This is the fifth post in the series on website content mistakes you can avoid so that you don’t end up annoyed with your website like our friend here.  Use this link to see all the posts in this series:  Real Estate Website Content Mistakes.

The first four posts in this series covered issues related to how your website is set up, some related to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and some related to how your content is written.

10.  Web Pages That Are Not Set Up to Support Scanning

Since we already know that your visitors aren’t going to actually read every word on your pages, it’s critical that you set up your pages so that they can be easily scanned.

What makes a page easy to scan?

1.  A Clean Layout – If there are too many choices, too many things on a page vying for your visitors’ attention, your pages aren’t going to be easy to scan. 

2.  A Clear Purpose - Keep in mind what you want your visitors to do on every page.  When a visitor lands on your home page, you want them to find that link that attracts their attention and takes them to a page on your site where they can get the information they want, and where you provide a good reason for them to contact you. 

• Your home page is not the best place to put a long list of links to other websites.
• Make sure your home page introduces your visitors to your site.  Visitors might not even look at your menu, so make sure you have prominent links to key pages on the site.

3.  Effective Headlines and Bolding – Break up your pages with bolded headlines.  Use bolding so that if a person simply scanned down the page reading the bolded text, they’d still get a good idea of what the page is about.  If they’re interested, they’ll go back and read the content more carefully.

4.  Links that Look Like Links – Don’t try to get creative with links.  If you can click it, let people know. 

• Use a link color that has a strong contrast to your site’s background color and the color of regular text.
• Use bolded and underlined text links.  It may be boring because everyone does it.  But, that’s also what your visitors are looking for.
• Don’t bold and underline text that is not a link.  You’re just going to confuse your visitors
• Use graphic buttons that look like clickable buttons.

5.  Short Line Lengths – There’s a reason why most websites use columns in the layout.  It’s more difficult to read words on a monitor than in a book.  If the line lengths on your site are very long, the reader will lose their place easily. 

The next and last post in this series will talk about the crucial issue of how to tell your visitors why they should work with you as opposed to any other agent.  Stay tuned…