Just interested to hear what the general opinion is. I know some on here thing a new design is essential every two or three years, and others are of the 'if it ain't broke..' opinion.
What makes a website 'dated' these days, and is it really important for a house rental business? Surely clear information and good photos are the most important thing to sell your home (or so my guests tell me!)
How often should you renew your website?
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Harborfields
- Posts: 358
- Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2011 11:29 pm
- Location: West Boothbay Harbor, Maine
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Obviously one wants to keep the content up to date. Refresh photos particularly if things have changed at all, or just to take advantage of better lighting, better optics in a new camera, or what have you ....
Layout and design are subject to trends and fashion and personal taste, so if what you've got works, is well organized, looks appropriately professional, and is appreciated by your guests (or more importantly, prospective guests), who is to argue? Unless of course there are things you could do to improve the navigation of your site, making the structure of it more obvious to your visitors and to Google. Are you fully "search engine optimized?"
Another issue to consider is "coding style." How are you creating your site, an online site builder, a "content management system" such as Wordpress or Joomla, a package such as Dreamweaver, or coding the HTML/CSS/PHP/Java manually yourself? However it is done, do your pages validate properly against the appropriate version of HTML/CSS/PHP/Java? Along these lines, how are you achieving the layout and design you desire? Using tables is passe, for example. It may or may not make a difference Google. One thing that apparently does make a difference is whether or not you are using images as buttons for site navigation, or whether the anchors for you site navigation links are text.
Are there "new" features or functionality that you would like to incorporate into your site that a redesign might make fitting them in easier? Online reservations, live availability calendars, slide shows, etc...? Would moving your site to some sort of CMS (content management system) make it easier for you to maintain?
Or maybe your current web site is serving your needs admirably and meeting all of your goals.
(by the way, not directed at you LaVache personally or your website, rather the generic "you")
Layout and design are subject to trends and fashion and personal taste, so if what you've got works, is well organized, looks appropriately professional, and is appreciated by your guests (or more importantly, prospective guests), who is to argue? Unless of course there are things you could do to improve the navigation of your site, making the structure of it more obvious to your visitors and to Google. Are you fully "search engine optimized?"
Another issue to consider is "coding style." How are you creating your site, an online site builder, a "content management system" such as Wordpress or Joomla, a package such as Dreamweaver, or coding the HTML/CSS/PHP/Java manually yourself? However it is done, do your pages validate properly against the appropriate version of HTML/CSS/PHP/Java? Along these lines, how are you achieving the layout and design you desire? Using tables is passe, for example. It may or may not make a difference Google. One thing that apparently does make a difference is whether or not you are using images as buttons for site navigation, or whether the anchors for you site navigation links are text.
Are there "new" features or functionality that you would like to incorporate into your site that a redesign might make fitting them in easier? Online reservations, live availability calendars, slide shows, etc...? Would moving your site to some sort of CMS (content management system) make it easier for you to maintain?
Or maybe your current web site is serving your needs admirably and meeting all of your goals.
(by the way, not directed at you LaVache personally or your website, rather the generic "you")
Thanks Harborfields, plenty to think about there!
Personally I'm not interested in online reservations or live calendars, but your comment on tables is interesting as my website is designed with nested tables (
) and I know that can be a pain, but how does someone who lands on a site know if it is table based or not? I'm not sure I would. Does it look passé to the uninitiated? And if Google doesn't like it then that is a problem!
Personally I'm not interested in online reservations or live calendars, but your comment on tables is interesting as my website is designed with nested tables (
) and I know that can be a pain, but how does someone who lands on a site know if it is table based or not? I'm not sure I would. Does it look passé to the uninitiated? And if Google doesn't like it then that is a problem!Every day
I don't mean change your design every day but try to update your content as often as possible. Google looks for "active" sites and rates them higher. Not as important as it one was.
Why not add a bog that is SE ( search engine ) friendly and pop a few thoughts that are relevant to your area and property. A good idea in these posts/updates is to use keywords/ phrases that you would like to rank highly in google searches.
However never never never ( have I made my point ) keyword/key phrase load. Google will spot this and penalise and remember it is people like you, you want to rent your property, make your text how you would like to read it.......normal
Bob
Why not add a bog that is SE ( search engine ) friendly and pop a few thoughts that are relevant to your area and property. A good idea in these posts/updates is to use keywords/ phrases that you would like to rank highly in google searches.
However never never never ( have I made my point ) keyword/key phrase load. Google will spot this and penalise and remember it is people like you, you want to rent your property, make your text how you would like to read it.......normal
Bob
Back in UK, our house in France is now back as a Holiday Home
Apologies
Apologies for my last post, just read it back after submitted...lol
Please excuse as I am using an iPad and enjoying a glass of red
Blushing Bob
Please excuse as I am using an iPad and enjoying a glass of red
Blushing Bob
Back in UK, our house in France is now back as a Holiday Home
I would agree that there is no point in changing a website for the sake of it. The only real change I have made since 2005 is to move from navigation down the side of the screen to drop down boxes and that was purely because I could see that that would give visitors to the site direct access to many more pages, much better.
