Lay My Hat

Hi,

I put our website together using Weebly - I have tried to provide as much information as possible to potential customers.

www.monpetitcoeur.info

When I showed a work colleague my site she immediately looked for photographs so I tried to make that element more immediate and obvious.

I would welcome criticisms, suggestions and any other advice experienced participants in this forum can provide.

Hi Heliodomus

IMHO the old truth is 'a picture is better than a thousand words' applies. Lots of words - as you have on your home page - tend not to give an instant impression of your place (which does look lovely).
Words are hard work when compared to pictures and I think the average time spent on a home page is less than four seconds (or something like that) so it has to be an instant impression.
Others with much more experience will doubtless add their experience too........

Hi PB,

Thanks for the observation, will take it on board and look to spruce up the home page with bigger and better pictures.

Hi

Nice site - why are you pushing people to your OD advert ?

Hope you don't mind me asking

Larry

Just a couple of quick first impressions - some of the photos in the slider at the top look a bit blurred or low resolution on my laptop.

Try adding sub heads throughout your text - it breaks it up and helps people in a hurry to skim read and pick up the important points. Things like "Why France makes a great holiday destination" and "la Menantelierre is perfect for familys".

Got a bit confused - I though the gite was called monpetitcoeur but it seems that it's la Menantelierre or is that the town? That might need to be clearer.

You can also cut your text down a bit - there is some repetition, you don't need to mention testimonials twice. The last paragraph could be a lot shorter too.

I would remove the email link and just have the contact form - if you have an email address on your web site you'll be inundated with spam (believe me, I know!).

VillaAntonioLanzarote wrote: Nice site - why are you pushing people to your OD advert ?

+1

VillaAntonioLanzarote wrote:Hi

Nice site - why are you pushing people to your OD advert ?

Hope you don't mind me asking

Larry

+1

Thanks to Jo and Larry for their feedback - I have now modified our home page to include less words and more photos plus links to our contact us and availability pages. I have also removed reference to Owners Direct as we have decided not to continue with that platform. Instead we are now listed with Gites.Eu and also on the Brittany Ferries "Holiday France Direct" website, we also have a listing on the Facebook "Book your Holiday Direct with the Owner" group.

I'm sorry but I didn't like the site much. You have so much detail that I got bored, why give your Livebox codes for example? If the box goes bang (which they do) you'll have the bother of changing the website.
The link to the OD site was very useful, I found what I needed there much more quickly!
My usual question (which seems to annoy a lot of folk on Lay My Hat) : where does it say that I can/cannot bring my dog?
However, I do like the property!

Circé wrote: My usual question (which seems to annoy a lot of folk on Lay My Hat) : where does it say that I can/cannot bring my dog?
However, I do like the property!

Maybe add (after the recent discussions) electric cars too.

It does look lovely heliodomus but I couldn't find any photos of the inside of the gite......

I like the text and you sound like a great place to visit, it it is not clear where exactly you are. The views look great but I would need to see more interior photos of the gite.

You mention you are 50km from La Rochelle but I feel you should be much more specific in the title as to where exactly you are located - nearest village or town? Perhaps 2 bedroom gite at or near “village” would draw the reader in. Although I have had many years of holidaying in France, I would need the exact location information immediately to hand and won’t want to search for it.

Most visitors to a website stay for a matter of seconds, then move on and are only prompted to stay longer and investigate if they see something really special, inspirational or very relevant to what they require.

If I was looking at your site, I would probably not look or read any further if there are no internal shots and these are possibly more important than all the great views. Too many repeat shots are a no no - the sunflowers are lovely but just the one shot gives me the flavour of it. Much more important is the actual gite.....

Interior shots give a feel of whether I would like to holiday there; the bedrooms, the kitchen and bathroom plus inspiring shots of a laid table. Good quality photos of your lovely welcome basket and perhaps the breakfast you provide laid out, too.

Websites take quite a while to perfect but I would certainly say photos are crucial and they must be of great quality with good light. Mobile phones take better shots than iPads.

It is worth considering a professional photographer as the website is effectively your shop window.

Perhaps I've looked too quickly but I can't find any prices. I wouldn't enquire until I knew how much it would cost. Also if you have a blog you need to keep it up to date. As for the photos, you don't need several photos showing the same thing. And there are too many pages. Get out the pruning shears.

I have just taken a very quick look (glance): the sort of thing you might do if you were drawing up a shortlist of properties to look at more thoroughly.

I agree with Blanche about the prices needing to be more clearly evident. Also the availability calendar - I found this after a good guess in a drop down menu but personally I would have it clearly showing on your home page.

People do want to know straight away if you are in their price range and if there is availability. There is nothing worse than searching through lots of properties only to find they are not available/price range is wrong.

Other than that, what I saw looked very attractive. Lovely pool! I hope you do well.

You're a better man than I, Zebedee, as after careful perusal I still can't find the prices. Far too much detail throughout. I'm drowning!