14 replies to this topic

[madams]

Hi, I have been a member of this forum since March 04. I actualy found this site searching for ways to improve my site and the "Free Site Review" heading cought my eye. Over the 3 odd years I have read the posts and learnt a lot, like many others. I guess now is the time to ask for a review...

About 2 years ago I was on the first page of google for keyphrase listed below. I am now about 320 possition. However, I have a no1 spot in Yahoo for the same key phrase. I need to try to rectify the google problem.

Before you ask, I am not concentrating on 1 keyphrase, I have hundereds throuout the site...


Site review for My Website

General
Is this site completed or under construction?

Complete but I am always looking to improve

If completed:
How long has the site been up?

The site has been live for 6 years

SEO
Do you have incoming links?

Yes, about 450

What keywords are you targeting?

I have many keyword phrases throughout the site but the main theme of the homepage is holidays in spain

Do you want your code reviewed for errors or improvements?

It would be interesting if the answers have a direct connection to google search

Marketing
Who is your target audience? Think about:
Gender
Nationality
Age Range
Income/Education level
Likes/Dislikes

Difficult one, I guess everbody goes on holiday at some time. I offer apartment and villa holiday ranging from €400 to €3000 so my target audience is varied.

The more you tell us about your target audience, the better. We don't know them- you do!

I have had customers with little money who book a cheap flight and rent an apartment from me.
I also have clients who dont seem to care what it costs and book a 6 bedroom villa and want a daily maid service. So I attempt to target all types.

Why is your site different from sites selling/offering similar info/goods/services? Why will someone want to do business you?

I try to keep the site business like and easy to navigate (you may dissagree, thats why I need a site review). I want my potential customers to feel safe when doing business with me.

How important is usability?

Important. It will be interesting to hear your thoughts on the subject

What is the purpose of the site? (inform, sell, online community, support B&M business, contact info only, etc)

The purpose of the site is to sell holidays

Design
Do you want design suggestions?

Yes, that would be most helpfull. Along with "usability" these are two things that may keep potential customers on the site longer

Thank you in advance for your time...

[sergio]

I would recommend to increase the keyword density - "holidays in spain" is just 5 at the moment. Moreover, such drop in rankings may indicate to a penalty from Google. Rethink your linking policy as well.

Besides, things like - "Add your URL - Link Swop - Links 1 2 3" (in your footer) - is not a best way of getting high on the SERPs.

[madams]

Thanks Sergio

Any other comments?

[Scottie]

Madams, your post caught my eye. I don't do many site reviews anymore but because you are such a longstanding member, I am happy to give you some thoughts!

First Impression: Look and Feel

The blue background is bright!! Tends to "cheapen" the look. Overall, the colors don't work so well.

Take a look at one of my favorite tools: http://www.degraeve.com/color-palette/ The sample color palette would be awesome for your site, or choose a photo you like and match the colors to it, like this

http://www.degraeve....0FFFFFFE29FAD42

By using a sand or neutral colored background, you'll draw the eye to the bright pictures, not the edges of the page. Save the blue for the ocean views and the pools.

Invest in a professional header design. You can post a job on Scriptlance and find someone to put together a very professional looking header for $50-$150. I use them all the time.

Readability:

Place a little whitespace between your bullet points. Right now they are an intimdating block of text that few will actually read.

Rewrite your headline. Very simple!

Current:
Holidays in Spain. Villa and apartment holidays in the Costa Blanca and Majorca Spain.

Rewrite:
Enjoy Holidays in Spain! We offer Villa and Apartment Holidays in the Costa Blanca and Majorca Spain.

Also notice the capitalization-- all or nothing there.

September offers- make it stand out!! Make it bold, red and set apart from the text above it. People scan looking for specials, offers and discounts so make it easy for them to find. Also consider the full phrase " September Offers: Majorca Villas"

In the "Spain Holiday Sun" block, break up that text into paragraphs. Blocky and hard to read. Also pay close attention to punctuation- errors cause potential customers to lose trust.

