I've just been having a look through the posts and visited many of the sites. Most look very professional - How does mine compare?
http://www.hillhousellanrhidian.co.uk
I have developed it over the last few years without any previous experience of web design or HTML.
Thank you in advance for your input.
New member looking for comments on our website
New member looking for comments on our website
Don't look back
Just a few quick ones. Your front page doesn't tell me the size of the accommodation - how many bedrooms and how many does it sleep?
Don't like the moving icons etc - very distracting.
Can you move all the little icons from the photos - again they detract from the photos?
Hopefully you'll get a bit more feedback from some others and perhaps you'll hang round to give some feedback for others as a courtesy!
Don't like the moving icons etc - very distracting.
Can you move all the little icons from the photos - again they detract from the photos?
Hopefully you'll get a bit more feedback from some others and perhaps you'll hang round to give some feedback for others as a courtesy!
House looks lovely.
A few constructive criticisms all IMHO of course,
Front page is very busy and I don't like the scrolling banner (these are generally frowned upon). You seem to give most of the info on the front page and then repeat it in other pages. I would use the front page for a general summary and sales pitch and let the other pages give the specifics. You also seem to be adjertising other people's properties.
Some of the images have not rendered very well. I would also put google+ etc at the bottom rather than over your picture. Quite a lot of different text sizes.
I would put your logo at the top with all the buttons directly beneath and I would keep this the same on every page. Your logo could be the home button if you like. I like your interactive map. I would not put a rotating anti smoking sign on the page (anything trying to attract attention should be minimal and linked to good things not rules).
All in all very good but I would make some adjustments.
A few constructive criticisms all IMHO of course,
Front page is very busy and I don't like the scrolling banner (these are generally frowned upon). You seem to give most of the info on the front page and then repeat it in other pages. I would use the front page for a general summary and sales pitch and let the other pages give the specifics. You also seem to be adjertising other people's properties.
Some of the images have not rendered very well. I would also put google+ etc at the bottom rather than over your picture. Quite a lot of different text sizes.
I would put your logo at the top with all the buttons directly beneath and I would keep this the same on every page. Your logo could be the home button if you like. I like your interactive map. I would not put a rotating anti smoking sign on the page (anything trying to attract attention should be minimal and linked to good things not rules).
All in all very good but I would make some adjustments.
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Wendy@NorthIdaho
- Posts: 744
- Joined: Thu Oct 07, 2010 7:03 pm
- Location: North Idaho, USA
- Contact:
I would move the "history" part of the home page down and move up the pertinent facts of the rental up that are currently in the middle of the page. I would minimize the negatives such as No smoking... that can be placed elsewhere or not so prominently, keep it positive!
Misspelling of first on the accommodation page for first floor.
Is there a way to not have to click on each small individual photo to make them larger? perhaps have them laid out in a larger format and then click on them to make them larger still if wanted?
Some of your pages are a bit "wordy" you may want to mix that up a bit with quick reading bullet points? especially helpful on the tariffs page also listing the amenities this way is easier for a guest to see what is provided at a glance...
I would under no circumstances promote the other vacation rentals in my area... also would take off the explanation about google and back links, etc....
I'm no expert on websites and need to have my own website looked at again since redoing it but will save that for a time when I'm up for it!
so to say I hope I'm not stepping on your toes or trying to be offensive as you have a nice place and it looks like a wonderful amount of bookings.
Wendy
Misspelling of first on the accommodation page for first floor.
Is there a way to not have to click on each small individual photo to make them larger? perhaps have them laid out in a larger format and then click on them to make them larger still if wanted?
Some of your pages are a bit "wordy" you may want to mix that up a bit with quick reading bullet points? especially helpful on the tariffs page also listing the amenities this way is easier for a guest to see what is provided at a glance...
I would under no circumstances promote the other vacation rentals in my area... also would take off the explanation about google and back links, etc....
