What do you all think?

[clairelou65]

I am new to this forum, and new to holiday cottages, we bought our property in Feb this year, have had a few bookings through cottages4you (big mistake) and ebay/gumtree.
Will chat on the other threads about this later but i would like you good folk to have a little peek at my site, i made it for free on moonfruit and bought the domain name.
All i feel i need is a site to point people to for information.(but of course it needs to look right.)

I am by no means a techie so be gentle with the jargon!

[gam]

i would like you good folk to have a little peek at my site. . . All i feel i need is a site to point people to for information.(but of course it needs to look right.)

Not sure exactly what you mean by a site to point people to?

Some owners rely exclusively on an agency to market their property and don't want or expect to take any bookings directly. In which case they may not choose to have a website or just a very basic one. Is that what you mean?

Looking at your site I'd say you've done a very good job and more than adequate for the above scenario. If however you are hoping to take at least some bookings direct then there are a few suggestions:

• If you're going to stay with Moonfruit, do they offer a service to remove the branding (free website etc)? I don't think it creates the best impression with someone who may be about to spend a large amount of money with you.
  
  On the availability pages I'd suggest a few words on how to book - on the contact pages I'd suggest a few words on how to check availability. Sounds unnecessary but it may avoid pointless or lost enquiries.
  
  Your photo quality is a bit inconsistent - it looks to me as though some are large images which are being scaled down when viewed, some are small and too low quality for the size being rendered. Good quality pictures are very important. Also, can you fill the missing space for the upstairs section or remove the placeholder?

Hope this helps. Let us know your intentions for the site no doubt some of the more experienced owners (i.e. not me) can be more specific.

And welcome to the forum.

[clairelou65]

Gam, thanks for your reply, comments have been taken on board.

The hope was to ditch hoseasons and go it alone by paying for a few adverts on non commission sites where i take the bookings. Directing potential guests to book through the website.

The blank picture is waiting for a photo of the bathroom, i took one last week but it looked naff on the computer.

The website has only been live for around three weeks.

I may in the future pay for my moonfruit site to remove their advert, but this would be the only advantage of paying, at the moment i don't need any more features from them.

I have it in the planning to add a booking / house rules page to the site.

Thanks again for the support, this site is great!!

[DaveN]

Hi Claire,
Looks good to me for the purposes of providing additional information, but I think it could "sell" your place more.

Some small changes, like changes to the photo captions could help - e.g. "Main Bedroom with view over..." (or whatever the main selling point of that room is) - or "Well Equipped Kitchen" instead of "GetAttachment[2]". If you can get the photos to open up in larger windows I think that would help too.

Then depending on how much work you want to put into adding content, some more personal information on the local attractions (i.e. your recommendations and descriptions) can help to build a rapport with a visitor to your site before they even make contact. Though you've done a great job of highlighting the main attractions, and the descriptive stuff on the 'about' page is great.
However if you can make the links to other attractions open in new windows or tabs you will keep the visitor on your site. As it is, if someone clicks on a link, they are gone and may not click or be back.

Finally, is the graveyard a particular feature of the village? It's one of the first pictures I'm drawn to, and may not be a selling point to an average punter? Maybe a picture of the shop & pub, or another scenic area shot?

I'm off to the North Yorkshire Moors for a week tommorrow, and would have been tempted by your place if I'd seen it!

Oh - nearly forgot - welcome to LMH!

Cheers
Dave

[clairelou65]

Dave, thanks for that, it really helps for someone else to look at the site.
I thought i had changed the captions, hey ho its done now, i am still learning how to change my site, 3 weeks isnt long!!

Maybe next time you are up this way you may stay with us?

Claire

[Margaret]

I tend to veer a little away from artistic photos in that my priority is to give people a really good idea of what is in a room. For example, your sitting area photos are very nice but give the impression that there is just one chair - not too encouraging if you have 4 beds in the bedrooms. I also find the exterior photo a bit offputting - to me it looks as though you are trying to avoid showing your neighbour's house. To me it is a rather unbalanced photo and makes me wonder what is to the left. This is just from a quick glance.

[CSE]

The website is in Flash and generally Flash websites do not work so well with search engines as those written with HTML.


On this page the link images are not in full view I can see that the ends are cut off.
http://www.thecottagegillamoor.co.uk/#/ ... 4554738284


The website loads quite slow for me.
I find some of the text too small to read.
I would change the “about” tag to read something a bit more relevant about your business. On this page there is a photo album. However it is too small for me to see any details.



HTH

[Jimbo]

The website is in Flash and generally Flash websites do not work so well with search engines as those written with HTML.

Moonfruit say: All our sites are indexed by search engines in the same way as any other site. Because our sites are published in Flash (the Flash is contained within a web page) some search engines cannot read the content correctly. Therefore, we produce a complete HTML alternative of your site which can be read by users without Flash or Javascript (including search engines). This includes all your text, links, images and other content. You can see this alternative version by going to 'Edit' 'view html version' in the Toolbar. This HTML alternative can be read by search engines and enable them to index the website accordingly. In addition some search engines are able to read content in Flash and index them correctly using that. Many of our sites rank on the first page of results on Google and other search engines, on their chosen key words.

Jim

PS: My site was built using moonfruit software. The above persuaded me to use it.

[CSE]

Sorry I am not convinced about flash websites:
http://www.free-seo-news.com/newsletter488.htm
http://labnium.org/top-best-6-factors-n ... o-ranking/

Is it also true that some mobile/cell phones cannot use flash…the same with Ipads?
I also have my flash turned off to save having those annoying adverts rolling around all the time.

Maybe the code for the flash alternative is hidden deep inside Moonfruits websites as I cannot find much with my code reader.

[clairelou65]

On this page the link images are not in full view I can see that the ends are cut off.
http://www.thecottagegillamoor.co.uk/#/ ... 4554738284

Thanks for your comments

I have been having a little play and hay presto found out how to change the text! All sorted now....and they even change colour now.

[tavi]

Hi Claire,

I'm a newbie too. I haven't even started my own website yet!

Just want to say your cottage looks gorgeous and I love the beams and stone walls.

If you're still looking for comments - I have a couple. From a punter's point of view.

Where you say "sorry we no longer accept pets" I would remove the "no longer". As a new client I won't know that you ever did accept pets, and it would make me wonder what ghastly thing might have happened in the cottage!

Also, a tiny point really but I have a thing about table lamps and I can't see any in your cosy living room...and I would worry that there might only be - gasp - overhead lighting!

[clairelou65]

you are indeed right!!! It was ghastly so NO MORE DOGS!!

[tavi]

oh dear!

[Jimbo]

Sorry I am not convinced about flash websites ... Maybe the code for the flash alternative is hidden deep inside Moonfruits websites as I cannot find much with my code reader.

Certainly, I can view the HTML alternative versions of my site within its administration. And relevant keywords bring the site up on google's front page. But, unlike casasantoestevo, I'm no tekkie, so I'm always interested in more information. When I chose moonfruit software to build my site after some research, I had noted adverse comments about flash sites but was won over by moonfruit's explanation of how they avoided search engine blindness. Hope that I've not been told a porkie ...

Jim (stranger in a strange land with this stuff!)

[Naomi]

Hello Clare

Welcome to the Forum. It's a great place to be - I've been helped a lot by other owners.

I reckon that the graveyard is off putting - a definite no-no for me.

Good luck with booking direct. It will be interesting to learn how you get on.