Two website thoughts

[JBloggs]

Two simple easy thoughts I wanted to share:
Google likes fresh content
If you never update your website and leave it static then you are paying for it. We all want to be on page 1 of Google when someone searches, you are penalizing yourself if you don't update your site from time to time, even adding something simple that doesn't change the idea much to what you are saying. Toss on a new photo and new paragraph here or there.
Which leads me to point #2:
"Title Text" and NAME your images
Please for the love of bob stop saving them as header.jpg or room1-side.jpg. Google does not VIEW your images it reads them, if you save them as header.jpg how does this help you with your ONLINE marketing and WEB presence? It doesn't.
Example:
Your header image could be saved as - Header-mikeandsallys-bed-breakfast-tuscany-oregon-foothills.jpg or a room name: greyswanroom-tuscany-bed-breakfast-oregon.jpg
Yes, it takes a moment to type in more than header.jpg and if you rely on a webmaster, don't let them be lazy and do this!
Google images will show your image when someone searches if you add the name to the saved image file.
Title Text - is another way google will see your images. If someone mouses over they can read "Relax in the Grey Swan Room overlooking the San Francisco Bay on California's romantic gold coast"
This is easy bang for your buck, it doesn't cost you a cent, only a moment longer to type in that text! I have typed more on this new thread that most of you have on all images and title text, so it isn't hard, or time consuming, but it is worth it!
Shared with love, from your innmate JB!

 

[Breakfast Diva]

So true JB!
One thing I've learned recently is that google is soon, or has already started, to crack down on the alt text. The alt text is meant to be a description for visually impaired people. In the old days many people would stuff it full of keywords, but now you really need to be descriptive of the picture.
Instead of "Relax in the Grey Swan Room overlooking the San Francisco Bay on California's romantic gold coast", you can say "view of San Francisco Bay from Grey Swan room on California's romantic gold coast"

 

[dumitru]

Alt Text - this is often called a MOUSE OVER.

Nope. The content that appears on mouse over is inside the title attribute, not inside the alt.
And as Breakfast Diva mentioned earlier, the alt text is supposed to describe the content of the image, not what it represents.

 

[dumitru]

And if you don't mind I will add a third website thought: run your website images through an optimizer tool, for example TinyPNG (dot) com. It reduces the size of your JPG and PNG images by about 55-70% without any loss of quality.
Considering that many hotel websites have up to 3 megabytes of photos on the homepage, reducing this by 65% will save you A LOT.
You are welcome

 

[Arks]

And if you don't mind I will add a third website thought: run your website images through an optimizer tool, for example TinyPNG (dot) com. It reduces the size of your JPG and PNG images by about 55-70% without any loss of quality.
Considering that many hotel websites have up to 3 megabytes of photos on the homepage, reducing this by 65% will save you A LOT.
You are welcome .

You are welcome

 

[EmptyNest]

As Dimitri.says...description is mouse over. That needs to be something about your image. And yes, most of the time no one bothers with either. Note to Happy: I think I remember telling you this was something you would need to do...go back in and edit the media library image
There is a neat plugin image optimizer that works in wordpress too. http://wordpress.org/plugins/ewww-image-optimizer/

 

[Morticia]

As Dimitri.says...description is mouse over. That needs to be something about your image. And yes, most of the time no one bothers with either. Note to Happy: I think I remember telling you this was something you would need to do...go back in and edit the media library image
There is a neat plugin image optimizer that works in wordpress too. http://wordpress.org/plugins/ewww-image-optimizer/.

How does that image optimizer work? I'm out of space on the server so I can't add any new photos until I compress everything out there.

 

[EmptyNest]

As Dimitri.says...description is mouse over. That needs to be something about your image. And yes, most of the time no one bothers with either. Note to Happy: I think I remember telling you this was something you would need to do...go back in and edit the media library image
There is a neat plugin image optimizer that works in wordpress too. http://wordpress.org/plugins/ewww-image-optimizer/.

How does that image optimizer work? I'm out of space on the server so I can't add any new photos until I compress everything out there.
.

You can always upgrade and get more space

 

[JBloggs]

Yes title text!
I was even on many photos title text and alt text today...

 

[Morticia]

As Dimitri.says...description is mouse over. That needs to be something about your image. And yes, most of the time no one bothers with either. Note to Happy: I think I remember telling you this was something you would need to do...go back in and edit the media library image
There is a neat plugin image optimizer that works in wordpress too. http://wordpress.org/plugins/ewww-image-optimizer/.

How does that image optimizer work? I'm out of space on the server so I can't add any new photos until I compress everything out there.
.

You can always upgrade and get more space
.

You can always upgrade and get more space

For some reason she doesn't seem to want to do that. I've asked.

 

[EmptyNest]

As Dimitri.says...description is mouse over. That needs to be something about your image. And yes, most of the time no one bothers with either. Note to Happy: I think I remember telling you this was something you would need to do...go back in and edit the media library image
There is a neat plugin image optimizer that works in wordpress too. http://wordpress.org/plugins/ewww-image-optimizer/.

How does that image optimizer work? I'm out of space on the server so I can't add any new photos until I compress everything out there.
.

You can always upgrade and get more space
.

You can always upgrade and get more space

For some reason she doesn't seem to want to do that. I've asked.
.

I thought it was your site you were talking about?? Who doesn't want to upgrade?

 

[Morticia]

As Dimitri.says...description is mouse over. That needs to be something about your image. And yes, most of the time no one bothers with either. Note to Happy: I think I remember telling you this was something you would need to do...go back in and edit the media library image
There is a neat plugin image optimizer that works in wordpress too. http://wordpress.org/plugins/ewww-image-optimizer/.

How does that image optimizer work? I'm out of space on the server so I can't add any new photos until I compress everything out there.
.

