Website design for Hudson Moody Estate Agents in York and Leeds

New website design, hudson-moody.com has been released today for Hudson Moody Estate Agents in York and Leeds.

Hudson Moody was founded by Ben Hudson and Peter Moody, both chartered surveyors and fellows of the NAEA. They pride themselves on providing a professional and approachable service to buyers and sellers alike.

Hudson Moody is an award winning independent firm of Estate Agents in York and Leeds, specialising in residential property for sale and rent in York & Leeds.

This fantastic new website has a whole host of new properties that are available to buy and rent and around the York and Leeds area. Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques, was quoted, 'The large imagery and colour scheme go together perfectly.'

Estate agent website design - top 12 articles

Estate Agent website design can be discussed in many different ways. We at Resource Techniques have decided to create our top 12 articles that talk about website design. It gives Estate Agents a chance to view web design from a professional perspective without all the jargon surrounding it:

1. Website design for Estate Agents and SEO
2. This will make you change the way you think about website design
3. A well designed website is a weapon of mass consumption
4. What's the design behind the design?
5. Content is King and usability is queen
6. Website design maintenance; Cobwebs for Estate Agents
7. Building your shop window to the world
8. Estate Agents 5 fundamental questions when building a website
9. Top 5 ways Estate Agents need to design their website
10. Are you proud of your website design?
11. A picture paints a thousand words
12. Estate Agents considering a new website design must tread carefully

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'Why not try reading 'This will make you change the way you think about website design' or '5 fundamental questions when building a website'?

New website design for D W Smith and Co Estate Agents in Bristol

New website design, youridealhome.co.uk has been released today.

D W Smith & Co Estate Agents in Bristol is an established local and friendly company with an excellent reputation for valuing, selling and letting properties in and around Bristol and are members of team - the network of estate agents.

David Smith (Proprietor) stated in his testimonial that he was very pleased with the website design and found the whole transaction very smooth.

Troy Stanley, Technical Director at Resource Techniques is elated with David Smith's response and is certain that positive customer feedback will affirm this.

What's the design behind the design?

Estate Agent website design has a hidden fundamental design behind the main website design. This design is purely concerned on the process of which a buyer or seller will go through once they have accessed the website. This process is different to a normal website as there are no 'shopping carts' for users to place a property in and then pay for one or even multiple houses at the end of their website visit.

The start of the property search process is on the Estate Agent homepage. From there users are given a choice using primary and secondary navigation. 98% of people accessing an Estate Agent's website go straight to property search, which means that the position of a property search button is vital to ensure that it is prominent on the homepage.

Once on the property search page, users will be expecting a clear and user-friendly search function to allow them to search for the properties that they are interested in. Search results on enhanced Google Mapping even the most technological savvy user.

Each property must then have the necessary features to either allow the user to fully experience what the property has to offer or users can save the property as a favourite for future reference. Features such as high resolution photographs, EPCs, Floorplans, Google Maps, Google Street view, full description, and property particulars in a pdf format let users fully experience property online.

The last part of the process is to have clear contact details on each individual property page. Clear contact details ensure that customers can contact the Estate Agent at any point.

Designing Estate Agent websites so that they smoothen out the process of the property searcher not only reduces the frustration internet users experience but also increases the chance of buyers, and sellers, contacting the Estate Agent. A modern website design will reflect this to benefit the Estate Agent and the customer.

Estate Agent website design - A picture paints a thousand words

In the website design for estate agents world, image is everything. As mentioned before, Estate Agents only have 3 seconds to impress someone visiting their website. Within that time a verdict will be drawn on your website, purely on its design. That verdict can influence the visitor to delve deep into your property portfolio or it can easily make the visitor press that dreaded 'Back' button. Why take that chance? Ensuring that your website has that WOW factor can be the difference between a buyer or a seller considering your business.

One of the best ways to welcome a user to a website is with a large image or stunning animation positioned in the homepage design. The image or animation must then give the visitor an indication of brand image whilst also giving that WOW factor that many Estate Agent websites miss.

Using this technique, visitors are welcomed by a large stunning image, visually impressed and then naturally guided to a prominent property search button. This stimulates the user to follow a process, starting at the homepage, moving to property search, various desirable properties and then to contact the agent for a viewing.

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments on visual imagery with Estate Agent website design, 'Users are becoming increasingly impatient with the website designs. Property searchers now decide on Estate Agent's portfolio, integrity, and professionalism purely on website design. Getting this wrong WILL be costly for Estate Agents.'

