1. Speed:

Avoid using flash animation. Flash introduction or splash pages are rated as the most annoying feature on all web surveys. You may enjoy watching your logo spin around but everyone else on the planet will hate you.

The home page should fully load in 10 to 15 seconds or your visitors will leave. It is all too easy to forget that people out there are still using modems. Bad news is at least 50% of your visitors will be using modems so you have to be very conscious of this.

2. Good Domain Name:

The ideal domain name should be short and easy to spell. Shorter is better although long is acceptable if it easy to spell. We work hard with our clients to come up with good domain names that meet these requirements.

Ideally your domain name is a brand name you really push out into the marketplace on all your marketing material. Some examples of our clients with good names are coasthomes.com.au for Gold Coast Homes, innerbrisbane.com for Harcourts City Sales, eagent.com.au for Empire Estate Agency, erental.com.au for Rental Empire and brisbaneliving.com.au for Harcourts Property Centre.

One of our clients with a name I don't like is www.coastalcorridor.com.au. They had the domain before approaching us and the domain was on all their marketing material otherwise I would have convinced them to change it. I don't mean that it's a bad name it's just hard to spell for many people. It is amazing how many people can't spell and any word that is even slightly difficult will have people cursing.

The other really critical mistake people make is choosing a domain close to a popular or better domain name. For example say I set up an office on the Gold Coast and decide I am going to register the domain name www.coasthomes.net.au. This is legal and there is nothing Gold Coast Homes can do about it but here is the catch. People know that most domains end in .com.au so when typing the domain in they will automatically add the .com.au and then I am just giving my opposition free traffic. I also recommend to people to try and register the .com and the .com.au of their domain names.

If you can afford it register close misspellings of your domain as well and have them redirected to your name if there are common variations of the name. A friend of mine owns ausfish.com so I persuaded him to register ozfish and about nine variations on this to cater for misspellings.

3. Photography:

In every survey poor or little photography rates as the most frustrating part of visiting a real estate website. I don't know how often you will see a $2,000,000 property with only 2 or 3 photos. You feel like shaking some sense into the agents responsible.

Rentals are the worst area on the Internet for this. A quick scan of realestate.com.au reveals just how deficient most agencies are in this area.

I am going to suggest that the absolute minimum is 8 photos and more is better. The reasoning behind this is that different features of a property act as hooks for different buyers. The more hooks the better your chances of getting a bite.

The most successful agents I work with are the fussiest on photography. One lady (Pauline) made an excellent point. She even shoots possible negative points of properties because she maintains that people are going to see the negatives when they get there and if it puts them off she has wasted her time. Time is money.

4. Descriptions:

Pretty much the same as photography in that more is always better. A good emotional description can enhance decent photography and really capture a person's interest before they have even set foot on the property.

The standard unemotional blurb really does nothing. Here are two paragraphs from an eight paragraph description with some real effort put in. See if it captures your imagination...

"This magnificent home exudes classical elegance, from the moment you enter the impressive vestibule you can feel it's grace and perfect balance as it's modern design meets timeless style, characterised by ample proportions, striking window treatments and tall ceilings finished in decorative cornices and chandeliers.

In the formal lounge the fireplace surround is carved from Carrara Marble and sets off the formality of this majestic room which is designed to collect the cooling breezes with fabulous North East views to the Bay and Moreton Island."

Here is the total description from another property I spotted on another agent's website...

"Sizzling value here with this 4 bedroom plus study home. Check out the new kitchen, the new bathroom and the new toilet. There is also a new 9x7m shed for dad, all on a 830m2 fully fenced block! Don't delay, this won't last!"

Maybe I am just too picky but this really didn't capture my imagination for a property selling for just over $1,000,000. When people have an emotional investment in a property even before they visit it, the chances of them liking the property are improved 1000%. Give people every chance to fall in love before they get there.

5. Listings:

Listings have to be up to date. Agents love seeing SOLD on everything but people using your website just get annoyed by it. This rates as one of the top hates for visitors. Listings also have to be in price order.

I try to get people to keep their listings in price order from the most expensive to the least so people see your prettiest properties first. Make sure you have ways for them to search and keep it simple to use.

6. New Listings:

Buyers searching will check back to your site weekly at least in the hope of finding fresh properties. Make sure there is a button there they can click and see all the new ones immediately or you may risk them going elsewhere.

Quick Plug: The websites we build for our clients all have automatic property alerts that send out new listings via email each day that match the selected criteria of the user.

7. The Address:

Have the address on display so people can have a look at a property without having to contact you first. Many people don't want to deal with an agent until ready to look inside, so the easier you make their life the better it is.

8. Virtual Tours:

Virtual tours get up to ten times more traffic than listings with just still photos and given the low costs should really be used on every property. They do have to have high quality photography, work on all computers and are fast to download like Netlab virtual tours.

9. Floor Plans:

A floor plan shows people exactly where everything belongs and is one of the most popular features you can have on a property. I am pushing all our clients to start using them and the ones who do get a much higher approval rating from clients. The absolute best are the interactive floor plans where you can see what an actual room looks like.

Quick Plug: This is a built in feature for all Netlab clients in our system, that lets agents drag photos onto a room and have an interactive floor plan automatically generated for that listing. Read more about interactive floor plans here.

10. Open for Inspection Times:

Provide a detailed and printable timetable of all open for inspection times. These days more people turn up to inspections with web printouts than newspaper cuttings. Keep it up to date. Internet usage is outpacing newspapers these days and with the convenience will only continue to grow.

11. Online Market Appraisals:

Have a simple appraisal form. Don't make forms too complex or people won't fill them out. Don't make every single field essential to be filled out. Give them a taste of your good service and once the ice is broken they are much happier to hand over information.

12. Newsletters:

A decent newsletter system is an essential tool for any real estate office intending to be in business in five years time. Email marketing to a database is the cheapest and most effective way of staying in touch with your clients. This is such an critical point that I have written an entire article on this alone. Essential reading for all agents.

13. Contact Details:

Make it really really simple for people to get in touch with you. Have contact details on each page is my advice. I generally recommend having them at the bottom of each page so people can click on a "contact us" link at the top and bottom of every page.

On the contact page have a mud map to your office, email addresses, phone numbers and any other contact method you can possibly list to make it as easy as possible. Also mention your office hours as well and special after hours numbers where applicable.

14. Sales Team with Testimonials:

Now I am not talking about the generic boring profiles most agency websites maintain. Take the time to organise really good profile pages with decent photography. this means no head shot of the agent with a blank look on their face.

The secret here is photos with smiling happy clients shaking the hand of their agent who has just sold their house for more money than they ever expected. These are the testimonials we all want to believe in.

As soon as you sell a house ask to have your photo taken with the sellers in front of the SOLD sign. It's cheesy but it works and the power of page after page of genuine testimonial cannot be underestimated. Agents who do this invariably outsell their competition.

15. Appropriate Design:

If you are in an upmarket area your website must have an upmarket feel to it. It must have clean and simple navigation by default but the design must really match your market. To give you an idea we have a client that deals in purely rental properties in the trendy inner city area of Brisbane.

Their website has a really funky feel targeted at a much younger audience and they get amazing results. When I presented the design to the client he choked. Here is the website. It took me an hour or so to convince him to just try it out before rejecting the design.

I explained that he wasn't his target market given that he was a Mercedes driving middle aged man. Fortunately he had younger staff so we polled them after work and they all loved it. We trialed the website and they asked their renters what they thought and everyone loved it.

Build for the market not your own taste. Who is the main decision maker in over 90% of all property purchases? Women. If your website doesn't appeal to women you are costing yourself business.