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Get feedback on how to improve your vacation rental website

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Top 10 Contributor
Posts 337
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John Posted: 02-21-2008 2:21 PM

From domain name to hosting, web development, marketing, etc... get expert advice on how to improve your vacation rental website.

Top 100 Contributor
Posts 3
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My vacation rental:

 

www.njshorerental.net 

http://www.vacationcentric.com
  • | Post Points: 20
Top 10 Contributor
Posts 337
Points 4,505

Your website is nicely done.  Regarding your URL, it redirects to http://njshorerental.net/default.aspx and this may be a problem with search engines if it is not redirected in a search engine friendly way.

Also, the website seems to freeze when I click on the 'Links' tab.  The hosting seems also to be a little slower than usual (you may want to try to ping it and compare it to some other similar websites).  You may also want to make the metatags titles on your subpages a little longer to maximize your search engine optimization (however, it may not be possible if you are using a template). 

You should try to avoid publishing your email on the site to avoid your mailbox from beeing flooded with spam.  Your contact form could also use a captcha verification system that allows only humans and not robots to submit your form.

Another suggestion would be to place some alt tags on the images to improve search engine optimization.

But again, overall the site is great because you have balanced very well functionality with visuals and content!  Nice job!

Top 25 Contributor
Posts 15
Points 180

I seem to agree with John. One thing I could reccomend as a low budget investor is Traffic Blazer by GoDaddy. One of the best features is that it will analyze your site to fix broken links and whatnot. One thing also that will help with your pages loading faster is decrease the size of the photo. Make sure also that you tag the photo so search engines will pick up on them as well. The page name of default should be index.

 Visit us anytime at Advantage Vacation Homes in Orlando, FL for a strong example of a professional website.

Kevin Bradshaw Advantage Vacation Homes
321-437-4519
Top 200 Contributor
Posts 2
Points 40

 Our new website is up and I would love some feedback on what we can do.

 www.pelicanhillsresort.com

Any and all suggestions are appreciated

  • | Post Points: 35
Top 10 Contributor
Posts 337
Points 4,505

First of all, congratulations for a well built website.  Your site is already better than 99% of vacation rental websites out there.   However, even for the most successful sites, there is always possibility for improvement.    I think you have covered very well the visual and functionality parts of your website (I would just place a redirect from http://pelicanhillsresort.com to http://www.pelicanhillsresort.com  so that when people type your domain without the 'www' they don't get the current error "There is a problem with this website's security certificate") . 

I could suggest a few improvements from a search engine optimization prospective:

- Your current pages are being redirected from 'http://' to 'https://'  ...it is not necessary to make all pages (that don't require confidential information) 'secure'...this sometimes causes broken pages when people browse through your site.
- Also, it is better if you can make the urls more search engine friendly (I would do a mod-rewrite to end the the urls with .html instead of .aspx)
- Change the 'Home' link from https://www.pelicanhillsresort.com/Index.aspx to www.pelicanhillsresort.com (so you avoid duplicate index pages that can penalize your site on some search engines)
- I would include the populare search term 'vacation rentals' in your metatags tile, description and keywords.
- You should also make sure all pages have different metatags
- You should consider obtaining some quality related links from other vacation rental sites and vacation rental directories.

These are just some quick ways to make your site even better!

 

 

 

Top 25 Contributor
Posts 15
Points 180

I would suggest doing something with all of your dead space on the site. Upon looking midway to the bottom it appears to be a ghost. Strategic banner placement or specials could be used here.

For an example of a landing page we are using this summer for Orlando Vacation Rental Homes can be seen at: Summer Deal 08.

 You could use your dead space to also redirect to landing pages such as above. We would even welcome placing a button on your site to help as well.

Kevin Bradshaw Advantage Vacation Homes
321-437-4519
Top 500 Contributor
Posts 1
Points 5
hey John guess your kinda the expert around this community, just wondering if you can check out my site and give me some pointers,on the looks changing things..moving things..i dont do html code so that is why i have it on a free web host site..my site is: www.prvacationrental.com it gets masked and transfered to http://freewebs.com/prvacationrental I bought the domain from godaddy, I set up key words and title and permenent redirect...now that i am on freewebs they also let me set keywords and title etc.. so the code for www.prvacationrental.com is different than http://freewebs.com/prvacationrental would this make a diff..oh im so confused...i just started this thing on freewebs on Oct 17, thanks for anyones input on this matter...thanks Joe if you want send me an email.. prvacationrental@aol.com or rinconrentals@gmail.com
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