New website review

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.
isaxby
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Location: Brixham
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New website review

Post by isaxby »

Hi all

After two years I decided to update (modernise) our website.

It is not live yet, but the pre-release version can be found here:

https://test.onefishermansloft.co.uk/

Our current site is here if you would like to compare:

https://onefishermansloft.co.uk/

The new one is not quite finished, but pretty close now.

I would appreciate your thoughts.
Thanks

Ian
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CSE
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Location: Galicia

Post by CSE »

Being old I do find it hard to read text with an image background. What ever happened to the good old days when a plain background sufficed?
May want to think about added a scowl up arrow to the page after the visitor scrolls down and the menu disappears from sight. Also a fixed menu, at the top, would be another thing to think about.
You may want to up date your privacy details so that they read as in accordance with the new GDPR laws.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
SusanMay
Posts: 125
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2012 6:23 pm
Location: Dorset

Post by SusanMay »

It definitely looks up to date and modern so I think you have achieved what you were setting out to do. I've noticed it's the "in thing" to have lots of scrolling and background pictures on the home page...

Personally I find the pulsating circle a little annoying and am fed up with people describing everything as their "journey". It seems inescapable thought so that's probably just me.

I have the Alan Egan style website (Accelerate theme) like your current one. I still like it although I accept it is probably a little dated looking now. I would be interested to know if you find your new website brings in more bookings, although of course it's practically impossible to pinpoint the cause of fluctuating booking numbers!
isaxby
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Location: Brixham
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Post by isaxby »

Thank you both for the comments. I will look at all those suggestions.

I have tried to design it to be "mobile friendly", not just responsive but to be easy to use on a mobile device where users typically just want to scroll down a single page to find all the info they need. With that in mind I have tried to make all the really important stuff accessible from the home page.

My analytics stats tell me that around 80% of visitors to my site are using mobile devices (mainly phones but tablet as well).
newtimber
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Post by newtimber »

I'm afraid I also found the pulsating circle a little irritating, I'm afraid. I also couldn't see what I wanted to know straight away.
Such as how many does it sleep, does it have wifi and is there car parking on-site.
I also would like to see your name/address on the site. You'll need it to comply with GDPR anyway and I'm not sure you can have the site copyright "one fisherman's loft" but I'm no lawyer.
VillaAntonioLanzarote
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Location: Nazaret, Lanzarote
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Excellent

Post by VillaAntonioLanzarote »

Hi
I think it is excellent - very impressive
The only two things I can feedback on
1. Page loading time seems to take 11 seconds to fully load
http://www.webpagetest.org/result/18071 ... d187fbd83/
Might want to see if this is correct?

2. Really picky , The menu bar font I would make "stronger" seems faint to me

Again , great site, very impressive

Larry
Villa Antonio Lanzarote
a place to relax & unwind
www.villaantonio.co.uk
isaxby
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Location: Brixham
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Post by isaxby »

Hi all

Thanks again for the feedback. I have stopped the pulsating circle while the page loads. Regarding load speed I have not yet done any optimisation so I expect that to improve.

Other suggestions appreciated, looking at them now in more detail.

thanks again.

Ian
rosebud
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Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 5:24 pm
Location: Steyning, West Sussex

Post by rosebud »

Overall impression is that your newer site looks better..

Like others found new site took a while to load..

I like your guest reviews.. uploading them all .. ( I just have a selection)

I need to look again to do your site justice
newtimber
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Post by newtimber »

rosebud wrote:
I like your guest reviews.. uploading them all .. ( I just have a selection)
You need to ensure that guests have given you permission (preferably in writing) to share their reviews online. Under GDPR, it is a now a requirement as names and handwriting are personal data.
Jenster
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Post by Jenster »

newtimber wrote:
rosebud wrote:
I like your guest reviews.. uploading them all .. ( I just have a selection)
You need to ensure that guests have given you permission (preferably in writing) to share their reviews online. Under GDPR, it is a now a requirement as names and handwriting are personal data.
I can’t get on the website but I assume this refers to photos of guest reviews? I do that too. I’m no expert but I would have thought the reviews in the guestbook are in the public domain anyway, as they can be read by other guests, owner, cleaner etc, and the guest is aware of that when they write their entry.

I do email guests to say that we sometimes publish photos of guestbook entries and please let us know if they’d rather we didn’t, but are you saying we need explicit consent?
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greenbarn
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Location: The Westmorland Dales, Cumbria

Post by greenbarn »

Jenster wrote:
newtimber wrote:
rosebud wrote:
I like your guest reviews.. uploading them all .. ( I just have a selection)
You need to ensure that guests have given you permission (preferably in writing) to share their reviews online. Under GDPR, it is a now a requirement as names and handwriting are personal data.
I can’t get on the website but I assume this refers to photos of guest reviews? I do that too. I’m no expert but I would have thought the reviews in the guestbook are in the public domain anyway, as they can be read by other guests, owner, cleaner etc, and the guest is aware of that when they write their entry.

I do email guests to say that we sometimes publish photos of guestbook entries and please let us know if they’d rather we didn’t, but are you saying we need explicit consent?
Names are defined under GDPR as Personally Identifiable Information (PII). If you publish photos of guestbook entries you must mask names and any other PII such as address, or ensure they’re not in shot.
I’m not aware of handwriting being considered as PII under GDPR?
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CSE
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Post by CSE »

Oh the lack of knowledge with about the GDPR. Please do a search we have discussed this a lot.
Thank you GB for raising this.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
zebedee
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Location: yorkshire dales

Post by zebedee »

Yes the GDPR has been discussed a lot, but it is some specific applications that people need help about.

Many people just use first names and broad locations in visitor guest books. Ie they are not personally identifiable, so surely that is ok to reproduce??

( serious thread creep here, apologies!)
newtimber
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Post by newtimber »

greenbarn wrote:under GDPR as Personally Identifiable Information (PII). If you publish photos of guestbook entries you must mask names and any other PII such as address, or ensure they’re not in shot.
I’m not aware of handwriting being considered as PII under GDPR?
I found this definition
“[A]n identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.”


Given that graphologists are in business and handwriting is unique, I would have said that handwriting might fall in this category.
COYS
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Location: Greek Islands

Post by COYS »

zebedee wrote:Yes the GDPR has been discussed a lot, but it is some specific applications that people need help about.

Many people just use first names and broad locations in visitor guest books. Ie they are not personally identifiable, so surely that is ok to reproduce??

( serious thread creep here, apologies!)
+1
Talk about making a mountain from a molehill, this fear of GDPR is becoming a joke!
Yours, mine & everybody elses name & address is printed on every piece of postal communication out there, & easily looked up in myriad other places - it's no big secret.
A republished guestbook entry by ‘The Killarney family, London, England' is hardly going to have the GDPR feds banging down the door is it?
Half the world live their lives on social media in all it's gory detail, often including pics, names, geo tagging & far more (without specific pre-consent one assumes) of friends, family, colleagues or absolute strangers. It"s a case of stable doors & horses with regards 'personal' data - it's all out there anyway no matter what, so why the forensic examination of the minutiae? Get a grip.

Second apology for thread creep & for what it's worth to the OP I think the photographic element of the guest book entries is far more effective than just plain text.
This time next year Rodney, we'll be millionaires.
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