Does your website design still give you, and your customers, the WOW factor that it deserves? If not, contact Resource Techniques or call us on 0208 457 4777.

Estate agents, is your online brand image fading fast?

Web sites are regularly compared to houses, which is perfect when you're a web designer specialising in websites for estate agents! Now imagine you are trying to sell a house that hasn't been lived in or touched for 50 years. The disrepair, vines and cobwebs will be instantly recognisable and could easily put off anyone considering living in it. Sadly the exact same process can happen to your website but within a shorter space of time.

Try not to cry too much. Your neighbourhood friendly website designer is here to help. So how do estate agents keep their online brand image fresh?

Although websites do not grow vines or cobwebs, there are clear indications that clearly show that the website has been left to decay in the World Wide Web. Below are the top 5 ways Estate Agents can easily keep their online brand image fresh without breaking a sweat.

• Examine your keywords - Look back at previous search terms on Google Analytics to show you the various terms property searchers use to access your Estate Agent website. Re-evaluating your keywords maximises traffic from changing attitudes.
• Replace old text - Search engines love new content. Checking your website's text and changing it will spark search engine interest and cause them to scan your website more often.
• Role-play - pretend that you are a first time buyer or an elderly couple looking for a house to either buy or rent in your area. Testing your own website design in this way enables you to visualise the process that your buyers go through.
• Fix broken links - Usability is only noticeable when something goes wrong, but not when everything works as it should. Make sure you pass on any broken links to your web designer.
• Change the main image - Seasonal images only work if the image fits the current season so a Christmas image will only work at Christmas. A new image can give a breath of fresh air to your website.

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'Website designs need to be kept fresh and up-to-date and a little spring cleaning will make your website look as good as new. Contact your web design team and I'm sure that they will be more than happy to help.'

Estate agents, it's time to reflect on your achievements

Estate Agents, give yourself a good hard pat on the back. According to research by The Local Data Company, One in six Estate Agents closed down between October 2008 and October 2009. Showing that this year has been long and hard and arguably only the best Estate Agents have survived.

Estate Agents have one more task before relaxing into the holiday spirit. Some see it as a chore, some find it intriguing and some Estate Agents never do it, but now is certainly the time to do it.

'It', in the paragraph before, refers to checking your Google Analytics.

Before you groan, Google Analytics gives Estate Agents an insight into how their customers interact with their website, which as we all know, is the modern tool for displaying your property portfolio. Therefore the end of the New Year is the perfect time to analyse how your Estate Agent website has performed over the year.

In a hurry? The top 5 things Estate Agents need to check on Google Analytics are:

• Map overlay - Map overlay shows Estate Agents the catchment area for their website. If your website is optimised for the right keywords the majority of your customers will come from the surrounding areas. Do not be surprised if you have a random visitor from South Africa or Japan!
• New vs. Returning - This shows Estate Agents what percentage of users accessing the website are new customers or ones that revisit the website.
• Referring Sites - This is to check to see which websites sent you the most traffic. Remember that Google accounts for around 92% of the search engine traffic in the UK. Do you stats reflect this?
• Keywords - What Keywords did people type to get to your website? Check your Google ranking for the most popular and see if your website is targeted towards the right keywords.
• Content by Title - see which properties generated the most interest and then try to figure out why they generated that much interest.

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'Estate Agents that regularly check Google Analytics have a greater insight into their customer's online movements than the Estate Agents that never check. We recommend all Estate Agents use this free information at their disposal.'

Estate Agent's 5 fundamental questions when building a website

A strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. Without strategy, estate agents only have blind tactics that will lead them down the dark alley of failure. Do you want your website to fail its basic goals or do you want it to succeed and become the envy of the competition?

A strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. Without strategy, estate agents only have blind tactics that will lead them down the dark alley of failure. Do you want your website to fail its basic goals or do you want it to succeed and become the envy of the competition?

1) Why is the website being built?

This question is designed to make estate agents contemplate the reasons why they have a website in the first place. Answering: just because everyone else has one cannot be an acceptable answer. Think clearly on the reasons how it will benefit your agency directly and indirectly.

2) Who is the website being built for?

A common misconception is that the website is being built for the estate agent. This is excusable because on a lateral sense the website has been commissioned by the director/partner but the website is not for solely the director/partner. The people using the website on a daily basis are not employees or directors, but property searchers.

3) What will property searchers be looking for?

