Possible redesign... I need hard core opinions.

Submitted by G Dewald | Union Street Media on October 2, 2008 - 11:29am.

Looks like everyone is all wound up in debating hard/soft registration so I'll give you a quick review.

First off... if it aint broken then don't fix it.

Before doing anything you should start using some web analytics (you don't appear to have any of the better ones installed on your site). If you install some site analytics you can figure out which pages are bringing people to your site (and which ones are causing people to leave), which pages get people to convert, etc. This is really important to know about before a redesign.

The design is, as you note, boring. Also, the underlying code is outdated and might be hurting you a small bit in the search engines.

But overall if it's working don't jump into anything too crazy. Start by reviewing your site traffic and then move from there.

I hope that helps

G. Dewald | Union Street Media | Real Estate Internet Marketing Blog

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Submitted by Richard Soto on October 2, 2008 - 11:31am.

I think the red on your right hand side navigation is a bit difficult to read. I would also redistribute some of your homepage content, I think its a bit much for your landing page.

San Antonio Condos

Dallas Condos

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Submitted by Cecilia Sherrard on October 2, 2008 - 3:21pm.

G. - Thanks. I do use Web-stat and it gives me pretty much what I need. Any suggestions on what service is better?

Richart - I couldn't agree more. I need to transfer lots of that homepage content to other pages. My fear has always been not showing up on the SE's or messing with my current placement by removing all those key phrases... Ahh, where to begin!

And by red on the right hand side, are you referring to the latest blog posts?

Cecilia Sherrard
Real Living
Cleveland Real Estate

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Submitted by Cecilia Sherrard on October 2, 2008 - 3:21pm.

That would be Richard*, sorry.

Cecilia Sherrard
Real Living
Cleveland Real Estate

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Submitted by Brett Young | Real Estate Keyword Tool on October 2, 2008 - 8:05pm.

I agree with most comments already posted here. The slide show on the homepage is a nice touch. The design is too 'boxy' you need some curves and styling to make it easier on the eye. There are too many distractions to get to your call outs on the site.

One thing I thing I've often seen implemented to display a lot of content on the homepage is a CSS suckerfish dropdown menu. The menu items in the dropdown only appear if you scroll over the root item. That might help tidy things up a little bit.

I can understand your dilemma about being hesitant to change things that might affect your rankings.

Brett Young
Real Estate Keyword Tool

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Submitted by G Dewald | Union Street Media on October 3, 2008 - 5:31am.

Re: Analytics

I think you could do better than Webstat. Google Analytics is what I usually recommend because it's pretty easy to use, includes a lot of great reports and it's free. It also ties directly into your Adwords account if you do search engine marketing with Google. http://analytics.google.com/

If you're getting all the information you need out of Webstat then no need to install something else. But I think you could get a much more complete picture of how your visitors are finding your site, what pages they see first, the bounce rate on a per-page basis, what pages they see immediately before contacting you via a web conversion tool etc. These sorts of insights are important to look at as you consider a redesign.

Especially given that you are currently happy with your search engine placement, knowing a little more in depth information on how people are finding you and what they're finding when they get to you will be helpful.

Multiple inter-linked pages with content can often perform as well or better than one giant page of content. But again, I'd tread very very lightly here without knowing more about your site traffic.

Hope that helps,

G. Dewald | Union Street Media | Real Estate Internet Marketing Blog

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Submitted by Eliese Pivarnik on October 4, 2008 - 7:14am.

I don't mind the lay out. If I was searching for real estate in Cleveland, I'd definitely stick around and see what you have on there. Also, your blog titles are intriguing--I'd click on them.

Steamboat Springs Real Estate Blog

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Submitted by Christine Moscinski, Chicago Area Realtor on October 16, 2008 - 3:11pm.

I think the site is clean and has links on the side but it needs to be separated/organized better on the home page. Don go revamping the whole site, somes a few tweaks is all it takes and change of color.

The home page is where you want someone to click either to the buyer link or seller link. Some people just visit sites for information.

Your goal is to keep them and register for drip email or possible lead.

I would stop at the "buyer" "seller" boxes you have and just add a tidbit about you and how you can help as their Realtor.

And add a signature to make it look more personal instead of cookie cutter.

The rest on home pages bottom should be divided and placed in other pages according to topic.

Hoppe this helps!

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Submitted by Glenn Weilbacher on November 3, 2008 - 12:45pm.

Cecilia,

Here are somne comments from an Internet Marketing specialist with tens years experience in real estate marketing.

More than 80% of the homebuyers starting their home search on the net are looking for access to the MLS listings. We are capturing better than 10% of the visitor traffic on our sites with the offer of access to the MLS. We use a full page form that asks questions about the home they are seeking. The spaces for their name, phone number and e-mail address is at the bottom (not top) of the page. One of the reasons we have such a high capture rate is our use of an introductory paragraph in we say "You will not be pestered by a sales person" or "You will not be called unless you request information"

Your site is reasonable good but could be improved. While typing the above I ran a search engine position report on your site. Congradulations, you have page one position in Google for cleveland real estate. But. you could have many more positions with some fine tuning of the site. The site does not appear under Cleveland keywords in Yahoo.

Instead of the photos of your team at the top the search engines would respond to keywords in that area. There is too much text on the home page. Photos of homes would have more impact on your site visitors as well some well placed bulleted text with the name of other towns and cities in your market. Adding a luxury home page with related text on the home page would increase your chances of picking some highend buyers.

Also in today's market you should condsider text about foreclosures and the great deals that are out there.

Good Luck!!

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