please review our website at www.exmoorselfcatering.co.uk

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.
michael
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Mar 12, 2005 4:04 pm
Location: Exmoor National Park
Contact:

please review our website at www.exmoorselfcatering.co.uk

Post by michael »

Hi,
We are in Exmoor National Park, and do most of our advertising on the web. We are aiming for anybody- families during the holidays- couples etc during term time. We want people who want to chill out in nice surroundings who do not want night clubs and a frentic holiday, prefering walking riding or reading! We would be really grateful for any comments on our web site. Thanks
sazzleevans
Posts: 290
Joined: Thu Jan 27, 2005 10:48 am
Location: costa de la luz
Contact:

Post by sazzleevans »

Hi

I am very new to this game and there are loads of web site pros on this site but heres my opinion for what its worth.

I liked the site a lot. It gave me a connection with your location and the accomodation. I could imagine staing there.

I liked the use of lots of photos. The only one problem I had was I got a bit stick whilst on one or two page. I had to closed the window down to get back to the main website. I would have preferred to have had the index on all of the pages.

Other than that its fab!

One of the members on this site advised me to think of a way of getting visitors to return to my website. You could do this by maybe including a photograph competition etc?

Well done. I hope you get lots of feedback.

Sarah
User avatar
Steve Noctor
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 10:37 pm

Post by Steve Noctor »

Hi michael

It's a nice looking site, however I have spotted a few issues you may wish to address. I've looked more at the technical / user issues rather then the content.

1/ The whole site uses a frameset. This can cause problems, especially when pages from your site are listed in the search engines.

The search engines would view and lits the pages as follows:

http://www.exmoorselfcatering.co.uk/horse.htm

http://www.exmoorselfcatering.co.uk/prices.htm

As you can see by listing th pages individually you have lost your header and left hand navigation. This can also be a problem if users try to bookmark an individual page.

Personally I would remove the frameset but an alternatives would be to add some javascript code to detect if the page is within a frameset and if not to refresh the page with a frameset.

2/ The filesizes of all the images on your site are rather large. These images took a while to download on my 1MB home broadband connection so could be a real problem on a dial up connection.

I would recommend getting a photo editing program and compressing them all. 80% jpg compresssion should be sufficient.

3/ I would recommend adding a Page name in the title of every page. The framset page current displays <TITLE>Untitled Document</TITLE>

This name is very important for seach engines so choose it wisely.

I would recommend you keep this title to no more than about 60 -70 characters. I notice on a number of pages you have titles that are far too long e.g.: <TITLE>home page exmoor self catering, accommodation on exmoor, cottage holidays exmoor, bed and breakfast in exmoor national park, family holidays on exmoor, country cottages on exmoor, weekend breaks on exmoor, accommodation with stables on exmoor, cottages with stabling on exmoor, country cottage accommodation, walking on exmoor, riding on exmoor, acomodation on exmoor, acommodation on exmoor, accomodation on exmoor</TITLE>

Keep Titles short and descriptive.

4/ Avoid repeating META data. On a number of pages you have META keywords and META description repeated twice. Although META data is not as important as it used to be it IS still used by some search engines.

Good luck and let me know if you need help or clarification with any of the above.

Steve
User avatar
vrooje
Posts: 3202
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 2:48 am
Location: Burgundy, France

Post by vrooje »

Michael,

I am 100% in agreement with what Steve said about frames. Some browsers don't support them, and neither does Google, which is the worst bit of all. You can use other methods now that give you all the benefits of frames without any of the drawbacks, mainly using tables. You can use a table to arrange your menus and main content the way you want them, and even keep the same file structure you have now, but use an "include" statement rather than a frameset to include e.g. the same menu on all your pages. You can even set it so that your main content table cell will scroll, but your menu will not. Overall, I highly recommend the use of tables rather than frames.

Your home page doesn't use frames, which is good, but having a main page that requires a person to click to enter the real site has its drawbacks too. A huge percentage of internet users won't go more than one click into a site before making a judgment call as to whether or not the site is worth their time. Why waste that click getting them to the content? Some users won't even click in the first place, and you have a better chance of drawing them in if you start them off on your real main page.

Your page title says "Untitled Document" -- which may have been pointed out in other reviews, but it's important enough to mention it again. Page titles are a big part of search engine rankings, so it's really important to make sure they're appropriately descriptive for each page.

As I read I'm struck by the language used in your copy -- it's warm and inviting. It really makes it easy to picture myself at your cottages. Wonderful!

I also like your color scheme -- very easy to read and also warm. Your photos are lovely too! There are a few that perhaps might have been taken on sunnier days, but overall they're gorgeous. :)

Overall, I think it's well done and easy to use -- but do consider switching from frames to tables (probably not a small project) for the improved search engine compatibility.

Cheers!
Brooke
annemarie
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri May 27, 2005 8:42 pm

I loved it

Post by annemarie »

I learned about the accomodations, the area, and lots of extra bits in a streamlined yet informative layout. The colors were pleasing, and your snippets of humour made it a fun read! My family is from Torquay, so frankly it made me a bit homesick, too!
One thought, do they letterbox in your area? That is a huge draw and activity in Dartmoor, so those who pursue this hobby would be interested to know.
Soberano
Posts: 20
Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2005 1:16 pm

Post by Soberano »

Hi Michael,

We like your website a lot. It is informative and includes lots of helpful links. We like the idea of the photo gallery and think we might add one to our own website! We actually come from Devon and know your area quite well so viewing your site has brought back fond memories of childhood holidays spent near Lynton/Lynmouth.

We are a bit new at all this but cannot see anything lacking in your site.

Good Luck

Bob & Sue
geoffreycoan
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Jul 12, 2005 11:21 am
Location: Central Brittany, France
Contact:

Lots to like about your site

Post by geoffreycoan »

I quite liked your site, as others have said it's easy on the eye and it's got lots of humour as well.

Some suggestions I'd make:
  • As previously said, loose the frames - tables are much better
  • I thought some of the pictures looked a bit dark and indistinct (I wasn't sure what the top LHS picture was of for instance) and some could be brightened up a bit (e.g. Attractions page). I use irfanview www.irfanview.com for most of my image manipulations - it actually produces better JPG's than Photoshop Elements !
  • Add titles throughout - many of the search engines use titles for keyword relevance
  • On the prices page remind people what the occupancy of each cottage is as then you can compare prices easier
  • I thought there was a bit too much use of opening new windows - e.g. cottages overview was one new window, details of one cottage another. Having to keep swapping/closing windows made it harder to navigate around for me.
  • I liked the photo gallery (reminds me I must finish the one on my website!) but found it a bit odd that some pictures you could click on and some you couldn't.
Good luck with the bookings

Cheers, Geoffrey
Les Vallees Gite, central rural Brittany - http://www.giteinbrittany.com
Post Reply