Do Looks Matter?

Is there a relationship between how your real estate website looks and how much money it makes? You bet. Check this site out:

Bad Website

Would you buy a cruise package (or anything else for that matter) from this website? No, that’s for sure. Here’s why:

1. No text: without text on the front page, this site doesn’t stand a chance of achieving a decent ranking on search engines.
2. Terrible color scheme: This might have worked well in 1993, but websites have come a long way since then. The color scheme here is noncommittal, too bright, and ugly.
3. Bad layout: A layout like this tells your visitors that they need to take their business elsewhere – it’s cluttered, inconsistent, impossible to navigate, and doesn’t get to the point.
4. Washed out images: The imagery on this website is washed out and ugly.
5. Navigation: The navigation for this website is in a frame – which means that visitors need to scroll to see the whole menu. Wow… talk about difficult.

Now check this one out:

Good Website

BAM! This real estate website is awesome:

1. Rich text: Lots of text on the front page makes it informative and easy for Google to index.
2. Attractive color scheme: The colors are complimentary and work with the font, layout and content of the website. They are modern, make visitors feel welcome, and convey confidence and quality.
3. Simple layout: The 3-column layout gives visitors choices of highlighted features and recent changes on the sides, with the meat of the content in the middle.
4. Rich, descriptive images: Images are deep and rich, making the site look expensive and high quality.
5. Easy navigation: Navigation is easy. Simple.

Your real estate website represents your business. Ugly websites tell people that your business is run poorly. If it looks great, people will be more comfortable spending their money with you. When it comes to real estate websites, good looks are crucial.

So ask yourself:

• Is your site easy to navigate?
• Is your content informative and on topic?
• Do you use rich images?
• Do you have a good-looking website?

If you answered “no” to any of these you are DEFINITELY losing out on deals every year.

By the way – here are some more brutal websites that are certainly losing people a pile of money every year: http://thebiguglywebsite.com/