Last week we announced that we were going to do periodic analyses of real estate brokerage home pages here on the blog. We received a ton of submissions. And, unfortunately, we can’t go through them all in detail.
But we picked one: longandfoster.com.
Long and Foster is a huge company – #3 on the Real Trends 500 in fact. Managing a web site for an organization this large is not a small undertaking. And there are many things done well here. Our focus, however, is on the things that could, in our opinion, stand a little adjustment.
We’ve used a cool app called Notable to present our critique. If you click on the “View interactive screenshot” link below you’ll be able to see our notes and the specific location on the page to which they refer.
Stay tuned for more home page breakdowns. We’ll try to do one every week or two. If you’re interested in having your home page critiqued here on 1000watt Blog, please shoot an email to info@1000wattconsulting.com with a link to the page.
Long & Foster (longandfoster.com)
View interactive screenshot | Download report from Scribd
- What is “My Planner?” Turns out this feature allows users to get email listing alerts, save properties and store documents in a personal account – all great stuff that’s good for the company and the user. But I, the user, would never know that. This should be labeled in a more descriptive fashion or perhaps removed from the home page entirely and placed where users are more likely to use these tools (e.g., search results page, property detail page). What does need to be here (and is currently missing) is a simple “account login” link – If I am a user with an account signing-in is an action I may very well take from the home page.
- There’s a lot of great video behind this element. But the user should be told what’s here – or, more pointedly, why they should click. Better titles/calls to action might be: “Video real estate tips” “Video channel: advice for buyers and sellers” “Watch consumer video guides”
- It’s no longer enough to just add social media icons to your site – you must tell the user why they my want to engage in this manner. The call to action for Twitter, for example, might be something like: “Get daily mortgage rate averages” or “Follow the latest real estate headlines” For Facebook, depending on the strategy, the call to action might be: “Get market updates for your area” or “Receive our Real Esate Tip of the Day”
- This should be removed. Calls to action are a critical part of any web page, but they should be used with discipline. Throw in too many for non-essential actions and you distract from what you really want to user to do – or what you determine, through research, what they will want to do.
- This is far too long. The first two sentences should be cut. And questions (here, “Ready to get started?”) should be avoided. Sentences starting with strong verbs are better. Lastly, the call to action here is too weak and does not flow logically with the text preceding it.
- What do “owning” and “living” mean? Most users will have to think about that – and thinking = game over.
- This should be removed. Does anyone really “Look for a real estate office” today? Even if I am it does not merit placement next to property search – better to put it on the “contact us” page. Adding text, elements, or features that do not absolutely belong somewhere only serves to distract from those that do (and, as a result, negatively impacts conversion).
- This field should simply be labeled “Location” and possible search parameters should be cued in the field in light grey text.
- This should be collapsed into “Location” field.
- This button – the most important on the page – is WAY too small. As touch screen tablets become more and more common this is even more important.
- Things should be called what they are – in this case, “Property Search.” “Quick Search” raises questions.
- This is almost never worthy of placement in the top nav. Adding nav items, calls to action, features and elements is not a cost-free action. It’s now fighting for attention with much more important things. It belongs in the footer.
- It’s a good idea to give selected interior pages some SEO love with well-worded links. But the image here distracts and pulls the user’s eye downward away from – again – the things that really drive conversion.
- It’s not a bad idea – particularly for a company of this size – to visually represent your market area. But the large blank space here for the rest of the country should be removed – no matter what the relocation arrangement. It makes what’s important too small. “National home search” can be added as a link underneath a larger market area display.
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Once again the value of 1000Watt shines through! Great job Brian
Thanks
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@CBRELongBeach
Brian, if Apple started a real estate website, would it look anything like any brokerage website? No. On an Apple site viewers would know within seconds why they just found a special site and company…and one that understands the needs of buyers and sellers.
The problem with every brokerage site is that the ideas come from people with outdated ideas, who have been working in an outdated industry for far to long. The industry doesn’t understand consumers…and they don’t want to.
To them they live in a world of FDR’S FLR’S, MEIK’S WITH CNTR ISLANDS AND GRANITE TOPS AND MBR’S W/ JACUZZ…AND IT’S A MUST SEE. None of these companies get it.
As usual, great thoughts and thanks for being the best thought provoking ideas in the industry. It’s the must read site for Realtors everywhere.
Brad, I think many in the industry do care about meeting consumer needs. But that often gets lost in translation as the stakeholders within the brokerage compete for space and sub-par vendor solutions are settled for.
A very professional and on-the-mark critique. In your opinion, should instant chat “questions? we have answers – chat now” be on the home page?
Brian, I felt that I was reading a new chapter in “Don’t make me think” which I think you or Marc recommended before. Great advice.
Brian -
Good critique. One thing I noticed: in your paragraph before the screenshot, you say “click on the screen capture” when you actually need to click the link below it to see the Notable feedback.