I'm no expert on websites and need to have my own website looked at again since redoing it but will save that for a time when I'm up for it!
so to say I hope I'm not stepping on your toes or trying to be offensive as you have a nice place and it looks like a wonderful amount of bookings.Wendy
New Vacation Rental called DayStar Lodge! (Sold Narrows Cottage now have a rental management company called A-List Rental Management)
New member looking for comments on our website
Thank you Wendy@NarrowsCottage, Pmagowan and Nemo for these comments and I will address them at the next rewrite - Not to far off.
I started out with all pages the same size - no scrolling - But when I embarked on SEO I had to make the home page scrolling to accommodate the increased frequency of the keywords. Also back links from competitors sites is good for increasing the site ranking in search engines. It works quite well and I am on page 1 or 2 of google for most key word combinations.
http://www.hillhousellanrhidian.co.uk
I started out with all pages the same size - no scrolling - But when I embarked on SEO I had to make the home page scrolling to accommodate the increased frequency of the keywords. Also back links from competitors sites is good for increasing the site ranking in search engines. It works quite well and I am on page 1 or 2 of google for most key word combinations.
http://www.hillhousellanrhidian.co.uk
Don't look back
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Normandy Cow
- Posts: 2687
- Joined: Sun Nov 28, 2004 7:14 am
- Location: Normandy
- Contact:
Hello dwtmill, welcome to the forum!
I agree with all the comments above, I do think that "less is more" and that maybe you could try not to crowd so much onto the home page (and please please remove that scrolling banner, it is so distracting to the eye when trying to read all your information).
Having said that, I think you have done a marvellous job considering you have no previous experience and are self-taught.
And I have to say that I LOVE your map which is on your "Explore Llanrhidian" and "Explore Gower" pages! How did you do that? (See, you may be self-taught, and I may have many years experience, but we are always learning...!)
I agree with all the comments above, I do think that "less is more" and that maybe you could try not to crowd so much onto the home page (and please please remove that scrolling banner, it is so distracting to the eye when trying to read all your information).
Having said that, I think you have done a marvellous job considering you have no previous experience and are self-taught.
And I have to say that I LOVE your map which is on your "Explore Llanrhidian" and "Explore Gower" pages! How did you do that? (See, you may be self-taught, and I may have many years experience, but we are always learning...!)
You have to be a bit careful with SEO otherwise you can end up with a webpage that is only interesting to google. Also reciprocal can work against you as Google is well aware of this practice. A bit of scrolling is ok.
Have you worked out how customers are coming to your site. If only very few are putting in search terms and coming through google then perhaps you should not be changing your website so much for SEO. If they are coming from listing sites or PPC then you want to convert them to sales by making the site very user friendly and giving a good 'pitch'.
Probably somewhere in the middle is best.
Have you worked out how customers are coming to your site. If only very few are putting in search terms and coming through google then perhaps you should not be changing your website so much for SEO. If they are coming from listing sites or PPC then you want to convert them to sales by making the site very user friendly and giving a good 'pitch'.
Probably somewhere in the middle is best.
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French Cricket
- Posts: 3058
- Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:47 pm
- Location: French Pyrénées
- Contact:
No bit of scrolling is okay for me! I find it distracting and I think it cheapens the look of the site. For the same reason I'd lose the jiggling icons on the accommodation page.
I'd also like to see the navigation tightened up - on a small site such as this one I like to be able to reach every page from every page, but I found that when I was on the 'explore' pages I had to return to the home page to get back to the main navigation. And the navigation links are in different places on each page, which irritated me (sorry).
Definitely install a lightbox gallery so that visitors can move seamlessly between larger photos rather than having to close each one then open the next.
I do really like those maps though
I'd also like to see the navigation tightened up - on a small site such as this one I like to be able to reach every page from every page, but I found that when I was on the 'explore' pages I had to return to the home page to get back to the main navigation. And the navigation links are in different places on each page, which irritated me (sorry).
Definitely install a lightbox gallery so that visitors can move seamlessly between larger photos rather than having to close each one then open the next.
