Mobile Real Estate Search

Mobile real estate search used to be something home buyers only thought about briefly -- before trying to browse a local real estate website and giving up because the interface was too clumsy. It turns out that a normal website, designed for desktop computers or laptops, is like taking a hammer to a fly when it comes to real estate search.

The key to a good navigation experience on mobile real estate sites is simplicity and brevity. In fact, the two kinds of sites couldn't be more opposite in their ideal design strategies. For a desktop browsing experience that is optimized for the search engines, agents ought to have a site that has plenty of content-rich information for readers and search engines alike to digest. However, for mobile real estate search, elegance comes in small packages.

The small screen of a mobile device, as well as the slow bandwidth compared to normal desktop browsing, means there is premium on every pixel, every byte, and every click. Surprisingly, users will tolerate a few extra clicks if the navigation is fast and the desired content easy to find.

The minute you get into elaborate nested navigation menus with a mobile real estate search site, you are headed for trouble. You'll lose browsers fast if they have to scroll endlessly through menus to get to the content. Instead, present the data as high on the page as possible, and give them no doubts as to what's on the other side of their click.

Here's an example of a mobile real estate search site for Portland homes. Notice the very simple main menu navigation. Unlike typical optimization techniques for desktops, there is no significant text content on the page, because that adds to the page "weight" needlessly. With mobile website design, it's all about efficiency.

Another tool to search for homes online is an iPhone app designed for the purpose. Here is an example that is set up to search for Portland homes. More and more mobile phone real estate search apps are becoming available all the time, but the iPhone is the most popular, with half of all mobile web browsing.