The four basic elements of web design

Estate agents, there are four basic elements of web design. Each of these fundamentals contributes, in their own way, to the overall user experience. Therefore estate agents must make sure that a single element doesn't let down the entire estate agent website. The four elements are:

* Content - There's no denying that 'Content is King'. Content helps your website in two ways. Firstly it plays a part in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and puts you higher in Google. Google have always stated that relevant information that is consistently updated will give higher positions than ones with limited content. Secondly content makes your estate agent website 'sticky' and property searchers will repeatedly return. First class content, including video, featured properties, relevant news, enhanced mapping, Google Street view, high resolution pictures, email alerts, printable PDF property particulars and more, will make your estate agent website 'sticky'.
* Usability - Great usability will never be noticed by the end user, but bad usability is instantly noticeable. Estate agent websites should have a clear 'property search' button on the home page with a user-friendly search function. In general the navigation and interface as a whole should be simple and reliable. Remember that bad usability will simply make the user close the web page and move on to a competitor's website.
* Appearance - The biggest criteria for estate agents is for their website to be visually impressive. This isn't a bad condition, but generally estate agents usually concentrate on this element more than any other. As stated above, each of the four basic elements contribute towards the website as a whole but if one element fails, the whole website will turn away potential leads. On a last note, the appearance of your estate agent website should reflect the branding of your estate agency. An inner-city estate agent should not have homepage imagery which reflects an agricultural community.
* Visibility - There is no point in having a stunning website if no one can see it. 'Online presence' or visibility through SEO and social networking is vital for the success of your website. Once the design aspects of the website are in place, estate agents and web design companies should then work together to guarantee that estate agents have maximum online presence.

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'Resource Techniques is a web design company specialising in estate agent websites. The four basic elements are integrated into every single project we undertake. Once the design process is finished and estate agents give the go ahead, the website will go live and we will work together to maximising the website's online presence.'

Estate agents can contact us on 0208 457 4777 or through our Twitter and Facebook page. Our team will take you step-by-step on how our industry leading service will benefit your estate agency.

A well designed website is a weapon of mass consumption

Web design is subjective, there's no denying that, but there is a lot of data that backs up the placements of very basic elements. Which is why the design of a website can be lethal; giving estate agents more leads than they know what to do with.

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'There has to be a balance between creativity and painstaking research that has gone into many usability studies.'

'The clear 'Call-to-Action' that is integrated into every estate agent website design is a prominent property search button. Many web design companies get it wrong by having 'Sales' and 'Letting' as part of their primary navigation.'

'Research has shown that 97-98% of users accessing an agent's website go straight to property search because that is what they are there to do; look for properties. Give people what they want and design a property search button that just calls out to be clicked.'

Troy Stanley continues, 'This data points to a consistency in design but it still gives designers a range of tools to play with to create stunning websites. Whereas the design will help users along the journey towards contacting you, design will increase the 'stickiness' of a website. This 'stickiness' ensures that users repeatedly return again and again."

'Mix that with industry-leading functionality and your website will be a digital weapon in the war of estate agency. Such embedded features include Google Maps, high resolution photos in the latest viewer technology, Google Street View, Email alerts and many more.' - Troy Stanley

No one takes web design more seriously than Resource Techniques. Contact us for visually wonderful websites, futuristic features and dangerous data that all contribute towards a weapon of mass consumption - your customers will not know what hit them!

Call us on 0208 457 4777 to see what is possible.

The horrible C word, the dreaded S word and the unmentionable W word.

You are usually in your teens when you realise what the dreaded C word is all about. It creeps up on all of us, takes us unawares and makes us re-evaluate the world. Deep down we all hate it. Many people are in denial for a long time and try to busy themselves ignoring the mounting evidence. Alas, in the end, you cannot ignore the evidence. 'Change' is the only constant in our known universe.

As Bob Dylan once wrote, "The times they are-a-changin", which is as true in 1964 as it is today. Some may even argue that technology has even sped up the process, with the use of the internet and mobile phones, people are able to communicate at a much faster rate.

