Website Design? Any recommendations?

[Paul64]

Hi Paul

My partner lured me out of bed to look at a fascinating thread this morning and suggested I look at it. I am not a website designer but have a background in professional PR, publicity, journalism, design and print, so I am commenting on layout, readability and overall good appearance.

Before I start I should say to Chris (GBMUD) that I think Jenny's work is very good. I too like the simply pearls site, it is very clean and well designed, plus easy to use.

I've got loads of comments but I'll stick to the really obvious ones.

1 I think the banner is too busy. I'm not sure of the added value of the five stars unless you want to call yourself fivestartours, and I think the .com at the end of the name is unnecessary. It is great for Jet2.com which is short and snappy but transylvania4x4tours is long enough.

2 Unless I missed something you don't say what country you are in. Don't assume everyone knows. You say you work with local people but you don't say what they do (what is an operator??) - and do they speak English, Rumanian, Transylvanian or what?

3 I think the font on the inside - with the exception of the three day tour - is far too small. One of the common problems with design and layout is balancing appearance of text and readability. But once you've got people inside, let's assume they are mildly interested. They won't be when it becomes a struggle to read - and I say this as someone who is short-sighted and can read very small print.

4 If you are worried about taking up too much space with your text (hence the small size) you need to change the content, and get rid of some of the padding. I am guessing you and your friend have written it. If you have paid a professional, go back and get a re-write. If you are doing it yourself, avoid passive verbs, superfluous adjectives, and give specific examples instead of generalities.

5 What is your strongest point? For me it is the wildlife. Incidentally are they your pix? If so you are a good photographer - if not, have you or your designer (?) received permission from the photographer to use them? Are they from a photo bank? Back to the wildlife, I would put far more info up, for example latin names etc, links to IUCN red list, and basically more info about the relevant animals. An expert will know these links anyway, someone who is interested but not too knowledgeable may not, but will appreciate this is a serious site. Are you sure the lynx was completely eradicated in Western Europe? And which lynx do you mean? Lynx lynx, yes? ie the Eurasian lynx. Double check all your info with a reputable source or you will not establish credibility. What is the real probablility of seeing any of them?

I guess you are still in the midst of redesigning it at the moment - eg "what to take" on the front, translates to essentials inside. Photos implies photography and not pix of local town. Also tips for taking pix of wildlife looked good but would be more appropriately placed under either wildlife (yes??) or photography as a separate section, ie flora, fauna, buildings, heritage, whatever you have in your local environment. I think that's enough for now.

If you pm Brian I will send you some more areas for attention and a couple of free examples of text as I would rewrite it - not huge long sections or the whole site - like Jenny, it's my job as well! - so I'm also available for internet/fax-based freelance work.

Good luck with the business - Katherine

Thanks Katherine,

What a stonking great response. I have gone through the lot, and you bring lots of fresh ideas. I aplogise in advance that you will not see many changes right away, as I'm up to my eyes with stuff at the moment. I will try and introduce a little at a time. You obviously have an eye for detail, because several things that you have mentioned, I wouldn't have believed many people would notice.

Again many thanks for your input.

Paul.

[Paul64]

Paul, FFS stop fretting about how many hits you're getting and concentrate on making the site as good as possible!

Hits are a fairly arbitrary thing anyway - one hit means one person looked at one page (or file) once. If they look at a page with 20 photos in it that will be 21 hits. Depending on your hosting company you may be able to get more detailed stats (EG how many actual individual visits you get) but I wouldn't recommend it as then you'll obsess over that instead

Here is an example from the FlyingSpanners.net stats:

 	  Uniques: Pageviews:	 Hits: 	 Transfer:
Today 		29 	983 	10401 	0.87 GB
Monday 		91 	1673 	15664 	1.35 GB
Sunday 		39 	358 	2116 	0.19 GB
Saturday 	62 	392 	2155 	0.16 GB
Friday 		64 	432 	2519 	0.22 GB
Thursday 	70 	541 	3214 	0.25 GB
Wednesday 	85 	818 	5379 	0.43 GB
Tuesday 	167 	1835 	10255 	0.82 GB

The stats have gone up since we started putting more and more content on. I haven't bothered with keywords, metatags or all that.

