Adobe CS5
Friday, November 20th, 2009
Archive for the ‘Web Design’ Category
Website Design & Usability Make a Huge Difference
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
October 24, 2009
By: Jeff Manson
Author’s Website: http://www.adrhi.com
Design your site for your users and not your ego. Lets face it, most users landing on a real estate site are most interested in searching for properties not whether you are a GRI, CRS, CRE, ABR, SRES, etc…. I think you get the point.
I re-designed my site back at the end of 2008. The goal was to give the user more what they wanted and easy for them to get there. If you do that your conversions will drastically increase!! My old sites home page and main area landing pages had several call to actions links like: MLS Search, etc… to get the user to the property search page. They actually converted alright, but there was definitely a lot of room for improvement.
On the new site we placed the Property Search on the Home and Area pages above the fold. It is easy to use and gets the users quickly to search results. We also started pulling in the newest listings on the area pages so the user could also see they were listings to view in that area (kind of like an example). That also helped with new fresh content. Another important change was the new contact and sign up forms. We made them pop up in light boxes instead bouncing them to a different page to make it less confusing and a better user experience. All these changes made a huge difference in conversions, bounce rates, pages views per user and actual time spent on the site. It also increased our returning visitors substantially.
Below are some stats from our analytics comparing them before and after.
Here are some of the old sites bounce rates:
Oahu – 28%, Kauai – 37%, Maui – 31% & Big Island – 30% with an average of 31.5% of all the area pages.
Here are the new websites bounce rates:
Oahu – 15%, Kauai – 13%, Maui 18% & Big Island – 20% with an average of 16.5%. That is a 50% decrease in the actual bounce rate.
Here are some other interesting numbers to look at as well:
The home page also saw a decrease of about 30% in its bounce rate. Our sign ups went up by 50% mainly because of the way we started doing our sign up forms. The average page views saw a 33% increase and went up to 10.5 page views per user from 7 page views per user. We also even saw a huge increase on the average time spent on the site from 3:30 minutes to over 6:30 minutes per user.
The next big feature we have been working on is our interactive map search. The goal here is the same. Give the user what they are looking for plus make it simple and easy to use. We think it is very important for the user to be able to scan results and also see the properties on the map. We also think it is a better user experience if the user doesn’t get bounced from page to page and not know how to get back. That is why we display the properties on the left side and the map on the right plus we Ajax in the properties were the map is for the user. They can then page from property to property and easily get back to the map. You can check the beta map search out by doing an advanced search here. Choose your area and then click on map search.
Maybe next time we can discuss ways to improve conversions by using a good lead manager (CRM) and also what you are sending the user as far as email updates.
I would love to hear how you have been able to improve your bounce rates, page views per user and most important, your conversions into real business 
FYI: We also did the same thing on this San Diego real estate site and the sign ups went up over 400%. The site design and usability does make a difference no matter what market you are in. For those of you that say your market is unique 
You Need A Call To Action
Thursday, October 1st, 2009Improving Web Site Performance
Thursday, September 24th, 2009
Web Site Performance Improvement
Increasing and maintaining targeted web site traffic volumes is an ongoing task requiring commitment from all web site stakeholders and must become part of the company’s strategic planning.
The processes required to maintain and increase web site traffic, and remain competitive are numerous and at times complex. The development of a long term plan is necessary to pull together the required human and financial resources.
In addition to the company personal required to manage the Web Site, consideration must be given to the following specialists which are often outsourced:
- Web Developer
- Graphic Artists
- Copy writing
- Social Media
- Search Optimization
- Pay per Click
- Video production.
The teams together. What now?
Do a web site audit, for a start it doesn’t have to be a comprehensive review. Check the links are working and follow the conversion funnels to look for issues which may cause visitor to abandon the conversion process.
It’s time to ask the hard questions?
- Is the web site really capable of supporting the visitor and business requirements?
- You may think your content is great, But is it? Time for an honest evaluation.
- How good is the visual impact of your web site. Do layouts and graphics capture the attention or repel web site visitor. Again time for an honest evaluation.
Now that your web self honesty program is complete. Fix It. Errors have been identified solutions have been discussed and resolved and the schedule is in place.
The result is a visually appealing web site which supports the needs of the web site visitor and the business.
Web Site Improvement and Promotion
I view web site performance improvement in two distinct groups; new visitors and returning visitors.
Returning Visitors
Customer and web site visitor acquisition can be an expensive process for any business.
Focusing on improving current web site visitors experience by developing a program which constantly updates content which is informative, helpful and relevant to your visitors interest. Think about what additional information, services or processes needed to improve visitor experience. Answer the question. What else can we do for our web site visitors?
Progressive web site improvement and exceeding visitor expectations is a prerequisite to maintaining and improving a web site’s Return Visitor Statistics.
New Visitors
Acquiring new web site visitors and improving the company’s web site traffic is ongoing and requires the use of numerous techniques. When the required tasks have been identified planning and scheduling are necessary to keep the program moving forward and achieving company goals.
The processes used to maintain and improve the experience of returning web site visitors will also assist to improve web site traffic statistics. In addition to these processes consideration must be given to all opportunities available to your web site. With Internet competition increasing daily, web sites which are innovative in their use of the available web site promotion techniques will prosper in the long term.
Develop a program which makes use of all your tools including:
- Search Optimization
- Social Media Marketing
- Pay per Click advertising
These will be the primary drivers of your program. Of course there are additional opportunity both online and off line however, it is the primary techniques which will drive additional web site traffic.
Monitoring your success
There are various ways to monitor your web site programs performance such as increased sales and conversions.
But for an overview of your web site performance and to develop and understanding of the web site’s traffic, Google Analytic is my tool of preference. The basic functions of Google Analytic provide enough information to provide an indication of the programs performance with easy access to information and graphs of web site traffic data.
A feature I do like, is the ability to compare web site performance with web sites of similar size and niche. However, to do this it is required that you share your Google Analytic data with Google for comparative purposes.
The Last Word
An ongoing program of web site promotion and improvement is necessary to build a web site that performs well for business. The competition is constantly increasing, without developing a solid web promotion program it will be impossible to improve web site performance, there is also a high risk current web site performance will actually deteriorate with out an effective program in place.