Apart from that, I suppose the design aspect is really down to me seeing design solutions on other sites (not just rentals) and thinking they might make us stand out more - keeping ahead of the immediate competition I suppose. I would not expect to ever have the 'perfect' design and I would update the content much more often if I had time.
Apart from that, I suppose the design aspect is really down to me seeing design solutions on other sites (not just rentals) and thinking they might make us stand out more - keeping ahead of the immediate competition I suppose. I would not expect to ever have the 'perfect' design and I would update the content much more often if I had time.
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Giddy Goat
- Posts: 9054
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Re: Apologies
Medoc Bob wrote:Blushing Bob
Don't you mean Blushing Bog?Nostalgia isn't what it used to be
Hi!
I guess there is no hard or fast rule as to how often you should renew or rebuild your website.
It partly depends on how well it was constructed in the first place - the better the construction of its 'back end' the longer life it should enjoy.
As for updating it (and deciding whether you need to or not), there are a couple of things you can do to test its current effectiveness and identify areas where changes might be beneficial. Google Analytics now offers you the means to see what buttons visitors to your site are clicking on. You'll see a screenshot of your page with a % figure allocated to each button. This should help you work out whether people are clicking the most important buttons or, if not, whether you need to move things around a little.
The other is run your site through a serious site analysis software programme such as IBP to see how it fares. That will give you a very good indication as to whether you just need to make some minor changes or undertake a major update.
The trouble is IBP costs over £200 to buy, but if you want, send me your URL and I'll run a test on it for you and e-mail the result.
Best wishes
I guess there is no hard or fast rule as to how often you should renew or rebuild your website.
It partly depends on how well it was constructed in the first place - the better the construction of its 'back end' the longer life it should enjoy.
As for updating it (and deciding whether you need to or not), there are a couple of things you can do to test its current effectiveness and identify areas where changes might be beneficial. Google Analytics now offers you the means to see what buttons visitors to your site are clicking on. You'll see a screenshot of your page with a % figure allocated to each button. This should help you work out whether people are clicking the most important buttons or, if not, whether you need to move things around a little.
The other is run your site through a serious site analysis software programme such as IBP to see how it fares. That will give you a very good indication as to whether you just need to make some minor changes or undertake a major update.
The trouble is IBP costs over £200 to buy, but if you want, send me your URL and I'll run a test on it for you and e-mail the result.
Best wishes
Rick Bond
If you build it (properly) - people will come.
<a href="http://www.myfavouriteholidaycottages.co.uk">My Favourite Holiday Cottages</a>
<a href="http://www.myholidaymarketing.co.uk">My Holiday Marketing</a>
If you build it (properly) - people will come.
<a href="http://www.myfavouriteholidaycottages.co.uk">My Favourite Holiday Cottages</a>
<a href="http://www.myholidaymarketing.co.uk">My Holiday Marketing</a>
Hi!
I guess there is no hard or fast rule as to how often you should renew or rebuild your website.
It partly depends on how well it was constructed in the first place - the better the construction of its 'back end' the longer life it should enjoy.
As for updating it (and deciding whether you need to or not), there are a couple of things you can do to test its current effectiveness and identify areas where changes might be beneficial. Google Analytics now offers you the means to see what buttons visitors to your site are clicking on. You'll see a screenshot of your page with a % figure allocated to each button. This should help you work out whether people are clicking the most important buttons or, if not, whether you need to move things around a little.
The other is run your site through a serious site analysis software programme such as IBP to see how it fares. That will give you a very good indication as to whether you just need to make some minor changes or undertake a major update.
The trouble is IBP costs over £200 to buy, but if you want, send me your URL and I'll run a test on it for you and e-mail the result.
Best wishes
I guess there is no hard or fast rule as to how often you should renew or rebuild your website.
It partly depends on how well it was constructed in the first place - the better the construction of its 'back end' the longer life it should enjoy.
As for updating it (and deciding whether you need to or not), there are a couple of things you can do to test its current effectiveness and identify areas where changes might be beneficial. Google Analytics now offers you the means to see what buttons visitors to your site are clicking on. You'll see a screenshot of your page with a % figure allocated to each button. This should help you work out whether people are clicking the most important buttons or, if not, whether you need to move things around a little.
The other is run your site through a serious site analysis software programme such as IBP to see how it fares. That will give you a very good indication as to whether you just need to make some minor changes or undertake a major update.
The trouble is IBP costs over £200 to buy, but if you want, send me your URL and I'll run a test on it for you and e-mail the result.
Best wishes
Rick Bond
If you build it (properly) - people will come.
<a href="http://www.myfavouriteholidaycottages.co.uk">My Favourite Holiday Cottages</a>
<a href="http://www.myholidaymarketing.co.uk">My Holiday Marketing</a>
If you build it (properly) - people will come.
<a href="http://www.myfavouriteholidaycottages.co.uk">My Favourite Holiday Cottages</a>
<a href="http://www.myholidaymarketing.co.uk">My Holiday Marketing</a>