Feedback is that its hard to find the videos on my site - how do I make content/navigation better

sullisnyc · August 26, 2023

Feedback is that there are a lot of clicks or people can navigate / find the videos page on my site - palazzodelgolfo.com

I'd like to refresh the design anyway - it's been a while. Any advice for making it easier for people to find this link or add the content to home page?

https://www.palazzodelgolfo.com/video-tours

Also, is it possible to apply a new template design to this existing site? Is there a way to duplicate this site content if that is not possible?

JessicaM · September 8, 2023

Hi @sullisnyc!

First off, you have some really gorgeous pictures that I would definitely play up and use to your advantage! Here's a few suggestions for navigation and general thoughts -

- Right now there's a lot of information in the top navigation that sort of gives the feeling of, "Where do I start??". This can be fixed by adding a call to action button that speaks to what you want customers to do when they land on your site - Something like "Book Now" or "Make a Reservation". It should also be in an accent color so that it stands out. I would also take off the phone number since it's in the footer (people know to scroll to the bottom to look for the phone number). By doing those two things, your header will look a lot more eye catching and easy to navigate. (Also add the phone number to the Contact page).

- If you have a version of your logo that includes the name, then I would add that in the header so that people know who you are.

- You might want to break the 2 properties up into 2 sections on the home page. Each section (property) can have the video tour, images, and description with a button that takes them to the dedicated page on that property. This would put your videos in a more prominent location so that people don't have to hunt for them.

- Definitely add some testimonials to the home page! These go a long way and it shows to people that y'all didn't just appear on the scene last night...you've been doing it a while and you're successful because you're good at what you do.

- On most pages, everything is on a white background, but you could really add some nice visual elements by incorporating some color in the sections. I would also add more Call to Action buttons on the pages for people to book a stay. These should be all over your site because you never know at what page someone is going to say "Ok, I'm in" - so there should be a button right there instead of them having to hunt for it.

- I would consider reducing the size of the top image on all pages. It's quite large and takes up too much real estate so that people have to scroll before they ever see any information on the page.

- Some of the images seem to be a large file size because they take a while to load. This can negatively impact where you rank in Google. Ideally you want them under 250KB. I use https://imagecompressor.com/ to compress my images.

- Be sure all of your images are correctly named (instead of 149321.jpg) and have alt tags - both of these can also negatively impact your Google ranking.

- When someone lands on your site, they should be able to instantly tell who you are and what you do without scrolling. The text on the header image on the home page can be tweaked to address this. You could use the same image, have a subhead of "Palazzo del Golfo", then say "Luxury vacation homes on the coast of Sicily", and then have a button that goes to the Penthouse and a button that goes to the Apartment. That way it's clear and says to the reader, "hey we have vacation homes and here they both are".

- On the balcony/penthouse pages, you have to scroll through quite a few images (even more scrolling if you're on mobile) before you get to the information that actually matters on the page. I would swap those (the pics and info) and probably scale back on the amount of pictures. Also there should be "Book Now" buttons instead of "Contact" buttons on these pages. The fewer amount of steps someone has to take to book something, the more bookings you will get!

- In the Subscribe section at the bottom... very few people will submit their email address without getting anything in return. However - if you give them something in exchange for their email (like 10% off your first rental, or a pdf on the 10 best restaurants in Palazzo del Golfo), you will get WAY more email addresses. This is great too because your mailing list is the #1 way to grow your business.

- I would beef up the footer... put your navigation links in the footer, include your logo, include a small map, etc. and give it a different color than the rest of the page.

Aside from an updated design, I would strongly encourage implementing a booking system. People need to be able to see when a property is available, how much it is, and be able to book it right then. I can't imagine how many customers you are losing because they have to fill out a form! Most people will not take the time to fill something out.

Let me know if you have questions about anything or need help implementing anything. You have a beautiful product, it just needs to be displayed/conveyed effectively!

sullisnyc · September 10, 2023

First of all, thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to look at my site and for all of this amazing feedback. I really really appreciate it.

I agree with all of your feedback and suggestions and will try to include on my site (especially on the image names - I was just lazy there 😞 ). I will actually create a checklist of all your advice!

