Lurker plucks up courage to post

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.
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enid
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Post by enid »

Hi - I do still have a problem with the blue text but i think it is the shade of blue - on Paul's site it is a bit darker so that may be it. I do think the menu buttons are a better colour but the text could be stronger - I'm sorry but you did ask!!! It may just be me - I am an old woman after all!!!!

I do think blue and grey is a good colour schme - but that doesn't have to include the text IMHO :)
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Windy
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Post by Windy »

Well I do find the blue a bit wearing - yes blue sky amd all that but I find it hard to read - sorry I am turning into an old git but I may be your target market!

Also I'm not sure about the different sizes of pictures (but I am rather anally retentive according to Mrs WL)

At least we now know who the Stig is.

Otherwise it's a great site, and the above is offered only in the spirit of positive criticism.

I like the tiley image for the name BTW

Best wishes

John
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Vera
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Post by Vera »

Wow, I didnt expect to be changing buttons and colours when I posted last week but hey I asked for comments!
Home and Villa pages are now done and I think they are better thanks for all your help, now I have to do the others and add the translated text but it is too nice to be indoors, time to light the barbie!

Vera
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enid
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Post by enid »

Well when people ask for comments we presume they really want to know what we think :)

Just changing the blue of the text has made it much easier on the eye and much classier i think - worth the effort!
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ourinns
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Post by ourinns »

I'm not sure about the blue either. Not so much because it's blue but because it's a little difficult to read from here.

One thing that you MUST change though is the hosting. You currently host in America and that's dropping your traffic dramatically. When I changed from American to UK hosting the traffic went up 30x (and, yes, the own-site bookings follow that) though others have "only" doubled or trebled their traffic.

There's two ways to do that.

1) the ten minute approach.
go to www.google.com/webmasters/tools (register for a google account at this point if you don't have one)
add your domain
verify it
go to tools, set geographic target and select UK (that seems to be the best - I've tried other European ones)

2) actually move the hosting.
I use www.eukhost.com but I'm sure others have other recommendations.

The traffic jump takes about 2 or 3 weeks to fully kick in.



Arnold
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Vera
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Post by Vera »

Arnold

I've never seen this mentioned, can you please explain why changing to UK will make such a big increase in traffic.

Vera
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ourinns
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Post by ourinns »

It's down to the way that search engines rank search results.

Basically, if a domain is in the UK then when someone searches either using google.co.uk or using google.com in the UK then that domain will appear much higher up than an identical domain which is hosted outside the UK. They can tell where your domain is hosted from the IP address - see www.whois.sc/fincaarboleda.com and scroll down to "IP Location".

I actually made the move in two steps. Step one was from an American host to 1and1.co.uk which gave me a 10x jump in traffic. I hadn't realised at the time but 1and1.co.uk is actually hosted in Germany. When I moved from that to a host in the UK, the traffic more or less tripled compared to the German hosting.

Ideally you should host in the UK as that's where I imagine your main customer base is. However, doing that thing with google that I mentioned in the earlier reply will get you some of the benefit. How much it'll get you is impossible to say but basically it'll only correct the problem in respect of google so, for example, people using yahoo.co.uk won't see your site changes.

I picked up 30x but others just doubled or trebled their traffic. I would have thought that an accommodation site would do towards the upper end of the range in that there are obviously more Brits going on holiday in Europe than there are Americans but you'll not know 'til you try.

I've been talking about this for a couple of years now off and on but several webmasters wouldn't believe me that the effect exists... 'til google said straight out that "of course" they do this.


Arnold
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