Lay My Hat

I agree with others that the site is very wide. I use a Full HD screen and it was wider than I usually have my browser window.

I loaded the site without Javascript at first as that is the way my browser is set up (granted that isn't normal but in this case it was informative). What I noticed is that it took some time to work out what the site was about. The first thing I see is the header "Swallowdale in Brundall". So I'm thinking, is it a place? Village? Town? I'm not sure. I look at the menu bar below the header and see 'boat hire', 'Norfolk broads' and 'book now'. I now think that it is a boat hire place. Then I look at the text and see 'Welcome to Swallowdale..' and I'm thinking it's a place name again. Then I scan the text (as most people will) and I miss the bit in the first sentence that finally tells me it's a holiday home.

The point of all this is that I think you need the page to shout 'Holiday Home' more than it does. OK, most people will see the photos and work it out (I didn't, because I didn't have Javascript on). But search engines don't see pictures. Maybe think about putting 'Holiday Home' in the header.

Also, from an SEO point of view you need to look at your H1 tags. You should only have one set of H1 tags on each page (I.e. your header). You currently have lots, including in the footer, which isn't good. You also need a more descriptive meta description.

Hi DaveT,

Thanks for your comments,
I will be reducing the width of the site soon.
Totally agree about putting 'holiday home' somewhere in the header. I didn't think of that, well spotted.
I've only just started looking at the H1 tags and don't really understand them. I will try and learn a bit more about them and amend the site.
Also I will have a look at the meta description.

Thanks very much for your input.

H tags are easy..

h1 = main heading (one per page)
h2 = sub heading (a few per page is OK)
h3 = sub, sub heading (if you need them)

Main text copy goes in p tags.

That's about it really.

Thanks DaveT,

So if I have my heading on my Master Page as h1, does that mean I don't need to put anymore on any other pages as the Master Page is used for all my pages?

Ian.

I assume by 'master page' you mean your template, in which case, no. Ideally you want a different h1 tag on each page. So on your index page you would have, for example...
Then on your boat hire page you might have...
...and so on.

Kev posted a good tutorial about SEO that you really should watch if you haven't already...

viewtopic.php?t=25678

Thanks DaveT

I've reduced the width of my site from 1500 down to 1250. Do we think that is enough?

I like it more like this and it now fits my browser without scrolling sideways.
As Dave says use those header tags to break up your text, and readers and search engines will thank you.

Looking better but the footer is still a bit ugly. There's a big white widget there on a green background. Try and lose the style making it white, which is this:

background: transparent url('wpimages/wp90ab80d3.png') no-repeat left top;

The dark green is a bit strong to me.

Now that the overall look is better without the borders, it draws attention to the menus. They are so small I can hardly read them. Not pretty either.

Have you thought about a blue footer? A not too intense blue. More watery.

Did you know that the Facebook feed is a big white empty space for the millions of people using ad-blockers ?

I don't think there is anything (easy) that you can do about that other than remove it.

Hi all,

I've taken all your advice and made many changes to my website.
Any comments on the new site would be very welcome.

Thanks.

www.swallowdale-brundall.co.uk

I thought the panels without the green borders looked ok but now it's all borders again.

All the boxes had a dark green border before and the background was light green. The background is now light blue but the boxes do not have a border now.

It would be nice to have some more information on the fishing as from the comments, this seems to be a major selling point.

It does sound a wonderful thing to do catch your supper from the decking - especially if you are a family with children who haven't fished before. Rod hire, licences, anywhere to learn, best time of year - and if you have this on the website or at least a link to a site with all this information on it, people searching for fishing holidays are more likely to find you.