4 Fundamentals of Website Design and Functionality

In this day when every seminar is social media, SEO, facebook, fan pages, twitter, mobile apps, blogging,  videos, QR Codes and anything else that’s hot and new, it is easy to clutter up your website to the point the consumer is confused and gone.

Take a serious look at your website to see if you have these 4 fundamentals of success.

1. Enjoyable experience for the consumer.
Sure there are websites at the top of the search engine, but when the consumer goes to them, what do they find? Hundreds of repeat search words? Everything crammed into the homepage to tell them everything you do and offer? Every flashing graphics you can find? Brain Overload! Have you ever heard the phrase: "Can’t see the forest for the trees?"

First and foremost, build your homepage to give the consumer a great first impression. Introduce who you are and how you can help them. Make your website easy to understand and navigate. Remember, the robots' and spiders' job is to bring humans to your site.

2. Knowledge of the area.
What proves to the consumer that you are an expert in the area? A link to Yahoo! Local? A copy and paste from Wikipedia…Really? Consumers are looking for a brand that they know has a good reputation, or they want you to convince them they can trust you.

Be sure to give a company overview or history. They might be relocating so even though the locals know you, web visitors may not. Are you involved in the community? Do you give back? Ask your agents to submit their community service so you can highlight them on the site. It proves to consumers you have a vested interest in your market area and you may build relationships with consumers that have similar interests in those charities. Most MLSs will provide stats that can represent what the market is doing in your area. Good or bad, be the expert that consumers know will tell them the real story!

 3. A great property search.
Take a look at the national portals. Does your property search compete? Does your website provider give you the latest search tools to give a better experience? Do you make it convenient for consumers to search? Are you offering one click “Jump Searches” to provide results for common searches? If you know consumers commonly search for open houses, add a “Jump Search” to take them there in one click.

Things like gated communities, views, waterfront, pool homes, no pool homes, price ranges, new on the market… find out what you get the most inquires for and provide it in one click. Can consumers draw their own search area? Can they save it and get updates? Daily? How about hourly? Give the consumers a reason to select your property search.

Another note on the subject, Victor Lund of WAV Group had a great comment at one of the conventions I attended. He said “MLS Data is the website equalizer.” You don’t differentiate your website by offering MLS data. It’s about what you surround the MLS data with that convinces consumers to bookmark your website.

Do you have comparative demographics on your site accurate to the neighborhood or just a link to external sites that offer zip code stats based on the last census? Is your school information just a link to the school district? Will any school district say they have poor performing schools? You need better data than that. Do you offer additional features like driving directions, points of interest, recent sold properties and price reductions? All great features today’s consumers expect.

4. A great lead routing and management system.
Your clients are consumers and agents. Do you have a system in place that will quickly deliver an inquiry to one of your agents that has experience in that local market where the consumer is inquiring or saving properties? Do you have a way to retract and pass that lead on to the next agent if there isn’t a response? Are you tracking what the agents are doing with the leads you are passing down to them? Can your lead management and agents see when consumers are searching on their website and what they are searching live? Can they tell who the most active contacts in their database are? Can you track not only where consumers are saving property but where they are searching? Do you have auto responders and follow up marketing to ensure that contact will be impressed with your company? Do you have systems in place to help your agents deliver quality material that promotes your brand? Do you have tools in place to help your agents with buyers and sellers? Agents should be selling, not researching and buying tools and services. By brokers implementing productivity systems, agents will be more efficient, making more money and more dedicated to their company.

Every broker should embrace marketing trends of today but the goal should always be to build from a core platform of design and functionality that is fundamental to Internet Marketing success.