Published: 24/07/2022 By Lucy Goodgame
Is your website working hard enough for you? Asking yourself these six questions about your website will reveal whether it is time for an upgrade.Perhaps you are a long-running agency with an established website, or perhaps you are a relatively new start-up with a shiny new website to match. Regardless, websites are not a “been there, done that” situation – the truth is, a great website is never truly finished.
If you are unsure if you are ready for a website upgrade, here are six questions to ask yourself:
1. Does your website rank highly on Google Search?
Where is the best place to hide a body? On page 2 of Google Search results, because no one is going to look there. That is an old SEO joke, but the sentiment behind it is serious: if a potential buyer or vendor is looking online for an agent in your area, the fact is that they are unlikely to scroll very far through the results before making their choice.Research by Forbes shows that first page results of Google captures 92% of clicks, and the top five results receive 67.6% of clicks.
If you notice your position slipping and that competitors are stealing the top spots, it’s time to be proactive.
A new website will give you an SEO boost and can put your agency back at the top of the pile. Webdadi websites are optimised for search engines and are built to rank highly on Google for the search terms your customers are using, ensuring you rank above your nearest competitors and giving you the edge.
Take a look at our free SEO guide for estate agents for some insider tricks to boost your Google Search ranking. If your current website is languishing on page2 or 3, get in touch to find out how we can help you fix it.
2. Does your website look good?
Humans are visual creatures, so it is essential to have a beautifully and clearly laid out website that effectively encompasses everything about your brand identity.According to research by Microsoft, users will leave your website in 10 seconds if they don’t find it engaging. Homepages are normally the first page users will see on your site and so it’s vital that you make a great first impression.
If your site is visually engaging, easy to navigate, and loaded with pertinent information, it reflects beneficially on your business. A disjointed and disorganized design is frustrating for users and will make them leave your site. If your website looks dated, users will likely make negative assumptions about how efficient your agency is.
Webdadi offers a variety of website templates which can be customised with your own logos, branding, and a choice of fonts, to give you the exact look you’re after.
3. Is your website generating enough leads?
An attractive website is about more than aesthetics. Ultimately, the aim of the game is lead generation. Your website is there to generate a higher number of quality visitors and effortlessly convert them into new opportunities for your estate agency. Ranking highly on Google Search will of course help with this (more visitors to your site should equal more leads), but it is slightly more nuanced than that. Other factors, including its mobile responsiveness, its content, and where it’s hosted all play a part.Webdadi websites are fundamentally built to drive opportunity and ensure you don’t miss any of value. Using innovative technology to capture user information so you can react quickly to all enquiries and ensure the opportunity isn’t missed.
There are several simple things you can do which can help boost lead generation and help drive more targeted traffic to your website. Download our free lead generation presentation for our lead generation tips and tricks.
Alternatively, save precious time and let Webdadi do that for you. Our expertise is designing beautiful websites that can generate 4.5x more leads than Zoopla. Our software is designed to do the thinking for you, letting you know what improvements need to be made to maximise lead generation.
4. Is your website updated frequently?
This ties in with points 1 and 3. Fresh new content is essential to maintain your SEO rankings which, with the right website, translates to more leads.Search engines are configurated to place frequently updated websites higher up in search results. If you update your website content frequently with relevant and valuable information, then your search engine ranking is likely to increase over time. If you never update your website, then your website ranking will gradually fall.
If you aren’t regularly editing, why not? If it is because your current website makes this process too arduous, then switching to a more user-friendly format is a must. Webdadi’s Content Management System gives you full access to edit and add page content whenever you wish. You can make changes yourself at no cost, or we can do it for you.
By regularly updating and refining your site, you’re giving your business the best chance of ranking strongly against your nearest competitors, boosting your brand reputation, and generating those all-important new leads.
5. Is your website mobile responsive?
Most people browse the internet on mobile devices these days and expect websites to instantly flex and adapt to whatever screen they’re using.According to Statista, over 75% of estate agent website site visits are now made through a mobile device. Having a website that is mobile responsive is therefore essential.
Google cares about mobile traffic. If your site isn’t responsive, fewer people will visit your site, meaning you aren’t going to rank highly in the Google Search results, meaning fewer potential customers will find your business.
If your site doesn't work well on a mobile device, you are putting yourself a huge disadvantage. A hard to navigate and non-optimised mobile site creates a huge barrier to lead generation, which means missing out on potential business. This is why all Webdadi websites are mobile responsive.
6. Does your website have enough visitors?
No idea? Well, you should! This is something you really need to keep track of to judge how well your website is performing and determine whether you need to make changes.The simplest way to do this is Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a web analytics service which is completely free of charge. In this platform, you can view the number of visitors on your site as well as more specific data, like the number of visitors on your site in a specific time frame, the bounce rate of your site and which pages visitors spend the most amount of time on.
Once you know who’s visiting your website, how they’re finding it, and what they’re doing there, you can then use this data to improve your website.
The Webdadi platform integrates with Google Analytics with key data presented to you using our reporting function, so you don’t need to be an ‘Analytics’ expert to benefit from this powerful tool.
If asking yourself these six questions has made you realise it is time to upgrade your website, hit the link below to find out how the Webdadi experts can help.