Current:

We are in our eighth year arranging self catering holidays in Spain. We specialise in the Costa Blanca and Majorca offering affordable villa & apartments in the most popular resorts our clients never get tired of. Who can blame them because there is so much to see and do. The weather is perfect - The Spanish are kind and friendly - The beaches are some of the best in Europe - There are too many interesting places to visit in a lifetime - The food is healthy and most important of all, its great FUN...

Better:

We are in our eighth year arranging self-catering holidays in Spain. We specialise in the Costa Blanca and Majorca areas, offering affordable villa & apartments in the most popular resorts that our clients return to again and again!

Who can blame them? There is so much to see and do in Costa Blanca and Majorca!

The weather is perfect in Costa Blanca ...The Spanish are kind and friendly ... The beaches of Majorca are some of the best in Europe ... There are so many interesting places to visit in both Costa Blanca and Majorca ... The food is healthy ... Most important of all, a Spanish holiday is great FUN!

Same copy with minor edits and spacing, but much easier to read and understand. A few more keywords tossed in too...

Consider adding testimonials to the site as well- when it comes to vacations, people tend to put a lot of credibility in "travel reports" from other real travelers. "Hearing" a fellow traveler endorse a specific property, location or your great service is a real conversion boost.

You have article links in the footer of the home page... but nowhere else! Add a subnavigation menu with links to your articles throughout the site to boost those wonderful tips and tricks. And add some more, preferably original content from travellers to the area.

Overall the site is easy to navigate and use, it could just use a little polish.

Best of luck!

[madams]

Thanks Scottie, it´s just what I needed. Thanks for your time

I have changed the background colour (colour behind my homepage), as you sugested. I had no idea so much of it was showing on other, larger monitors. As for the homepage colour, I am looking into this and I will produced some samples so I can compare the results.

I have changed the headline and the other block of text following your sugestion. Reads much better. I have altered the verticle white space between the bullit points. Your right, is easier to read.

Travel Reports: I have some great new, exclusive articles from a local juornalist I will add soon. But I take your point, they shold be accessable from the property pages along with the relevant articles. I am working on this.

Top Banner Design: Funny, when I started and I made the top banner I thought it was great!
Now I understand it´s a "Horses for Courses" thing, your good at it, or you aint!

Top Banner - Sitewide: I have used a similar company to Scriptlance and as I write I am recieving quotes for a new top banner.

Thanks again.


Any one else got feedback?

[Conspicuous]

Hi Madams-

I'll concur with Scottie in regards to the color scheme and your header graphic.

Two points I'd like to make:

You didn't really specify who your target audience is, but it's worth noting that Americans use the term "vacation" rather than "holiday" to describe the services you're selling. An American looking for a place to stay in Spain through a search engine very well might not find your site. In a related vein, Americans look for "rental cars" instead of "car hires."

I like that you have photographs of all the available properties, but the stock photography on the rest of the site creates a few questions in my mind about legitimacy. The pictures of the happy couple on the front page and the topless lady on the about us page do little to create the impression that you are the go-to place for Spain vacations.... those pictures look like they could be used for a site about Jamaica or Hawaii. Show some local flavor!

[Scottie]

Now I imagine you'll get a lot more interest in your "About us" page from potential reviewers though...

[freediver]

Actually sites looks quite good... I would only make the font a little bit larger (target audience might be older.. )

[Ahmed]

Hello Madams,

Here's my review, I'm going to be hard on you so I hope it helps.

Background-color: This has been stated before but I would like to say it a gain lol. The background blue colour is way too much, in my opinion it has to go. You might want to use a white background.

Unity: It seems that your inner pages lose the main template and start using a new colour scheme. I'm not sure if this is just because you're working on your website atm, but I think its best to keep the same colours/template throughout the website. I felt that I had left the website when I started to go deep in the site -- this might be a problem in terms of usability.

Usability/Formatting: To be honest I had a lot of trouble reading you website for reasons like: too many columns, stuffed pages, etc. I'll explain this in a bit more detail just in case it's not clear. For example the home page seems to have tons of information and links but is confined to a very small amount of space. Give your text and images some breathing room. More space around your text will help because people will actually read what you're saying; I would put the three blocks of text in one column and give them lots of space. You might want to also rethink your navigation to give your body text more space. Another example is your "About Us" page; I find that you're using way too many boxes and columns. I get easily distracted because the text doesn't flow and there isn't enough space around your text. I suggest you put all the information in one column i.e. like this

What we offer...
text, text etc.

