Adapting Your Website to Changing Market Conditions.

For potential movers, the current property market feels much like gambling everything they own on a volatile stock market.

Should they risk a short or should they play the long game? Sell now before prices dip? Wait until they dip and then buy for less? Buy and sell now as what goes down will surely bounce back up again at some point.

Or perhaps succumb to paralysis due to uncertainty and lack of local market insight?

Market uncertainty is, without doubt, giving many movers the jitters, and as property professionals, it is our collective duty to inform and guide them through this difficult time so that they can make the right moving choices for their individual circumstances.

We all know that if you believe the constant barrage of negative press, you could be forgiven for thinking that the entire UK property market has ground to a halt and that nobody will move for at least the next 2 years. We all know that isn’t true but your potential movers don’t necessarily know this so it’s time to turn your website into an educational and inspirational toolkit that provides movers with everything they need to make an informed decision – and every reason to choose you to help them with their next move, be it now or a little further down the road.

So what’s different and how do you make your website work harder in the current market?

In many areas of the country, we have now switched from a vendor’s market to a buyer’s market but certainly not everywhere, and there are significant variations across the entire UK. However, regardless of your local market conditions, the golden rule is to make your website deliver everything buyers and sellers need to inform and inspire confidence in their next big decision, regardless of where they are in the moving cycle,

Be your area’s property market guru with local market insights and news articles.

Your local property market is not the same as a town or city as little as 20 -30 miles up the road, and nobody knows more about it than you, so divulge your expertise in news and blog articles and then share them across social media to generate authority and website traffic. Make your article eye-catching and informative to attract attention and take a leaf out of the tabloids with a snappy headline.

Add plenty of local images. You have no excuse with this one as you should have a quality camera and are out and about in your area every day, so get snapping.

Use your blog/news pages as a community hub for all things local to drive traffic to your website. Talk to your audience about what matters to them and engage in what’s going on locally and promote community sports and charitable events as well as fellow businesses on your blog pages as this will help you to grow trust and respect within your community.

This is also search engine gold so write about the industry and local area as often as you can. Adding Atea Guides is also a big winner in this department.

Up your game when it comes to showing off your properties.

This isn’t just a way to attract buyers, it also shows vendors what a great agent you really are.

If you want quality listings, always apply a like-attracts-like strategy, especially since one of the first places potential vendors visit are listing pages to check out what’s also on the market.

Therefore, it goes without saying, if the quality of your images, descriptions, and overall presentation of your properties is dire, you will continue to attract properties to match.

If you want better, do better.

A great way to not only attract buyer interest but to inspire confidence in both vendors and buyers is to add similar properties to your listings. Vendors especially like this tool as it allows them to compare similar properties to their own.

Potential movers can also see instantly that you are currently listing and/or have recently sold properties similar to their own or are interested in, and that the market is still moving in that specific size and price bracket in your area.

Make sure your listings pages also have plenty of calls to action for users to take the next step, be that to book a valuation or viewing, or to discover more about you, your services and local property market with an easy-to-navigate menu.

Let people choose their own way forward.

If you are an estate agent, there’s a good chance that you’re very much a people person and love nothing more than a meet-and-greet, face-to-face interaction. Unfortunately, there’s an even greater chance that your next potential mover is at the very opposite end of the sociability scale.

Giving movers the ability to discover and interact with you online takes some of the pressure off both them and your team as tools such as instant valuations, mortgage and stamp duty calculators provide them with a less intrusive way of getting to know your business and some of their options before finally making their move.

They may not want to speak to you in person right now but they do want to get to know a bit more about you before taking the plunge, so adding a team page can really help users feel more connected to you and your business.

When your website is doing everything it can, by the time your next client or customer contacts you, they should feel like you are a knowledgeable friend that they can trust with their next most important and life-changing event,

If your website isn’t doing you any favours right now, get in touch for a chat about how we can give it a boost or brand new look and improve your visitor and conversion rates.

Call us on 0208 050 8822, email info@thepropertyjungle.com or book a Zoom chat with our National Sales Director, Steve Ryan here.