Firstly the WOW factor - something that will not only encourage the user to enter the website but also give a slight hint of the quality of properties within the websites. Next users want to be clearly see either a large property search button or a featured property to click on. Both shows that users are looking for property, putting a hurdle up here will only frustrate users.

Once users have defined exactly the range of properties that they are looking for, users are then looking to build a picture of what the property is like in the mind. Features such as high resolution pictures, a clear text description, Google Maps, Google Street view, Floorplans, EPCs, virtual tours and online property particulars all add different dimensions to the overall mental picture.

Lastly users want to see clear contact details. Many estate agent website designs fail this need to have clear contact details on each individual property.

4) Where will my users come from?

* Loyal customer base
* Print media
* Social Networks
* Search Engines
* Directly typing in the web address
* Email campaign/Property brochures

5) How will I know the website is working?

The best way to identify that your website is a successful one is to quantify it. Google analytics lets estate agents analyse exactly how well their website is performing. Areas such as how many people have visited the estate agent website, where they've entered, exited, how long they stayed on the website, which area they entered the website and much more.

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'Do not forget that your customers will actually comment positively on your website! A shocking revelation but a beautifully designed website with a WOW factor and a rich user experience will attract more comments than a UFO sighting.'

Web design jobs to be taken by Google!

Web designers have become slightly nervous over Google's swelling templates for Google Sites. They are very professional, clean and just slightly pretty which can easily be created by users using a simple step-by-step guide. Just have a gander at the screenshots below:





Although very pretty, these websites do not cater for the needs of an estate agent that is serious about their estate agent website. Firstly let's take the design. The designs above may be bright and colourful, but they may not necessarily be the right image for your brand. Matching your website design to your branding is very important as new customers that find you online will instantly judge your company on design of its website.

Have a look at the image below, or for greater detail, visit the Julian Reid website. The website is clean and gives off an image of professionalism with a hint of the types of properties that they cater for.



Secondly these templates do not support the types of functionality that every estate agent should demand to have on their website. Estate agents need the whole range of features that are all bedded into their website design. One clear favourite is enhanced Google maps. The image below shows all the properties from a search on Google Maps alongside various local amenities such as schools, doctors, dentists, transport, restaurants etc.



The next feature has become more than a prerequisite. High resolution pictures are easily accessible these days but the way estate agent websites display them can make it difficult for the user.

One way is to display all the high res photos in a pop-up. This directs the user's attention away from the website while modern pop-up blockers can confuse and block users from viewing the photographs.

Another way is to embed photos directly onto the website, which can make the photos grainy and small. Due to website size restrictions, this can impair the ability for users to fully view available photographs otherwise users will find themselves scrolling endlessly down the page.

Instead Resource Techniques uses the latest viewer technology that is used by large companies such as the BBC and Sony. When users click on a picture, they are presented with a 'viewer' with a high resolution photograph that overlaps the website. From here they can flick between photographs without being directed away from the website. All the user has to do is click away from the viewer or the 'x close' button and they return back to the property that they were originally inspecting.



The viewer can cater for more than just photographs. Estate agents are able to display floorplans, EPCs, HIPS, and print-friendly property particulars that are completely editable by the estate agent.



Resource Techniques is a web design company specialising in property websites for estate agents. Our services include web design, Search Engine Optimisation, software for estate agents and social networking consultations. For more information, call Resource Techniques on 0208 457 4777, visit our Twitter profile, Facebook Fan page or our contact us page.

Visit this page and fill in the form for a free web review.

The more people you have accessing your website, the more enquiries you will have.

There are two ways to get people onto your website and searching for your properties:a

* 1. Pay-Per-Click - An expensive advertisement that is on the first page of Google. Each individual click onto your website can cost you a couple of pounds (which will add up!) Also, users are more likely naturally look at the organic search results without looking at the PPC advertisements.
* 2. Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation or SEO doesn't have to be complicated. It is the process of improving the website so that it appears higher in Google's organic results, which are located on the left hand side. The general public are most likely to choose the 'organic' area without even checking the PPC area. Resource Techniques does all it can to move estate agents as far up Google as possible, but many estate agents have not signed up to social networking.

The image above shows that our customer, Bonett's Estate agents, is page one position one when searching for 'Estate agents in Brighton'. Search Engine positioning such at this will create a large amount of targeted traffic for your website with potential customers looking for property in the Brighton area.

Estate agents must do a self check to see where they rank in Google. Pretending you are someone looking for property in your area, you will search for 'estate agent in...' or 'flat to rent in...' and your local area. There is no point in searching for your company name because these customers are already brand loyal. Estate agents need to capture property searchers that do not have a particular estate agent in mind.