So what's the latest change that hasn't been fully utilised by estate agents? This is an easy one, the dreaded S word - 'Social networks'. The dreaded social networks make agents communicate directly with their customers. Oh no, we wouldn't want to directly communicate with new and existing customers... No wait, we were communicating directly with customers before, so how is social networking different?

In all honesty, it's not that different. It's as instantaneous as a text, as in-depth as an email and as personal as a phone conversation, and can be as warm as face-to-face. So how does it help my estate agency? I hear you cry... (Please don't cry, we're getting to the point!)

This leads us to our last unmentionable W word - Websites. Social networking not only helps you communicate with new and existing customers, but it allows you to point people in the direction you want them to go. Your website.

Not everyone wants to search for property all the time, but catching that one person at the right time can turn the tide when it comes to property sales. Unless they are a hermit, people will one point in their life look to moving house. This decision won't be immediate and neither will the final move. Within this time frame (spanning months to years), users will log onto their social networks and interact with the digital environment.

The great thing about social networking is that agents do not have to catch that person at the right time. Updating your profile, on a regular basis and with relevant content, will stay there indefinitely - or for as long as you have a profile.

As soon as the individual is ready to start thinking about moving, your estate agency will be sitting behind a mass of branded fresh, updated content on their social network. All this content will be pointing towards your website, which will of course have an unbelievably beautiful design, a prominent 'Property search button' calling them to action, high resolution pictures through the latest viewer technology and enhanced Google mapping with local amenities such as schools and public transport.

Troy Stanley comments, 'Don't take our word for it. Visit the Team Wessex website, type in 'BH21' and tick the box that says 'Display on Google maps'. From there you are able to view 13 different amenities including doctors, dentists and theatres.'

'Users love functionality like this. They can do anything from planning their child's route to school or the nearest bus stop so that they can get to work.'

'Call us on 0208 457 4777 to see how we can help your web design for estate agents, Search Engine optimisation (SEO) or social networking.' - Troy Stanley.

This will make you change the way you think about website design

There are a few ways agents can view a website, the best analogy in our eyes is to think that your website is like a house. What do we mean by that? Read on to find out...

Websites and houses both need a good foundation. For websites, estate agents need to build on a good domain name. Domain names ending in .co.uk and .com are the best for estate agents in the UK and will help towards Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). This is because search engines will look at the location you are searching from and will provide you with results reflecting this. Domain names with .biz or .net can cause your website's Google page position to 'sink', just like quicksand. You wouldn't build a house on quicksand, would you?

The design of your house needs to be tailored to your own personal needs. For example, if you have a large family you wouldn't want a one-bedroom flat. You also need your builder or an architect to have the experience and knowledge to build and design a house or the one built for you will end up with a tree-house! This is the same for web design; an industry specialist will be able to cater to your personal needs and provide the features and functionality that all estate agent websites should have.

The plumbing needs to work for both websites and houses. For websites, if a web page doesn't load or there are features that don't work, users will just as easily leave as they entered and go to another estate agent's website. Do not let your plumbing ruin your house party, make sure that everyone is kept warm and the hot-tub is always on!

Entering a house is just like entering a website. You want people to come through the front door so that you can direct them to the various parts of the house but people can still enter through open windows (Unlike our websites, we lock our windows here at Resource Techniques!). Ideally you prefer people to enter your website through your homepage so you can direct them to the right web page.

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'Whereas you want as much traffic on your estate agent website, you may not want this many people in your own house!'

Do not allow your business to suffer under the hands of bad web design. Chose an industry specialist that will guide you the process of creating a website that you will be proud of and will provide you with endless online leads.

Do you agree with this analogy? Or do you have a better one? Let us know on our Twitter page or our Facebook page.

Resource Techniques announce release of new website for Sworders estate agents

Resource Techniques are delighted to announce the unveiling of a new website: sworders.co.uk

Established originally in 1782, Sworders Estate Agents in Bury St Edmunds is now an independent estate agency practice specialising purely in residential sales solely owned by Julian and Rachel Hall since July 2000.