As a Long and Foster Agent, I can tell you I rarely hear good feedback on the L & F site. The site, which I think you were too kind in evaluation
is also “heavy” and IMHO, doesn’t follow the 3 second rule on many of it’s basic functions as Brian eludes to. Can an average user figure out “how to execute intended use” (from search functions to finding area research) in 3 seconds. I think Donald Norman would call it a failure in “Affordances”. Don’t mean to be critical of own company (actually yes I do!). In the most constructive way possible, and IMHO, L & F is increasingly behind the technological curve. They’re a huge company not remotely equipped for the continual (and rapid) paradigm change in RE. Thanks for a great review.
Thanks, Bob – we fixed that.
Kevin – I think 3 seconds is too long!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Joel Burslem, Patrick Healy, Kevin Kaplan, tinamerritt, Max Chirkov and others. Max Chirkov said: RT @jburslem: New on 1000watt – Real estate home page breakdown: Longandfoster.com http://bit.ly/96eRho [...]
Sorry, nothing on the L&F page does anything to tell me that I found a company who understands my problems and has some solutions. It’s just basic stuff plopped down…it doesn’t make me want to stay on the site and explore. We can get the same boring info on a million other sites. And this is all befor I open the hood and start poking around to see what else they can do for me, and I find nothing there either.
Kevin said it perfectly…they’re unprepared for a changing world
You need to give an award to the company that makesnyou want to check out their site, and then makes you want to come back for more. It has nothing to do with money, it’s all about seeing something from a different perspective, then doing something about it.
I wish Steve Jobs would do to brokerage as he did to the record and phone companies…we’d all be better off.
I have never seen an industry where “professionals” are so eager to tear into each other’s throats; and are so opinionated, and so impressionable. I was hoping someone from L&F would actually come out and defend their website; but no such luck…
Commenters, look at your criticisms for a minute: “Heavy”, “Affordances”, “Boring”… Sounds like a bunch of cliches from a bunch of couch critics who found an easy pickin’s. Have you asked L&F what the role of their website is in their business? Have you asked how important it is for them (contrary to popular belief, a corporate website may NOT be the most important aspect of their business, nor may it have a chance of becoming one).
Are Brian’s suggestions going to actually make a difference? Are they just re-packaged Kruger’s pointers (Who, btw, asks in his book NOT to use his techniques to bash others)? I can easily find a dozen more subjective points and back them up with vague “should”s and “what does that mean”s. Very unclear whether any of those, essentially, “tweaks” are going to make a difference.
How about this for a change: a critique done on a business that is likely to come back to you with a defense so there is an exchange, and not a “firing squad” setup (don’t go far, Brian, take any one of your well known non-client “progressive” broker sites); or, at least, a courtesy to ask a permission of the business before publishing the critique.
(And please leave Steve Jobs out of this: recognize that Apple is not prospering because of their website)
Bob -
Thanks for your feedback. Which of my suggestions do you take issue with?
I think that Brian is providing us with a valuable service…offering up his expertise for free, welcoming comments that all of us can learn by, and opening up the airwaves to comments and suggestions that can make us better at what we do and move us in a direction that actually accomplishes something and not just talking about it.
As for bashing, it really isn’t bashing…it’s more like constructive criticism even if it’s in your face and unappealing. brokers do it all the time broker 2 broker about their listings, and there’s nothing wrong with some honest discussion.
I’m not a big fan of what I see not happening in the industry, and it bothers me to no end that that the business model is in desperate need of revamping from top to bottom. Agents and brokers neglect the fact that people are putting their hard earned dollars in our hands and yet we look at them like we don’t care, and it shows in the content we put out.
Tough I’ve been watching this site for well over a year, until now I’ve never commented, but I see something here that has so much potential to move the industry forward in a way that no one else has the guts to do…and there’s a great group of followers who seem to agree.
I for one love the open and honest discussion, and I’m glad that people are listening and thinking about new ways to create sales…and we need that real bad.
Thx Brian…you have another new follower
Bob, btw…the Apple website is responsible for billions of dollars in sales. I think they consider that as prospering from their website. And not only the dollars matter, it’s the continual education of consumers that makes their site even more important to the business. Brokerage should start taking the hint.
[...] wonder how to look at a website and critique it? Here is an example with Real estate home page breakdown: Longandfoster.com. They do a great job at showing you why some elements to a large brokerage site are not relevant, [...]
Brian, I don’t have any issues with your suggestions: they don’t strike me as either very right or very wrong. Most of your suggestions rely on discretionary judgment (applying “discipline”, ensuring “balance”, etc). Essentially, to apply these suggestions to anything but the website in question, you still need professional help: not unlike what your company provides. Hence, the message that I see here is “don’t end up like L&F, hire us!”. There is nothing wrong with that message, in my opinion, as long as it’s not delivered at someone else’s expense.
