result, a lot of people recommend limiting the amount of outbound links in order to keep as much juice as possible on your site.

From a slightly different angle - When you get people onto your site, you want to keep them there until they book. Every outbound link is an incentive to leave your site, and to not complete that process.
Post Reply