Your website design is the center of the property’s digital presence. It is the first interaction between the building and your future residents. It’s essential to translate the familiarity of your brand from the digital space to the physical property. When done correctly, your website will drive traffic and increase your property’s leasing velocity.
Today, renters make their decision online before stepping onto the property. According to a recent National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC), 80% of apartment residents will visit a property’s website before deciding to rent. Furthermore, over 33% of today’s renters visit a single property before signing a lease, making it even more important that your property’s first impression is impactful.
Templates vs. Custom Websites
Templated websites and custom-designed websites are two solutions that serve a variety of purposes. Depending on the specific needs of the property, you can decide which option works best for you.
Templated Websites have advantages and disadvantages. Templates typically have a shorter development period between 2-3 weeks and are more cost-effective than custom websites. However, because it is a template, the website’s design will look similar to other websites on the internet and won’t be highly customizable. Making too many changes to the templated website can ultimately slow down the page performance, which increases your load time and negatively affects your SEO performance. Uncomn Projects generally recommends templated websites for projects with less than 150 units.
Custom Websites allow us to create a unique digital storytelling experience. It starts with a creative process to pinpoint your target audience, desired website functionality, ideal look, feel, and design. When it comes to larger properties, creating a customized website allows you to showcase your brand story and differentiate your property in highly competitive markets. However, custom-built websites tend to take longer than templates because everything is built from scratch to cater to the property’s specific needs. This development period usually takes between 4-6 weeks to complete a custom website. See how we developed a custom website design for upperivy.com.
Best Practices For Your Website
Easy navigation
The functionality of the website can have a major effect on the user experience. Data has shown that 78% of users want to locate the information they’re searching for on a website within one to two clicks, so it is important to display important information above the fold. Designing a simple yet effective website that people can view both on desktop and mobile devices can enhance the user experience.
SEO
Search engine optimization is the process of improving the quality of your website by increasing visibility to drive traffic to your website. As mentioned previously, users researching apartments look to the internet first before stepping onto the physical property. Before you optimize your website for search engines, it is important to decide on keywords. Using tools such as Google’s Keyword planner can help identify how keywords might perform. Metrics such as bounce rate, page speed, pages per session, and click-through rate (CTR) are just a few to focus on. For a deeper dive into Search Engine Optimization, visit our blog on SEO.
Mobile-friendly Website Design
According to Perficient Digital, over 58% of website visits were from mobile devices. Recently, mobile searches have surpassed desktop searches and have played a significant role in how renters make decisions.
According to Google, 54% of people say that a business’s mobile website load time affects how long they stay on a website. As a matter of fact, Google has now made mobile-responsive website loading speed a significant ranking factor. As a site’s mobile load time increases, even a one-second delay in mobile load time can impact conversion rates by up to 20%.
Renderings & 3D Floors Plans
Producing renderings for your landing page provides prospective tenants with a lifestyle visualization of the property in the early development stages. Additionally, renderings have multiple uses that go beyond the website. During the pre-leasing phase, the renderings can be utilized on other platforms such as Google My Business and social media platforms.
3D floor plans are important in the pre-leasing phase because it gives potential renters an idea of how their furniture would look inside their home. Also, it allows them to visualize themselves living in the unit before they visit the property which can expedite the leasing process.
Any of Uncomn Projects templated or custom websites can host virtual tours that enable potential out-of-state residents to experience the property. Typically, a prospect revisits a website 5 times before scheduling a tour. Utilizing these elements on your website can dramatically improve leasing activity.
Ensuring your website delivers a strong first impression by providing easy navigation, producing renderings and 3D floor plans, making sure your website is mobile-friendly, and optimizing your website for SEO for tenants will bring your development to life online and allow your property to better connect with their tenants. Get in touch and email us at [email protected] or visit our website design page.