You can always upgrade and get more space
.

You can always upgrade and get more space

For some reason she doesn't seem to want to do that. I've asked.
.

I thought it was your site you were talking about?? Who doesn't want to upgrade?
.

Yes, my site. I asked Linda to upgrade me so I didn't keep getting the 'you're running out of space' messages. She said not to worry. Well I'm at 93% usage now and I don't want to add more photos for fear I'll shut my site down.
I'm going to call again when vacation is over.

 

[EmptyNest]

As Dimitri.says...description is mouse over. That needs to be something about your image. And yes, most of the time no one bothers with either. Note to Happy: I think I remember telling you this was something you would need to do...go back in and edit the media library image
There is a neat plugin image optimizer that works in wordpress too. http://wordpress.org/plugins/ewww-image-optimizer/.

How does that image optimizer work? I'm out of space on the server so I can't add any new photos until I compress everything out there.
.

You can always upgrade and get more space
.

You can always upgrade and get more space

For some reason she doesn't seem to want to do that. I've asked.
.

I thought it was your site you were talking about?? Who doesn't want to upgrade?
.

Yes, my site. I asked Linda to upgrade me so I didn't keep getting the 'you're running out of space' messages. She said not to worry. Well I'm at 93% usage now and I don't want to add more photos for fear I'll shut my site down.
I'm going to call again when vacation is over.
.

if you want more space, i will tell her to increase it. it wont shut down your site, you just wont be able to add more photos if you go over quota

 

[Morticia]

As Dimitri.says...description is mouse over. That needs to be something about your image. And yes, most of the time no one bothers with either. Note to Happy: I think I remember telling you this was something you would need to do...go back in and edit the media library image
There is a neat plugin image optimizer that works in wordpress too. http://wordpress.org/plugins/ewww-image-optimizer/.

How does that image optimizer work? I'm out of space on the server so I can't add any new photos until I compress everything out there.
.

You can always upgrade and get more space
.

You can always upgrade and get more space

For some reason she doesn't seem to want to do that. I've asked.
.

I thought it was your site you were talking about?? Who doesn't want to upgrade?
.

Yes, my site. I asked Linda to upgrade me so I didn't keep getting the 'you're running out of space' messages. She said not to worry. Well I'm at 93% usage now and I don't want to add more photos for fear I'll shut my site down.
I'm going to call again when vacation is over.
.

if you want more space, i will tell her to increase it. it wont shut down your site, you just wont be able to add more photos if you go over quota
.

Yes! Thanks. Whatever the next level is should be plenty.

 

[Hotelogix For Inns]

A few more pointers -
1. Make the website Mobile-compatible ( Google to penalize non mobile compatible websites )
2. Non-annoying pop-ups which can help in upselling services.
3. Make it easier for the guests to get confirmed reservations ( Use Web Booking Engines )
You might find this blog on the same topic useful.

 

[swaapc]

Hi,
I tried to conform to this years ago but fell foul of being unable to successfully manage the pictures. Without some form of mapping back to the original image library I just got lost every time I wanted to upgrade, change, move the image etc. I gave up in the end and went back to my Lightroom file names. I even built a database to track the mapping but of course being lazy it didn't stay current for very long. Not a good solution but I just couldn't find a way round the mapping problem. I need some form of automated method of creating the mapping.

 

[gillumhouse]

Hi,
I tried to conform to this years ago but fell foul of being unable to successfully manage the pictures. Without some form of mapping back to the original image library I just got lost every time I wanted to upgrade, change, move the image etc. I gave up in the end and went back to my Lightroom file names. I even built a database to track the mapping but of course being lazy it didn't stay current for very long. Not a good solution but I just couldn't find a way round the mapping problem. I need some form of automated method of creating the mapping..

I use Picassa and then keep searching. I try to name the folders something meaningful and then do a rename of each photo to get my name on the photo.

 

[Flower]

And if you don't mind I will add a third website thought: run your website images through an optimizer tool, for example TinyPNG (dot) com. It reduces the size of your JPG and PNG images by about 55-70% without any loss of quality.
Considering that many hotel websites have up to 3 megabytes of photos on the homepage, reducing this by 65% will save you A LOT.
You are welcome .

Does any one know of this kind of programme?
Do you know of a programme/app that can compress PNG images that are over the 5MB that TinyPNG can handle.
I have many images that exceed the 5MB

 

[EmptyNest]

And if you don't mind I will add a third website thought: run your website images through an optimizer tool, for example TinyPNG (dot) com. It reduces the size of your JPG and PNG images by about 55-70% without any loss of quality.
Considering that many hotel websites have up to 3 megabytes of photos on the homepage, reducing this by 65% will save you A LOT.
You are welcome .

Does any one know of this kind of programme?
Do you know of a programme/app that can compress PNG images that are over the 5MB that TinyPNG can handle.
I have many images that exceed the 5MB
.

Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop would be my two suggestions. Software you have to purchase. There are image optimizer plugins you can use.

 

[swaapc]

And if you don't mind I will add a third website thought: run your website images through an optimizer tool, for example TinyPNG (dot) com. It reduces the size of your JPG and PNG images by about 55-70% without any loss of quality.
Considering that many hotel websites have up to 3 megabytes of photos on the homepage, reducing this by 65% will save you A LOT.
You are welcome .

Does any one know of this kind of programme?
Do you know of a programme/app that can compress PNG images that are over the 5MB that TinyPNG can handle.
I have many images that exceed the 5MB
.

Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop would be my two suggestions. Software you have to purchase. There are image optimizer plugins you can use.
.

Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop would be my two suggestions. Software you have to purchase. There are image optimizer plugins you can use.

Photoshop Elements is the lower cost option. I think its 'Save for web' is very very similar if not the same as Photoshop.