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Clean Cut or Scrubby Mess: HOW DOES YOUR WEBSITE LOOK?

By Nick Van Assche

Real Estate Agent with Sea Glass Properties

November 23, 2008 07:32 AM

Please put your personal relationship preferences aside for a second, it is time to focus on your business! All kidding aside, is your website clean cut or a scrubby mess?

Open your webpage. What is on it? Does it scroll down three hundred miles or is everything you could ever need right in front of your eyes?

When you open the page is there a "search homes" or some other type of SEARCH button in plain visible site?

Everyday I stumble across webpages that drive me crazy. I can't find anything I am looking for. While on the other hand, there are those websites that are so simple to use, that I find myself spending money I don't have for tools I don't need.

Here are a few things would like to see on your webpage:

#1. FAQ Sheet. Have one. Be specific. Target your niche.

#2. Blog Page. Static information is overrated. Keep me updated in your life and your business. (or just your business!)

#3. Downloads. Do you have anything that would be useful in my relocation to your area? (where I can find employment, doctor's office, school info). Put this information in an easily down-loadable PDF. Share it with me.

#4. Easy to use IDX. I don't like things that don't work, don't look good, and take 4 clicks to get me where I want to go. If I don't like it, I can probably say that most clients wont like clicking 4 or 5 times just to see a list of properties. MAKE IT EASY.

#5. Keep it clean. I don't want to see ALL of your designations no your main page - along with the weather widget plastered randomly and a strange background color with white letters. If it hurts my eyes to look at, then it won't matter if the tools are great.

If you are utilizing a Point2 website, there are some great site designers out there that can assist you with adding custom menus and other tools to make your site fun and easy to use.

-- If you are a designer, leave a link to your site so we can take a look at your work!

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Suzanne Stephens

Stephens Design - Battle Ground, WA

Real Estate Website Design

Good points, Van! The mistake I most often see do-it-yourself site owners make is trying to place visual emphasis on too many elements within a page by using bold, colored, blinking or moving type. The more elements you try to emphasize, the more likely you are to create a cluttered appearance that will turn away site visitors.

My Point2Agent design portfolio is at SuzStephens.com.

Nov 23, 2008 08:18 AM

Stephen D White, E-Pro, ABR Cape Cod Real Estate

SDW Realty of Cape Cod - Falmouth, MA

Good Post Nick check out my P2A website at http://stephenwhite5.point2agent.com and let me know what you think?! what is your URL by the way so that I can take a look at your P2A website?

Nov 27, 2008 11:14 AM

Nick Van Assche

Sea Glass Properties - Charlotte Amalie, VI

Owner/Broker of Sea Glass Properties

Stephen, you can see my site at http://www.sellvi.com and http://www.reoboi.com.

If you can I would work on getting a domain name... when you buy it, try to get it for 5-10 years (this will assist in the domain search.

Thanks for your feedback!

Nov 29, 2008 08:50 AM

Nick I have my own domain name at http://www.sdwrealtyofcapecod.com which is now being pointed towards my P2A website. Is Sellvi.com and Reoboi.com both P2A websites by the way? I will check them out. thanks

Nov 29, 2008 10:21 AM

Steve, there's something wrong with your domain set up. It's going first to another of your sites, then redirecting to your Point2 site. Perhaps if you get on the Point2 message board, someone can tell you how to fix it.

Nov 29, 2008 10:26 AM

Suzanne thanks for your concern. I just opened up my domain which pointed to my P2A website. My provider Earthlink has a little bit different way of pointing traffic to my P2A website. I had to insert a domain refresh meta tag into my domain to point to my P2A.

Nov 29, 2008 10:33 AM

Stephen, that's unacceptable because it's going to mess up your SEO on your Point2 site. I would move your domain to another registry such as GoDaddy or Point2Agent or figure out a better way to do it with Earthlink as your domain registry.

Nov 29, 2008 10:41 AM

Suzanne I was going to tranfer my domain to P2A but my personal blog and other property files & pics are on my domain making it hard for me to tranfer my domain name. I would have to tranfer my personal blog and other files or start a P2A pro site. I am open to your suggestions of course!

Nov 29, 2008 10:53 AM

Stephen,

One solution would be to use another domain name for your Point2 site. You could then link this site to your blog site. Suzanne has a great point about SEO. However, if you cannot move your domain, adding a similar domain or creating another would be a solution.

Good luck!

Nov 29, 2008 12:30 PM

Thanks for your suggestion Nick but right now Im linking both sites together to take advantage of my web traffic from my domain, pointing links and web traffic to my P2A website. I think at this point my future choice would be to go to a P2A pro site and transfer my domain.

Nov 29, 2008 12:35 PM

No Proglem Stephen. Good luck with everything and let us know if you have any questions! Also, one thing you might do is create a signature or a link on all of your posts that link to your website. Thanks for your comments!

Nov 29, 2008 12:41 PM

Stephen, I'm with Nick on getting a second domain or, as you mentioned, simply upgrading your P2 site and getting everything on one site. The problem with links going from your domain to your Point2 subdomain is that it will appear to Google that no one is staying on your #1 site and instead are leaving right away. That hurts the SEO associated with your domain name. And sending visitors to your Point2 subdomain only benefits Point2Agent.com's SEO, not yours. So basically all the traffic going to your P2 site is wasted.

Nick, apologies for hijacking your thread!

Nov 29, 2008 12:55 PM

Thanks for your comments Suzanne and Nick and sorry for hijacking your post?! :)

Nov 29, 2008 12:59 PM

Suzanne: No apologies needed! I know you do a ton of work with Point2 and appreciate any feedback you may have. So comment away! You are a Point2 pro :)

Nov 29, 2008 01:00 PM

Stephen: Please let this post, Suzanne, or myself know if you have any other questions!! We will do our best to help or guide you in the right direction!

Nov 29, 2008 01:01 PM

Clean Cut or Scrubby Mess: HOW DOES YOUR WEBSITE LOOK?

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