Once on your website, online property searchers will then notice your website design. Estate agents must be vigilant when employing a specialist web designer so that they create a visually impressive website. Our latest campaign, 3 seconds to impress, had spread the message that on average, web design has 3 seconds to impress.

From there users will be looking towards the functionality of the website. Features such as large resolution photos, Google Street view, Enhanced Google mapping, detailed property descriptions, email alerts, email a friend and embedded EPC and floorplans impress the user to repeatedly return to the website to look for further properties. The website is then defined as being 'sticky' as users and online property searchers will stick to that website.

Did this article inspire you to think about your estate agent web design and SEO performance? You can read; 'Complete twitter guide for estate agents', and 'The four basic elements of web design' or you can contact Resource Techniques directly on 0208 457 4777 to see how we can benefit you.

Read all about it: The lightest laptop ever made

From working at a coffee shop to working at a service station, or even on-site, having a laptop can be seen as more of a necessity than a luxury for estate agents on the go. What about weight though? Does lugging around a huge laptop for the slightly higher memory, processing speed and extra functions a good enough reason to justify a bad back?

Good news! Sony has just revealed a new laptop that is the lightest one ever built, perfect for estate agents on the go! It's called the Vaio X a laptop is just a tiny 655g and half an inch thin.

This laptop is perfect for any commuter on the go. The battery life is claimed to have up to 16 hours, which is more than enough for the well-travelled estate agent.

Sony describes it as, 'a perfectly balanced package for style-aware business travellers'.

One downfall (and there was bound would be one), is that this weight comes at a price. To achieve this minuscule weight, estate agents must have a particular battery called the 'S battery' and no modem.

Not satisfied? Estate agents can also choose from the MacBook Air, Averatec 1579, Asus Eee PC or even the Toshiba Protege R500, which are all light choices.

Did you enjoy this article? Why not read '5 killer songs for bored estate agents', 'Top 5 sat navs for estate agents reviewed by Resource Techniques' or even 'UPDATE: our website screenshots on the iPhone!'.

Minesweeper and Solitaire - the hidden education from the misunderstood demon

When people first started using GUI's (Graphical user interfaces), they needed something that will help them easily pick up the basic functions of something that modern PC users take for granted; the mouse. This is where Minesweeper and Solitaire reared its ugly, counter-productive head...

Invented by Robert Donner and Curt Johnson, two Microsoft employees, Minesweeper has been installed with every Microsoft Windows since Windows 3.1 in March 1992 and has been used to waste time in offices all over the globe. Minesweeper, for those estate agents who are unsure, is a game where a tiled board hides 'mines', that when clicked on, end the game. The aim of the game is to left click on all the spaces between the mines and 'flag' (by right clicking) possible mines.

The roots of Solitaire's history cannot be exactly pinpointed. It is known to have become popular in France around the 19th Century and then spread to the UK and the US in the end of that century. Again, for those estate agents who are unsure, the aim of Solitaire is to sort 7 increasing sizes of card piles (the first pile containing 1 card to the 7th pile containing 7cards) into the 4 different suits in ascending order with the remaining deck of cards.

Countless office hours have been whittled away on these games. In fact in 2006, one man was fired by the Mayor of New York City (Michael Bloomberg) after he saw an open game of Solitaire on the man's work computer. But was the purpose of these two games to reduce the worldwide productivity? One article entitled 'The most successful game ever: a history of Minesweeper' suggests not.

The article suggests that the two games were intentionally built to train or educate users to fully utilise the mouse. Minesweeper was designed to help users master the point-and-click element (users have to point and click to a particular square they believe to be a space or a mine) and solitaire was designed so that users could become skilled at dragging and dropping cards from one point of the screen to another. Both of these functions are now used in everyday for clicking on buttons or dragging and dropping files from one place to another.

Even today these basic functions are used in modern estate agent websites. Take the example of embedded and enhanced Google maps on one of Resource Techniques estate agent websites:



Users and estate agents use the point-and-click function to not only choose the local amenities that they want displayed but also to click on a house that they will be interested in. They also use the drag and drop function to navigate around the Google map to see the houses for sale in the surrounding area. Functions like these are integrated into everyday life without users and estate agents even realising. Maybe the next time you are on an estate agent website and using enhanced Google maps, you'll think of Minesweeper and Solitaire.

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques comments, 'Point and click and drag and drop is now second nature to users.'

