Last week I had the good fortune to attend Real Estate BarCamp Chicago where I got to sit in on a session led by Eric Stegemann of Tribus Real Estate. I’d encourage you to attend a BarCamp if at all possible, and if you’d like to learn about getting your website to the top of Google, make some time to meet Eric as well.
The main thing I took away from Eric’s talk was a remark he made about learning how people view your website. Eric suggested buying a little stack of $5 gift cards from a coffee shop, then politely asking a few customers there if they’d be willing to surf your website for a few minutes in exchange for a gift card. The point is to see how an actual person uses your site, what they find useful about it and what they completely overlook.
Reading your website stats can tell you a lot about how people find you and what they look at while they’re on your site, but sitting beside an actual person while they view your site for the first time can give you priceless information. Questions you may want to ask:
- Did you find the information you expected to see?
- Was the site easy to navigate?
- Did you like the site design?
- Would you know how to contact me if you had a question?
After a few borrowed minutes, give a quick thank you for their time, pass them a business card and let them get back to their coffee. Then take a look at your website with fresh eyes and think about how to make use of what you’ve learned.
Thank you for sharing this, Eric!
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Once agin, I love this idea too. I was wondering how to make it work since many places say “no solicitation.” Not that it’s exactly what we’re doing, but in the end, it’s to help our website and pass out our business cards.
But I can see putting this into practice very casually.
This is actually what I want to do when I go to a barcamp. I’d like to pass around websites and review each of them from our own point of view. It’s not something you can do on a local level, but on the state level, I think it would work.
Sarah, thanks for passing along what you learned and the recommendation to go to one of these camps. For me it can be too easy to just plug along and not solicit meaningful feedback on what is being put on our website. I’ll take a look at when I can get to a nearby camp offering AND, get some $5 gift cards! John
This has been always my passion.
I really liked that great post with that great idea. There should be more websites out there according to ISO usability standards.
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for passing on the knowledge which you got in the Barcamp from Eric Stegemann. I am sure it will help people like who wants these types of infos.
Hillsborough homes for sale
Great idea, thanks for sharing. So much comes at you at BarCamp that are great ideas that sometimes the obvious ones slip through the cracks… asking for input and feedback.