At the end of the day if you get 10000 hits a day but no-one actually buys anything, then your website may as well not be there. If you get 10 hits and they all find exactly what they were looking for, you're a winner.

Fridge, you must know by now that Fret is my middle name! You are as usual bang on the money, and I'm just going to have to make time for the content.

[Paul64]

this web site is beginning to destroy my mental health! I have tried everything suggested and still no google recognition. Added more content, put a robot on, cleaned up the html, joined a thousand forums (none of the LR ones are a patch on this site!), added keywords, meta tags etc etc, and not a suasage. There must be something still missing, apart from a price list?

Cheers, Paul

[GBMUD]

Have you read, understood and acted upon this document Paul?

Chris

[VeryDisco]

Paul

I have taken a look at your site as a person planning a holiday. Cos I know next to nothing about web design. Here are my points:

1 - a pic of your lovely LR at a jaunty angle doesn't show me what to expect from the holiday. A pic of the forests with a village in the foreground might give the correct impression.

2 - As said before the text is realy small, and there's too much fluffyness in with the information EG

Transport will be by Land Rover as we will be travelling through remote villages and forests, so we can access those places that not all tourists will have a chance to see. There will be a choice of wildlife, cultural and adventure tours. My business will be located in a small Transylvanian village called Sanzieni near to the larger town of Targu Secuiesc in the county of Jud. Co

Could be simplified to:

You will travel by Land Rover through remote villages and forests, well away from the tourist trails. With a choice of wildlife, cultural and adventure tours, tailored to your requirements.

3 - It gives the impression that the tours are only available with you supplying the transport, would you consider taking a group in their own 4x4's? If so I'd be very interested in paying for the guidance.

4 - you give info on how to take pictures of wildlife, but I haven't got there yet so I haven't got a pic to take. I don't understand why the advice is on the essentials page after the clothes and other equipment. Maybe you could give this info out as a handout when you send the receipt for the holiday?

5 - some of the web site talks in the future tense when it's maybe not appropriate. I take it these hols are starting this summer? It sounds like you've never done one of these tours, if the info is written as if it's not something you're planning on doing, but have already done, it will give more confidence to your potential customers.

I hope this is of use, please feel free to disagree - and good luck.

[Paul64]

Thanks Chris and VeryDisco,

No, I have not come across this article before Chris. It makes interesting reading, and I will spend some time digesting the associated links as well.

Thanks.

VeryDisco,

You come up with some very valid points. I will implement a few of them if you don't mind. It is good for me to bounce this off others, after all the purpose is to appeal to potential customers rather than to me. I did try enlarging the letters, but it did look less appealing. Not sure why, it just did. I have enlarged the text which i will leave for a few days, let me know what you think? It is up from -1 to +0

"Transport will be by Land Rover as we will be travelling through remote villages and forests, so we can access those places that not all tourists will have a chance to see. There will be a choice of wildlife, cultural and adventure tours. My business will be located in a small Transylvanian village called Sanzieni near to the larger town of Targu Secuiesc in the county of Jud. Co"

Could be simplified to:

You will travel by Land Rover through remote villages and forests, well away from the tourist trails. With a choice of wildlife, cultural and adventure tours, tailored to your requirements.

Done!

The wording is just my lack of understanding of business and advertising speak. Juggling many balls at the moment, but I do realise that getting my site right is high priority if I want to attract customers.

"3 - It gives the impression that the tours are only available with you supplying the transport, would you consider taking a group in their own 4x4's? If so I'd be very interested in paying for the guidance."

I agree with the support of others in their own 4x4's. I had thought about it, but the enormous trek across the best part of Europe would, I thought put most enthusiasts off. That is purely my judgment which may have been wrong. It goes without saying that I would support such persons wanting to tour in their own vehicle if they wanted to do this. How would you word this for the site, in an appealing way?