Troy Stanley continues, Simplistic features, like the enhanced Google Maps with local amenities on estate agent websites, are completely user friendly. Users are able to view a properties location and surrounding points of reference in Map, Satellite and Hybrid view from a simple click.

'An Estate agent website hosting online properties has evolved. They are no longer a long list of properties with limited amount of information; they are places where users can users can view high resolution photos, receive email alerts, print high quality property particulars in a pdf format, see embedded EPCs and HIPs and even view from the property from a satellite to viewing it on the street.' - Troy Stanley.

Resource Techniques specialises in web sites for estate agents, including website design for estate agents, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for estate agents and in-house software for estate agents. contact us on our Twitter profile, Facebook Page or through our contact page. Resource Techniques also provides a free, no obligations website review.

The crucial SEO secret that has been overlooked - by almost everyone

Estate agents must be careful, once this Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) secret has been revealed, your estate agent website will never be on Page 5 or lower again. This secret has been stated by Google over and over again but no one has listened.

Web masters and SEO consultants all over the globe have been telling estate agents that their Meta Tags must be optimised, proper headings must be used, site maps must be built etc... (These tips do help, Resource Techniques isn't telling you to stop using SEO techniques!) But there is still one secret that either has been ignored or web masters just don't believe it to be true.

Are estate agents ready for this? Remember that this secret has been declared before...

Content.

That's the big secret.

"Content is King".

The best way to get to number one in Google is to produce compelling and relevant content. Once your estate agency website has content that people want to read, people will start to automatically link to your content. So what does this mean for estate agents?

A news section, with local and national news, is the easiest way to have relevant content on your estate agent website. Ideally this local news can include local building work, local new developments, or estate agents can write about national news that will affect property searchers in the UK will want to read. The main thing here to keep it relevant, creating content that is related to the property industry means that property searchers will want to access and read your estate agency website.

Do not fall down at the first hurdle. A few estate agents have outsourced their news feature to countries such as India where the quality of the content will be significantly lower than what is required for your website. Try writing estate agent and property industry news first hand. Firstly try to create content with your visitors (online UK property searchers) in mind then try your utmost to create content that you will want to read yourself. Once you have mastered the art of creating content that users will want to read, you will find your estate agent website teetering at the top end of Google.

Looking for a new website? Demand an industry specialist. Resource Techniques has been an IT specialist for estate agents and property professionals for over 20 years. We specialise in web design for estate agents, SEO for estate agents, SEO services, web sites for estate agents, software for estate agents. To get more information, visit our portfolio page for our range of estate agent web site designs or contact us.

Europeans search more than anyone else in the world

Are you a search fiend? Do you search for almost every question presented to you? Well it seems that you are the majority. A report by ComScore stated that Europe takes up 32.1% of all the worldwide searches, while Asia Pacific was a close second with 30.8% and North America third with 22.1%.

Not only that, but search activity jumped 41% between July 2008 and July 2009 to a massive 113,685 million searches for the whole of the internet. This means that there are roughly 311 million people searching through search engines daily. This is a clear sign that more than ever, people have integrated the internet into their daily lives.

This is another warning sign that estate agents need to embrace this cultural change. Estate agents that have a website positioned at the top of search engines will benefit from this huge amount of traffic. Getting people to access your estate agent website is half the battle. Once on your estate agent website, estate agents have 3 seconds to impress with the latest design, features and usability. Any hurdles, errors or technological faux pas will ring alarm bells and users will simply click off onto another website.

Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is a requirement if estate agents want their website to be at the top of search engines. SEO is the process of changing the estate agent's website design so that it obeys the search engine rules. This is also known as 'White hat SEO'. Interested? Read 'Which hat should estate agents use? Black or White?'.

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques, is intrigued at the recent statistics. Troy Stanley commenting: "It'' superb that Europeans have embraced the internet more than any other continent in the world! Not only that, but search engine activity has jumped an enormous 41% in one year. This is the internet golden age."

Troy Stanley continues "Estate agents can profit from this, as users are constantly searching for local property or local estate agents. 'Estate agents in...' or 'Property to buy/rent...' and their local area is one of the top search terms used by internet users searching for property."

"Resource Techniques is a specialist when providing IT services for property professionals. We have 20 years of knowledge and experience in website design for estate agents,SEO services and in-house software for estate agents. Estate agents should not accept anything other than an industry specialist." - Troy Stanley.