I do really like those maps though
New member looking for comments on our website
Thanks again Pmagowan, and thanks French Cricket and Normandy Cow.
The maps and group photo on the contact page are all done using hotspots and swap images. Its like a rollover - the base image is the map or group photo and when the mouse rolls over the hotspot the second image is displayed. The second image is the base image with the text and images superimposed. I used Adobe Fireworks to construct the second images. Its a different swap image for each hot spot on the map or group photo.
Its quite a simple technique and its good to see that people like the effect.
My prototype website was designed using a web design package (Serief). This went live during 2007 but to improve the site and get round a few things I had to learn some HTML Over the last year or so I started reworking the website using Dreamweaver. The current version has been live for about 6 months.
http://www.hillhousellanrhidian.co.uk
The maps and group photo on the contact page are all done using hotspots and swap images. Its like a rollover - the base image is the map or group photo and when the mouse rolls over the hotspot the second image is displayed. The second image is the base image with the text and images superimposed. I used Adobe Fireworks to construct the second images. Its a different swap image for each hot spot on the map or group photo.
Its quite a simple technique and its good to see that people like the effect.
My prototype website was designed using a web design package (Serief). This went live during 2007 but to improve the site and get round a few things I had to learn some HTML Over the last year or so I started reworking the website using Dreamweaver. The current version has been live for about 6 months.
http://www.hillhousellanrhidian.co.uk
Don't look back
Like the amount of content.
Looks like a great location and a very attractive property.
I would make the website more user friendly by:
Getting rid of the background so potential customers can print pages off and show to friends and family
Use spacing more between text- homepage is not displaying correctly on my browser- google chrome
Spread the content on the homepage out over more pages
Looks like a great location and a very attractive property.
I would make the website more user friendly by:
Getting rid of the background so potential customers can print pages off and show to friends and family
Use spacing more between text- homepage is not displaying correctly on my browser- google chrome
Spread the content on the homepage out over more pages
I cannot read all of the text. Is the text section inside some sort of frame or table? The righthand side is the bit I cannot see.
To be brutally honest there are some advertising errors.
Like this paragraph.
The Gower peninsula has an abundance of self catering accommodation to suite holiday makers
of all tastes, encompassing barn conversions, holiday cottages, traditional Gower style houses, semi and detached houses, bungalows, apartments, chalets, caravans and teepees. In fact, an Edwardian semi detached house in one of Swansea's leafy suburbs, the birthplace and family home of one of Swansea's most famous sons, the poet Dylan Thomas, is now a self catering holiday cottage.
The bit (in red) is not good, you must advertise this as you are the only ones in the area. Or maybe you prospective clients go searching for others. It is not clear if your hose is the house that was the home of Thomas or not.
There are quite a number of errors in the HTML:
http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1 ... n.co.uk%2F
I too am an amateur of web page writing and find it sometimes difficult to remove errors, but here are quite a number. This may explain why I am not seeing the page correctly.
It is advisable to use external CCS files I have seen that the code refers to some internal page CCS coding. The same with the javascript. Using external files saves on loading times for each page. Some of the JS seems to be xternal other parts not.
This is some odd coding
Are you trying to write £ rather than £?
Hope this helps
To be brutally honest there are some advertising errors.
Like this paragraph.
The Gower peninsula has an abundance of self catering accommodation to suite holiday makers
of all tastes, encompassing barn conversions, holiday cottages, traditional Gower style houses, semi and detached houses, bungalows, apartments, chalets, caravans and teepees. In fact, an Edwardian semi detached house in one of Swansea's leafy suburbs, the birthplace and family home of one of Swansea's most famous sons, the poet Dylan Thomas, is now a self catering holiday cottage.
The bit (in red) is not good, you must advertise this as you are the only ones in the area. Or maybe you prospective clients go searching for others. It is not clear if your hose is the house that was the home of Thomas or not.
