There are hundreds of tips and techniques for driving traffic to your website. Using SEO, employing retargeting to encourage users to return to your site, and using aggressive marketing strategies to get your name out there are all useful tools to increase your site views, but there’s a growing segment of the internet population who uses smart phones to access the web and the same rules simply do not apply. So how do you make your mortgage website a smart phone friendly site without sacrificing functionality or appearance? Here are three few helpful tips to get you started:
1. Check your phone numbers. In order to be compatible with smart phone automatic dialing, any phone number on your website must be entered as text, not an image. Mouse over the phone numbers on your site. If you can highlight one number at a time, you’re in good shape. Otherwise, consider revising your phone numbers into text to accommodate users who use their smart phones and want to be able to dial at a touch of the finger. Convenience plays a huge role here, and you want to make it as easy as possible for all your users to get in touch with you.
2. Rethink Flash. Handheld devices including the iPhone can’t handle Flash software, nor can the iPad. Flash is popular on real estate sites because it’s an elegant, high impact way of conveying media other than text, but smart phone users will simply see a dead zone where Flash files are. If your website menu is in Flash, this can be particularly problematic for some users. Consider replacing the Flash items on your site or simply keep them confined to nonessential information and use the program sparingly.
3. Navigate Lower on the Page. If your navigation is at the very top of the page, smart phone users will have to toggle down to view the page which, while seemingly minor, can create a huge annoyance. Make it easy on your users to browse your page and consider putting the navigation lower in order to make the navigation process as easy as possible for all users.
Projections indicate that the number of mobile web users will surpass the number of computer based web users in less than five years. By simplifying your webpage and making a few simple, inexpensive, structural changes, you can ensure that smart phone users and computer users alike can not only access your page, but have an easy and stress free time navigating it, which can give you a huge lead over smart phone non compliant competitors.
Robert Stretch is a mortgage/RE blogger for VAMortgageCenter.com, a leading VA-lender.
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This is excellent information. A huge portion of the real estate marketing population tends to lump computer and cellphone marketing as one. We tend to forget that cellphone internet has a much different capacity than the ordinary PC. This will give us a lot of ideas in reaching customers via their smart phones.