Estate agents that get involved, get the problem solved

This news feature, like many before, is on Twitter. Many estate agents have now set up their Twitter account and are now being faced by the daunting task of using Twitter to their advantage. Have they completed this task? A small few have, many haven't. Twitter is like any other new social network, it is intimidating at first, but like anything other tool, instrument or device, it takes practice to get it right.

Firstly estate agents with a pristine profile will start to look for people to befriend or follow. If you are stuck at this stage, add us at www.twitter.com/RTechniques or go to Twellow.com for a yellow page of Twitter users.

Once estate agents have a stream of twitter messages or 'tweets' on their homepage, they find that many messages will be continuous self promotion on a large scale. Estate agents should not be deterred by this, behind all the self promoting messages are still people that are tireless sending out promotional messages. Buck the trend and send them a message. You'll find that they'll message you back, and with enthusiasm.

What these 'Tweeters' forget is that social networking is about creating connections between people. They see it as another advertising medium where they can send out message after message or estate agent promotion after estate agent promotion.

All it takes is one message a day to one person. Introduce yourself and ask what they do. Estate agents will be surprised at the variety of responses that they get back. Not every message will produce a lead but taking that first step to start contacting people it will kick-start the networking that estate agents are craving for. Try dedicating 5 minutes a day or 5 minutes a week and estate agents will be surprised at the responses that they get.

Troy Stanley, CTO of Resource Techniques is on Twitter! Follow us @ www.twitter.com/RTechniques. Do you have any questions on social networking, website design for estate agents, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) services or, software for estate agents? Get the ball rolling and send us a message!

Estate agents, 'me too' positioning won't cut it with social networking

Many businesses in history have taken the 'me too' position. A 'me-too' brand is one that positions itself to offer exactly what the original brand offers. It can work it some industries and with some products or services but not with social networking.

Firstly estate agents have to realise that only having a social networking profile is not good enough. Users want to see evidence that estate agents are using social networking to its full potential, not a stale profile where the only evidence of activity is a post that occurred a few months ago. Users want estate agents to share the most up-to-date properties, local news, videos, the latest developments, useful links, advice on avoiding housing disaster, and many more. The great thing about online marketing is that it is only bound to the imagination of the user.

Estate agents that copy another estate agent's social networking activities will find a lack of leads. Estate agents need to try and come up with original ideas that will entice the user to visit their website. The website should then prompt the user to make a property search, view the listings then contact the estate agent regarding a property that they are interested in.

As social networking is used by increasing numbers and by a larger audience, it is only logical that these users will start using social networking as part of their online property search. Estate agents must start experimenting with social networking now before a rival estate agent gets there first. With that, estate agents must keep working hard at creating an experience that will push users onto their website.

For examples of social networking profiles, visit our or our Twitter page.

An estate agent website specialist, Search Engine Optimisation for estate agents and estate agent software specialist, Resource Techniques provides free consultations to all our customers on social networking. We guide estate agents through the sometimes tricky online world to help them generate online leads. To see what Resource Techniques can do for you, visit our portfolio or contact us.

B.I.N.G (Bing Is Not Google); Google respond

It's not like Google to stand by and watch as a possible competitor was about to enter the search engine market, possibly taking a larger market percentage than any company would be comfortable with. Bing, Microsoft's replacement search engine for Window's Live search and MSN search, was launched on the 3rd of June 2009. With an advertisement budget of $100 million, they weren't planning on creating a small wave.

It was widely believed that Google will have to respond alike and that increased competitiveness for the search engine market can only benefit the end users in the long run, but nothing happened straight away. Finally there have been rumours of Google using code name 'caffeine' and until now, people weren't sure what Google was up to.

Code name 'Caffeine' has apparently been in the pipeline for several months now. This secret project has been revealed as 'the next generation' of online search. It has been hailed as the next-generation of search. In other words, the face of Google will still look completely the same but the software under the hood will be upgraded. This could suggest that even though Bing is a new search engine, Google is updating to an even better search engine than before!

Troy Stanley, CTO of resource Techniques, is excited about the change: "Google, the most popular UK search engine, is basically giving a better basic search facility. This is the primary reason why people started using Google in the first place."

"The upgrade will have enhanced search whilst crawling and indexing the internet at a much faster rate. This allows them to narrow the real-time search gap to provide one of the best up-to-date search results."

So how does this affect estate agents?

Troy Stanley continued, "Currently Google is used by 90.55% of people in the UK whereas Bing has a 2.71% market share. With that in mind it is easy to think that Bing can be dismissed or ignored, but still almost 1 out of every 37 people in the UK use Bing. With a population of 61 million people in the UK, roughly 1.6 million people in the UK use Bing (give or take a few, as not every single person in the UK has the internet)."

