Lay My Hat

Following advice on here I decided to go ahead with a website. And following the recommendations I have used Promote My Place. I enjoyed doing it, and have now published it. I will get my own domain name at a later date.

I will probably still tweak it a bit, but (gulp) I've decided to let you have your say.......

Here it is (I'm just off to hide....)

http://lacachettebrittany.promotemyplace.com

I noticed the images were a bit slow to load (50M cable connection here) and immediately discovered why. I'm shocked to be honest that such a well known site does not size the images correctly before inserting them in a page. This is normally a problem seen from inexperienced web designers but there is simply no excuse here. They've been providing websites for years and it's all automated.

Consequently pages load about 4 times slower than they should do with correctly sized images.

For example on the home page "the walnut tree" thumbnail is 245K (about 6 times too big) but the pop up is actually smaller at 96K. Completely incorrect.

Sadly as the author, you are probably powerless to address this issue as it's a fault of the PMP software.

The images appear fine on my computer here and at work, and I'm not very technical, so disappointed about that.

Enaid wrote:The images appear fine on my computer here and at work, and I'm not very technical, so disappointed about that.

Because they are now in your cache. This will only be noticed by a first time visitor or if you clear your browser cache. You are no longer loading the images from PMP but your own hard drive. Those thumbnails are small enough that they should load almost instantly.

They're not in my cache at work, surely??

Loaded OK for me on my BT infinity connection, and they weren't in my cache.

Enaid wrote:They're not in my cache at work, surely??

Depends if you noticed the first time.

This is what it looks like on a very fast internet connection. Those thumbnails would load instantly if correctly sized. Watch how they are drawn. The more images per page, the worse this will be. The home page is not the worst. Small images like that should not be 256K each. For that amount of memory you could load a full width slider image.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grdaGWp ... e=youtu.be

All loaded fine for me on my iPad in Spain Your site looks very pretty. I know some don't like PMP sites on principle but as a DIY option they're great - in the right hands. I'm sure you'll tweak over the next few days, but it's a good first attempt and I really like your 'garden friends'. I noticed however that there is not a major differential between your low and high season rates - is that the norm in Brittany?

I've just checked it on my phone, and on my tablet, and the photos appear instantly. Other people (friends) have also looked at the website and no one mentioned the photos being slow (but they might not want to be critical).

I'd opt for the highest resolution possible to cover as many bases as you can.

Thanks Casscat. Yes it is pretty much the price for a property like that, without sea views, pool or the like. People get very excited about the prices compared with uk ones, but then have to factor in the expensive ferry crossing.

Casscat wrote:I'd opt for the highest resolution possible to cover as many bases as you can.

But you see, there you're confusing my poor non-IT brain!

I should have learned not to comment on PMP sites.

Enaid wrote:I've just checked it on my phone, and on my tablet, and the photos appear instantly. Other people (friends) have also looked at the website and no one mentioned the photos being slow (but they might not want to be critical).

An external server speed test shows a average 3 second load time. This is not bad for any web page but with tiny images like that, it should be loading in under 1 second.

I'd be fairly annoyed as other systems like Wordpress or Weebly don't have this error. If you're happy, it not that important and I'll say nothing more.

kevsboredagain wrote:I should have learned not to comment on PMP sites.

l am not an expert at IT in any way, so I found it a very easy site to use. It was probably going to be the only way I could build a website. I'm not cross because you criticised PMP. But I am concerned about the photo thing, as I didn't see it happening. And not sure how I can change it. And bit deflated now....