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BananaE29

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Hi All,
I hate to ask for your time when you've probably never seen me post on here before :) I was active on here a couple years ago, but just stopped coming around, for no particular reason. I realized when I started redesigning my website a week ago that this was a great place to come for ideas, advice and input. So I've been lurking a bit, and now would like your opinion on a new site I've just finished. I'm still playing a bit, but for the most part, it's 95% done. I welcome all ideas and helpful hints.

I was referred to Weebly by Heather at Forfeng Designs, and it was every bit as easy as she said it would be. It took a bit of time - I had not touched my website in eight years, it was long past due, and I had a lot to learn. I simply could not afford a professional site at this point. So here it is, please tell me your thoughts. And THANKS!
 
I realize I have one or two pages in black, and the others in white text. I'm trying to decide which I like better. Your thoughts on that much appreciated.
 
On your welcome page you say you have central air - just as important to potential guests and should be here is FREE WiFi. Do not make them guess or look for it on other pages. It may be the missing item that makes them say - NEXT.....
I am not a techie, but the header photos should be your WOW! Make them bigger if you can.
 
Hi Banana - I remember you (now that I looked at the website that is), welcome back!
Just did a quick scan and these few things popped out at me:
- The reservation button - I like how you have Reservations/Availability on your home page and think this would be a better wording for all the pages. ( I do not know why but some people think if they hit the reservation button they are required to book
whatchutalkingabout_smile.gif

- Speaking about the reservation button, it needs to be added to every page, don't miss an opportunity! Can you move it to be included in your header under your phone number? This would be the best way to have it appear on every page, consistency! (just recently had an innmate point out I missed a page myself!)
-Food pic. Personally I would change the bacon picture on the first page to the Stuffed French Toast or the Quiche... Crop the quiche pic to take out the cord etc in the back ground. I know that bacon was perfectly cooked but it looks burnt in the pic. Food pictures are the most difficult to take, you have to take lots and lots of them in different lighting, angles etc in hopes to get 1-2 decent ones. Read an article just this week that states the best lighting for food pics is natural lighting. That is what seemed to work the best for me as well. Either place your table next to a nice sunny window OR take the photos outside on a nice bright day. Take bunches and bunches of pictures at different angles. Best of luck!!!
 
I remember Banana too. Regarding the website (it's nice) my thought is that most of your photos seem too dark. I took some of yours and brightened them with some simple free software I have and I think they look more inviting, and show more of the details guests will want to see. See below.
beforeafter.jpg
 
Hi Banana - I remember you (now that I looked at the website that is), welcome back!
Just did a quick scan and these few things popped out at me:
- The reservation button - I like how you have Reservations/Availability on your home page and think this would be a better wording for all the pages. ( I do not know why but some people think if they hit the reservation button they are required to book
whatchutalkingabout_smile.gif

- Speaking about the reservation button, it needs to be added to every page, don't miss an opportunity! Can you move it to be included in your header under your phone number? This would be the best way to have it appear on every page, consistency! (just recently had an innmate point out I missed a page myself!)
-Food pic. Personally I would change the bacon picture on the first page to the Stuffed French Toast or the Quiche... Crop the quiche pic to take out the cord etc in the back ground. I know that bacon was perfectly cooked but it looks burnt in the pic. Food pictures are the most difficult to take, you have to take lots and lots of them in different lighting, angles etc in hopes to get 1-2 decent ones. Read an article just this week that states the best lighting for food pics is natural lighting. That is what seemed to work the best for me as well. Either place your table next to a nice sunny window OR take the photos outside on a nice bright day. Take bunches and bunches of pictures at different angles. Best of luck!!!.
It's funny you mention the Reservation button because I've been adding one to each page in the last hour or so. And I think you are correct in the words - I will add Availability to it. I'm waiting to hear back about how to add it to the top of the page, under the phone number, as this is HTML code, and I'm not that savvy yet. Both very good points, thank you Copperhead.