How it works...
text, text etc.

Next step...
text text etc.

The same applies to the rest of the page -- I'm not sure why your introduction is in two "blocks" or "chunks".

Heading: I think your heading "Enjoy Your Holidays in Spain! Villa and Apartment.." should be bigger and more prominent. Give it a different color maybe and make it stand out.

Top of page/Header: Another thing that might help with your conversions is if you put your telephone number at the top of the page. You might want to include it in the banner, use the white space on the right that isn't occupied. You can also put the "PayPal Accredited" button up there as well. I'm not really great at this stuff lol but I'm pretty sure making things like that stand out will help.

Navigation: I think you can do a better job with the navigation if you consider a drop-down menu. You can link to most of your articles using the menu and therefore give more space for body text on the home page. You can also make full use of the top of the page which isn't being used a lot atm. You can do a search on css drop down menus if you're interested -- the coding is clean and seo friendly.

Last minute rants: I'm not sure if you like it - but making a navigation system that links to everything on the website (if the website is not too big) helps a lot because visitors can get to any page from the homepage. For example your "company info" page is only linked to from the faq page as far as I can see. And once I start getting into the 2nd tier pages like the "Holiday Property Name Search page" I cant directly access the "about us" and "faq" pages. Your footer also disappears! On that page there is no way for anyone to see how to contact you. Maybe make a "contact us" page?

This review has been very sloppy and I apologize for that but it does seem your website needs some work I do love the content though and think that with a bit of work it can be a lot better. I can give you a more detailed review if you like but I'm running out of time and I'm not sure if you like what you're hearing

Ahmed

[rose77mary77]

GOOD LAY-OUT, and the colors are not good to see, the back ground color is very light,the title also have very light color, change the colors of fonts and backround for better look.........

[wish71]

Nice done.... clean...... but actually I got the same felling of something ''cheap'' no offense of course......

In my humble opinion you should enhance the layout, probably blend the colors but make it more ''rich'

Regards.
'

[labgfx]

Wow, yea.. the background color. I'd give you more of a review but it's hurting my eyes at 2am. Good luck I'm sure you'll receive good tips here.

[oxford-blue]

Hi,
Just a quick look at the home page I can see the title has lots of &. Usually, we recommend that key phrases in the title are separated by commas and should be concise otherwise you are diluting the effect the words in the title are having.
Instead of
Holidays in Spain - Villa & Apartment Holiday Rentals - Costa Blanc
may I suggest:
Spanish Holidays, Villas, Apartments Rentals, Costa Blanca

or some other variation of your most desired key phrases.

These keyphrases should also be reflected in the document structure of the site. Your main heading should be marked up as <h1> and then less important sub-headings should be marked up as <h2> and so on.
If the main heading reflects the keywords in the <title> tag this has a more powerful effect on how the page is ranked.

Enjoy Your Holidays in Spain!
Villa And Apartment Holidays. Best Deals Costa Blanca & Majorca Spain.

so
<h1>Spanish Holidays</h1>
<h2>Majorca May Villa Offers!</h2>
<h2>Majorca Villas</h2>
... etc.

There is also a lot of Javascript and CSS. The CSS should be externalised to a separate file, the Javascript menu should be replaced by a CSS only menu.


The site also has a lot of redundant code which could be replaced by CSS for positioning elements. This will decrease the code to content ratio.

These are just a few of the on-page factors that I can see. I hope that it helps.

[neka]

Overall, it's looking good from here.I even liked the pictures.Its nice to view a site that is easy on the eyes.. but actually I got the same felling of something ''cheap'' no offense of course......

[ceuyan]

honestly i think the site needs to be revamped. it looks like you are renting out very lavish places so you should make your site look just as lavish. it looks like you have created this site on your own from the ground up and that is great but if you are not a professional web designer then maybe you can use some free templates. there are many free css templates out there to choose from.