Multifamily properties spend thousands of dollars on custom and template websites each year. Even more dollars are spent to drive prospective renters to those websites via PPC, paid social media, display, reputation management sites, and ILSs. While many developers, owners, and multifamily marketers spend countless hours on creative calls with their website developers to make sure the aesthetics of their websites are in-line with their brand vision, many fail to address the functionality of these sites. Page speed, landing page experience, HTTPS ranking boost, Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), and First Input Delay (FID) are rarely, if ever, discussed in the build out of custom websites. While some of these terms may seem like a foreign language, the importance of addressing these with your web developers will help lead to better performance for your multifamily digital marketing strategy in the long run. Furthermore, increased website functionality, faster load times, and better landing page experiences on your websites can lead to cost savings in the Google and Facebook auctions for your online paid ad campaigns.
In an effort to create a "better web," Google is pushing forward on making landing page experience (defined as "how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page") a core factor in website ranking in the near future. While no immediate changes are necessary, multifamily marketers, owners, and web developers should plan on addressing this adjustment as we plan and budget for 2021. In their announcement of the change, Google notes "by adding page experience to the hundreds of signals that Google considers when ranking search results, we aim to help people more easily access the information and web pages they are looking for." The welcomed change will simply create a better search environment for prospects. Better performing, safer, and faster websites with appropriate content will be rewarded by ranking higher in a prospect's search. Google's announcement brings necessary attention to the performance and not just the look of multifamily websites. By ensuring that your sites have a better landing page experience and faster load times, you will be rewarded within the organic and paid search results. If you have questions about your current website(s) performance or would like additional information, please email dk@streetdigitalmedia.com.