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What makes a real estate website successful?
Good, relevant content that is up-to-date and that is easily
found.
Relevant content is not a problem (although
keeping it up to date may be). How you organise and present
your listings will decide whether or not it is easy for your
visitors to find the information they want.
The purpose of the following guidelines
is to help make your website easy to use. They are based on
current research into the behaviour of web users.
- Vistors will not wait for your pages
to load. Make sure that you only use graphics that are necessary
and that all of property images are optimised for the Web.
- Make your links easy to recognise. Use
standard text links whenever possible and avoid buttons.
(Web users can get annoyed by scrolling text, animations,
flashing buttons and gimmicks.)
- Keep it simple. Make property categories
as straightforward as possible. Giving visitors too many
options is worse than giving them none.
- Your visitors are looking for real estate
properties. Try to use the front page to give them what
they want.
- Avoid long pages that force the visitor
to scroll. Break your listings into manageable chunks.
- Let your visitors browse for a property
- do not force them to search.
- Be consistent. Use the same style for
all of your property brochures on the web. Instant recognition
of where you are in a site is vital. Varied styles and layouts
cause confusion.
- Eliminate grammatical and spelling errors.
(Visitors expect an estate agent to be able to write clear,
correct prose.)
- Make it easy to print a brochure by using
dark text on a light background.
- Let your customer send you email about
a particular property without having to fill in a form.
- Invite your customers to receive news
about your listings and make it easy for them to sign up.
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