The world of selling property is changing, it’s now more tougher than ever for traditional estate agents to make a living just from ‘offline’ marketing efforts. More and more estate agents are realising that in this digital world you need to create a strong online presence to have a chance of beating the increasing competition.
Many estate agents assume that simply just having an online presence is better than nothing, but if you don’t keep up to date with the latest digital trends, you will continue to have a hard time selling.
It’s vital that your website is fully up to scratch! Do this by asking yourself the following:
Does your brand stand out from the competition? Will your brand’s identity remind a potential client to return to your website? Brand design can be very tricky, yet rewarding and should be done by a professional. If you’re looking for expert help then check out our graphic design services.
Check to see if your brand is consistent everywhere on the internet, you don’t want a prospective client to see your company on a directory listing (for example), try to ring your company but the telephone number is ‘out of date’ so they end up moving onto a different estate agent.
Give the user what they want. Provide as much information about the property as possible in order to generate more interest. Displaying images of every room and creating a virtual tour of the property is essential to make a prospective buyer interested.
Optimising your website with CTAs (Call To Actions) can increase its conversion rate. Have you got a great piece of content all about property valuations? Then add a call to action button in the middle of your content to the ‘free property valuation’ page, this could potentially convert the reader into a paying client.
Structure is important, you may have plenty of quality content but this information is irrelevant if there is no structure to it. Structuring content with heading tags & imagery will allow the reader to pinpoint any relevant information they are looking for in order to make a quick decision.
Top Tip – Not only should you provide information about the property for sale, give useful information about its location. Nearly 50% of prospective buyers find information about the neighborhood very useful when searching for property.
With the increasing use of browsing the web on handheld devices, it’s vital that every website is fully responsive. This means that your website will work on all devices that include; desktop, mobile and tablet.
Don’t just admire your website on a desktop, more often than not your target audience will visit a website on a mobile, even when looking for property. So get on your smartphone and have a look around your site, is everything up to scratch or can you spot some problems that can’t be seen on a desktop? Don’t forget to do the same on a tablet/ Ipad too!
Worldwide 52% of all internet users use a smartphone compares to 42% on a desktop.
If you are unsure about what a fully responsive website should look like, check out our latest work. All websites that we design come fully responsive as standard.
A website will get nowhere if it is not seen by potential clients. Get your website seen by more people by adding your company onto trustworthy property directories such as Yell, Thompson Local & Yelp.
No one will be able to find your website if it is not optimised. Start off by targeting specific keyword phrases, if you know exactly what you want a prospective client to search for in Google, you can optimise your website for this, giving it more chance to show on page one of Google.
You can’t just stop there, there is a lot to generating a strong online presence which most likely will require expert advice. We are currently offering a completely free online marketing analysis that will show you how to get ahead of the competition.
Able to tick everything off the list above? Is so then you’re well on your way to becoming one of the best estate agents online. Keeping on top of the latest trends and keeping all website content updated regularly are the first steps to gain a competitive advantage. For more information on how we can help you achieve this call: 01429 874513 or email us: info@propertywebmasters.com
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