I do have land in Transylvania. However, the costs of building on it are far higher than simply buying another already built house on another piece of land. It is because of this that I am going back to Transylvania in 2 weeks time to look at several houses. Once bought, with outbuildings, garage etc in action, I think there will be a few more interesting pics.

My artistic friend took the photo at an angle. We had always said it would be temporary until spring when the better weather arrives, allowing more opportunities for photographs.

"5 - some of the web site talks in the future tense when it's maybe not appropriate. I take it these hols are starting this summer? It sounds like you've never done one of these tours, if the info is written as if it's not something you're planning on doing, but have already done, it will give more confidence to your potential customers."

I have seen a couple of examples that you mention, but which exactly are the main offenders?

Thanks for your input, most valuable.

Cheers, Paul.

[brianj]

Hi Paul - looks like you've caught people's interest here.....

Thanks for your comments and hope you didn't find them too much of a pain. I think Jasper looks great (!) and you are obviously trying to work on the site while you are getting the rest of it up and running. The real reason for posting is that I am well impressed you have changed your signature on here to exactly the same as the title of your business, ie transylvania and not transylvanian.

I don't understand the search engine stuff either, it is obviously a real pain, I've tried it and even if you key in the exact words it still doesn't come up. You'll get there though. Cheers Katherine.

[Paul64]

Hi Paul - looks like you've caught people's interest here.....

Thanks for your comments and hope you didn't find them too much of a pain. I think Jasper looks great (!) and you are obviously trying to work on the site while you are getting the rest of it up and running. The real reason for posting is that I am well impressed you have changed your signature on here to exactly the same as the title of your business, ie transylvania and not transylvanian.

I don't understand the search engine stuff either, it is obviously a real pain, I've tried it and even if you key in the exact words it still doesn't come up. You'll get there though. Cheers Katherine.

Thanks Katherine,

I only realised what I had done with my signature three nights ago! I was amazed nobody picked up on it, or maybe they were being generous and not wanting to embarrass me??

Jasper thanks you for your comments. He has an eye for the girls, so feels most flattered.

Cheers, Paul.

[geoffbeaumont]

I only realised what I had done with my signature three nights ago! I was amazed nobody picked up on it, or maybe they were being generous and not wanting to embarrass me??

We're just not that observant

[FridgeFreezer]

this web site is beginning to destroy my mental health! I have tried everything suggested and still no google recognition. Added more content, put a robot on, cleaned up the html, joined a thousand forums (none of the LR ones are a patch on this site!), added keywords, meta tags etc etc, and not a suasage. There must be something still missing, apart from a price list?

Paul - you won't appear on google overnight, even with their servers it takes them a long time to index the entire of the internet and get back round to your site since you submitted it first time. Chill out and concentrate on something more productive!

[VeryDisco]

Paul

I've dropped you a PM rather than elongate the thread with non techy stuff...

[Paul64]

Recognised on Google at long last! Thanks to all for your tips.

Paul.

[Paul64]

Hi,

I have added oodles of content to my site as was suggested and I thought after all these months I should have made it to page 1 or at least 2 on google. However, I am lucky if I get to page 3 or 4. Why do you think this is the case?

I have tidied up the pages added robots to help the spiders, even added a map. I just can't work out why it is still rated so low? Any ideas?

Cheers,

Paul.

[michael calvert]

Hi,

I have added oodles of content to my site as was suggested and I thought after all these months I should have made it to page 1 or at least 2 on google. However, I am lucky if I get to page 3 or 4. Why do you think this is the case?

I have tidied up the pages added robots to help the spiders, even added a map. I just can't work out why it is still rated so low? Any ideas?

Cheers,

Paul.

submit to as many search engines as possible, a tedious task i know, but worth the remits, i found the key in your firt paragraph on the home page

dont try and submit every page though as they will class it as spamming

best of luck, will check m,y rating on google now

[michael calvert]

Hi,

I have added oodles of content to my site as was suggested and I thought after all these months I should have made it to page 1 or at least 2 on google. However, I am lucky if I get to page 3 or 4. Why do you think this is the case?

