Wanted: Website Review bestedinburghhotels.co.uk

[fraggle123]

Site is still in progress, but would appreciate some input on ease of navigation etc.

Also thoughts on logo, does it fit in well with the overall site theme?I did it myself on photoshop but may need to clean it up a bit. Also, the adsense placement etc?

Thanks in advance!


Best Edinburgh Hotels

 

[GlasgowBob]

Hi Fraggle,

Just some ideas the pop into my head on first viewing:

I think the site in general is a bit too white and red?
The logo might be better if it was part of a banner which was the same width as the site.
The text on the pictures seem quite small and hard to read.
Personally I would always expect to see a sidebar menu
Maybe lose the giant twitter and rss images or at least put them to the bottom of the sidebar so the google ads are a bit more visible.

Hope some helps,

cheers,
Robert

 

[accelerator]

I've just put together a site called Prague Hotel. It's not finished yet, I still need to add photos to the home page, but I've shown it you because:

- My logo takes up much less vertical page height. You are wasting valuable page real estate by taking up so much room with your logo.

- My page has numerous affiliate links and banners visible within the first page view. This is good for conversion rate.

- In my opinion, I have better page names, because I've mentioned both the type of hotel and location in my page name, check out the page name of:

5 Star Hotels in Prague

Rgds

 

[Munders]

Hi, just checked Missoni Hotel Edinburgh | bestedinburghhotels.co.uk but can't find the book now button??

 

[fraggle123]

Hi, just checked Missoni Hotel Edinburgh | bestedinburghhotels.co.uk but can't find the book now button??

As I mentioned, the site is still in development, I was just getting some feedback on the look, feel, navigation and advert placement at the moment but dont worry there will be a big flashing green button up in a week or so for bookings!

Thanks for all the feedback though guys! GlasgowBob I will have a sidebar menu for ease of navigation and also plan to replace the Twitter and RSS with local adverts eventually, they are just temporary!

Accelerator, I definitely agree about the page names, I still need to start that once all the reviews have been uploaded. As for the logo, it is a work in progress and I dont want to clutter the home page with too much adsense and banners to maintain a clean look.

I have a really good team writing quality reviews so I am expecting more conversions from affiliate links on the individual review pages!

Any more thoughts on the logo, colour scheme, functionality, layout etc?

 

[nnh]

Its made with wordpress! Enough said really...ok erm...its one of those sites that when you enter, you hit the back button...sorry to be blunt but its wordpress...they all look the same and overall design of wordpress is pants!

I wouldnt pay anyone for reviews until you have the design sorted.

I know wordpress is good if you have no design skills at all, but try and find what you are good with and work with that.

Sorry I tried to be nice...I really did

Site is still in progress, but would appreciate some input on ease of navigation etc.

Also thoughts on logo, does it fit in well with the overall site theme?I did it myself on photoshop but may need to clean it up a bit. Also, the adsense placement etc?

Thanks in advance!


Best Edinburgh Hotels

 

[fraggle123]

Its made with wordpress! Enough said really...ok erm...its one of those sites that when you enter, you hit the back button...sorry to be blunt but its wordpress...they all look the same and overall design of wordpress is pants!

I wouldnt pay anyone for reviews until you have the design sorted.

I know wordpress is good if you have no design skills at all, but try and find what you are good with and work with that.

Sorry I tried to be nice...I really did

OK so you have established it is Wordpress, I think that is quite obvious from the layout of the site.

I am really looking for specific feedback though not generalisations: i.e. logo size, adsense placement, ease of navigation etc.

 

[fraggle123]

Oh, and any feedback on the page load times would be much appreciated!

I still have a lot of sites on a shared server and think the images are loading a bit slow?!

 

[cc976a]

OK so you have established it is Wordpress, I think that is quite obvious from the layout of the site.

I am really looking for specific feedback though not generalisations: i.e. logo size, adsense placement, ease of navigation etc.

Hey I wouldn't look a gifthorse etc... but specifically:

- Logo needs to be left hand side, not middle
- I actually like the red and white
- Logo height too big, takes up too much room. Logo should be half height it is
- Like the rotating home page images, nice touch
- Text layout underneath poor. Needs improving (likes like a 1999 throwback)
- Wordpress theme makes it look pants
- With Wordpress you're going to have a job trying to develop to what you want it to be. It's not a blog, it should be a hotel website directory - different things entirely
- Loose Twitter and RSS feed logos. Does not flow with site
- Footer looks quite nice although irrelevant links to the theme of the site

All in all, nice name, some good colours but if you really want to make something of this you need design layout of the theme.

Wordpress can work for the right type of audience and site - I have this Photography Digital Cameras and was quite pleased with the result. Not overstriking, but plain - easy to use and feel it flows ok.

 

[ddwebguru]

The header section of this site seems incomplete ..just has a logo and nothing else
The content is aligned in center which is not very good
The quality of the content is not good and it is not properly optimized

 

[bensd]

The header section of this site seems incomplete ..just has a logo and nothing else
The content is aligned in center which is not very good
The quality of the content is not good and it is not properly optimized

and did you have any negative points about the site?

 

[fraggle123]

The header section of this site seems incomplete ..just has a logo and nothing else
The content is aligned in center which is not very good
The quality of the content is not good and it is not properly optimized

Hello,

Thanks for the feedback! I think a custom header would be a nice addition eventually, the logo is a temporary feature.

Most of the content is written but still to be uploaded so will eventually be of very good quality!

Again agreed on center aligning of text, I will probably just take it out eventually and replace it with some buttons/links!

All feedback appreciated, the site is still in early stages so hopefully will come together in a few weeks when its ready!

Cheers!

 

[Ashton]

Hey, actual website designer here.

And contrary to what most have said, I actually quite like it, in terms of a mini-site, ill run through my thoughts as I go through it:

Visual Response
- Use of JS, not flash, better for SEO. Nice.
- Wordpress is good for SEO, I have no issues with it.
- Clear, easy to read type and color scheme is nice
- No idea about the favicon? Whys it an a...
- Twitter + RSS, good, google will take these into account.
- More copy would be nice, but you have already said you have more.
- SEO formed URLs (presumably through WP permalinks)
- Maps is good, you need to add flags for the hotels though.
- Adding onto that point, each hotel with its own map geo-location would be nice
- Some of the center aligning is ugly, and I would replace that logo.

Code
- All in one seo has given you far too many tags, this is not so good.
- Jquery is better than prototype, scriptaculous
- You should also reference your library from google
- In-code CSS is a bad idea.
- Htaccess redirect between .be and www.be, good.
- Some of your images dont have alt text (bad!)
- Link your twitter to your site or your twitter wont be picked up by google.
- Your not valid and have loads of errors
[Invalid] Markup Validation of http://www.bestedinburghhotels.co.uk/ - W3C Markup Validator


All together though, not bad.