I recommend Robert to clients who are impressed with his work. Check out his new site at https://schoenphoto.com.

We all know that cell phone use in the United States (and worldwide) continues to increase each year. Statistica.com states that “…73 percent of the population in the United States were actively browsing the internet from their mobile device.”  So, if you are hobbling along without a responsive website, you are falling behind. An article on the Five Reasons You Need a Responsive Website, they list three additional important points.

• Great User Experience is a Must.
• Responsive Website Design is Ideal for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Speed of Your Responsive Website is Key

The tendency to use plugins to fix your lack of a modern theme runs a risk of it not working well. It can take several hours better used to build a new site and lastly, it sets up a scenario where the plugin causes conflicts and the site breaks. The free versions are far from perfect.  The plugin may not include a tablet version. Pro versions are costly. And why would you pay to have a band-aid option?

Meet Divi. Our modular theme includes all the tools to customize both cell and tablet versions. You can resize text and remove sections or images. It is built into the theme and completely compatible.

Since DIvi is constantly being updated and improved, you won’t need to change themes ever again. There are thousands of designers and developers that can help you make changes and even alter the look and feel of the site.

So for me, it’s a no brainer. Switch to Divi and take control of your website for the rest of your life. (Divi can be purchased by you at https://elegantthemes.com or through your web designer…me.  😉

1. THE WEBSITE IS BROKEN

Which of these can break your website?
(a) You did not renew your domain
(b) Your hosting company went out of business and dropped your site
(c) You have malware and Google has blocked you
(d) All of the above

If you purchased your domain or domains from a different company than where you are hosted, be sure to stay on top of when they need to be renewed. I had a client lose a domain only to have it snatched up by a web shark who held it ransom for thousands of dollars.

2. NO ONE CAN FIND YOU

Reasons why people can’t find your website?
(a) Your site is broken (see above)
(b) You never submitted your site to search engines
(c) You have not added keywords or used a Search Optimization Plugin
(d) All of the above

It’s important that your website is built with content that includes many of the keywords people use to find you. This is called “on-page” search engine optimization. It should be included in the fee for building the website.

3. NO ONE STAYS ON YOUR WEBSITE

Reasons why people don’t stay on your website
a. People can’t read the text
b. The menu is confusing
c. The map was set for the wrong address.
d. All of the above

These days, attention spans are short. If your content does not catch the eye of the visitor, they are gone within seventeen seconds on average. Work with your web designer to create “Purposeful User Flow” and good visuals to beat your competition.

4. YOUR WEBSITE IS STATIC

Reasons why you should be able to edit your site
a. It costs less if you can make small changes
b. Being able to write blog posts increases traffic
c. Your webmaster went on a long vacation
d. All of the above

You should be able to edit blog posts and/or add new ones to keep your site fresh. Ask your webmaster to give you editor status so you can make changes and additions on a regular basis.

5. YOUR WEBSITE IS OVER THREE YEARS OLD

Why should you update your website every three years
a. The internet and software that supports it changes
b. Your brand is in need of an update
c. Your text and graphics are not attracting new clients
d. All of the above

The plugins and even some themes have a shorter lifespan than you may think. If they don’t keep up with the WordPress updates, they may even be inviting malware.

6. YOUR WEBSITE IS NOT RESPONSIVE

Why Should Your WordPress be Responsive?
a. Over 70% of visitors access the web with their cell phone
b. You will lose business if it isn’t
c. People will think you are not paying attention to your website
d. All of the above

If your website looks great on a laptop but fails to adjust for tablet and especially mobile, then you are missing a lot of opportunities to find new customers.

7. YOUR WEBMASTER IS NOT RESPONSIVE

Why you might need a new Webmaster
a. They graduated from high school and moved away
b. Your site is written in a code that only they can understand
c. Your webmaster is not updating your website
d. All of the above

Make sure you hire a professional who is in this business to stay. Custom websites may make the web developer feel accomplished but if they fail to update the code, then your site will quickly fail. A well established theme company with Premium Themes is a safer bet.

8. IT’S NOT MADE WITH WORDPRESS

Why is WordPress the most used CMS?
a. The software is open source
b. The software is free
c. It is the most widely used CMS Worldwide
d. All of the above

There are thousands of web developers and web designers around the world who use wordpress. New plugins are constantly coming on market so that you can find all the functionality you need.

P.S. Did you guess “d” on all the questions? You are correct!

If your bounce rate is more than 40%, your web site is not doing a good enough job capturing their interest. Ideally you want a bounce rate of 10% or less. So how do you get the conversion you want?

Here are some tips:

1. Use Call to Action buttons: These buttons should be colorful, attractive and at the top half of your pages. You can add them to any and every page if you like. Pop ups work too.

2. Offer a freebie: Do you have a White Paper, Power Point Presentation, Video, Information Graphic or booklet you can offer? Joke of the Day? People willingly fill out forms to get their free info.

3. Make the forms short: We hate to fill out long forms. If all you want is their email, then just ask for that.

4. Use Landing Pages for ad campaigns: Landing pages reside on your web site but look different. They are more a flyer with a form than a web page. There are no menus or side bars. You can advertise your product or service discount and direct people to that page. Such as “http://yoursite.com/offer”.

