Six reasons why you should upgrade your estate agencies' website to be responsive.
You might have heard the term "responsive designed" website, read about it somewhere on our Facebook page or came across a promo of our Flex Websites on a recent blog post and not really taken note of what it really entails - well, you should, it's kind of essential these days!
If you are still on the fence about having or not having a responsive website, here's a few reasons why you should consider this!
If you are still on the fence about having or not having a responsive website, here's a few reasons why you should consider this!
1. Google will reward you for it.
It's not always easy to make a change or just revamp the website that you've been working on for so many years but when it comes to Google and their criteria for ranking a website, it's a big deal and one that you need to consider.
One of the main reasons why Google likes a responsive website is that because it responds automatically to any device, it is mobile friendly and that will count a few marks on their check list for your rankings!
2. Mobile phones are becoming the preferred device used to browse the internet.
Think about it, what do you take with you when you go to the loo, or before you go to sleep? When you have a few minutes to kill, you browse a thing or two on your cell phone, right?
Essentially, this means that the majority of your leads are probably coming from a mobile phone or will in the very near future. Research showed by 2019, Smartphones will account for 30% (57.5 million) of all networked devices. Can you afford not to have a mobile friendly website?
You need to ensure that you are the one making it easy for the home buyer or seller to easily navigate through your site and get the info that they want, or make the enquiry on their dream home without struggling to submit the enquiry form.
With a responsive website you don't have to worry about your site not displaying correctly or not functioning as it should. If it's responsive, the experience on a mobile phone should be a pleasant one.
Mobile phones can also help to show the buyer that you are legit. Sure you can argue that there are so many portals out there that you are advertising on and that you don't need to be properly optimised for mobile, they'll find you on any portal instead.
Yes, they will. But there are many estate agencies also advertising on the same portal competing for the same buyer. Buyers would want to do their research on the agent whom they are about to sign a OTP with in more than one way. If you have a professional, proper working presence online, it will give them more confidence to do business with you. The first device that they'll turn to is their smart phones.
3. Social media drives traffic to your website.
If you are selling real estate in today's day and age, social media is probably a platform that forms part of your marketing strategy. If it is, then you are also referencing to your website in your posts? Probability is that these social networks that you are using are attracting browsers via tablets or smartphones.
This is great! Your efforts for posting quality information on your social media channels drove them directly to your site, but can they view your site properly on the device that they're using?
Ensure that the efforts you put in (in many estate agencies cases this is an after-hours exercise) pays off and that the attractive post that you've created lands them on an equally attractive website.
4. A responsive site adapts to any screen size.
With a responsively designed website, like our Flex Website offering, it adapts itself to any device that the site is being viewed on. Regardless of the device, your visitor gets equal pleasant experience from where ever they land on your site. It doesn't matter if there is a new release of a phone or tablet type, the website will still display in the same way it did originally.
5. Having a separate mobile site will create more work for you.
There is no rule set in stone that you should not have a mobile website. You could have another website if you really want to but you are creating more admin for yourself. Having a separate mobile website means that you would have to manage your static pages separately, doubling your workload if you are putting in some effort in creating unique content for your website.
You'll also have some problems when people share links from your mobile website on their social media channels for instance. Other will then open the link shared on their desktop and the information will display differently as it is a link to a mobile site. With a responsive website, you have one link that can be viewed the same, everywhere.
6. Get the leads before your competitors do.
A recent study showed that 70 percent of South African internet users use their cell phone to shop online or intent to do so in the near future. Ok, you can't buy a house in South Africa online, yet, but it shows that buyers of products use this device to make a decision and ultimately purchase the product.
We've all been annoyed by a website on a smart phone or tablet where we'd really like to buy something but the form does not work, or the page doesn't display as it should or the site is just completely broken.
The same would happen with your real estate website. If your buyer really wants to make an enquiry about a listing or arrange a viewing and they struggle to complete your enquiry form or find the listing agents' contact details, they'll find the agent sharing the mandate with you and make the enquiry else where.
