How to Make Your Property Website Easy to Navigate

computer-on-desk-2Writers Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville said in their book on web design that, “The foundation of almost all good information architectures is a well-designed hierarchy.”

This is still true today. In today’s age, everything is saturated with and by media. You cannot escape it. And your business will no longer succeed without it. Every company knows that the first thing they need to do is create a website that can control what information is out there about it.

But as the technological era progresses, it is no longer enough to simply have a website. It needs to be a good website. And what makes a good website beyond a snappy domain name, clear and relevant graphics, and legible text is making the website easy to navigate.

For property owners marketing their units directly towards student renters, the market is especially competitive. Students are more likely to take the next step (beyond looking at the website) and actually approach the property if the website is easy to navigate and they can quickly get answered the majority of their questions. If your site is not manageable to navigate, they may quickly log off, discounting your property.

So read on to learn how to make your student property website easy to navigate!

Clear Division of Categories

Your website will often have different pieces of information that it will need to cover. To make the site more navigable, you need to separate that information out into categories that will make it easier, not harder, to find the information they are searching for.

Sub-categories are a great thing to use too if they help make finding specific information easier and more efficient. You want the layout of your website to be easy to figure out and all the information presented clearly.

SearchEngineLand.com recommends, “If your navigation contains multiple sections, categories or sub-categories, these categories must be clearly and visually defined. In other words, category headings must be separated visually from the sub-categories, even if the categories are links themselves.”

Stay Consistent

However you organize your information, whatever font (and size and color) you write your text in, whichever way you present your photos on your website, keep. It. Consistent.

It is extremely distracting to read through a website where the font is constantly changing or the pictures change sides of the page to be on or if the way information presented about studio apartments is in a completely different manner than the information presented about a three bedroom/three bathroom apartment.

Guiding the reader’s eye is what you need to be doing with your layout — not causing them to go cross-eyed. A hard-to-read website with information all over the place is one tab that will be closed sooner rather than later.

Use Accurate & Specific Text

You have to go one step further in designing your website. More than just grouping information together, you need to make sure that it is labeled properly too so that visitors to your site can easily find it.

Roundpeg.com gives sound advice when they wrote, “Your viewers should never have to click on a link to figure out where the link leads.”

Labels should be specific, headings should be specific, captions under photos should be specific. You want information to be clear so that potential renters get all the information they need to keep them interested in renting from you.

A disorganized website might be construed as a disorganized company and you want this website to improve and increase your business, not injure it. Do not just have a Contact Us page and keep your online application portal there (if you have one). How will any visitor to your site know that it is there?

Either have a sub link or make sure visitors are clearly directed to the right place. Otherwise imagine how many potential renters might come and go from your site, never leaving behind an application simply because there were no clear directions as to how and where the application portal was. Do not let poor navigation of your website hurt your business!

Make Sure Every Link Works

Especially when you are building a new site or updating a very old one, you need to go back and check that all the links you have listed work and actually lead to the correct page. If you have an online application portal, you do not want potential renters to click the sub-link to fill out their application only to be directed to an error page. Or you might put in a new link but missed a letter when you copied and pasted so renters are clicking on a broken link to no avail.

Check and double check that everything works so your website stays crystal clear and attracts all the renters you could ever want.

Source: rent.uloop.com