Time for a Responsive Property Management Website

What is a responsive website? According to Wikipedia…

"Responsive web design (RWD) is a web design approach aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from mobile phones to desktop computer monitors)".  [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsive_web_design]

In other words, a responsive website will respond to the user’s device by rendering the appropriate version of the site depending on the exact display area of that particular device. This creates a great user experience regardless of the device and should eliminate side to side scrolling. With literally hundreds of different mobile devices, it is virtually impossible to program a mobile version for each of them. Responsive allows programmers to build sites for display size rather than devices. Since all web development should be for humans first, and then SEO, responsive is the way to go. Notice in the below graphic, there is no scroll bar for the responsive version, and the navigation is cut off on the mobile friendly version (non-responsive). Scrolling a non-responsive website side-to-side is maddening for mobile users.

Mobile usage is increasing much faster than anyone predicted and property managers need to know how it affects them. The most critical area is with rental property display on a property manager’s website. Currently, this will be the most heavily used portion of your site from a mobile or desktop perspective, and mobile internet usage is already passing desktop usage. The overall trend is that mobile usage will continue to increase as desktop usage declines. Therefore, webmasters should program with an eye toward mobile devices FIRST and traditional desktop devices second. The best way to accomplish this is through responsive website design.

Most prospective tenants out in the field will use a phone or mobile device to view property information. This means that both your website AND your property display must be responsive to deliver the most professional experience to prospective tenants. MOST property management website providers do not build responsive websites, and even fewer offer a responsive property display. Many companies utilize a separate mobile website, which can be effective, but is no longer a best practice as we will cover in a future post.

To test your website and specifically your rental property display we recommend:

www.responsinator.com

We recommend that property managers begin to budget for a responsive website within the next year to stay relevant and ahead of their competition. The internet is an ever-changing environment and we believe that responsive websites are here to stay. In our next post we will cover why it is important for SEO to switch to a responsive website.  Questions, visit  Property Manager Websites.

David Borden

Co-Founder

With a resume that includes West Point graduate, Captain of the West Point Team Handball team (which, interestingly, is also referred to as “Borden Ball” around the world. Google it. We’re not sure which name came first, but we’re pretty sure Dave could tell you), US Army Chinook helicopter pilot and Co-founder, President & CEO of what is now the leading website in the country for advertising long term residential rentals, it stands to reason why Dave has a place at the PMW kitchen table...

With a resume that includes West Point graduate, Captain of the West Point Team Handball team (which, interestingly, is also referred to as “Borden Ball” around the world. Google it. We’re not sure which name came first, but we’re pretty sure Dave could tell you), US Army Chinook helicopter pilot and Co-founder, President & CEO of what is now the leading website in the country for advertising long term residential rentals, it stands to reason why Dave has a place at the PMW kitchen table: his appetite for success. And, well, because he keeps us laughing. As our resident funny-man (possibly self-proclaimed), his booming voice can be heard spreading the PMW gospel to anyone who’ll listen. And, frankly, even those who have no interest in property management. (Don’t they teach “Inside Voice” at America’s oldest military academy?) But his high-decibel, funny ways become awfully serious when it comes to staying one step ahead for the good of our customers; because Dave has been there. As a second-generation property manager from Colorado Springs, CO, he knows the struggles that property managers go through and painstakingly dissects every step of their process to come up with ways to ease their burden. As former CEO & President of RentClicks (which went on to become Rentals.com), he strategically positioned their business to become NARPM’s first official partner and was awarded NARPM’s National Affiliate of the Year three times. When he’s not devouring industry information at our kitchen table, you might find him bellying up to a plate of wings while watching his beloved (understatement) Broncos, flipping channels in search of a historical documentary, searching out a tennis match or preaching the ways of the world to his pre-teen sons, Andrew and Brady.