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Here are some things I plan on doing for our next website redesign

Here are some things I plan on doing for our next website redesign

I make mistekes all the time. In fact I like to tell my boss "All the mistakes I made today were to learn." 3 years ago I was asked to redesign our website. If my boss was to ask me to grade the end result, I would say a B. If you cornered me alone I would probably say B- or C+ depending on my mood. Don't misunderstand, the site IS effective and overall I feel that it's a good one (You be the judge by visiting) but maybe because I was so involved in the whole process I am more judgemental. There are things I love about it and there are things I wish I had done differently. Lately with all of the new technologies and the growth (more like explosion) of social media the redesign itch has become more and more annoying. Here are some key things I'd like to implement on our next website redesign:

The website's template colors do NOT have to match the logo. We have a dark logo. (Dark green and burgundy). We added some light brown colors for contrast but darker colors make the site feel claustrophobic. Sites today seem to be going with the lighter colors; white, lighter yellows, greens and browns. The new site will use a lighter palette thus making the site feel more comfortable. Bottom line is it's important to pick the right colors because they can really shape how someone feels about your brand. Check out this great article: Empathizing Color Psychology in Web Design 

Outsource. Whether you outsource to multiple design teams (SEO experts, graphic experts, social integration) or a single shop; make sure you outsource. We are Property Management experts. (okay maybe not all of you) I am an IT guy and I program our internal applications but that doesn't mean that I have all of the know how necessary to create a Webby Award masterpiece. (Trust me I don't) Take your time and shop around; make sure you start looking within your own industry. Hire the experts who know your business.

Better Integration with Facebook and Twitter. Years ago we weren't talking social. Most people in here never even lifted their heads above their cubicles. Now we NEED the Twitter feeds, Facebook like buttons, and latest Facebook status updates. I'll be the first to admit it; I didn't see this coming 3 years ago but I feel it's a requirement to have now especially if you're selling something. It brings your web presence full circle, encourages conversations and can increase your page views. Plus .. it's FREE! 

Blogging. Blogging can be very therapeutic. More importantly, it can keep people on your site longer, can make you seem like a big player in your industry (even if you aren't... seriously folks I speak from experience here), and it's a good way to get people to come back. Our next site will have wordpress installed and ready to go. 

Reviews / Comments. It would be awesome to pull up a property page and allow the prospect to write comments or leave a review. I mean why give all the reviews to Google or apartmentratings.com? By providing your own you can help with your SEO and empower your prospects or residents to converse about your brand. Win, win. In addition because you are creating this section on your own website, you can choose to remove those grammatical train wrecks without having to pay a yearly fee. 

I'll pay more attention to Search Engine Optimization. I'm not a SEO expert. I know that I need better keywords. Setting up your links like Baltimore-Apartments/AmericanaSouthdale.html works very well. Blogging and putting up relevant content will also help with your search engine placement. Do you want to learn more about SEO and how to do it? Here's a great how-to right here. Don't want to read about it? Outsource. But I already said that. 

Personalize the experience. This is something that Amazon does very well. I want to allow my prospects to register (but don't have to) where they can receive personalized service when they visit again. "Hello Mr. So-and-so I see you searched for a 2 bedroom yesterday @ Neverland Apartments... are you still interested in that?" or show communities on their main page that offer the price range they are looking for. In addition we'll capture their email address if they register so we have an outlet to contact them. It isn't cheap (or easy) to implement but it can sure heighten the interest in your apartments if you're tailoring the content for their specific needs. 

Okay, okay... this reads more like a wish list and maybe it is. I mean who besides UDR has the finances to pull all of this off? Depending on your budget some of these items will probably be cut. No exceptions here. It's why I ranked them in order of importance. (and cost). But boy what a pretty wish list err tips and tricks list it is. 

Happy renting everyone. 

Thanks to Tiger Color and BlogSpot for the images.

Also posted on BSitko's Multifamily Affairs.

 
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

Great article with lots of interesting points.

My first thoughts are you are probably being too hard on yourself, and it's time for your boss to let you redesign the site, or at least give it a serious upgrade.

Personalization has barely hit the multifamily industry's screen, and who had Facebook and Twitter accounts or reviews and ratings on their sites three years ago? Now these are practically standard (well, maybe not reviews and ratings, but many industry website vendors have this function built in to their platforms already).

If you redo your site and change your URLs, be sure to redirect your old pages to your new ones. I've seen dozens of companies temporarily kill site traffic when they forget this step (or should I say the companies they outsourced the development to forgot this step).

On another note, there are plenty of people out there who say you can get perfectly great SEO results without keyword laden URLs. Personally, I have plenty of badly name pages that have great traffic. (For completeness, I should mention there is evidence having keywords in the domain name helps.)

As for budget, you can get this all for $150 per property per month, which is less than the cost of one ILS so these features are really in the reach of anyone.

  Ellen Thompson
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

Thanks for all of your excellent comments Ellen. 3 years ago we were just on the cusp of all of this social stuff. Our site was a real mess before so at the bare minimum I love the upgrade. I am concerned about SEO but would love to have the social aspects more. (ILS's have crushed Baltimore apartments as a keyword for instance).

Have you seen UDR's new site? http://www.udr.com WOW. Amazing. They just overload you with information, social media, blah blah blah. I ran out of napkins mopping up the drool. Wonder if we could get that for $150 per month...

  Bill Szczytko
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

One of the obvious things I am seeing on newer websites such as the UDRT site you referenced are clean, crisp images without clutter on the home page. A few years ago we all followed the lead, putting our mailing addresses, fax numbers...along with a lot of text the prospect had to read just to get off the starting block of getting a feel for our community. That information can be important, but its not what grabs a prospects attention. They want to see you. A picture truly is worth a thousand words. Engage your prospect from the moment they hit your site and they will want to learn more.

We just recently re-designed our marketing website (I am a vendor, but previous management) and I found myself constantly referring back to this simple list of common sense facts about websites which I have shared below.


Effective Websites....

Don't make users think

Focus users' attention

Strive for feature exposure & simplicity

Don't squander users' patience

Great websites designers...

Know users are impatient and insist on instant gratification;

Make use of effective writing & communicate with a
"visible language"

Users don't always use sound/volume

Users don't read, they scan

Users appreciate quality and credibility

Websites give most users their first impression of your product

Users don't make optimal choices;

Users follow their intuition and want to have control.
________________________________________________________

I do not know where credit is due for the above list, but I hope others find this helpful too.

  Penny Lamb

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