I have tidied up the pages added robots to help the spiders, even added a map. I just can't work out why it is still rated so low? Any ideas?

Cheers,

Paul.

depends what you type

[Paul64]

depends what you type

Thanks, but I don't think many potential customers are going to put 4x4 in their search. If I could get that high on the page with just Transylvania and Tours I would be really happy.

Cheers,

Paul.

[geoffbeaumont]

Thanks, but I don't think many potential customers are going to put 4x4 in their search. If I could get that high on the page with just Transylvania and Tours I would be really happy.

So would a lot of companies with much bigger budgets than yours...I'd say you're doing pretty well on the search engines.

[Paul64]

So would a lot of companies with much bigger budgets than yours...I'd say you're doing pretty well on the search engines.

Thanks for that Geoff. I must admit I have refused to subscribe to these ranking services and stuck with the sweat and tears. What bothers me is that you have to be pretty specific when searching for my site. I know that most people if they are looking for such a holiday will probably only use Transylvania tours. I have altered the text slightly on my home page to increase keyword use. Will now wait for googlebot to make another visit to see if that helps.

Cheers,

Paul.

[Paul64]

My effort

Existing button for comparison

Hi,

Can anyone help?

A friend has been helping me with graphics for my site. However, he can't always manage to get them to me as quickly as required. So I have been playing around with buttons on my homepage to see if I can get my effort to match. I have got as far as managing to insert an image with green box for text. How do I get it to look like a button like my other ones?

I gradually want to change all the buttons to make them more relevant to the site. For this purpose what is the best format ie gif, png or jpeg

Cheers,

Paul

[FridgeFreezer]

Most decent image programs (Paintshop Pro, Photoshop etc.) and web design programs like DreamWeaver will be able to buttonise things for you - all it is in your example is a black line drawn down two sides and white down the other two, you can do it in MS Paint by hand if you really must

There are also hundreds of freeware programs to do it for you or make sexercisey buttons, the quality is variable but download a few and try it - start at download.com.com in the web section.

Oh and FFS ignore all the cr*p in there that sticks jazzy rubbish all over your website - anything that promises cool animations, scrolling things, special effects etc. steer well clear or you'll end up looking like a 12-year-old's Myspace page.

Also why is your button so few colours, it looks like clipart or something? If it's a photo use full colour, even a GIF should give better quality than that. And don't compress JPEG's too much (if at all) where there's text on them or it will look nasty.

[Paul64]

Most decent image programs (Paintshop Pro, Photoshop etc.) and web design programs like DreamWeaver will be able to buttonise things for you - all it is in your example is a black line drawn down two sides and white down the other two, you can do it in MS Paint by hand if you really must

There are also hundreds of freeware programs to do it for you or make sexercisey buttons, the quality is variable but download a few and try it - start at download.com.com in the web section.

Oh and FFS ignore all the cr*p in there that sticks jazzy rubbish all over your website - anything that promises cool animations, scrolling things, special effects etc. steer well clear or you'll end up looking like a 12-year-old's Myspace page.

Also why is your button so few colours, it looks like clipart or something? If it's a photo use full colour, even a GIF should give better quality than that. And don't compress JPEG's too much (if at all) where there's text on them or it will look nasty.

Thanks Fridge,

I will give it a go now. I have Dreamweaver, but I couldn't find a facility for buttonising. I will have another look.

Cheers, Paul

[FridgeFreezer]

It was a guess, it seems to do everything else so I guess it should make buttons... but don't hold me to that

[Paul64]

It was a guess, it seems to do everything else so I guess it should make buttons... but don't hold me to that

Well if it does Fridge i can't find the facility. I will have a go with your link.

Paul

[Paul64]

Hit the wall fridge! Tried three freebi progs and none do the job. Do you think it needs to look like a button? In your opinion do you think they will look ok if they remain as a flat image linked to the relevant page?

Cheers,

Paul.

[Paul64]

Most of the SEO sorted now. I think my main problem is the lack of reciprocal links. If anybody out there wants to exchange links please let me know.

Cheers,

Paul.