We've started redeveloping our website as we feel it is looking a bit tired and the text and photos definitely need updating. We decided to combine it with our blog, and we've used a standard Wordpress template (thanks for the inspiration Musetta!)
Before we spend too much time on it, it would be useful to get some feedback from you guys. Click on the links below, the first one is the old site, and the second (the blog) is the new one.
We need to do a lot of work on the text (so ignore it please!) and we plan to add loads of new photos, so the main body of the page will be mostly photographs and less text.
But before we spend this time, what do you think of the new layout? As you will see, it neatly incorporates the blog element of the site. Are we going down the right road???
Thanks!
Daisy xx
Comments needed on my new website please!
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Normandy Cow
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Hi Daisy,
I seem to get a problem when I look at some blogs. I tried to do a screen shot to show you what yours looks like but can't work out how to post it here.
All the lines of writing run into one another, impossible to read.
It must be my settings but I don't know what to change? Not very techy I'm afraid.
Ruth
I seem to get a problem when I look at some blogs. I tried to do a screen shot to show you what yours looks like but can't work out how to post it here.
All the lines of writing run into one another, impossible to read.
It must be my settings but I don't know what to change? Not very techy I'm afraid.
Ruth
Hi Daisy,
First of all the new site is a huge improvement on what was not really too bad before.
My main concern is with the navigation at the top.
a) Its redundant cos its repeated on the side. OK duplication is never a bad thing, but its also a bit different and thus inconsistent. More explanation below.
b) Mixture of lower case for "home" and upper case for the rest (clearly to match your consistent style in right navigation and page headings). Just looked wrong to me.
c) Why is it right justified - not centered?
d) The color contrast in normal state (before mouse over) is a bit washy.
While I am sure I don't have all the right answers, here are some possible considerations to alleviate the above:
Perhaps just omit the top navigation and replace it with a catch phrase heading (e.g. "Le Gaillon - A very special farmhouse to rent in Normandy")
Then in the side nav, to overcome the apparent missing "home" link, you could have the first link say "LE GAILLON (home page)" or similar.
Otherwise, very little to criticise. I'm actually quite impressed with a Blog based website as implemented here.
Two very tiny points:
Don't know if you are attracting our American cousins, but your Guestbook notes have dates in English (an American woudl read 05/08/2006 as May 8th). Is the precision necessary or can you just have "August 2006" - otherwise safest bet is August 5th 2006.)
In the Feedback page, when reading the responses from guests, it wouuld be easier to follow (once you are way down the page) if you continued to repeat the question before each answer. I can tell this is still W.I.P. and you have sort of done this in the first feedback example, but obviously got some formatting to sort out.
And finally, with that long list of links to the right, it looks like it will certainly be a great resource for hoiday makers to the region. Maybe this is a good thing and with many repeat visitors to the website you'll get a booking or two or ten. The wealth of information certainly will help your Rankings and searchability. But will all this enhance bookings or will it send visitors off into the ether too quickly ??
First of all the new site is a huge improvement on what was not really too bad before.
My main concern is with the navigation at the top.
a) Its redundant cos its repeated on the side. OK duplication is never a bad thing, but its also a bit different and thus inconsistent. More explanation below.
b) Mixture of lower case for "home" and upper case for the rest (clearly to match your consistent style in right navigation and page headings). Just looked wrong to me.
c) Why is it right justified - not centered?
d) The color contrast in normal state (before mouse over) is a bit washy.
While I am sure I don't have all the right answers, here are some possible considerations to alleviate the above:
Perhaps just omit the top navigation and replace it with a catch phrase heading (e.g. "Le Gaillon - A very special farmhouse to rent in Normandy")
Then in the side nav, to overcome the apparent missing "home" link, you could have the first link say "LE GAILLON (home page)" or similar.
Otherwise, very little to criticise. I'm actually quite impressed with a Blog based website as implemented here.
Two very tiny points:
Don't know if you are attracting our American cousins, but your Guestbook notes have dates in English (an American woudl read 05/08/2006 as May 8th). Is the precision necessary or can you just have "August 2006" - otherwise safest bet is August 5th 2006.)
In the Feedback page, when reading the responses from guests, it wouuld be easier to follow (once you are way down the page) if you continued to repeat the question before each answer. I can tell this is still W.I.P. and you have sort of done this in the first feedback example, but obviously got some formatting to sort out.
And finally, with that long list of links to the right, it looks like it will certainly be a great resource for hoiday makers to the region. Maybe this is a good thing and with many repeat visitors to the website you'll get a booking or two or ten. The wealth of information certainly will help your Rankings and searchability. But will all this enhance bookings or will it send visitors off into the ether too quickly ??
Risking minor thread creep, but written in the spirit of improving Daisy's website.......
