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Book a demoLet a friendly Gnomen expert answer all of your questions and take you through the system online in 15 minutes. Just choose a time that suits you. |
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Book a demoLet a friendly Gnomen expert answer all of your questions and take you through the system online in 15 minutes. Just choose a time that suits you. |
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Montana HBusiness Development Director
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Google might only be 18 years old (it had its birthday just the other day), but we now can’t imagine a world without it. Or Facebook. Or Twitter. Or Instagram. Or Rightmove. Or Wikipedia. Or eBay. Or Amazon. Or Skype. Or smartphones.
Increasingly, traditional industries are embracing technology and the online revolution. We only need to observe the soaring success of things like Uber, Just Eat, Deliveroo and Airbnb to see the effect technology is having on taxis, restaurants and the holiday lettings industry.
Property and technology has been mixing for a while now, and more and more agents are appreciating the need for a serious online strategy. A high-quality website is a major part of that.
Advertising on portals such as Rightmove and Zoopla and having a presence on social media both have key roles, too, but it is your website that will drive all your traffic, allow you to shout out about what you do and show off the properties you list in their finest possible light.
In this day and age, a glossy, high-quality website is a must for any successful business. For those in the property industry, where first impressions, appearances and reputation are so important, it’s even more crucial.
A website will say a lot about you and your business, so it will need to be in tip-top shape.
Firstly, it needs to be innovative, easy-on-the-eye and user-friendly. People are more attracted to websites that look nice. They don’t need to be extravagant, eye-catching or quirky, they just need to look professional, bright, clean and clear – with a colour scheme that is line with your branding.
What people also want is a website that has excellent usability and functionality, so they can make their way around with ease. If this isn’t the case, people might not hang around for long. They may quickly jump ship elsewhere.
You want to keep as many people on your website as possible, for as long as possible, so making things easy and comfortable for them will play a major role in achieving that.
Innovations – such as client log-in areas or property search functions with Google maps integration – can also help to enhance a website, making it more interactive and dynamic.
With the rise and rise of smartphones and Wi-Fi in the last seven years or so – and, as a result of that, people browsing the internet at the click of a button, all hours of the day – it’s also vitally important that your website looks as good on a phone as it does on a desktop, laptop or tablet. Your website needs to be fully optimised for mobile phone viewing, perfect for iPhone and Android platforms alike.
Social media integration is another key aspect of a website, enabling you to instantly share your latest news with customers and followers. Your preferred social media platforms – whether that be Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn or Pinterest – should merge seamlessly with your website.
Of course, keeping your website updated regularly is also of utmost importance. To do that, you need a content management system (CMS) that is fast, efficient, simple, intuitive and responsive, allowing you to keep control of your content at all times.
It should be easy for you to upload content, edit images, create pages and forms and edit templates or menu bars. What’s more, your website should bear in mind SEO and Google Analytics to ensure it is seen by as many people as possible, to ensure that doesn’t remain hidden away or buried.
In an era when so much of our time is spent online, the importance of websites – and websites that stand out from the crowd – is all the more important. Bespoke, modern, quality, 21st Century, beautifully designed, that is the order of the day.
At Gnomen our aim is to design websites that look beautiful and work beautifully. We think websites should be cutting-edge, flexible and stand-out.
We also provide property software to help you run every aspect of your business efficiently, with all our services working in complete harmony and our cloud-based system allowing you to manage your staff, office, customers and multi-channel marketing in one place.
For more info about what we offer please call us on 0208 123 9019.
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