In normal search, The Paragon's target phrase seems to be 'bed and breakfast in Scarborough' and it comes second in the normal Google results, so that's pretty good. Just one more push to get the top slot?
The Paragon isn't appearing in the first display of local results under Google Maps, so that could be improved.
On a mobile the SEO results aren't so good, and the appearance could be improved.
The What's On guide is a good idea and could also be improved.
The Paragon is findable on Twitter and Facebook, good, but it looks like an engagement strategy is required. But where are the share buttons?
To do: get to grips with the world of mobile, and work out a way of being useful on Facebook and Twitter. Add share buttons. John at A Million Tweaks
The Paragon has a Facebook Page with 219 fans, and a Twitter presence with 692 followers so, not too bad.
There's also a competition to encourage followers.
So what's wrong? It's not enough. Every Thursday there should be a message about what's on this weekend.
Social media types bang on about 'engagement'. In this case, Paragon just needs to be useful, and providing an occasional reason to escape to Scarborough is enough reason for people to subscribe. Really, that's all people need from these accounts.
Paragon should also be more active on Trip Advisor. Also, Pinterest gives the opportunity to show off Scarborough.
To do: A Thursday tweet, a daily Pinterest and answer questions on Trip Advisor. John at A Million Tweaks.
The Paragon Hotel site has a interesting quality, one that at first seems impressive but sadly lacks a creative flair. On my first visit to this page it took me a while to realise the navigation bar was just that. It's more of a bunch of words that happen to take you to different parts of the site.
All of the pages seem to never end, the user having to scroll down and down.
I love the competition idea but with the addition of the picture, I see that the B&B frontage and the websites header have different logos? It seems like this site is in some need of dramatic visual identity guidelines that fit in with statements like "Our family run, Victorian-built B&B ... enjoy some lovely Yorkshire hospitality."
To do: Create a visual style that reflects the property, create the feeling of "family run", "Victorian", "Yorkshire hospitality". Daniel Abell
The Paragon provides some great features that provide more information than the average B&B website. You can: choose and book your room; see which rooms are popular; follow The Paragon in Facebook and on Twitter; that's a real photograph of the breakfast (not a stock pic); there's a what's on guide, a guide to Scarborough through the seasons, golf information, great days out guide.
It's fabulous that they are there, Paragon goes that extra mile. But .. if someone wants clear information about The Paragon, it's possible all that gets in the way and might be better in a separate part of the website.
Bringing in accessibility, there's a very informative page about access, but I'm not convinced it's an easy site for dyslexic users.
To do: de-clutter and organise the site, make a straightforward B&B website with an information section for those who want to explore further. De-clutter the visual design, too. Simplify the text. John at A Million Tweaks
The text is OK but it's confusing. Most content is on the home page, and it flits between singing the praises of the North Yorkshire Moors to the joys of staying in the B&B. It's a seaspray of goodness, but feels unfocussed.
If a user lands on the page, they have probably already decided they want a B&B in Scarborough, so sell the B&B. Then at booking time, sell a longer stay by saying how great the North Yorkshire Moors are at this time of year.
Also some claims are not backed up. Beaches? Entertainment? Shopping? Cafes? Tell us more.
To do: write more content to support the claims and then re-organise all the content around the buying process. John Allsopp
Photography and video opportunities have been taken on this website, which is nice to see. For instance, the photograph of Julie Hesmondhalgh is nice to see, the panorama is good, the competition winners and even video, that's all good. But somehow it doesn't grab you as a photograph should. It's emotionless somehow, even though it's close to achieving emotion. I think it's down to being selective. There are lots of photographs knocking around, but they are small and used as an adjunct to the text. If you lead with an image, and add text, that will hit home much more powerfully.
To do: select images well and lead with them, use text to add to the image. John Allsopp
The first thing that strikes me about the Paragon's website, technically, is that it's not mobile friendly. It's not, actually, particularly web friendly .. it's a bit fixed in size, whereas everyone's screens are different sizes.
The site isn't particularly interactive, yet the world is becoming used to interacting with websites, contributing. Can I leave a comment? No. Ask a question? Only by email. Correct an error? Email again.
And because it uses a standard booking system the main 'room booking' problems aren't solved. Can I see when would be cheapest for me to visit? When are other people like me visiting (maybe there's a reason, maybe they know something I don't).
What about .. "when are you thinking of staying, because our rooms are getting booked up?" What about "this weekend, it's Bike Week, and it's going to be hot".
There's 'local', too. What's timely and local? What's the special in the nearest few restaurants? What's on at the cinema? What are the tide times and is there a full moon rising over the sea?
To do: Get sorted for mobile and become as micro-informative as possible, automated, of course. Coding through John Allsopp.
Conversion is a lot about getting out of the way of people getting what they want. People are goal-focussed online. So really this site needs to split people up into the people who want a room, a price and availability, and those who want to explore Scarborough and imagine themselves on holiday in The Paragon.
To do that, the home page needs, first of all, to look like it will provide what the visitor wants.
Then it needs clearly to indicate what each of those two types of visitor should do next. From a functional point of view, then, give two buttons: "choose your room" and "explore". How we make that look is mostly up to the designer.
Then there are the persuaders: social proof, time limited offers, upsells and downsells, among others, to help motivate the sale.
To do: create pathways through the site for different users and declutter, then run through the classic persuaders and see what we can use. Conversion through John at A Million Tweaks.
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Last updated 9 April 2012