A first attempt

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.
peyre blanque
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Location: Winslow, Bucks UK & Near Carcassonne
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A first attempt

Post by peyre blanque »

http://villatoto.weebly.com/

Please don't hold back: all views are welcome. This is my first time with Weebly (or anything else for that matter.
I've yet to switch our domain name over from independent owners and do the keywords etc, so presentation and content marks out of ten please!

Our target market is UK families (villa is large enough for two).

Thanks

Ross
tavi
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Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2011 9:07 pm
Location: Algarve

Post by tavi »

I like it. Just had a quick whizz through a few of the pages....

..... a few thoughts as got to run.

Thumbnails in the gallery look like the photos are out of focus (or is it just me?) but the when the gallery is opened the images are great - and I like your captions.

Details page - you don't describe the bathrooms - ensuite? how they're distributed amongst the rooms? - this might be quite relevant for two families holidaying together.

I think the word luxury is over-used...think of something else to convey what you want?
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teapot
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Location: Loire valley

Post by teapot »

Refreshing modern look to the web site. Text clashing with photo on the front page.
Bullet pointed private pool and landscaped gardens but no pictures unless you're a bear.
Passivpool Energy "A" rated Swimming Pools, the most efficient, lowest running cost pools in the world
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kevsboredagain
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Post by kevsboredagain »

I make the same comment about most websites. The images are bigger than they are being displayed making the pages slow to load. Every page I loaded, the images came in slowly and I'm on a fast cable connection. With Weebly it's possible to avoid this.

There are a few layout problems, like on the home page I see "20 minutes from Mirepoix and L" and then the photo starts. The bullet list also had 2 bullets on the first item. The end of the text is lost. The home page needs a bit more work and looks unfinished.

I clicked on Availability and Booking and saw only an empty page.

The overall look is good though and Weebly is one of the best online tools for creating such a site. Just don't go with free though.

Nothing to do with website but you have no window dressings in any form? In Spain they make this a requirement for a tourist license.
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Nemo
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Location: Norfolk

Post by Nemo »

Looks lovely, but typo after typo and grammar; missing commas etc. I'll come back when you've gone through with a toothcomb as there are so many at first glance, including the availability tab. :wink:
tavi
Posts: 2578
Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2011 9:07 pm
Location: Algarve

Post by tavi »

oh wow, peyre's completely changed the template since I commented last night.

I quite like the more modern template but it's obviously still a work in progress.
SandyBeaches
Posts: 1071
Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 8:35 am
Location: Norfolk Coast

Post by SandyBeaches »

Your place looks fab!

A couple of things:

* The weather is showing in Droitwich
* Photos - can you change the length of your captions so they are all standard eg one line or two lines? The differing caption sizes are making the photos all over the place and making it all more difficult for the eye to look at /read
* The 'downstairs' over the blue sign is hard to read. Maybe consider a different background photo?
* Bathrooms - on the first one it talks about lovely views from the balcony, and then shows me a picture of tap ...
* All bathroom photos would look better same size - again easier for the eye to read
* Love the bears! Only one video has a caption.
* On the places to go page I think you need more copy to 'sell' the area. The picture of the lions looks like you're in Africa. And is that the space shuttle in Florida?
* Location. Could you re-write 'in the middle of nowhere' to be more appealing? Something more like 'tranquil, peaceful location' 'amazing scenery' 'get away from it all in a tranquil location'. And maybe put more than a map?
* Availability & Bookings - this section is really good and obviously a lot of work has gone into putting that together.

Please don't take these comments the wrong way! I was just looking at it as a prospective guest might.
peyre blanque
Posts: 127
Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2011 2:39 pm
Location: Winslow, Bucks UK & Near Carcassonne
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Post by peyre blanque »

Thank you all: I hope its better now as I've addressed all comments except for slow loading pictures (they aren't for me), missing commas (avalaiblity now spelled correctly).
Weebly had some sort of a fit just after posted this and refused to show some pictures, but Sandy beaches comment on the weather showing Droitwitch made me laugh!

PIMS calendar and rates also now added and I've paid for the upgrade, next job to transfer the .com domain over.

Thanks again to the regulars for their comments

Ross
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kevsboredagain
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Post by kevsboredagain »

Peyre Blanque wrote: I've addressed all comments except for slow loading pictures (they aren't for me),
They are not slow for you because you are now loading them from cache but they will be slow to many who visit your site for the first time. Try holding the shift key (Firefox) or Ctrl Key (IE and Chrome) when you refresh the page. Then do it without that and see the difference the caching makes.

Example of one image on your site:
1,066px × 800px (scaled to 300px × 225px)

This image is 852,800 pixels in total and about 240KB in size. It should be 67,500 pixels which is 12 times smaller. It would still display at 300x225 so absolutely no change visually. As most of a page loading time is images, a page with several such images could load 12 times faster if the images were the correct size.

Not all images are this bad but correcting them would make a huge difference.


I am thinking of writing an article on how to avoid this because most people simply assume because it looks ok and they don't see the problem on their own PC because it's loading the images from cache, then there is no problem.

PS. It shows me the weather in Switzerland. Why do I want to see my own weather?
rammy100
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Joined: Thu Apr 25, 2013 8:20 am
Location: Berlin

Post by rammy100 »

kevsboredagain wrote:
PS. It shows me the weather in Switzerland. Why do I want to see my own weather?
It's showing me the weather in Malaga. As it happens I'm going that way next week so it's good to know that it's sunnier there than where I am in Berlin. 8)
Here we go again........
annedab
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Location: Midi Pyrenees

Post by annedab »

We're in Berlin next week Rammy - please can you sort out some sunshine for my daughter's wedding :D

Apologies for TC!
Regards

Anne

If there's no such thing as co-incidence, then why is there a word for it?
peyre blanque
Posts: 127
Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2011 2:39 pm
Location: Winslow, Bucks UK & Near Carcassonne
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Post by peyre blanque »

Well - happy though I am to help all those who are looking for their local forecast I just wish I could get the damn thing to stick on Carcassonne!
I'll try another weather widget and see how that fares.....
rammy100
Posts: 553
Joined: Thu Apr 25, 2013 8:20 am
Location: Berlin

Post by rammy100 »

annedab wrote:We're in Berlin next week Rammy - please can you sort out some sunshine for my daughter's wedding :D

Apologies for TC!
I'm sure you'll have a fantastic time Anne but I'll try to order some decent weather for you.

Perhaps Peyre Blanque will set the weather widget for "Berlin" so you can check the forecast on her website..... :D
Here we go again........
Musetta
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Post by Musetta »

I think it's lovely but I can't see the home page text from my phone (where I do 99.9% of web surfing.) I see the bullets and first few letters and it's cut off? The other pages don't do that and I can see them just fine.
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kevsboredagain
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Post by kevsboredagain »

Still has image problems. Some have been fixed but some still remain. eg. bedrooms page: the 3 images on the left and the ones on the bottom row are the correct size and load quickly. The 4 remaining images are way too big and load slowly.
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