Research shows that consumers seek real estate and mortgage services via the internet more frequently than any other medium.  We’re in a digital, information-driven age.  Sorry, but your ad in the phone book just isn’t going to cut it anymore.

That said, your mortgage website isn’t a magic money machine.  You may find, in fact, that your website isn’t bringing in any new applications, leads, or even site traffic.  If this is the case, one of the following issues may be at fault.

1.  Your website is impossible to find. This is the fundamental reason websites fail.  If no one ever sees your site, your site is a waste of time and money.

How you can fix it: Visitors won’t stumble onto your website accidentally, and you don’t want “accidental visitors” anyway.  You want real, significant, qualified traffic.  The following steps will help ensure that you get it.

• Make sure you have a domain name that is catchy, memorable, and easy-to-read-and-type.

• Fill your site with valuable, relevant content and information.

• Optimize your title tags to reflect the keywords your target market searches for, and integrate these keywords into your content.  Consult with an SEO specialist to gain further ideas about how to optimize your site.

• Connect with other sites and affiliates.  Get links to your pages out there for others to find.

• Check out these other ways to drive traffic to your site.

2.  You have nothing to say. While good, valuable content can help solve your traffic problems, poor or confusing content will turn visitors away from your site once they get there.  If your site makes no sense or doesn’t seem to offer anything useful, visitors won’t stick around long, and they definitely won’t call you for a loan.

How you can fix it: Again, content is the answer.  Host a blog, post articles, update your pages on a regular basis with graphs, charts, market news, and more.  Do anything you can to continuously provide visitors with the information they’re looking for, and organize it in a way that’s logical and easy-to-follow.

• Feature industry news on a regular basis.  Offer your opinions on recent events.

• Write pages that cover small, local markets.  A page for each local suburb or neighborhood might be good.

• Integrate a blog into your site, and update it with valuable content as often as possible.

3.  Your site doesn’t evoke trust. Let’s say you’re getting traffic, you’ve got your content organized concisely, but still no leads.  It may be that the way you’ve presented your site to visitors makes them feel pressured or skeptical.  If you’re promising pie in the sky, your visitors will sense that you aren’t being honest.  If your site is just a big mortgage marketing billboard, visitors will suspect a scam.  It’s not easy to establish trust on the internet, but it can be done.

How you can fix it: Transparency and authenticity are key.

• Talk about yourself, but not too much.  You need to let visitors know who you are, but don’t make yourself out to be some kind of hero or you’ll lose them.  Post a few pictures of yourself and a bio.

• Be realistic.  Talk about the true state of the economy, offer practical lending options, and so on.

• Focus on educating your visitors rather than selling to them.  This is the best way to establish trust, and sales will follow trust.

Sound like a lot of work?  It can be, but it doesn’t have to be.  Your best option is to work with a web development company that has the knowledge and ability to address these issues before they arise.