I do consider your company and your website to be of substance (in hindsight, I should have mentioned that in my original comment), but I question the etiquette of using unsolicited analyses to deliver essentially self-promotional messages (please correct me if L&F asked you to do the analysis, or agreed to it: then I withdraw both of my comments). Why not use “before and after” analysis on your own clients: that delivers the message accurately, shows results and doesn’t exploit someone else’s reputation.
@Brad: I don’t think analyzing the design of a home page has anything to do with passing a judgment on someone’s business practices; whether they need revamping or are behind times, etc. I have no idea how L&F operates; but I can easily imagine them being a “mortar and brick” business with their website simply serving as an info portal; and, in my opinion, nothing in Brian’s suggetions says that it fails at that. (And yes, Apple’s website may be responsible for billions of dollars in sales, and by that rationale, so are the keyboards on their order processing systems. I am suggesting that Apple’s success is connected to their poducts, rather than their website; the causal relationship is inverted here).
Bob (or is is Brad?) –
We did get an email from Long and Foster in response to our offer.
Brian, I am not sure I understand: did you get *an email* in response to *an offer* or did you get their permission to publish your analysis of their home page on your blog?
(“bob” will do Brian: it’s shorter)
Wow, that is really taking on a big gun! I don’t look at this as an attack but as constructive criticism because web sites designed in 2008 are already looking out of date.
I’m sure they will have an interesting series of meetings discussing this post and if L&F.com is missing its target.
Great job on this. All the points are spot on.
If they lose the elements that distract the consumer and allow for unsupervised thinking, they will have a lot more room for ‘things that matter’ to consumers. Like Specific Area Property Searches.
Let consumers get to the property information they want with 1-click from the homepage. They should know the top 10-20 property searches performed on the site, why not have them right on the homepage?! Reduce the bounce rate, improve click rates, improve conversion.
And is it my screen, my eyes or is the logo at about 40 dpi?
Brian – one of my partners forwarded your email to me. As a Realtor I welcome your constructive criticism. Doug is correct as I have now discovered website designs are constantly changing and if we do not keep updated we shall be left behind. Our National Realtor Association states that nearly 75-80% of all first time buyers visits a real estate website as opposed to the print media. We are going through the process of updating our own site and have discovered some missed opportunities. We are also one of those agencies that have utilized the services of a webdesign company that initially had no experience with real estate website designs. Its been an expensive learning curve.
Very well written and adjudged. Hope the guys at Long and Foster implement your suggestions.
I hate sticking up for brokerage companies, because I think most of them are terrible at what the do but, it does it really matter where on the page some of things are? To me what makes the page so bad is that it it doesn’t tell me why L&F is such a great company and wny I should want to use them to buy or sell a home. This is all the same garbage that everyone else puts on their site. When you open the hood on any of these sites you find nothing of value about the home. Last time I checked, aren’t we in the biz of selling homes?
Better to tear apart the listings. All this other stuff is secondary to what should be provided about the home…but no one does it.
Great post! In addition, they (and every other brokerage) should do away with the link to RealtyTrac “foreclosure” listings (“Foreclosure Search”, on the L and F website). Foreclosures that can be purchased by the average buyer are listing in the MLS with a standard agent just like every other listing. From my experience, this just serves to put money in RealtyTrac’s pockets, and doesn’t help an average person looking to buy a home.
I have no problem with RealtyTrac, and its usefulness to investors, possibly, but the issue is just being confused in my opinion.
@Brad, yes the placement of different elements on the website is critical to good design strategy, and this is determined in part by researching who your visitors are and their main goals. Good placement of elements on a page will substantially increase click-through and conversion, or otherwise affect the desired outcome of any web page in a positive way.
In reality, the overwhelming majority of people using a brokerage’s website just want to search for a home. They really don’t care about the company or the agent at that point, which is why the newest Keller Williams redesign is strong – with the largest call-to-action right where it’s supposed to be, and with no other main distractions.
I agree with Jody above. When a website has a link to an outside source of foreclosures rather than a simple listing of what is on the mls, it makes me cringe. I think you gave some good constructive ideas on how to make the site stickier.
[...] week we move from big to boutique. Surterre Properties is a small brokerage located in the most upscale areas of Orange [...]
I would strongly disagree with the idea that nobody searches for an office location. That’s simply not so and it’s one of the most important buttons for an agency website to have front and center. Whatever type of company I’m looking at online the store or office location link is more often than not just what I’m trying to find. Long and Foster is of little use to me unless they have an office in the location I’m interested in.
Elizabeth,
Are you looking at this from an industry perspective, or are you a buyer or seller? Our work looking at click patterns and working with consumers in focus groups suggests strongly that office search is not of primary importance.
[...] our home page breakdowns continue to illustrate, there is in real estate, like on AA.com, a tendency to visually vomit every [...]