Many people ask if there is a way to make their website more appealing.  There's a short answer to this question: "Yes!"

However, most people are interested in the longer answer. The real question is not, "can my design be changed," but, "what should I consider in my website design."  A website's purpose is not just to look pretty, but to accomplish the goals of your business.  You probably have some excellent ideas to accomplish this. These should be combined with the ideas of a design firm with extensive experience in using the internet to meet the specific needs of your marketplace. A website designer that creates an excellent site for automobiles or boots may not be able to create a site that serves the goals of a property management company. As a property manager, you are likely familiar with this concept in serving your owners: you may have an owner who is an excellent lawyer or doctor, but they really need to consider the input of an excellent property manager if their goal is to maximize their real estate investment. The doctor is the right person to tell you what medicine to take, but often not the ideal person to tell you how to manage and maintain a rental property.

Your website definitely has to fit you. If it doesn't look like your company, and doesn't portray you as you need to be seen, it has failed. Your website should be an extension and expression of your company. However, it should not sacrifice your business goals in order to make a fashion statement. Consider the following audiences that your website should address:

Owners/Investors

Your website must be attractive to inspire confidence in your company. It should meet or exceed the expectations of owners who are selecting a management company, individually and when compared to other companies in your region. It should be clean and well understood. It must answer the questions that owners ask:

• Can I trust this company with my investment?
• What does this company offer?
• What makes this company better than other choices?

These questions should be answered in a way that makes sense to owners.  Your site's navigation and structure must be intuitive and clear.  Give your owners a clear call to action; let them know the next step to get more information or engage your services.

Tenants/Residents

A tenant has to believe that you will take care of them and the property they occupy.  Your website can go a long way in communicating this. Is is kept up-to-date with modern website conveniences? An out-of-date website can communicate to tenants that you don't keep their properties maintained. Does your company stay ahead of the curve? If not, a tenant may prefer another company over yours, all other things being equal.  Here are some of the questions that tenants ask:

• Does this company care?
• Does this company offer the type of property I'm looking for, in the right location, at the right price?
• Will this company respect and regard me and my needs?

Don't disregard the likelihood that your prospective owners are shopping you based on how your website may be perceived by tenants.  Owners know that if you do not appeal to the type of tenant they are seeking (clean, professional, informed, responsible), they could be faced with a bad tenant or an extended vacancy - the things that keep owners awake at night.

Search Engines

A search engine must look at your website and decide where to place it in their results for a given search query.  Without good search engine positioning, you are losing the opportunity to present yourself to the people on whom your business depends.  Don't sacrifice your user experience for search engine placement - this will result in high traffic with low effectiveness. A well designed website will appeal to both search engines and people. Remember, Google's highest objective is to give people exactly what they're looking for. Google serves people, not robots. The "people experience" must be good or Google will lower your ranking - if not now, then when they do their next update!  While the list of questions that a search engine "asks" is long, an experienced designer should have a healthy understanding of these questions and know how to answer them correctly. The HERO Websites system has these questions built right in to its architecture, and it lets you know where your site is not answering these questions properly. 

If your designer advises that your website needs a change to meet the needs of your business and your audience, trust them - but only if they have multiple years of proven experience in meeting those needs!  A perfect website should be an effective collaboration between you and your designer. You should outline what makes your company unique, what your company "looks" and "feels" like, and what your company wants to achieve. An experienced designer should then take that and translate that into a website that accomplishes that with efficiency and effectiveness.

When you're ready to update your website and increase its appeal (which should be done every few years to keep up with trends) order a website design from your account, or contact support for guidance.