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As I write this, the National Association of Estate Agents has just revealed that demand for residential property increased in the past month to a level not seen in more than four years.
With the economic outlook still bleak but improving, consumer confidence is gradually improving too and growing numbers of people are looking to get onto the property ladder, buy a new home or find the perfect office for their company.
As a result, estate agents and other businesses in the property industry need to be on their game to ensure they can beat their competitors and attract the new renters/buyers starting to re-emerge from the woodwork.
And in this modern age, that doesn't just mean buying a bigger sandwich board to stick outside the office, it means having a great, functional website and marketing it to web users across the world.
Oooh, check out that curb appeal.
Web Design for Property Websites
The importance of good web design for companies in the property industry should come as no surprise to those in the sector; the same values generally apply to selling a house.
And at I-COM, our web designers know exactly how to create a stunning website for property firms that will cater to househunters' every need.
So, how do our experts approach the design process for property sites and ensure our clients stand out from the crowd?
Just some of the things we look at when designing a property website include:
• Curb appeal - Everyone in the property industry knows about curb appeal and its importance to selling a house. Curb appeal is the view people have of a property from the outside and is often the basis of a good or bad first impression of the property. It can be improved by doing things like cleaning the windows and gutters or mowing the lawn.
The same principle is important in web design. The site has to look good if you want visitors to have a look at the properties you have featured on your site. If it looks slick and professional, people will be more likely to come in for a closer look. If it looks like a ramshackle job, they will have a poor impression of you from the outset, and will leave the page.
What's more, our designers like to make sure the imagery and fonts they use are in keeping with your branding and even the different styles of property you own.
Imagery used on the Magnus homepage
• Information architecture - The website needs to be well-built, in terms of being robust enough to consistently work how the user wants it to and also in terms of making sure it is easy to navigate. Users who can't find the information they are looking for with ease will not put up with it for long, and once they click the 'close' button on your website, there goes a potential customer.
Again if you think of a website as a house, a website needs to be structurally strong and have a logical and easy-to-use system of navigation. After all, who would want a house that is full of corridors that lead you to a dead end?
• USPs - Your USP is extremely important. It stands for 'unique selling point' and is what sets you apart from your competition. For a property firm, this could be anything from being a traditional firm with a rich heritage and vast experience, to being a company that has deep roots in the local community.
Regardless of what it is, it needs to be communicated throughout the website, and our designers are adept at demonstrating to visitors why they should choose your company over a competitor with the strategic use of imagery and typography.
What's more, a surprising number of businesses don't actually know what their USP is. We can help you uncover it.
Imagery from the Magnus X-Change page
Contact I-COM Today and Take Advantage of Our Expertise
To enlist the help of I-COM's web design experts and get your property website up to the standard required in this competitive market, get in touch with us today by calling 0844 704 6830 or sending us an email.
Why not also take a look at the work for property websites we have carried out in the past?
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