Hey there,
Dachia here. Welcome back to Focus On Your Small Business.
Last week, I was telling you about a client I had and the website they had… Well, I’m looking at their site still. They made some good changes, but so much more can and should be done. I’ve no idea if these suggestions are already on their radar. However, I’m going to tell you about them so you can audit your own site.
The main menu across the top of the header image is nice looking. It had been trimmed down.
It has 8 tabs. While the overall look of the navigation bar is clean, I think 8 is about 2 too many.
If I click on the Company about tab, and don’t scroll, I get a very brief page. Brief is fine. In fact, it’s great… but this is another hot mess. We are back to the header image being the background image and the content on a center white column. But wait… there’s more.
We have a video at the top. The video is great…. I’m not just saying that because I had hand in it… but the video has an inset image of an agent, not the owner. In fact… that inset image is the Realtor I had as a client… who is no longer with that agency.
Awkward.
And… it is small considering the real estate available on that page… add to that, it loads slowly.
Under the video, is another picture of the company car… they must really love that car… and under that… another static image of a company logo… and… neither of those images are centered.
They may think they are centered because the template they are using for this content includes a second, much thinner column. That column has a search function and a property listing at the top. But is unused white space at the bottom, making the other column look awkward. Either add more content to the thinner column so it goes all the way down, or just get rid of it.
This is where an audit of your analytics is helpful to determine if you actually do get any traffic from those smaller undedicated search tools.
My overall suggestion for this page is get rid of everything except the video and make that much bigger on this device.
I forget to tell you last time I was discussing this site, that it was not mobile friendly.
Seriously…
Not even kidding.
As I poke around a bit more, I see that on the drop down menu on the about tab is a “presentation”… which when clicked… offers me a link to a dropbox.
I’m now wondering if this site is under construction. If that’s the case, another takeaway is finish a page… any page… and then move on. But the dropbox link looks like it’s just a mistake, broken format… what have you.
Another reason to audit your site often.
That dropdown tab also offers a ‘company video’… I click that and I get a youtube video, not the same one, but similar to the other one I mentioned… no text.. no content or context… just a video that can and should be much bigger, and while I’m on the topic, don’t link from youtube on your own site. This is another whole show, but basically never send people away from your site. Yes, they can view this video right here… but it is small, as already mentioned… and too easy to click to see it on youtube. Trust me… that’s an amusement park you’ll never pul them out of. They are gone.
Poof.
Now, another thing about linking to YouTube is that it just looks cheesy. Unless your site is heavy in video, you can easily just host a few videos on your site. Or you can host them somewhere like Vimeo, and embed the video. Vimeo is free, but pay the couple extra bucks to get rid of ads and when your video ends, it ends on your final screen… with your call to action.
This was on my own to-do list. So I speak from experience that the look is much cleaner and worth the few bucks. It’s like $7 a month. (ETA, for commerce; videos, you’ll need the $20/month level).
Ok, back to my critique. Again, all these new pages are white content area on top of a static image. It’s busy and dated.
That same drop down tab, remember this is just one of 8… then has a sub-tab for real estate careers. Which brings you to the white content block with fields to enter your information in order to request information.
This is as far from a call to action as you can get. Nothing there to motivate me to fill out a field, let alone 6.
Share a story there. Tell visitors how you got started. What you love about being a real estate professional. What you include should motivate the RIGHT people to want to be a part of your company… and dissuade the wrong ones.
Don’t waste your time or theirs if they are not a good fit. And determining that is easy to start right there on that page.
There are two more sub tabs on that dropdown menu. One is for staff. That page has a pic of the office administrator and her contact info. This is a clean page, other than the background image behind the white content block, which is just a format or template issue that is used throughout the site. But one clean professional picture. Done
The last option for the drop down, is titled ‘our offices’ and lists the 3 offices. Those same 3 locations are also listed in the footer, utilizing far too much real estate, on every single page. I think this is overkill. Now, what you could do, if you want a tab dedicated to locations, is give more info than the address and the google map.
Show a pic of the front of the building. Share a little history of how and when that office opened. Why did you want an office in that location? Gush a little about the community that office serves.
Ok, that was one drop down tab.
Main takeaway is self audit. Make sure your links work and always strive to streamline your site while still being inviting.
Keep in mind that if you are spending hours and hours in research mode online, learning what you need to do to build your business and then hours more figuring out how… you might want to check out the membership site. It can save you many hours every month in research and determining which resources are accurate and worth your attention.
You can find more information and a webinar that will walk you through whether or not this is the right path for you, on dachia.com/membership
Until next week. Make it a good one. It’s all up you… with a little bit of me.