I would be very gratefuil for any comments regarding my website and whether anyone thinks it can be improved
www.villapuglia.com
Tell me what you think of this Puglia Villa Website
Oh wow - a trulli! It looks beautiful!
Before we settled up north we thought about getting one of these. We've still got half a dream that one day....!
I've had quick a look at your site and hope you don't mind the following comments (I am not a techie so am just looking at it from a customers standpoint):
- Your home page has an awful lot of text - I am more interested to know what's on offer than about how the owners feel about it and it takes quite a lot of scrolling to get there. Maybe the Evening Standard article should go on a different page?
- On the whole I like the fonts but don't like some of the heading fonts you have used ( a personal thing).
- It's not immediately obvious how many people can stay.
- I have to scroll left and right to get all the info, not sure if there is anything that you can do about this?
Hope this helps. I'm sure others will be able to offer some more advice.
Carole-Anne
Before we settled up north we thought about getting one of these. We've still got half a dream that one day....!
I've had quick a look at your site and hope you don't mind the following comments (I am not a techie so am just looking at it from a customers standpoint):
- Your home page has an awful lot of text - I am more interested to know what's on offer than about how the owners feel about it and it takes quite a lot of scrolling to get there. Maybe the Evening Standard article should go on a different page?
- On the whole I like the fonts but don't like some of the heading fonts you have used ( a personal thing).
- It's not immediately obvious how many people can stay.
- I have to scroll left and right to get all the info, not sure if there is anything that you can do about this?
Hope this helps. I'm sure others will be able to offer some more advice.
Carole-Anne
I like the look of the sight but, I'm sorry to sound negative, it's a bit disjointed.
- It needs to state at the beginning that it is a holiday rental property for 10 people.
- I was confused about the name of the property because Villa Puglia is in big type and then on the menu to get to the house you click on Casa Rossa tour which took me a while to find.
- definately too much text on the first page, perhaps another item on the menu bar - what people say about the area or something like that.
- I couldn't get a feel for what the villa will look like, do you have an artists impression or something which would make it easier to picture.
I know it is difficult to try and sell something which is not finished yet, but I couldn't imagine myself there. There are alot of descriptive terms that an architect might use but none of them helped me to picture it.
I hope these are useful comments, I certainly don't want to hurt feelings, just add some constructive critisism.
Ju
- It needs to state at the beginning that it is a holiday rental property for 10 people.
- I was confused about the name of the property because Villa Puglia is in big type and then on the menu to get to the house you click on Casa Rossa tour which took me a while to find.
- definately too much text on the first page, perhaps another item on the menu bar - what people say about the area or something like that.
- I couldn't get a feel for what the villa will look like, do you have an artists impression or something which would make it easier to picture.
I know it is difficult to try and sell something which is not finished yet, but I couldn't imagine myself there. There are alot of descriptive terms that an architect might use but none of them helped me to picture it.
I hope these are useful comments, I certainly don't want to hurt feelings, just add some constructive critisism.
Ju
The villa looks as though it probably will be fantastic but I wouldn't book until I saw some actual pictures and not just architectural designs.I had this dilemma and I put some poor pictures up,at first ,but I explained on the web site and lo and behold we got bookings! The people who booked on trust tell me they keep visiting my site for updates, and are enjoying seeing upgraded shots!. 
I think your place may well be a wow,but we need something to look at!!!!
www.thepetitmanoir.com
I think your place may well be a wow,but we need something to look at!!!!www.thepetitmanoir.com
The sheer bulk of information on the site is excellent. The pages on Puglio will make your site 'sticky' to visitors, and will also give you a shot at being found in the more general searches, like the names of towns and villages. I would like to see more pictures and captions under all pics too, as I don't know exactly what I am looking at.
Restaurant reviews are great, wine notes also a really good idea because wine is likely to interest your potential renters.
What you have with your Puglia section is a site within a site, which is going to be attractive to people and search engines alike. I think you are intending to add other owners' properties to the site, and you are going the right way about it, building what I call a 'micro-site' dedicated to your area first.
As to how it could be improved...
I agree that it should be clearer at the top of the homepage what you are offering. There is a place for owners' thoughts but the top of the homepage is for answering where? what? and why?.
People like to read less on the internet than in the printed word, so I would aim to keep it snappy, with key points clearly displayed. For instance, the precis of the Evening Standard article is a bit wordy for the screen.
You've got beautiful pictures, and I would show more of them across the site - more pics, less text!
Restaurant reviews are great, wine notes also a really good idea because wine is likely to interest your potential renters.
What you have with your Puglia section is a site within a site, which is going to be attractive to people and search engines alike. I think you are intending to add other owners' properties to the site, and you are going the right way about it, building what I call a 'micro-site' dedicated to your area first.
As to how it could be improved...
I agree that it should be clearer at the top of the homepage what you are offering. There is a place for owners' thoughts but the top of the homepage is for answering where? what? and why?.
People like to read less on the internet than in the printed word, so I would aim to keep it snappy, with key points clearly displayed. For instance, the precis of the Evening Standard article is a bit wordy for the screen.
You've got beautiful pictures, and I would show more of them across the site - more pics, less text!
Paolo
Lay My Hat
Lay My Hat
Hi,
agree with everything above, really need to get the basic information over quickly, above the fold.
SEO wise, your homepage title could be made to do more work for you, and consider dropping the "HOME" part.
Your META tags contain references to your Content Management System, which should be reasonably simple to remove (try searching a mambo forum).
The link on your contact page -
If you want to make a booking - go here to our booking page HERE
just goes to your homepage
Overall a very nice clean site, just needs tuned to the short attention span of browsers.
Just my opinions of course,
HWTechie
agree with everything above, really need to get the basic information over quickly, above the fold.
SEO wise, your homepage title could be made to do more work for you, and consider dropping the "HOME" part.
Your META tags contain references to your Content Management System, which should be reasonably simple to remove (try searching a mambo forum).
The link on your contact page -
If you want to make a booking - go here to our booking page HERE
just goes to your homepage
Overall a very nice clean site, just needs tuned to the short attention span of browsers.
Just my opinions of course,
HWTechie
At last - a well-designed restoration! Congratulations.
However, you should take the time to keep your commercial sites up to date: the ones I visited have not been re written since early 2005 & references to April 2005 look unprofessional today. There's nothing unprofessional about the villa, so keep everything else up to this standard. Good luck!
However, you should take the time to keep your commercial sites up to date: the ones I visited have not been re written since early 2005 & references to April 2005 look unprofessional today. There's nothing unprofessional about the villa, so keep everything else up to this standard. Good luck!
Best,
Alexia.
Alexia.
Truly Beautiful
It is a truly beautiful villa, has lots of attractive attributes whilst the inclusion of the Evening Standard article about Puglia is a clever addition (I thought it would mention the villa itself).
The first thing that I noticed was that, because the home page content only starts below the menu on the top left hand side corner, I kind of missed it the first time around. It would be best if it started alongside the menu and not underneath it. I also like the blog like entries such as the "Thoughts on rental periods in Puglia" or the "Thoughts on flying to Puglia" because they are efficient ways of encouraging visitors to think laterally.
It looks like an amazing place. Wish I was there!
The first thing that I noticed was that, because the home page content only starts below the menu on the top left hand side corner, I kind of missed it the first time around. It would be best if it started alongside the menu and not underneath it. I also like the blog like entries such as the "Thoughts on rental periods in Puglia" or the "Thoughts on flying to Puglia" because they are efficient ways of encouraging visitors to think laterally.
It looks like an amazing place. Wish I was there!