Its amost never your fault. The onus is on website designers and browser manufacturers to take account of all user settings.
Unless you are running a very old computer or browser, in which case I have some sympathy for the designers (probably WordPress in this case and not Daisy's fault).
Ruth, what browser are you using ?
you can find out your browser version by clicking Help/About...
Mind you, if you are using a Mac, then its definitely your fault
(Only kidding here ! The Safari problem I experienced on La Vache's website turned out to be 100% web designer error and Safari was the only one to display the problem)
Ruth,Kipz wrote:..It must be my settings but I don't know what to change? Not very techy I'm afraid.
Its amost never your fault. The onus is on website designers and browser manufacturers to take account of all user settings.
Unless you are running a very old computer or browser, in which case I have some sympathy for the designers (probably WordPress in this case and not Daisy's fault).
Ruth, what browser are you using ?
you can find out your browser version by clicking Help/About...
Mind you, if you are using a Mac, then its definitely your fault
(Only kidding here ! The Safari problem I experienced on La Vache's website turned out to be 100% web designer error and Safari was the only one to display the problem)
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Normandy Cow
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OMG!!!!Kipz wrote:I seem to get a problem when I look at some blogs.
I've just seen it in the other thread. This is definitely NOT GOOD. My new website is a standard Wordpress template so I don't think I can do anything about it. But the point is, how many other people will have problems????
This makes me think I should go back to using pure HTML for creating my new website as it will give me more control. But the flipside to that is that I chose Wordpress because i knew that it would boost my Search Engine rankings. Oh, decisions, decisions, yawn....
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Normandy Cow
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Unfortunately, having taken the decision to use a standard template, these are some of the things I will have to live with. The question is, although I agree that they look "wrong", are they so bad that it will stop people from booking?e-richard wrote:My main concern is with the navigation at the top.
Thanks for the other comments, will take them on board. I hadn't thought about American dates (slapped wrists!), but will definitely do something about it.
Regarding the long list of links, I plan to enhance this with a lot more text and info on the "things to do" page, so I am hoping that this will help my SEO. I'm not going to let visitors get lost in the ether, because I will always open links in a new window, so my blog will still be open in a separate window on their desktop....
Thanks for the comments!
Hell no, I don't think they're that bad and should have zero effect on your bookings.Normandy Cow wrote:...The question is, although I agree that they look "wrong", are they so bad that it will stop people from booking?
People who book holidays (i.e. normal people) aren't nearly as pedantic about websites as I am
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Normandy Cow
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Hi Daisy,
I have no experience building a website so my opinion is just from an user point of view. I mean to be helpful and not just critical.
I think you should have more an BIGGER photos on the front page. Also should include at least one from the interior of one of the properties. Photos published are nice but they don't transmit a "home" feeling, only a "nature" one.
Also agree that the exaustive list of links makes the page heavier and probably does not add much to its main objective: get enquires.
Also maybe text fonts should be the same. And the message more concise.
I have no experience building a website so my opinion is just from an user point of view. I mean to be helpful and not just critical.
I think you should have more an BIGGER photos on the front page. Also should include at least one from the interior of one of the properties. Photos published are nice but they don't transmit a "home" feeling, only a "nature" one.
Also agree that the exaustive list of links makes the page heavier and probably does not add much to its main objective: get enquires.
Also maybe text fonts should be the same. And the message more concise.
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Normandy Cow
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Thanks Fil, all comments welcome - helpful AND critical ones. Be ruthless with us!!!!
Yes, we will have a couple of BIGGER photos on the front page. We had planned to put an external one there, but hadn't thought about conveying a "home" feeling as opposed to the "nature" theme across the top. So I think it's a good idea, thanks for that.
Yes, I have problem with being "concise". I do tend to ramble on (as I'm doing now).
The exhaustive list of links is there for the simple reason that I understand it will help us to get found by search engines. So I think it is quite important. Is it distracting though?
Yes, we will have a couple of BIGGER photos on the front page. We had planned to put an external one there, but hadn't thought about conveying a "home" feeling as opposed to the "nature" theme across the top. So I think it's a good idea, thanks for that.
Yes, I have problem with being "concise". I do tend to ramble on (as I'm doing now).
