7 must-haves for a 2022 estate agency website

03 December 2021 6025 Views

There are many features and functionalities a website must have to be successful. Ultimately, the purpose of your website should be to drive business, but to do that there are many separate puzzle pieces that must be slotted together to turn an estate agency website into an all-in-one interactive experience that fulfils your customers’ needs and drives repeat business for your agency. The following is a list of the must-have features and functionalities for an estate agency website that will support your customer journey models:

1. Attractive and accessible visual layout

According to Adobe, given 15 minutes to consume content, two-thirds of people would rather read something beautifully designed than something plain, and 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content or layout is unattractive. This applies to every visible page on your website, which should not only emphasise your unique brand image but should look great whilst doing it.

2. Super-fast load speeds

Nothing ruins the buzz of visiting a website faster than pages taking too long to load. According to Kissmetrics, 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less, and according to Google, 53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than 3 seconds to load. The best estate agency websites will ensure that their website loads within a few seconds by only including essential elements, using the most reliable hosting services, and compressing imagery to ensure nothing is slowing down their sites.

3. Optimised for mobile and other devices

Whilst a website built for desktop should be the priority, optimising your website for mobile, along with other devices such as tablets is essential. The website user experiences your visitors have on mobile should be just as good if not better than via your desktop website.

Here are eight statistics on the importance of having an optimised mobile website:

• 88% of internet users own a smartphone.

• 48% of consumers start their research via a mobile device through a search engine.

• 26% of consumers start their research via a mobile device through a brand app.

• More than 50% of smartphone users look at their smartphones immediately after they wake up.

• According to Google, 61% of users aren’t likely to return to a mobile website if it was difficult to use and 40% of those users will immediately visit a competitor’s website instead.

• 83% of mobile users say a seamless experience across all devices is vital.

• 57% of people wouldn’t recommend a business just because they have a poorly designed mobile website.

• 88% of people that search for a local business via a mobile device will either call or go to that business’ office within 24 hours.

 

4. Detailed property listings

Having detailed information on the property listings displayed on your website is essential to attracting and engaging customers who might otherwise go to a competitor. Most people who visit your website will want to see your property stock, so it is vital that you make their experience as useful and rewarding as possible.

On top of ensuring that property listings on your website are detailed, they should also be maintained to be accurate and up-to-date, as no one wants to see a property that they’re interested in only to find that it is no longer available to buy or rent. Linking your website to your estate agency CRM should enable these listings to update automatically if there is an important change to the property status that potential buyers/tenants should be aware of.

5. CRM integration

Every estate agency looking to streamline its efficiencies and achieve maximum growth should have a CRM. A good estate agency website should integrate with your CRM to achieve a seamless transmission of data that results in up-to-date property listings as well as instantaneous registration of customer details into your CRM database when they register their interest in a property or room on your website. Integrating a CRM with your website will help you to deliver better customer experiences with more accurate customer profiling, it will also bring together your data to help create one single customer view and will pull in all lead data to improve your agency’s marketing outreach.

6. Useful and engaging content

One of the most powerful tools to keep your website and brand attractive and informative to visitors is to ensure you regularly feature and publish new content to your website that’s relevant to your audience. Fresh content is also good for your SEO as it indicates to Google and other search engines that your website is active, keeping you higher in the page rankings. There’s a wealth of useful information you can publish on your website such as a step-by-step guide to buying a house, tips on how to get the best mortgage, data on your local area, and even DIY advice or interior design tips. The possibilities are endless.

7. Showcase case studies

A key function of your website should be to promote your credibility and one of the best ways to achieve this is to publicise reviews and testimonials from your happy customers that highlight your services and elevate your brand image. According to BigCommerce, 72% of consumers say that positive reviews and testimonials make them trust a business more. Having testimonials on your website also benefits your SEO by providing search engines with new and engaging content, with research from the customer review and user-generated content platform Yotpo finding that on average websites using testimonials saw a 45% increase in traffic compared to those who didn’t.

 

Interested to learn more of the key questions, must-have features and quality content you need to consider before buying a new website?

Download Reapit’s free Estate Agency Website Buyer’s Guide (2022 Edition).