Full Transcript
Lauren: So my friend is a realtor, and she told me she's been losing clients and she has no idea why. She says people find her through referrals, they seem interested, and then... nothing. They just disappear.
Honor: Welcome to the 805 Web Minute with Lauren and Honor... We make interwebs and website stuff make sense... Let's get into it.
Honor: Okay, so here's a question. When those referrals get her name, what's the first thing they do?
Lauren: I mean... they probably Google her?
Honor: Exactly. And what do they find? Because here's the thing... 96% of home buyers use the internet during their search. Basically everyone.
Lauren: Okay, that makes sense. People research everything online now.
Honor: Right, but here's the part that surprised me. 43% of buyers start their entire home-buying journey online. Not with a referral, not with a yard sign... they start by searching.
Lauren: Wait, so almost half of potential buyers would never even find my friend if she doesn't show up in search?
Honor: Right. But even for the referrals, they're still Googling her before they call. They want to verify she's legit.
Lauren: It's like... the website is the first showing. Before they ever meet her in person.
Honor: That's exactly right. And here's where it gets brutal. 72% of home buyers are searching on their phones. Not on a computer... on their phone, probably on the couch.
Lauren: Oh! So if her website looks terrible on a phone...
Honor: She's already lost them. And it gets worse. 53% of mobile users will leave a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load.
Lauren: Three seconds?! That's barely enough time to read the headline!
Honor: Exactly. So think about it. Someone gets a referral, they're excited, they Google your friend, and then... the site takes forever to load on their phone, or it looks all broken and zoomed out...
Lauren: And they just move on to the next agent.
Honor: Yeah. And they probably don't even think about it. They just feel like something was off.
Lauren: That's like... walking into an open house and the front door is stuck, and the lights don't work, and there's a weird smell. You're not gonna stick around to see the kitchen!
Honor: Perfect analogy. The website IS the first open house now. And when someone lands there, they're asking three questions... Can I trust this person? Do they know my area? And is this gonna be easy?
Lauren: And the website needs to answer all three... fast.
Honor: Fast. Because 88% of visitors won't come back after a bad experience. You get one shot.
Lauren: Okay, so what can my friend actually do about this?
Honor: The simplest thing? Pull up her website on her phone right now. Just look at it. Does it load fast? Can she read the text without pinching and zooming? Is there an obvious way to contact her... like a clickable phone number?
Lauren: So the moral of the story is... pull up your website on your phone. If it's slow, hard to read, or confusing to contact you... that's probably where you're losing people.
Honor: That's it. The phone test.
Lauren: And if it fails the test... give YouGrow a call!
Honor: Yeah, we build fast-loading, mobile-first websites. For real estate agents here on the Central Coast, that means your site works great on phones, shows off your local knowledge, and makes it dead simple to reach you. 79 dollars a month, month-to-month, no upfront costs. And we're local... I'm in Arroyo Grande. When something needs updating, you just call or text us.
Lauren: Love it. Alright, this has been 805 Web Minute. Thanks for listening!