The exhaustive list of links is there for the simple reason that I understand it will help us to get found by search engines. So I think it is quite important. Is it distracting though?
well...I LIKE the list of links 
I wouldn't know what to plan to do there...I don't know france at all! that said...I have em too 
so maybe that's why...I'm in a VERY unknown spot...so I felt if I did not have them...no one wouold have any clue as to where they were going or what in the world they would do there...also...it has taken me WEEKS to compile...becasue there is very little info. about my area online...and what there is, is hard to find. so...don't know if it will help bookings or not...but I think it's always best to give as much info. as possible. hmmm...as for SEO and people actually finding you...just looked at my search engine terms...ALL have been through text in my "blog" and not from links...if that makes a difference for you in fact...just added more text today because I noticed that!! other thing about the links I relaly like...is that when you check your "statistics", you can see what people click on (!) which tells me what people are most interested in who are finding me
I wouldn't know what to plan to do there...I don't know france at all! that said...I have em too so maybe that's why...I'm in a VERY unknown spot...so I felt if I did not have them...no one wouold have any clue as to where they were going or what in the world they would do there...also...it has taken me WEEKS to compile...becasue there is very little info. about my area online...and what there is, is hard to find. so...don't know if it will help bookings or not...but I think it's always best to give as much info. as possible. hmmm...as for SEO and people actually finding you...just looked at my search engine terms...ALL have been through text in my "blog" and not from links...if that makes a difference for you in fact...just added more text today because I noticed that!! other thing about the links I relaly like...is that when you check your "statistics", you can see what people click on (!) which tells me what people are most interested in who are finding me 
I like the new site - it looks clear and the colours are good.
The links at the side do run rather long. Perhaps you could move the section of links to "Local Attractions" off your home page and on to your "Location - Things to Do" page? That would shorten your home page and ensure visitors look at info on your property before they start looking at the specific attractions in the area, which could cause you to lose them.
Others have mentioned photos. On your Interior page, there are only a few interior shots and they're below the initial screen size, ie you have to scroll down to find them. I would include more internal shots, in a larger size, and higher up the page.
Overall, I think you're on the right track! Best of luck with the rebuild!
The links at the side do run rather long. Perhaps you could move the section of links to "Local Attractions" off your home page and on to your "Location - Things to Do" page? That would shorten your home page and ensure visitors look at info on your property before they start looking at the specific attractions in the area, which could cause you to lose them.
Others have mentioned photos. On your Interior page, there are only a few interior shots and they're below the initial screen size, ie you have to scroll down to find them. I would include more internal shots, in a larger size, and higher up the page.
Overall, I think you're on the right track! Best of luck with the rebuild!
Lounging on the lily pad...
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Normandy Cow
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OK guys,
Here's a sort of "test" site, to compare with the original.
www.normandycottage.wordpress.com
As you can see, I've changed the headings to lower case, added an interior shot (too big though, I will reduce the size) and got rid of the blogroll (list of links).
(And by the way greenfrog, there are going to be loads of photos on the site once I get going!!!!)
I think it does look a lot cleaner! But my only question, to those who specialise in SEO, will moving my links out of the blogroll and into my pages have any negative effect on my rankings?
Here's a sort of "test" site, to compare with the original.
www.normandycottage.wordpress.com
As you can see, I've changed the headings to lower case, added an interior shot (too big though, I will reduce the size) and got rid of the blogroll (list of links).
(And by the way greenfrog, there are going to be loads of photos on the site once I get going!!!!)
I think it does look a lot cleaner! But my only question, to those who specialise in SEO, will moving my links out of the blogroll and into my pages have any negative effect on my rankings?
Two little points re the new version:
Navigation bar: I think it looks better in upper/lower case as in your new version. However, your home page and Le Gaillon buttons both take you to the same page so why have two buttons? Perhaps just leave the Home button - it will open directly on to Le Gaillon and as you have only one property on there it seems redundant to have an extra button.
Photo: I'm not convinced that's the best photo for the first page - it's a lovely picture, but it's long and there's a lot of wall. I think I would prefer the pic of the bed and the open window - it combines interior and exterior and reminds your visitors of the countryside theme.
Another point re pix, and it may be redundant as you're still working on the layout, your extreme-right and extreme-left shots on the straphead on the home page both face off the page, which takes the eye away. I realise you want the first one where it is because it's your main shot but it might work better if you try reversing them, and thereby draw the visitor's eye inwards to the rest of your site.
bon courage!
Navigation bar: I think it looks better in upper/lower case as in your new version. However, your home page and Le Gaillon buttons both take you to the same page so why have two buttons? Perhaps just leave the Home button - it will open directly on to Le Gaillon and as you have only one property on there it seems redundant to have an extra button.
Photo: I'm not convinced that's the best photo for the first page - it's a lovely picture, but it's long and there's a lot of wall. I think I would prefer the pic of the bed and the open window - it combines interior and exterior and reminds your visitors of the countryside theme.
Another point re pix, and it may be redundant as you're still working on the layout, your extreme-right and extreme-left shots on the straphead on the home page both face off the page, which takes the eye away. I realise you want the first one where it is because it's your main shot but it might work better if you try reversing them, and thereby draw the visitor's eye inwards to the rest of your site.
bon courage!
Lounging on the lily pad...