Understanding Your Responsive Website

iHouse Graphics and Product Manager Stephen Gruenholz recently published Why You Need a Responsive Website. (Blame me for the image above, however.) The big news is:

All of our Elite website designs are now responsive. Yep, all of them. And not just new designs for new customers…

Why you should care

This is a great big deal – and even if you don’t know it, you’re grateful. That’s because converting a site to being truly mobile responsive is anything but easy if you’re not a tech guru. Believe me, I know!

But that’s not the only reason. All evidence points to more and more people looking at websites on their smart phone. In fact, Stephen says 25 percent – I’m betting in a very short time that will be 30 percent and climbing until maybe 75 percent of folks will want to look at your real estate website with their smart phone. That’s a huge portion of your market!  And there you are, all set. Congratulations.

Check it out

The first thing to do is check out your own site with your own smart phone. If you want to quickly grasp what’s happening, do this while you’re looking at it on your desktop. Turn your phone both to the vertical and then to the horizontal and be amazed how all the necessary information and some (maybe all) of the visual info fits exactly as it should.

Try looking at it with several different phones and tablets. Maybe you can talk your manager into having a pass the phone/tablets around so everyone can experiment… just watch out not to get too much donut sugar on the phones as they go around!

If there’s a problem

If you happen to spot something that isn’t right, capture a picture of it, the web address, the time of day and the type of phone. If you can determine exactly what version of IOS or Android or other operating system, so much the better. Send it to our customer service department, along with a description of what you see happening.

You probably won’t need to do this, but converting so many websites means there may be a few that get glitched. We’ll get it fixed asap, and if it’s something you need to do at your end, we’ll make sure you understand exactly the steps.

Read Stephen’s article

Reading Stephen’s article will give you a better understanding of how mobile websites work without bogging you down in geek details. Don’t get hung up in his description of ““picture” element and image “src-set” – true geek talk – just know that your site will be getting better and better at handling images. It won’t hurt, and it might even help, if, when you’re uploading images you use the smaller sizes – when you’ve got a choice.

Bragg about your mobile responsive site

The fact that your site is ready to be viewed on smart phones and tablets is news. You can write your own article about it putting it in your own words.

You can also use a tag-line like “smart phone viewable” or “see my site on your smart phone and tablet” in your ads, on your business cards next time you order them, and even, maybe, as a sign rider.

When you’re talking to a seller about listing their property make it clear – even demonstrate – that your site is mobile ready. For awhile this is a nice, competitive advantage. Use it!

Got questions about your site and it’s new mobile abilities? Ask ’em here and we’ll get answers.