Your visitors’ objectives are the most critical element to consider when designing your Real Estate website. Some common problems with real estate web sites are listed below. Don’t make these mistakes. You advertising dollars are stretched too thinly already for you to waste time with all the hype out there.

Several Examples of the Poor Use of Frames

  • Many website providers offer template sites that use frames to separate a header and navigation bar from the main content that is hosted on a central server. Besides the poor aesthetic appeal of frames, this creates a greater problem with search engines and usability. Workarounds to most problems listed below are possible but are tedious, difficult to maintain, and are not often used.
  • Bookmarks and links don’t work properly. You can only bookmark the top-level page, but not necessarily what’s displayed on your screen. When users go back to the link, they only get the homepage rather than the page they expected. This makes the sharing and revisiting of valuable pages in your site extremely difficult.
  • Search engines do not index the content of frames well. By using frames on your site, you can prevent search engines from crawling your site or get a much poorer ranking. When a link does exist to your site, it is usually linked to the inner content pages, without the header and navigation frames. Users will have no way of navigating your site and may not be savvy enough to find the rest of your site even if they are inclined to do so.
  • Browsers have trouble printing frames. Many browsers will only print a single frame rather than the entire multi-frame display. Being that home buyers are doing research and looking at different properties on your site, this can be a big problem.
  • The over riding argument that can be given against frames is simply that users don’t like them. In several studies, over 90% of users have been shown to choose non-frames versions of the same site when given the options.

Misuse of Pop Up Windows

Pop-up windows are one of the most misused features on any website. The worst offenders are sites that have pop up windows that load automatically on the homepage. Automatically opening pop-up windows lead to user distrust the site and leaves a horrible first impression. It also forces users to close the pop-up window every time they visit the page, breaking their flow.

The wide misuse of pop-up windows has led to a strong association with unprofessional and invasive advertisers. Users now close them as quickly as possible, often before even reading their content. In a recent report, users reported pop up windows to be the top frustration encountered during their web experience.

Another report shows that 62% of web users felt strongly that pop-up advertisements interfere with their use of a web site. Users also reported that they were less likely to view the websites of companies that use pop-ups.

Flash Intros

While Flash intros may have their place on the web, (we’re not sure where), a real estate website is not one of them. Visitors are only concerned with information that will help them purchase their new home. Flash intros provide little or no value to home buyers and can be quite an annoyance to users with slower connections.

Imagine having an open house where visitors were forced to sit through a multimedia presentation of your real estate business before they were allowed through the door.

If you want to use Flash to display your company background, make this an optional video your visitors may view. DO NOT make it the first thing they see every time they visit your web site.

Use of Backgrounds

Most real estate web sites that use backgrounds, tile a small image of a logo or photo of a home. This rarely, if ever, provides any positive aesthetic value to the site. It usually only creates a more cluttered appearance and makes text harder to read.

Studies have consistently shown slower search and read times for text with textured backgrounds. If your site uses a background image, consider using that same background on company stationery. Does it make you look more professional? I don’t think so. White background is best.

Animation and Sound

Adding animation or sound to your site merely for the sake of novelty is definitely a mistake. When you want to use sound and animation on your site, consider whether it helps your visitors accomplish their objective. Most uses of sound and animation do not add value to site visitors and only distract and annoy visitors. Don’t do it.

Inaccessible or Not Enough Local Content

Home buyers are interested in local area information. Your expertise and knowledge of your target area is what will set you apart from your competitors. Many sites simply contain a few generic links to city and county government web sites or generic school information sites.

For example, a popular template site contains a School Information link, which looks promising. However, the link actually sends visitors to EschoolProfile.com where they must then supply their personal information and click through a series of forms specifying which state, county, and school districts they would like to receive a report on. The report is then emailed to them rather than displayed immediately on the web browser.

First of all, this is terrible in terms of user friendlieness. Not only are the users being forced to submit their personal information to another site, they are also required to reiterate the locations that they presumably already specified by visiting the real estate agent’s site.

Secondly, how would a home buyer know which school district applies to the cities they’re interested in. Shouldn’t the real estate agent, being the area expert, provide this information directly on their site? Take the extra time in doing this research yourself and include some basic school information on your site. Link to third party sites for in depth information that can’t be conveniently included on your site.

Information By Request Only

Directly related to the lack of area information is the common practice of providing information only after the user submits his/her personal information. New leads will provide their personal information only if they’ve been given sufficient reason to do so. Many real estate agents make the mistake of forcing visitors to submit their contact information before providing any real value to them.

Savvy Internet users will not provide personal information unless they’ve already received something of value from your site and are convinced that they can gain further value by allowing you to contact them.

You must first gain the user’s trust by providing them with useful information. Only then can you expect them to fill out a short form so that you can provide them with even more personalized and helpful information.

Email Address Not Displayed

As stated above, users hate being forced to fill out forms to gather information. Many sites do not list the agent’s email address but rather force users to fill out a form to contact the agent. While many users may view this online form as a convenience, some users may prefer to use their own email program to contact the agent directly, so that they will have a record of the email.

In any event, needlessly limiting your visitors’ options in contacting you will frustrate them and decrease the number of leads you receive. Always make sure your email address is listed on the contact form so that visitors may email you directly.

Broken Links and Pages Under Construction

Broken links simply reduce credibility and frustrate users. That said, many sites contain broken links, often to other web sites who’ve moved their pages. You should perodically check your links to other sites to make sure they haven’t moved.

Another critical error that is far more common than it should be is the use of “Under Construction” pages. By linking to a page that is under construction and contains no useful content, you are simply wasting a potential client’s time. When researching properties, home buyers are focused on what they want and do not have any particular loyalty to your site. If you don’t have the information they want, they will just move on to the next site. The promise that something of value might replace the page under construction next time is not enough to bring them back.

If your site is not ready to be viewed, don’t list it with search engines, or otherwise advertise it. If a section of your site is not ready for viewing, then don’t waste your visitors’ time by linking to it. You’ll only be damaging your own credibility.

Lack of Listing Photos

Home buyers have consistently said that photos are one of the most important factors when they search for properties. Unbelievably, an amazing number of listings on agent sites don’t include photographs, and those that do usually include only one image of the front view of the home.

We don’t know if this is a limitation of the template site, a habit brought on by traditional marketing, or just an oversight, this failure will seriously decrease interest in the property. The great thing about the Internet is that for the most part, space is free. Unlike advertising elsewhere, you can list as many photos of each property on your site as you like. With a digital camera an free processing, why limit yourself to one when home buyers always want more?

Want to learn more about creating a professional Real Estate website? Just call or write PSS at (310) 833-0432 Email: Info@PSSPROS.com.

As always, your comments, good or bad are welcome. Just click on “Comments” below to let us know what you think.