"This million or so will be, at one point or another, using Bing to search for their local estate agents to search for property. Estate agents with an estate agent website should be asking their website designers or website providers what they are doing to make sure they capture this amount of people. Ignoring any search engine, even one with a smaller market share, can cost estate agents business." - Troy Stanley.

To try out the new version of Google, go to www2.sandbox.google.com and see how your estate agent website performs.

We at Resource Techniques, regularly cross checks search engines, to guarantee that estate agents that we supply for have Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) that they can be proud of. SEO, for those that are unsure, is the process moving each individual estate agent website is as high as possible on a particular search engine. SEO is important part of every website design for estate agents.

Resource Techniques is dedicated to staying on top of any industry changes regarding SEOest or website design for estate agents. Click to read more on 'website design for estate agents and SEO' or 'estate agents, SEO services are not just for Christmas'. To see how we can help your estate agent website design, ensure that you are getting as many people accessing your website and searching for property on your estate agent website by contact us.

Website design for estate agents and SEO

Estate agent website design is important for your business. Not only does it have to look spotless and show exactly what the brand is about, but it also has to provide a large amount of traffic. There's no point spending valued resources on a website design if no one is there to access it, irrelevant on how the website looks. Therefore website designers today have to appease to the mighty search engine giants and also to the everyday internet user that has a range of knowledge and experience. With 72% of customers seeing you first on the internet, you cannot underestimate the importance of getting this right.

The everyday user

People searching for estate agents online will have a wide range of experience with websites. Some of the younger generation will have been using websites all their life and others will have limited experience. Since more and more people will be using the internet for property it is important to cater for everyone. This is done by using certain techniques.

Firstly you need to greet the user onto the website. Having a lot of content and images flash up will disorientate the user and increase the chance that they will simply click off the website and move onto another estate agent website. Therefore having an animated introduction to greet the user and establish your brand name or logo gently introduces them into the website. Next you naturally guide the eye to a 'Call to Action'.

A Call to Action is where the website gives the user a clearly defined route to take. For estate agent websites, the Call to Action is the property search. This is because over 97% of users visiting estate agents websites are just simply looking for property. With this fact in mind, why would you make it difficult for them? Providing a large and clear 'Property Search' will give both you and the user exactly what you want. They want to view the available properties and you want them to contact you for viewings.

So you've got the user viewing you're properties, whats next?

Things have moved on from just having 'property listings'. The savvy internet user wants a bit extra. They want:

* Large quality images
* Full search options
* Enhanced mapping - indicating local amendments
* The latest viewer technology
* Floorplans
* EPC
* A printable PDF brochure
* Virtual Tour or Video
* Email alerts
* News Section
* Google Street View

All this plus a simple design that lets everyone make use of any feature they want to use. Some users will want to receive emails of similar properties whereas others will prefer just to keep coming back and using Google maps to see the houses for sale nearest their children's school. It is the option that counts.

Modern trend

Website design has continued to evolve and modern estate agents understand that brand image is reflected from what is on their website. A tawdry website with cheap gimmicks won't do your brand justice. Whereas a website that reflects the colour scheme and the underlying brand image could strengthen your overall brand and keep people coming back again and again.

The modern trend at the moment is to use large imagery combined with simplistic navigation process to guide the user to each Call to Action. For a website selling clothes, the Call to Action would be to go to the checkout and then finally purchase the items of clothing. Property website's call to Action (as mentioned above) is primarily the 'Property Search' button, then after viewing each property the Call to Action would be to contact the estate agent. For this to happen there has to be clear contact details with every listing.

Search engine optimisation (SEO)

So far the user side has been covered. As equally important is getting people onto your website. This is done by putting yourself onto the results listings of search engines and hence the birth of SEO.

Search engines were made because of the need for people to try and find websites that they did not know the addresses for. While defining exactly how to list websites, Sergey Brin and Larry Page produced an algorithm that created the search engine giant Google. This algorithm is a way of putting ranking weights on different aspects of how the website is constructed. The more a website fits the algorithm the more likely it is to appear on Google's results page. Therefore SEO is optimising or modifying websites so that it complies with the most up to date algorithms. By doing this your website will be higher up the rankings and therefore have more traffic.