The food pics are almost all iPhone pictures. I know I need some better shots of food, but that's going to have to wait until I have someone to help me with it.

Anyone have any thoughts on the white versus black text? I'm torn....

Thank you all for taking the time! I really appreciate it :)
 
On your welcome page you say you have central air - just as important to potential guests and should be here is FREE WiFi. Do not make them guess or look for it on other pages. It may be the missing item that makes them say - NEXT.....
I am not a techie, but the header photos should be your WOW! Make them bigger if you can..
Good catch! Added the free wifi - thank you! I can make that slideshow bigger, but I want to get my "reservations" button up higher first (so they don't have to scroll to see it). Waiting on word on that, then bigger she goes. Thanks!
 
On your welcome page you say you have central air - just as important to potential guests and should be here is FREE WiFi. Do not make them guess or look for it on other pages. It may be the missing item that makes them say - NEXT.....
I am not a techie, but the header photos should be your WOW! Make them bigger if you can..
Good catch! Added the free wifi - thank you! I can make that slideshow bigger, but I want to get my "reservations" button up higher first (so they don't have to scroll to see it). Waiting on word on that, then bigger she goes. Thanks!
.
I use Internet Explorer and it takes a very long time for your home page to load. Perhaps decreasing the number of photos in the slide show or compressing the photos a bit would help. Personally, I would like a little longer interval between changes (says she who has not recently updated her website). Looks good otherwise.
 
On your welcome page you say you have central air - just as important to potential guests and should be here is FREE WiFi. Do not make them guess or look for it on other pages. It may be the missing item that makes them say - NEXT.....
I am not a techie, but the header photos should be your WOW! Make them bigger if you can..
Good catch! Added the free wifi - thank you! I can make that slideshow bigger, but I want to get my "reservations" button up higher first (so they don't have to scroll to see it). Waiting on word on that, then bigger she goes. Thanks!
.
I use Internet Explorer and it takes a very long time for your home page to load. Perhaps decreasing the number of photos in the slide show or compressing the photos a bit would help. Personally, I would like a little longer interval between changes (says she who has not recently updated her website). Looks good otherwise.
.
Innkeep said:
I use Internet Explorer and it takes a very long time for your home page to load.
I also use IE and it takes 4 seconds to load for me. Not bad. I think it's a function of your connection speed and what else is going on on the computer at the time, not the browser brand.
 
On your welcome page you say you have central air - just as important to potential guests and should be here is FREE WiFi. Do not make them guess or look for it on other pages. It may be the missing item that makes them say - NEXT.....
I am not a techie, but the header photos should be your WOW! Make them bigger if you can..
Good catch! Added the free wifi - thank you! I can make that slideshow bigger, but I want to get my "reservations" button up higher first (so they don't have to scroll to see it). Waiting on word on that, then bigger she goes. Thanks!
.
BananaE29 said:
...I want to get my "reservations" button up higher first (so they don't have to scroll to see it).
Why not put it on the menu along with Welcome, Guest Rooms, Breakfast, etc.? That's where I have "Reserve/Availability" on my website. It's as important as anything else on the menu. Just have that menu choice send them to your ResKey page.
 
On your welcome page you say you have central air - just as important to potential guests and should be here is FREE WiFi. Do not make them guess or look for it on other pages. It may be the missing item that makes them say - NEXT.....
I am not a techie, but the header photos should be your WOW! Make them bigger if you can..
Good catch! Added the free wifi - thank you! I can make that slideshow bigger, but I want to get my "reservations" button up higher first (so they don't have to scroll to see it). Waiting on word on that, then bigger she goes. Thanks!
.
BananaE29 said:
...I want to get my "reservations" button up higher first (so they don't have to scroll to see it).
Why not put it on the menu along with Welcome, Guest Rooms, Breakfast, etc.? That's where I have "Reserve/Availability" on my website. It's as important as anything else on the menu. Just have that menu choice send them to your ResKey page.
.
I'm limited to how many "primary" buttons go across the top. I can have as many pages as I want, but unless I want it in a drop down, I'm limited to how many will fit across the top of that header picture. So my thinking was that as long as it's visible, I don't need to take up that precious space. I'm really hoping to get it under the phone number right at the top, but I'm not getting a response from Weebly on changing that code.

