If you’re driving traffic to your apartment website but not seeing conversions, you may be compensating with more advertising than necessary. That’s a sign something’s off with your site.
If true, your apartment website likely suffers from one of these three issues we see most often:
- Lack of engaging, floorplan-specific content.
- Bad mobile version of the website.
- Pricing and availability information that hurts lead generation.
Let's break down these common problems with apartment websites and how to resolve them so that your community's most crucial marketing source converts traffic to renters.
Problem #1: Lack of engaging, floorplan-specific visual content.
The quality of the photos and videos of your units, amenities, and property on your apartment website make or break renters' perceptions.
This isn't anything new in apartment marketing.
Yet, confusingly, how visual content is presented and organized is where most apartment websites fail—and it's where most prospective renters hit a wall.
The biggest culprit? It's your 'Gallery' page.
You might think, "The gallery page is the most important feature on my apartment's website."
The problem isn’t your gallery page itself—it’s that many apartment websites rely on it exclusively to showcase visual content.
When photos of kitchens, bedrooms, and amenities are all grouped together with no context, renters can’t tell which images belong to the floorplan they’re interested in.
And because every renter knows what floorplan they need before beginning their search, they want to be able to see exactly what it looks like on your website.
Gallery pages don’t accurately depict the differences between each unique floorplan, and don't address a basic renter need. When that happens, they'll leave your website without converting, and end up seeking other communities who make it easier to see inside their desired floorplan.
Solution: Present floorplan-specific content on your apartment website.
The problem with photo gallery pages isn't the page itself; it's the lack of floorplan-specific content featured on your website.
Reorganizing your website so that each floorplan has a dedicated page provides the most transparent representation of your apartments for prospective residents.
They can see photos and virtual tours of the floorplan they're looking for and get a comprehensive breakdown of rent, availability, pet policy information, amenities, appliances, included utilities, and more.
Problem #2: Bad mobile version of the website.
Many multifamily marketers unintentionally evaluate the appearance of the desktop version of their community websites, whether they were built in-house or purchased from a vendor.
Today, it's a huge misstep to ignore the appearance and usability of the mobile version of your community website.
Over 80% of all traffic to our clients’ apartment websites is from mobile devices. That means the mobile version of your community website is likely more than double the value of your desktop version, so it's a big mistake to ignore its appearance and usability.
When the mobile version of your website is neglected and not working—you're not just making it harder for prospects to engage and convert, but you're also going to get dinged by Google's search algorithms.
Solution: Prioritize the appearance and performance of the mobile version of your apartment's website.
A great mobile apartment website should load fast, display media that works seamlessly, and utilize built-in calls-to-action that open navigational applications or instantly dial the leasing office's number.
If you're purchasing or building a new website, focus on its mobile appearance and performance first, as that is the medium by which most prospective residents will engage with your apartment community.
Problem #3: Pricing and availability information that hurts lead generation.
Imagine how a prospect would feel if they came to an apartment website, grew interested in applying to that community after engaging with the content, but then saw that the listed rent for their desired floorplan was shown as '$980-$2,100/month.'
A broad price range like that is a typical byproduct of the legacy revenue management systems the multifamily industry relies on.
We understand that the prices reflect the differences in term lengths, but prospective renters don't know what that means and will almost always assume that the rent price they'd pay is closer to the high end of that listed range.
That uncertainty alone could be enough to send them searching elsewhere.
The same issue applies to how apartment websites display unit availability. Everyone understands the need to show real-time availability online, so integration with property management software is a must-have.
Scarcity prompts action. If your website doesn’t create that urgency—especially on floorplans with multiple vacancies—you risk losing leads to more assertive competitors.
Solution: Display accurate, understandable pricing and availability information on your apartment's website that initiates lead and lease conversions.
We wrote another article with more keys about effectively displaying pricing and availability on your apartment website, and the objectives are still clear:
- Availability information must be up-to-date, which is most accessible through integration. If you don't have integration, do you have someone on staff who can make frequent changes? Or do you rely on a vendor to make changes? Make sure you get this process down.
- Be careful with showing unit availability if there's not enough scarcity. One recommendation is to use language such as 'Available Now' instead of showing the exact number of units available when that amount is high.
- Never let pricing information be the reason an interested prospective resident moves on. The best practice is to show only one price for each unit, the rent for the standard 12-month lease term. (That is a core feature of RentVision's apartment revenue management solution.)
Key Takeaway
If your apartment website is struggling to convert, it could be experience one or more of these common issues:
- Lack of floorplan-specific virtual content
- A bad mobile experience
- Confusing (or outright lacking) unit pricing and availability information
Thankfully, each issue is solvable.
And with RentVision's Community Websites, they're intentionally prevented.
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Floorplan-specific website architecture
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Mobile-first responsive design
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Integrated pricing and availability
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Automated updates to floorplans with the most upcoming vacancy
Schedule a demo to learn more!