One major way of utilising SEO is providing relevant current content. Even Google has gone on record and stated that "Content is King". Better content means a better user experience which means the higher up the rankings you will go. One way of doing this is to have a 'News feature'. Google's programs will see that not only your website has content from local or national news but it will also notice that it has been updated recently.

Another way to do this is to have particular keywords within your website. These keywords are embedded into your website as a whole and represent the terms in which users would search for. For example, people in Watford finding a house to buy would most likely search for 'estate agent in Watford' or 'property in Watford'. Utilising your website to these search terms means that you can maximise the amount of people (traffic) that views your website and pin point exactly the type of people who go on your website.

Another way is having many in-bound links to your website. The more links you have pointing to your website the more your website can be viewed as popular. A popular website will have content that people want to read and therefore these are the websites that Google wants to list, popular websites with relevant current content.

Resource Techniques is dedicated to providing estate agents with website design that will be visually impressive while also performing well in search engines using the latest SEO techniques. To enquire about web sites for estate agents, SEO Services or any other services we provide, contact us on 0208 457 4777 or visit our contact us page.

Back to basics for estate agents, Search engine optimisation (SEO): Part 2

Before you can stun a customer with visual imagery and functions that will enhance their online property search, estate agents must have a website that performs well in search engines so that there is a healthy stream of users looking for property. Without a healthy stream of online property searchers, the website is useless.

There are a wide variety of things a web designer can do to help or hinder a website's SEO. Below are the top ways estate agents can make sure that the SEO on their website is on the right path.
1). Content is King

This rule is generally undisputed. If you have original and desirable content, your estate agent website will be indexed higher. Estate agents who have websites that have more content on their website, such as staff profiles, local area information and services provided, will have better SEO than estate agent websites that have a homepage and a property listings page. The news section on your estate agent website is a perfect way of increasing your SEO as search engines are looking for websites that have relevant, updating content.
2). Keywords

There have to be certain keywords within the content that show search engines what your estate agent website contains. Having major keywords for estate agents such as 'property in..' or 'estate agent in..' and the local area. When considering keywords, estate agents have to think of the words or phrases that users will type into search engines. Over using keywords for SEO can flag your estate agent website as spam.

Resource Techniques will personally advice every new customer the types of keywords that they should be thinking about.
3). Meta Tags

Meta Tags are invisible to anyone viewing the website. They are within the code or html within the website. Again, just like keywords, the keywords in the Meta tags can be overused and this will count against the SEO of your website. The two main Meta tags are the description and keywords. The role of Meta tags in SEO is low but does count towards your website's overall SEO.
4). Links

Links that point to a website help towards SEO. It shows search engines that your website has content that people not only want to see, but also point or 'link' to. Estate agents have to be wary of sites claiming 'link building services' as Google sees that these sites are directories and therefore lower the importance of the links going out.
5). Site Map

Search engines love estate agent website organisation. By providing a sitemap, estate agents will help search engines index their site quicker, which will help your estate agent website SEO. Resource Techniques provides a sitemap for every estate agent website we design which helps their SEO.

For the part 1 of our SEO back to basics, click here.

Resource Techniques provides SEO services for estate agents, website design for estate agents, domain name hosting, and many other services for property professionals. To hear the full range of services, visit our contact us page or call us on 0208 457 4777.

Resource Techniques announce release of new website for Robert Williams Estate Agents

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

Robert Williams Estate Agents in Exeter have built a long term reputation for valuing, selling and letting properties in and around Exeter and its surrounding towns, villages, countryside and coast.
Robert Williams are passionate, enthusiastic, professional and can offer tailored advice backed with many years of experience, whatever your property needs. Robert Williams are members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the team network of estate agents, which enables your property to be marketed automatically with hundreds of team agents all over the country – including London.

Steve Alford, Director of Robert Williams says, ‘how delighted we are with the website that Resource Techniques have just completed for us. I have no doubt that your creativity has contributed to the fact that the site is both simple and very eye-catching. Moreover, the new features, such as the large, high resolution photos, the link to Google Maps with its aerial photos and excellent search facility, make it as good technically and it is aesthetically. Overall, 10 out of 10!
Many thanks for all your help,’

This fantastic new website has a whole host of new properties that are available to buy or rent in and around the Exeter 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.

Expert advice for estate agents looking to increase their web profile, improve their web design for estate agents, understanding Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), SEO for Estate Agents and SEO services, marketing property or your estate agency business using Social Networking or for a FREE assessment of your website and how well it performs with search engines contact Troy Stanley, CTO Resource Techniques on 0208 457 4777 or visit our contact page.