our work
seeff website development
Launch Date: 16 March 2009
In a tough property market, Seeff made the decision to reinvest in their business strategy. Armed with fresh, new branding donning the prominent tagline "Smart Move" the natural progression was to give their website a professional dose of strategic cosmetic surgery.
A three month planning process ensued comprising extensive research, serious brain joggling and a hefty dash of passion towards creating Africa’s benchmark property website.
Bigger, better and smarter than ever, the new Seeff website is a testament to a brand that has been around for over 64 years and is not afraid to test the boundaries and achieve excellence in everything involving land, bricks, mortar and an imagination.
Technologies Used:
- * Open Source Language Based Proprietary Development
- * Web 2.0 Technologies including AJAX
- * Content Distribution Network
- * Inventory Management with Image Banks
- * Aggregator Website Integration
- * Automated Currency Conversion
- * Multiple Enquiry Channel Platforms including direct SMS
- * Portfolio Building Capability
search tools
As the primary purpose of the website is to showcase property inventory, the search tools form the most an integral part. Through research it was recognized that there are three primary search mechanisms: Keyword, Map and Reference.
The keyword search mechanism makes use of a smart database query which pulls through all the locations which hold inventory, so it reacts immediately to what you type. This enables the user to type the first few letters of a city, town or area and they are instantly presented with options from which they can select.
The map search makes use of AJAX technology which seamlessly flows to deeper levels and ultimately a final selection level to segregate your search down to specific areas in a particular location.
Finally, the reference search provides a quick, simple mechanism to enter a property reference number and immediately be directed to its details page.
website tools
As part of the property searchers journey, we decided to include a number of helpful functions that can aid their experience and decision making process
These tools include the following:
• Currency conversion tool: With Seeff having branches in the likes of Mauritius and Namibia, and with buyers from America, Europe and Britain, the currency conversion tool is a helpful feature to give foreign buyers true price perspective.
• Bond calculator: For the majority of property buyers, a bond is required. While this is a rather clichéd feature on a property website, on Seeff we decided to give it a different twist so it not only works synchronously with the price of the property being viewed, but allows you to play around with the figures too, in case you have a better interest rate up your sleeve or a bag of cash to put down as a deposit.
• Branch locator: There will always be those property seekers who would rather have an agent do the searching for them. A property agency’s website wouldn’t be complete with a branch locator, a simple tool to locate your nearest office of property experts.
• Property alert: If you’re strapped for time and don’t feel like finding a branch and contacting them directly, you can conduct a search and then send your criteria to any branch to alert you of any properties matching your criteria in the area you’re looking for.
• Refine search options: Once you’ve done a search, chances are you’ll want to tweak something to refine it. This tool allows you to further narrow your search with a full range of options including changing the area, price range, property criteria and currency. Rather than do a new search each time, you can simply refine your current search.
• Mark as viewed: We’ve all looked at properties in the newspapers and the process usually involved a pen and a fair amount of circling of prospective options. This tool works much the same way in that it helps you mark the properties you’ve viewed, so when you do another search you can focus on the properties you haven’t yet viewed, making the search journey faster and more focused.
Click here to vist the website
enhanced usability
In reviewing the old Seeff website we recognized a number of usability deficiencies and areas for improvement. Through our initial research for the project we did extensive property searches to test various functionality and usability on international agency websites, competitor websites as well as aggregator property websites.
Through this process we have brought together innovation and ensured that we always focused on the customer journey and catered as far as possible for every aspect that a property seeker may need to aid their journey. The tools and technologies described above and below will provide a good overview of how we have managed to achieve a very user friendly website interface.
Testament to our efforts is the fact that conversions on the new website have increased by 40% since from the old one, with the number of enquiries having broken the 4000 mark in the first 45 days post launch.
interactive photo gallery
One of the key requirements of the new Seeff website was to showcase the property imagery in a larger format. Through a photo gallery we were able to not only showcase larger imagery, but also offer thumbnail navigation through multiple photographs, loading seamlessly through AJAX technology. If nothing else sells you a property online, a few great pictures of its most redeeming features will.
personal property potfolio list
Rather than make an enquiry on every property you like, it makes sense to shortlist, compare, filter down and then enquire on them. To help the user with this scenario, we developed the My Seeff Property list and gave the option on every property to add to this list.
Once they are done, they can email this to whomever they wish - to refer or even revisit the properties directly. What makes this list truly unique is that is showcases the properties as they are found in a results set, in your email inbox.
direct agent contact via email and sms
Traditionally one would find a property, dial the agents number and hopefully get through to them. We decided that was archaic and rather impersonal, so we created a three tier enquiry form which provides an image of the agent, their name, full contact details and option to directly Email and/or SMS them using a quick form. Click here to vist the websiteer than make an enquiry on every property you like, it makes sense to shortlist, compare, filter down and then enquire on them. To help the user with this scenario, we developed the My Seeff Property list and gave the option on every property to add to this list.
Once they are done, they can email this to whomever they wish - to refer or even revisit the properties directly. What makes this list truly unique is that is showcases the properties as they are found in a results set, in your email inbox.
campaign statistics
A massive number of property seekers begin their journey in a Search Engine, usually Google. It therefore stands to reason that ranking well in the search listings plays a vital role for property agencies online. Seeff realized this early on and we embarked on a comprehensive search engine optimization strategy that has after 7 years shifted Seeff into a league of its own in this category.
Some key statistics include an average position of 3 (Three) for any combination of an area name and the keywords "property" or "real estate" following. Apart from this result, Seeff has over 2500 Top 10 listings across all major Search Engines. On Google specifically it has achieved 231 Top 3 listings, 265 Top 5 listings and 302 Top 10 listings. This is up to 8 times greater than their nearest competitors.
Seeff has on average 150,000 visitors to their website every month, with over 50% of them visiting from search engines, a testament of their excellent SEO strategy.