5. Make your website easy to use: This is more about good design. The information on your website should be easy to access and logically laid out. Also called Information Architecture or IA.

6. Make it Mobile Friendly: We’ve all heard about Google’s new algorithm by now. As of April 21, any site that is not Mobile Friendly, moves down the search list. 20% of first time visitors to your site are using their smart phone. Time to look for some Responsive themes and upgrade your site!

You may be wondering how does one check on their conversion rate? If you have a google email account, you can go to the Google Analytics website and use that user name and password to sign in. Then, type in your web site’s address. It may take a week or two for any activity to propagate there, so be patient. Check back to their website again to read your stats. And let’s hope it’s good news!

See the article from Inman Daily by Erica Trafavoti that explains it here:

“The focus of this update is to provide a better search experience for mobile users. To accomplish this, Google will be “expanding [its] use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal.” So what does that mean in plain English? If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, your search engine rankings and ultimately your Web traffic could take a hit.

This algorithm change has likely been in the works for a long time, as Google has made several announcements related to mobile devices in the past year, such as mobile usability tools, a mobile-friendly label in search results and even a mobile-friendliness test to give your site a pass/fail grade.

If you’ve been hanging on to your old-school website design for the past decade, Google has officially given you a reason to upgrade in the next two weeks. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, don’t panic, and definitely don’t pay someone from a spammy-looking “Your website is in danger” email to fix your site.

Here are some steps to take to ensure you’re prepared for this algorithm change:

1. Run your website through Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. 

If you get a green “Awesome! This page is mobile-friendly,” then you’re all clear. Skip to step 6. If you get a red “Not mobile-friendly,” then we have some work to do. If you manage your own website and were surprised to find out it wasn’t mobile-friendly, read on to the next step to see how to look for specific issues to fix. If you’re not the webmaster for your page or use a website provider, skip to step 3.

2. Check your mobile usability stats using Google webmasters tools.

If you thought your site was mobile-friendly, and it wasn’t, you can use these tools to identify any problems. This dashboard is designed to show you specific issues that are hurting your mobile-friendliness. If you haven’t set up your site with Google’s tools, here’s how. Below is an example of what a site with a few issues will look like in your dashboard:

You can click these usability errors and go directly to the page with the issue, and see what needs to be done to fix the page, whether it’s as simple as a change in font size or as complex as viewport issues that are preventing the page from adapting to smaller screens. Run through these errors and correct the necessary issues. Skip to step 5.

3. Check with your webmaster or website provider to see the status of your site. 

If your site is managed by another person or company and you’re getting a red notification from Google, it’s time to give them a call and see what you can do to get your site upgraded to a mobile-responsive theme. If your provider isn’t able to build mobile-responsive websites, move on to step 4. If you’re able to get upgraded, do it. In this case, change is good. After your site has been updated, skip to step 5.

4. Find a new website provider. 

Breaking up can be hard to do. If you have a long-standing relationship with your website provider, it can be difficult to leave and find a new one, but your business deserves better. When searching for a new provider, here are some things to look for:

• Live sample sites demonstrating previous work. It’s a good idea to plug these sites into Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test as well, to check and make sure their designs are as functional as they are visually appealing. No examples to check out? Steer clear. A quality website designer or provider should be proud of their work.
• Responsive design, not separate sites for mobile devices. Google has stated in the past that it prefers responsive design over other solutions.
• Experience transitioning desktop websites to mobile-responsive design. Transitioning to an entirely new website design is a lot more complicated than simply changing layouts and images. Redesigning a website can hurt existing search engine rankings if not done carefully. Any links with long-standing high rankings can disappear if a URL structure is incorrectly changed. Inbound links, an important ranking factor, can also be impacted in a redesign. Previous experience transitioning sites is important to retain any existing search authority.

Once you’ve found a new website provider or designer who can build your perfect mobile-responsive site, move on to the next step.

5. Test, test, then test again.

Once you’ve gone through a site redesign, or any time you make tweaks to your site, it’s important to run through every page of your site and make sure links are working and pages are loading properly. Run through it on a smartphone or tablet if you can, too. 

Since you’re a real estate professional and not a website designer, it can be tempting to trust that your site is always up and running smoothly, and go days, weeks or even months without actually checking on your site. However, your website is your online representation to potential clients, and it’s important to know it’s up and running and collecting leads. If you check Facebook every day to see what’s going on with your high school sweetheart, why wouldn’t you want to see what’s going on with your business? When you’ve checked through your website and everything is good to go, you can move on to the final and most exciting step.

6. Celebrate

Your site is now mobile-friendly and you can avoid all punishment from Google on April 21. Now, you can focus on adding relevant, local content to your website to climb the search engine rankings even further.

What do you think about Google’s algorithm update coming this month? Is your website prepared? Please continue the conversation in the comments section below.

Erica Tafavoti is an inbound marketing expert at PipelineROI, real estate’s first complete inbound marketing platform. You can follow her on Twitter at@PipelineROI and on pipelineroi.com/blog.”