Born and educated locally, Julian & Rachel have an excellent knowledge of the area they are serving with all transactions overseen personally by them, which is rarely found within the Estate Agency market place. In an independent survey by The Ombudsman for customer satisfaction, 9.5 out of 10 was achieved!

Rachel Hall, Partner at Sworders stated, 'Can't now wait to get the site up and running! It looks great. Many thanks again to you all. We really appreciate it. I thought it would be good, but must say it has exceeded all my expectations!'

This fantastic new website has a whole host of new properties that are available to buy and around the Bury St Edmonds area. Troy Stanley, Technical Director at Resource Techniques, personally loves the website and thinks that the development team continually outdo themselves with each new estate agent website.

Are social networks replacing search engines?

Social media is everywhere. There are even references to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Wikipedia on TV and in movies. There will even be a Facebook movie called 'The Social Network' due to be released next year starring Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake and Andrew Garfield.

A new report has emerged underpinning the concept of estate agents connecting to new and existing customers through social networking. By Nielsen Wire, the report surveyed 1,800 people on the acquisition of content through social media.

The first question started off the survey with 'When looking for new information online, on what type of website do you start your search?' Out of the 1,800 participants, 37% used search engines, 34% used portals such as AOL or yahoo and 18% of respondents used 'social media' which includes Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Wikipedia etc. That is almost one fifth of people using social media for new information.

This information will vary greatly from person to person, depending on their situation, but what is certain is that some of these people will use social media to look for new property. Wikipedia and blogs can be ruled out, leaving social networking as the primary way for people to look for new properties online through social media.

The report concluded that it is very possible that social networks will replace search engines and portals in the future. Respondents found there is too much information on the internet to take in so the next step is to trust peers, relatives and other online 'friends' to ask them for their opinion.

How can estate agents benefit from this? Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'Embrace social networking and implementing it into your marketing strategy. By communicating to online property searchers, estate agents are able to directly influence where property searchers are looking online. '

'Services such as posting the latest property or building a portfolio of users that you contact directly online will all help towards creating a desirable service that will keep property searchers coming back again and again.' - Troy Stanley.

Do you want to find out more about social networking? Read our other articles, 'Estate agents, who are you more likely to communicate with on social networks? Men or Women?' and 'Damn good reasons why estate agents should invest time and effort into social networking.'

Top 15 need-toknow news articles for a modern agent

In June of this year, Resource Techniques has increased the number of news features. Our team is dedicated to providing the latest news for estate agents including general internet news, social networking news, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) news, latest gadgets, website design for estate agents and many more. To celebrate this, we have complied our top 15 news articles that will help today's modern estate agent.

1. Estate agents, Generation Z are slowly growing up
2. Estate agents, SEO services are not just for Christmas
3. Estate agents are you having a social networking burnout?
4. Estate agents who are you more likely to communicate with on social networks? Men or Women?
5. Estate agents, me too positioning won't cut it with social networking
6. The crucial SEO secret that has been over looked - by almost everyone
7. 25 captivating Google internet Stats for estate agents
8. Top 5 Sat Navs for estate agents
9. Minesweeper and solitaire - the hidden education from the misunderstood demon
10. Estate agents, internet users love animations on your property website
11. Resource Techniques conclusion from our free website review for estate agents
12. 5 Killer songs for bored estate agents
13. Getting website design wrong will harm your business
14. Did you know that websites can bounce?
15. The end for newspaper advertising? Many estate agents ask this question

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'Our news archive is growing by the day!'

'My favourite articles include, 'Estate agents, Generation Z are growing up', 'getting your website design wrong will harm your business' and 'estate agents, SEO services are not just for Christmas'. Troy Stanley continues.

'We upload all our articles onto our Twitter page and Facebook page. Check daily to see the latest news relating to property professionals.' - Troy Stanley.