I'm also experiencing times where I load it fresh, linking from a directory, or from here, for instance...and a lot of changes aren't showing. It's as though it reverts back to how it was before I published it. Not all the time, but a few times. That's frustrating. They're not expensive, but I did upgrade to the Pro version instead of free, so I wouldn't expect the site to revert back to how it was prior to making changes. Anyone else out there have a Weebly site and experience this?
 
I realize I have one or two pages in black, and the others in white text. I'm trying to decide which I like better. Your thoughts on that much appreciated..
I didn't see any pages in black. Did you change them all to white or is it an instance of your old version loading on my screen?
 
Hello! Have you had a chance to look at your site with an IPhone?.
I did it just now. I do not get the slide show photos, but the text is black on white background (looks good and easy to read). The reserve/Ability button is right on top where it need to be. Up in the right corner of the screen is a MENU that when I tapped it showed her pages. When I tapped rooms the drop-down was there and as I chose the rooms the photos showed up crisp and clear and big. Looks great on an iPhone.
 
Hello! Have you had a chance to look at your site with an IPhone?.
I did it just now. I do not get the slide show photos, but the text is black on white background (looks good and easy to read). The reserve/Ability button is right on top where it need to be. Up in the right corner of the screen is a MENU that when I tapped it showed her pages. When I tapped rooms the drop-down was there and as I chose the rooms the photos showed up crisp and clear and big. Looks great on an iPhone.
.
I did not think to do that - thank you for the idea. I don't like that no pictures shows up on the first page - doesn't make it very enticing, does it? I assume the slide show is the reason why. Will look into that also. Thank you!
 
On your welcome page you say you have central air - just as important to potential guests and should be here is FREE WiFi. Do not make them guess or look for it on other pages. It may be the missing item that makes them say - NEXT.....
I am not a techie, but the header photos should be your WOW! Make them bigger if you can..
Good catch! Added the free wifi - thank you! I can make that slideshow bigger, but I want to get my "reservations" button up higher first (so they don't have to scroll to see it). Waiting on word on that, then bigger she goes. Thanks!
.
I use Internet Explorer and it takes a very long time for your home page to load. Perhaps decreasing the number of photos in the slide show or compressing the photos a bit would help. Personally, I would like a little longer interval between changes (says she who has not recently updated her website). Looks good otherwise.
.
Thank you Innkeep. I've played back and forth with the timing on the slideshow and I like the quicker slide, but I made it so that you can click on a picture on the slide and see it larger. My hope in that is that by not doing a longer time, I don't lose anyone's interest, but if one picture grabs them, they can look at it in more detail. Not sure about the slow upload. I use Firefox, and anytime I use IE, everything is extremely slow - even opening their browser gets me agitated. LOL
 
I realize I have one or two pages in black, and the others in white text. I'm trying to decide which I like better. Your thoughts on that much appreciated..
I didn't see any pages in black. Did you change them all to white or is it an instance of your old version loading on my screen?
.
The black is the "Comphy" page, which is a drop down under Rooms. I should have specified that, sorry. Thank you for checking it.
 
Right now when I hover the mouse over Guest Rooms, only the Comphy choice displays, which makes it look like that's all that's available under that topic. It's not necessarily "intuitive" for people to know they have to click on "Guest Rooms" to see the rooms, when the Comphy dropdown appears as soon as you hover. I'd add a link to the rooms page on the dropdown, along with the Comphy page.
I agree that the slideshow moves a little too fast. You have to remember that YOU know all those photos very well, but someone who is new to your website and to your B&B will want a little more time to study the photos before they change. Right now I count 2 seconds before they change. That's not enough, IMHO.
Also, I find the white text on the other pages easier to read than the black text on the Comphy page.
 