There are quite a number of errors in the HTML:
http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1 ... n.co.uk%2F
I too am an amateur of web page writing and find it sometimes difficult to remove errors, but here are quite a number. This may explain why I am not seeing the page correctly.
It is advisable to use external CCS files I have seen that the code refers to some internal page CCS coding. The same with the javascript. Using external files saves on loading times for each page. Some of the JS seems to be xternal other parts not.
This is some odd coding
Code: Select all
<div align="left">tariff from £350 per week in
the low season to £880 per week during peak
season</div>
Hope this helps
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
Hmm..
Lose that background, it makes the whole thing difficult to read.
Don't like the availability opening up in different pages, keep them in frames, or CSS to load in the same window.
Lose the splashy icons on the accomodation page, they cheapen the feel of it all, and are very 90's...
But a good start, just listen to the comments from all the folks on here as well....they have helped me somewhat.
Kevin
Lose that background, it makes the whole thing difficult to read.
Don't like the availability opening up in different pages, keep them in frames, or CSS to load in the same window.
Lose the splashy icons on the accomodation page, they cheapen the feel of it all, and are very 90's...
But a good start, just listen to the comments from all the folks on here as well....they have helped me somewhat.
Kevin
http://www.encantada-vacation.com
Our little piece of Florida, never get tired of being there. Love it and the people to bits.
Our little piece of Florida, never get tired of being there. Love it and the people to bits.
This isn't meant to be an offensive comment, please don't think I'm being nasty, but the quality of the text needs a lot of work to eliminate spelling mistakes and other basic errors. It's also very long-winded, I got bored before the end of the page. Perhaps you have a friend who could help you with this? I'm a rotten typist, therefore I always pass important text to someone else to check & edit before sending it out.
Otherwise I love the look of the place, and would come to stay if I could!
Otherwise I love the look of the place, and would come to stay if I could!
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pizza-salsa
- Posts: 51
- Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2012 9:34 am
- Location: Trogir, Croatia
- Contact:
I am new here, so don't have any experience in designing website, so my comments are purely from someone who would be looking at accommodation to rent.
-I guess your internet visitors look specifically for Gower peninsula or Llanrhidian, so they already know where it is in the world? I cannot see anywhere in the first paragraphs any mention to Wales (took me a while to see it was in Wales..)
-don't like the moving dog/ smoking sign etc
-the front page is for me to long to scroll down, I prefer a menu with different pages to click on, so part of the section at the bottom could go to a separate page "Locality Info" for example
-pictures look inviting and homely and "cottagey", however there is something in the kitchen sink, I think you should re-take that picture. I would also move the high-chair. I think you can write somewhere that a babychair is provided.
-maybe is just my computer, but there is a letter A before the £sign on your prices?(front page)
-front page "Overview" kind of repeats what's already said in the Accommodation section or the Tariff section - don't need to repeat it on the front page
-bottom front page (scroll to the end) section "Information for owners of Holiday Cottages etc etc" does not interest me as a potential rental, would move it to a separate page.
hope this helps!
-I guess your internet visitors look specifically for Gower peninsula or Llanrhidian, so they already know where it is in the world? I cannot see anywhere in the first paragraphs any mention to Wales (took me a while to see it was in Wales..)
-don't like the moving dog/ smoking sign etc
-the front page is for me to long to scroll down, I prefer a menu with different pages to click on, so part of the section at the bottom could go to a separate page "Locality Info" for example
-pictures look inviting and homely and "cottagey", however there is something in the kitchen sink, I think you should re-take that picture. I would also move the high-chair. I think you can write somewhere that a babychair is provided.
-maybe is just my computer, but there is a letter A before the £sign on your prices?(front page)
-front page "Overview" kind of repeats what's already said in the Accommodation section or the Tariff section - don't need to repeat it on the front page
-bottom front page (scroll to the end) section "Information for owners of Holiday Cottages etc etc" does not interest me as a potential rental, would move it to a separate page.
hope this helps!