One thing though - The CIR number at the top is not a phone number but a local tax ID in Italy that my husband (Italian) insisted be at the top (it's a new regulation) but I've looked at other sites and I don't see it so I will remove from the header.

I don't want to pay the additional cost for the booking site right now and just ask that people contact us / book with a form submission but I may rethink this in the future.

The template I am currently using is a 7.0 template, 'Five' I think, which has large banner images. When I created the site 4 years ago I think it was more geared towards real estate type sites which is why I picked it.

Question: Is there a way to apply a template as a preview for the whole site? I really wish SQUARESPACE would have a development and staging site so we can make serious updates and not do it on the LIVE site and publish when we are ready. They have this in wpengine a wordress hosting site which makes everything so easy but I like the easier CMS interface of Squarespace. Can we duplicate sites with all of the content? I think Squarespace only gives you 2 weeks and then you have to buy a new plan or something/cancel the old one correct? But then you lose all the build-in analytics etc. They really should allow us to create a development site so we don't lose that.

Thank you for the image compression site, the advice on the CTAs, adding testimonials - everything. When I made the changes I will report back. I know it needs an overhaul so this might take some time. Grazie mille.

JessicaM · September 11, 2023

@sullisnyc

You're welcome! Glad it was helpful 🙂

You could use Calendly for the booking - it's free 🙂 Just have a calendar for each property and then people can see when it's available and schedule when they want to come and go. Calendly will also give you code so you can embed the calendar on your website.

As far as creating a new site, each site is separate. It's not like you can swap out one template for another on the same site. What you would do is create a new site, then transfer the domain from the old site to the new site. Typically the trial period is 2 weeks, but since I'm a circle member, I can start a trial for you which will give you 6 months. You can also extend it after that if you need more time 🙂

sullisnyc · September 17, 2023

Hi Jessica - thanks so much. I made some changes to the site based on your suggestions. I have more to go but wanted your feedback if you have a free moment. many thanks.

JessicaM · September 20, 2023

Hey @sullisnyc!

I can tell you've done some work 🙂 Here's some additional feedback -

- The header looks better! I would still include a "Book Now" button so that it's obvious to the reader what step they should take.

- Take off the "Get 10% off" part of the image and instead use the Announcement bar for that. Then you can link the announcement bar to the Book Now page.

- I would add a little bit of space in the 2nd section between the text and the Book Your Stay button.

- For the testimonial section, it'd be great if you had multiple testimonials and created a carousel so people could scroll through them. I would pick testimonials that speak to how the customer felt - like, "I've never felt so relaxed", or "the hosts made me feel so welcome and taken care of" ... readers will identify with those kind of testimonials and want to book a stay so they can experience that same feeling.

- Right now this page is mostly on an all white background...creating different sections (so that it isn't all white) will not only make it more visually pleasing, but it will also help with the flow so that each section is more defined. I'm not sure that you want orange to be the accent color. I love the purple/blue color in the logo - it looks really regal and professional. I would pick a different color that works well with it instead of orange.

- The property pages look much better with the photos at the bottom! It's still a lot of scrolling though, so you might consider either creating a carousel of images or reducing the number of images.

- The spacing between the letters on the buttons (Contact Us and Sign Up) should match. (I'm on this page, but there could be others - https://www.palazzodelgolfo.com/penthouse)

- Take a look at the image names and make sure they're named according to what the image is - and that they have alt tags.

- Definitely add a way for people to book directly on the site! Calendly is free and would be a great solution 🙂

sullisnyc · September 25, 2023

Ah I know about the image. I have not upgraded yet to a business site which is why I don't have the announcement banner. I may need to do that soon.

Oh if not Orange for the buttonswhat color do you think? I also considered a blue/green. I use a coral color on a sister site palazzods.com and wanted it to be slightly different.

I will review the other suggestions and do my best to apply them this weekend.

JessicaM · September 26, 2023

@sullisnyc

Here's some links to some blue color palettes (here and here). I would choose colors that work well with your images. You can also type the main color (#0000A4) in this middle column in Adobe Color and find other colors that work well with it. https://coolors.co is fun to play around with too.

Feedback is that its hard to find the videos on my site - how do I make content/navigation better

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