You could have the most beautiful office in the world – complete with gleaming mirrors, shiny nameplates and, of course, trendy fiddle leaf figs. But the thing is, whether people want to buy or sell, they research online first. So if you haven’t put the same amount of effort into designing a real estate website that will impress your potential clients, you might as well have bought plastic palm trees from Target.
A well-designed real estate website will help you attract and convert leads, showcase your properties and expertise, and build trust with both potential vendors and buyers. In an increasingly competitive industry this is a crucial opportunity to stand out from the crowd and grow your business.
Here are some of the key reasons why you can't afford not to invest in your real estate website:
1. First Impressions Count
Your website is often the first point of contact between you and a potential client. That means it needs to make a good impression – or they’ll simply move on to the next agent in their search. And you don’t have long. According to Google Research, people typically make the decision to stay or leave within 50 milliseconds of landing on your website. A professionally designed real estate website will ensure you make that first impression count and give prospects the confidence to engage with your agency.
2. Building trust is everything
In the real estate industry, trust is everything. If potential clients don’t trust you, they’re unlikely to engage with your business. Bad web design is a sign of an untrustworthy business. That’s not exactly surprising – but just how much rests on the design of your website may shock you.
A study of healthy websites showed a whopping 94% of people say design heavily influences whether they trust a website – and just under half say that it’s the number one factor influencing the perceived credibility of a business.
Beyond your website looking visually appealing and professional it should display prominent contact information, include client testimonials and demonstrate your industry expertise though blog articles and market updates. Good real estate website designs will show potential clients that you know what you’re doing – and that they can trust you to help them buy or sell their property.
3. Help people find what they need
When someone comes to your website, chances are they’re looking for information. Providing a positive user experience means visitors should be able to easily explore, understand your website, and find what they’re looking for.
Well designed navigation, clear, content, visual hierarchy, contact pages and map integrations are just some of the features you can use to provide a good user experience. In addition your website should be responsive and mobile-friendly so that you retain that user experience no matter where your potential clients are or what device they’re using.
4. Showcase your brand
Your brand is what sets you apart from competitors and helps potential customers identify you. Your real estate website is an extension of your brand, so it’s important that the two are aligned. If your site doesn’t reflect the values and personality of your business, you’ll have a hard time building trust with potential clients.
From your logo and brand colours, to your tone and personality, you must be consistent in everything you do and say – and that includes online. Any changes to that brand can confuse visitors and make them feel like there’s something wrong with your business.
A good web design company will work with you to ensure that your site reflects your unique brand. This will make it easier for you to attract the right clients and convert leads into paying customers.
5. Ensure your business can be found
A well designed website is a well structured website. A website’s structure (or ‘architecture’) refers to how the website is organised hierarchically, and how individual pages link to each other. Website structure affects the seach engine optimisation (SEO) of you website which determines where (and whether) your website surfaces in a relevant Google search.
This means:
- Webpages should contain page titles, H1 tags and meta descriptions that help Google understand the content of each page.
- Internal linking should group pages together into content topics to help Google to better crawl your site.
- All important pages should be accessible from your homepage within 3 or less clicks.
- Page load speeds should be as fast as possible to avoid penalisation.
If your website isn’t well-structured, you could be losing opportunities to appear in Google’s organic search results.
A real estate website is an important investment – one that will pay off in the long run. By investing in a good real estate website design, you’ll be able to generate more leads, build relationships with potential clients and grow your business.
Think it may be time to reconsider your real estate website design? You can start by booking in a free website audit with the team at Rex and get a personalised tour of our range of real estate specific website templates.
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