Right now when I hover the mouse over Guest Rooms, only the Comphy choice displays, which makes it look like that's all that's available under that topic. It's not necessarily "intuitive" for people to know they have to click on "Guest Rooms" to see the rooms, when the Comphy dropdown appears as soon as you hover. I'd add a link to the rooms page on the dropdown, along with the Comphy page.
I agree that the slideshow moves a little too fast. You have to remember that YOU know all those photos very well, but someone who is new to your website and to your B&B will want a little more time to study the photos before they change. Right now I count 2 seconds before they change. That's not enough, IMHO.
Also, I find the white text on the other pages easier to read than the black text on the Comphy page..
I did originally have all the guest rooms as a drop down, but felt it was overbearing? No? I read somewhere that the navigation buttons should be simple, and you should "hide" pages from the navigation to keep it clean. Mmmmm...not sure what to do here. So you're saying to add all four rooms under the Guest Rooms, each individually,and remove buttons on the Guest Rooms page itself (under the picture)? Comphy will need to be added elsewhere then.

Since that's two of you now that said slideshow is too fast, I'll change it back to 5 seconds. This is why I ask for opinions, so thank you again :) Oh, and thanks for checking out the text colors.

Man, it's a b*#ch being OCD sometimes.
Edited to add: Changed the slideshow to 4 seconds. Compromise :)
 
Right now when I hover the mouse over Guest Rooms, only the Comphy choice displays, which makes it look like that's all that's available under that topic. It's not necessarily "intuitive" for people to know they have to click on "Guest Rooms" to see the rooms, when the Comphy dropdown appears as soon as you hover. I'd add a link to the rooms page on the dropdown, along with the Comphy page.
I agree that the slideshow moves a little too fast. You have to remember that YOU know all those photos very well, but someone who is new to your website and to your B&B will want a little more time to study the photos before they change. Right now I count 2 seconds before they change. That's not enough, IMHO.
Also, I find the white text on the other pages easier to read than the black text on the Comphy page..
I did originally have all the guest rooms as a drop down, but felt it was overbearing? No? I read somewhere that the navigation buttons should be simple, and you should "hide" pages from the navigation to keep it clean. Mmmmm...not sure what to do here. So you're saying to add all four rooms under the Guest Rooms, each individually,and remove buttons on the Guest Rooms page itself (under the picture)? Comphy will need to be added elsewhere then.

Since that's two of you now that said slideshow is too fast, I'll change it back to 5 seconds. This is why I ask for opinions, so thank you again :) Oh, and thanks for checking out the text colors.

Man, it's a b*#ch being OCD sometimes.
Edited to add: Changed the slideshow to 4 seconds. Compromise :)
.
BananaE29 said:
I read somewhere that the navigation buttons should be simple, and you should "hide" pages from the navigation to keep it clean.
Edited to add: Changed the slideshow to 4 seconds. Compromise :)
I think the way it was, it was hiding the room pages from some guests, which you do not want! I would say either have NO dropdown, and they will know to click "Guest Rooms" to get to the room pages and Comphy page, OR put them all in the dropdown under Guest Rooms.
What you want to avoid is a mix of both ways, having a dropdown that only shows the Comphy page, plus requiring a click on Guest Rooms to find the rooms. I found that confusing.
Yes, I think 4 seconds is perfect for the slide show. Let's people linger a while and look at the photo, but it changes in time for them to see there are other photos to enjoy!
You're gettin' there!
But I must say, some of the best and most experienced website folks have not chimed in on this yet. Joey Bloggs must be on one of her mountain getaways or something. She might have lots of suggestions when she gets back.
 
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