Thread: www.HilltopsInSpain.com - new site for review please

Hi guys - this is my first attempt at doing a web site so any constructive comments would be most welcome. Depending upon feed back I might have to reduce the centre picture pixs/size to increase download speed. Struggling to get to grips with metatags and descriptions etc but will improvfe those soon. Have a look at www.HilltopsInSpain.com and thanks in advance for your help.

Sites looking fine. Would pull the right hand side blue sizing tab on your menu as its word returning on the "do" "Local Area what to do" in some browsers.
Would defiantly reduce the head images to help with page loading as its around the 800kb, this might be better at 50kb.

Hi Chris - very many thanks indeed. The "menu" - just amended that on the home page ONLY - is that better please? Haven´t done anything with the picture yet. All this a bit of a black art to a 63 y7ear old! - many thanks - please, please, keep criticising!

That's the one, the home page menu is fine now. The image was just a quick sample of how low the kb's can be lowered to to speed the page up.
Remember that you wont see it as slow loading as the image is already in your machines cache & hasn't got to down load it again, so will always seem quick.

I would like to see more photos, graphics etc, Perhaps of your guests having a good time 'round the BBQ whatever. It looks like a lovely place... I might come pay you a visit! hehehehe. The pic you use as your header takes a longer than usual time to load. Save it as a jpeg... perhaps no bigger than 40K. Otherwise... great job

Your websit looks fine, informative and a pleasant claming green colour.

Ok, here is my humble opinion and personal preference.

1. I wouldn't use "bold" for you normal text, bold should be used to emphasise and highlight or draw your readers attention to a particular thing as I have done above. Especially if our trying to sell to the reader how calm and relaxed it all is.

2. I personally prefer the look of text which has been "justified" rather than set to the "left". It looks neat and tidy and i read some statistic somewhere that straight lines and things in proportion are much more appealing to the viewers eye.

3. Id try to separate the "features" more so that tey are clearer and more obvious. For example, the following text:

BREAKFAST - we provide a free continental breakfast or a cooked breakfast for a small additional charge. You may take your breakfast outside and enjoy the wonderful views from the terraces, especially in the warm summer months, which brings us neatly onto the climate you can expect: -

CLIMATE - With total average rainfall being only about 7” this is a dry area that enjoys an annual average temperature of 20°C with over 320 sunny days per year. Unlike the coastal areas that can be quite humid, this area has a dry heat. Spring being a particularly lovely time of the year. Daytime temperatures are mid 20s and the plethora of wild flowers is amazing. The summer months of July and August can be hot reaching mid 30s and even higher on occasions. Hilltops, being high, then benefits from the cooling breezes. Going into September and October the temperatures start to drop and are similar to the spring temperatures.

Could be modified to look more like this:

BREAKFAST
We provide a free continental breakfast or a cooked breakfast for a small additional charge. You may take your breakfast outside and enjoy the wonderful views from the terraces, especially in the warm summer months, which brings us neatly onto the climate you can expect: -

CLIMATE
With total average rainfall being only about 7” this is a dry area that enjoys an annual average temperature of 20°C with over 320 sunny days per year. Unlike the coastal areas that can be quite humid, this area has a dry heat. Spring being a particularly lovely time of the year. Daytime temperatures are mid 20s and the plethora of wild flowers is amazing. The summer months of July and August can be hot reaching mid 30s and even higher on occasions. Hilltops, being high, then benefits from the cooling breezes. Going into September and October the temperatures start to drop and are similar to the spring temperatures.


Anyway, thats my opinion. Good luck to you.

Originally Posted by Collectors-info

That's the one, the home page menu is fine now. The image was just a quick sample of how low the kb's can be lowered to to speed the page up.
Remember that you wont see it as slow loading as the image is already in your machines cache & hasn't got to down load it again, so will always seem quick.

Hi Chris - a few amendments made, found Babelfish translator html code slowed things up. Now reduced the pix size on all pages and amended the menu on all pages as you suggested. Many thanks

Hi, the header images are sill at around 470kb for all three. You might be better taking a screen shot as just 1 image as it can help reduce the kb's down to 41kb instead of 470kb

Originally Posted by TheLink

Your websit looks fine, informative and a pleasant claming green colour.

Ok, here is my humble opinion and personal preference.

1. I wouldn't use "bold" for you normal text, bold should be used to emphasise and highlight or draw your readers attention to a particular thing as I have done above. Especially if our trying to sell to the reader how calm and relaxed it all is.

2. I personally prefer the look of text which has been "justified" rather than set to the "left". It looks neat and tidy and i read some statistic somewhere that straight lines and things in proportion are much more appealing to the viewers eye.

3. Id try to separate the "features" more so that tey are clearer and more obvious. For example, the following text:

BREAKFAST - we provide a free continental breakfast or a cooked breakfast for a small additional charge. You may take your breakfast outside and enjoy the wonderful views from the terraces, especially in the warm summer months, which brings us neatly onto the climate you can expect: -

CLIMATE - With total average rainfall being only about 7” this is a dry area that enjoys an annual average temperature of 20°C with over 320 sunny days per year. Unlike the coastal areas that can be quite humid, this area has a dry heat. Spring being a particularly lovely time of the year. Daytime temperatures are mid 20s and the plethora of wild flowers is amazing. The summer months of July and August can be hot reaching mid 30s and even higher on occasions. Hilltops, being high, then benefits from the cooling breezes. Going into September and October the temperatures start to drop and are similar to the spring temperatures.

Could be modified to look more like this:

BREAKFAST
We provide a free continental breakfast or a cooked breakfast for a small additional charge. You may take your breakfast outside and enjoy the wonderful views from the terraces, especially in the warm summer months, which brings us neatly onto the climate you can expect: -

CLIMATE
With total average rainfall being only about 7” this is a dry area that enjoys an annual average temperature of 20°C with over 320 sunny days per year. Unlike the coastal areas that can be quite humid, this area has a dry heat. Spring being a particularly lovely time of the year. Daytime temperatures are mid 20s and the plethora of wild flowers is amazing. The summer months of July and August can be hot reaching mid 30s and even higher on occasions. Hilltops, being high, then benefits from the cooling breezes. Going into September and October the temperatures start to drop and are similar to the spring temperatures.


Anyway, thats my opinion. Good luck to you.

Hi - many thanks for the time and effort you obviously put into that. I take on board what you say and will amend as appropriate asap. Not sure about justified text though. I used to be a fan of it until I read that the text does not flow easily and is harder to read - I think I now agree with that, otherwise I like your constructive comments. Thanks

Originally Posted by glendene

I would like to see more photos, graphics etc, Perhaps of your guests having a good time 'round the BBQ whatever. It looks like a lovely place... I might come pay you a visit! hehehehe. The pic you use as your header takes a longer than usual time to load. Save it as a jpeg... perhaps no bigger than 40K. Otherwise... great job

I know it looks a little lifeless, short of asking friends to get into swim gear in February - it is cold here now! - there is not much we can do about it because we only bought the property before Christmas

Looking much better, a lot easier to read now. Well done.

Hi Rowena - yes, many thanks, all my friends also thinks it looks better. I have made a few other changes now and will, hopefully, continue to improve it.