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Buckie Aitken
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2004 11:14 pm
Location: Loch Lomond, Scotland
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Website review

Post by Buckie Aitken »

Hi all Lay my Hatters, I am Buckie from Scotland and would be most grateful if those of you who seem to have a good knowledge of websites pertaining to our vacation rental/self catering industry would have a look at my site www.dalhougal.com and give me your honest crit. of the site which will assist me to get it upgraded. I am looking forward to joining in to the forums. Regards, Buckie.
Christine Kenyon
Posts: 623
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 10:58 am
Location: Glenridding, Ullswater Valley, Lake District, UK
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Post by Christine Kenyon »

Welcome Buckie (and I never thought I'd write that! :D ). Your home and appartments look lovely.

I've had a quick look at your website and here's my initial reaction which will hopefully be helpful.

1. You've got two wonderful photos on your "intro" page. Move these on your home page and then tell the story behind them. Don't assume that people know about the glories of Loch Lomond.

2. Are you aiming at couples on a romantic break, walkers, golfers or ......? Be more explicit in your text. And tell us why your place is perfect.

3. In your photo gallery, who is the lady with the dog (and what's the dog's name?)? There's a story here. I've recently looked at one site where they've got photos of their dogs and have got their dogs down as the sales director and director of complaints, complete with photos. It's done in a lovely humorous way.

4. Your prices are all for 2004. You should be advertising 2005 prices by now - and taking bookings :lol:

Good luck with revamping your site.

Cheers

Christine
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livinginitaly
Posts: 202
Joined: Fri Oct 29, 2004 4:46 pm
Location: Italy (at last!)
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Post by livinginitaly »

Hi and welcome Buckie,

Fantastic place you have there :)

Re the website ....

I'm always a little confused why people don't make more of the first or 'homepage'. I've said it before, but it really is your 'shop window', you've a great image of the property but there are other 'shots' on your site that 'sell' the setting much better.

Also, there's nothing wrong with putting plenty of text onto your first page. 'Punchy' paragraphs covering the property, the local area, places of interest, history, etc, all go some way to igniting a 'spark' of interest in casual 'surfers'.

Just as important, you'll be adding 'keywords' which will be 'loved' by the search engines.

Being a huge fan of your particular area, i'm quite surprised that you havn't expanded on the 'activities' available too. Surely Golf could have at least a page to itself ;)

I'd also, increase the font size of the 'links' and maybe leave the 'underline' on them or at least make the 'hover' a little more clear. This will make it more obvious that they are indeed links to other pages. There's an old saying "the average person isn't too bright, and half the population arn't as clever as that" ...... something i always try to keep in mind!
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paolo
Posts: 3885
Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2004 1:18 pm
Location: Provence, France
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Post by paolo »

Welcome to the forum, Buckie! Image

First I'd like to echo what Tony says about a site's homepage.

I see many owners' sites that are designed with the assumption that a visitor will look at every page, read all the text and come to a decision. That is not how it works on the internet. The pictures on your homepage are very often as far as someone will go - if those don't grab the interest the visitor will leave. So you have to put your best photos on the homepage, and I think at least two of them should be visible without scrolling down.

That's a general observation, it's not aimed at you Buckie, although it does apply because you only have one pic on your homepage and I see better ones inside your site.

What's wrong with your homepage pic? It's blurred, the weather is overcast, and it doesn't show the wider context:

Image

The composition could be better (cropped right) and there is something a little off-putting about the fence. I think it should be taken just inside the fence.

This sounds hyper-critical of your homepage pic, but this picture will decide whether people stay on your site or move on, so it needs to be the best it can be.

I know it's not ALWAYS sunny in Scotland, but I would take all pics on a sunny day, unless there is a specific reason not to - for example a moody and magnificent picture of a mountain shrouded in black clouds.

I agree with Christine - I would use this pic (or a better quality one) on your homepage to show what we're talking about when we say Loch Lomond:

Image

This picture also needs a caption - is it a view from your house, is your house in the picture, or is it just a general view of the Loch?

The writing
As Tony says, there should be more copy on your homepage, at least 200 words. This is for the benefit of both people and search engines. I would merge your 'intro' page into your homepage and bring over the pics and copy.

What there is on your homepage is too much about you, not enough about the customer. It's interesting to note that your family has owned the house for five generations but you also need to state a benefit for the potential renter. One way to do this is to add that having lived there all your life there is not a lot you don't know about the area, and as you are next door you would be delighted to help plan itineraries and give recommendations.

You are underselling your location. You describe your village as 'a typical small Scottish village' - let's get some enthusiasm going! That description isn't going to make anybody want to jump in their car and go there! How about some description - if the village is, at worst, completely dead and boring, you can still say it is 'full of the charms of yesteryear'.

Back to the homepage, again let's state a benefit to this sentence:
'16 miles north of Glasgow within the new Loch Lomond National Park.'
The benefit is: very close to major transport networks - motorways, train and international airport - and yet in the heart of countryside so beautiful it has just been designated a national park. This is unusual, because the most beautiful parts of the UK tend to be flung far from useful things like airports.

'The apartments adjoin the main house and have their own entrance and garden area.'
Stating the benefit: 'The apartments adjoin the main house and have their own entrance and garden area for total privacy - but we're there to help if you need us'

The navigation links - yes, they are a little too discreet, it should be absolutely obvious that you have to click them, and although designers don't like underlining them, that is what people are used to.

Directions page:
I think people should look at it and emulate it - this is what I want to see, a big clear road map that tells me exactly where you are.

I generally like your site, it's user-friendly and informative, these are just the tweaks I would recommend.
Paolo
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