Review for an old-timer please.

[Ju]

Right folks, I've commented on many other sites over the past year or so and now it's my turn.

I have now been given permission from the OH to put our site up for review. It is mostly his work, not mine, and he is now ready to let you pull it to pieces.

We are particularly interested in the navigation. Is it easy to get around?

www.vendee-vacances.co.uk

I await your responses with trepidation.

Ju

[enid]

I await your responses with trepidation.

Well you don't need to - the site is very, very goo!!!

Navigation easy peasy except - I would like to keep all the menu bar on all the pages - I went to the contact page and then had to go back to the home page to get to the blog (does that make sense - I've had a busy day!)

Very detailed infromation but not too wordy. I liked the guests comments on the menu bar of the page content that they related too. If I had a small family this would be a dream location.

My daughter and I are working on a redesign of our site to incorpate a blog so it was good to see one looking such a part of the site.

So I can't help with the pulling to pieces I'm afraid - a lot of hard work has obviously gone into it - congratulations

[la vache!]

I love your site, I have looked at it before and been very jealous:-), your properties look great. I would agree with Enid that the only thing that should be on the site is the same sidebar meun on each page - when I got onto the menu page I couldn't easily navigate back, the same is true on the availability and tariffs page, if you are interested in a particular house it would be nice to get directly back to it than going via the homepage. Are you going to expand the French version, it is a bit limited?
The blog is a really good idea, I just wondered if it should be a real blog with a link, rather than on the site, not sure if this would improve your ratings rather than it be incorporated in the site?
I like the colour scheme, it really reminds me of the summer I lived in the Vendée, with the lovely beaches there. I even went to the Puy de Fou, it was fantastic, but you have it as a day out on the site, I thought it was at night with the fireworks? I was there quite a while ago though, so things may have changed!
BTW, does your OH who contribute to the LF forum on a fairly regular basis??

[Ju]

Thanks guys. The navigation bar will be changed tommorow. The blog is a new thing we are trying out, we'll see how it goes.

We will expand the French side at some point, although we have never had any French bookings.

The Puy du Fou is both a day time and night time event, I think the night time one has been missed off our site.

Yes the OH does post on the LF forum regularly. How did you guess?

Ju

[la vache!]

Ha! nothing really, just the old avatar he used looked a lot like one of the photos on your homepage and he seemed to know a lot about gites, plus the recent comments about the number of gites for sale in your area. Nothing complicated, there are a lot of people who frequent more than one forum, especially the France ones! I have to say this one is far more pleasant though.
Give my regards to Le Bouffon (only joking).

[paolo]

Ju,

I think it is brilliant.

But...navigability is a possible weakness. I don't think it is a good thing to have a different navigation menu on each page, as this can be confusing. Apart from that, the flow from page to page is logically arranged and fine.

[vrooje]

Ju -

Very, very nice!

I second (well, I third) the recommendation about keeping the left menu constant throughout your site.

This may be because I'm using Firefox in Linux, but on your homepage, the testimonials on the left are wider than the wavy left graphic -- I presume they're supposed to be inside it!

I can also see the wavy graphic repeated on the far right of my window (I have fairly high resolution), and I'm not sure if that's intentional...

But those are small details. The site is very attractive, and the main information I need to know to stick with my site browsing is above the fold and easy to find. Well done.

Cheers!

[Ju]

Ju,

I think it is brilliant.

High praise indeed.

Ju

[Ju]

The navigation changes have now been made.

Thanks every one.

Ju

[Hells Bells]

Excellent site, Ju. By the way Newcastle Brown Ale makes a great Carbonnade

[Paul Carmel]

Me jealous nooo! Great site.

[Ciaram]

Ju, well done. I love the site and as a parent of three very young children I think it's simplicity and crisp look sells your property beautifully to the target market. Plus you offer all the little extras which parents want and this is very easy to see on the site. Would really appeal to me as a parent.

Great job.

[Cassis]

I agree, it looks lovely - lovely clear layout and you've obviously fixed the navigation glitch!

One idea, you might place a 'Top of page' link after each section of the about_the_vendee page, to save having to scroll too much. But the content is terrific - very informative.

Phil

[reddevil]

Oh dear, what an awful looking site - please redesign it immediately!!!!

haha - no only joking, but I was trying to say something different than all the other comments.

The site looks quite fresh, although I would personally prefer a touch more colour.

You have got the wording just right, not too long or short but just enough on each page to keep the visitor interested and clicking for more.

I think you still need to review the left menu coz there is a slight gap between some of the links on some pages. I also see on your Accommodation page there is 2 links for Contact Us.

Apart from those minor comments you should give yourself a big pat on the back for spending a lot of time and effort in creating a very nice site.

Now the hard part begins - can you get your site in the top 10 of Google??

Good luck.

[Ju]

Now the hard part begins - can you get your site in the top 10 of Google??

It obviously depends on what you search on, but on - self catering vendee children - we come in 8th and 9th.

The gaps in the menu bar are intentional, with the top part being the same on all pages, and the bottom part being specific for that page. There shouldn't of course be two contacts, I will rectify that.

Thanks for your comments.

Ju