http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/successful-mortgage-website-design-four-important-elements.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/successful-mortgage-website-design-four-important-elements.html Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Authority

It is a must for your lead generation website to be authoritative. If you can demonstrate your expertise with high-quality content on topics that interest your website visitors, and also educate them and build trust with them, then you will enjoy success. What you need is high-quality content.

In addition, any tools and resources that you can offer that have value will be greatly appreciated. These typically include mortgage calculators, blogs, rate tracking tools and other resources that help your visitors better understand their mortgage options. In order to build trust and credibility, you have to demonstrate that you are an authority of mortgage information.

Architecture

Great content is a necessity. But if your users can't easily get to your articles, tools and resources, then that great content will be wasted. Your content must be organized and laid out so that it is very easy to navigate and is not confusing to your visitor.

Proper website layout will increase conversion ratings and ultimately improve your mortgage lead generation drastically. A big part of architecture is where you place your calls to action. There should be a visible call to action on every page of your website, if you are going to optimize your conversion percentages to generate the highest number of visitors and leads.

Applications

Your mortgage applications must have the correct style, otherwise your online conversions will suffer. For example, a mistake that is commonly made by mortgage website design companies is that they use a full 1003 application. The problem with this application is that it is too long, and visitors are less likely to fill it out because of its length.

A better choice is a short form 4 page application. The top lead generating mortgage companies never use full 1003 mortgage applications on their websites. That is because they've spent tons of money testing various applications to find which one resulted in the highest mortgage rate conversion rate.

It is of critical importance that you understand this concept -- in order to optimize your lead generation, you should not use a full 1003 application.

SEO/Technical Aspects

There are other minor things you can do to your website to optimize it. For example, you can put the keywords you are targeting into your header tags, page urls, as well as on the content of your website. With the proper search engine optimization, you will get higher rankings in the search engine which will bring you more traffic for the terms you are targeting.

In addition, you want to make sure you have a website that is designed to load as quickly as possible, and performs without any bugs or errors. This does not mean that you have to learn server-side script or code structure. But you must be aware of these factors, and make sure they are addressed properly.

All of the above elements of mortgage website design are crucial for cultivating a successful online presence. The idea behind these elements is to create an intuitive and easy to navigate website that ultimately will generate mortgage leads and revenue for your company.

Also, many users are now finding websites through other marketing channels such as radio, direct mail and flyers. The bottom line is that if you do not have a website that is properly optimize, all of your marketing is going to suffer. With this in mind, it is not hard to see that you should invest in a quality online presence if you wish to survive and thrive in the mortgage world.

Summary: There are many elements in mortgage website design that work together to create a successful online presence. These elements work together to achieve two goals: providing an intuitive and truly useful source of information for website visitors and generating mortgage leads by converting these website visitors. It is also important to consider than many of the prospects that you reach with your other marketing activities such as radio, direct mail, flyers, etc., will end up on your website to learn about your company and build trust. This means that if you don’t have a website, or it is a poorly built website, all of your marketing campaigns can be adversely affected, regardless of the medium. For these reasons, investing in a quality online presence is no longer an option, but a necessary strategy for surviving and thriving in the mortgage world of today.

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Trace Richardson is the CEO of Ipagio.com, a Mortgage Website Design firm that builds high conversion Mortgage Lead Generation and Mortgage Marketing Websites.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/mortgage-website-design-basics.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/web-design/mortgage-website-design-basics.html Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500
It's easy to see how you can save costs by generating your own leads, as opposed to paying for them through a third-party. In addition, not only will you save on the cost of the lead, but typically exclusive leads have higher conversion rates than purchased leads. The problem with buying leads is you are not sure of their quality. The same leads may have been sold to other mortgage companies, or the leads are not well targeted.

If you're going to be generating mortgage leads online, then the first step is obvious -- you need a mortgage website that is optimized to do this. If you already own an existing website, and you're not successfully generating leads, then it's time to make some changes. The two main problems that mortgage websites have are lack of quality content and lack of Internet marketing knowledge to drive traffic to their websites.

In order for your website to be effective, it must be developed properly. With that in mind, we will discuss the most important mortgage website design factors.

Your website architecture, on page search engine optimization, content, navigation, calls to action and the tools and resources you offer on your website are probably the most important factors that contribute to mortgage web sites that generate high-quality leads.

These are the building blocks to a successful mortgage website. If any mortgage website lacks just one of these factors, their mortgage lead conversion rates will go down and ultimately they will be leaving revenue on the table. In any case, if you're dealing with a mortgage website design company, it's important to keep the end goal in mind, which is:

To create a website that is useful to the end user while optimized to ask for actions which will lead to the highest conversions on each and every page of your website.

Mortgage Website Design Factors - Mortgage website architecture, on-page seo, high quality mortgage related content, visitor friendly navigation, calls to action, and mortgage tools and resources are some of the elements that make up high converting mortgage websites. These are the building blocks of building successful mortgage websites and mortgage website design, but are by no means exhaustive. It is important to maintain a focus on the usefulness of the website for the end visitor while still keeping in mind the importance of implementing calls to action and conversion on each page as well.

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Trace Richardson is the CEO of Ipagio.com, a Mortgage Website Design firm that builds high conversion Mortgage Lead Generation and Mortgage Marketing Websites.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/finance/no-closing-cost-refinance-basics.html http://www.articletrader.com/finance/no-closing-cost-refinance-basics.html Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500
The key to no cost loans is the "break even point". When you refinance with no costs your rate may be about .25% higher and this means that you will have a slightly higher payment, but this works to your advantage as shown below.

There are two components to closing costs:

1) The 3rd party closing costs (title insurance, escrow, appraisal, etc.)
2) Points you pay to buy down your rate.

If a borrower takes out a loan for $300,000 at 5.75% with $2750 in closing costs they will make a monthly payment of $1751 per month. Compare this to a borrower who takes out a $300,000 loan with NO Closing costs at 6.00% with a monthly payment of $1799. The person taking out the No Closing Cost Refinance will pay an extra $48 per month, but will have saved $2750 in closing costs. This means that unless the borrower is in the loan longer than the breakeven point of the Closing Costs - $2750 divided by the Monthly Savings - $48 which equals 57 (weeks) or 4.75 years than the No Cost Loan makes the most sense. If the borrower is going to be in the loan for longer than 4.75 years than paying closing costs and possibly points makes the most sense.

The added benefit is that if rates go down, a person in a No Cost Refinance can easily keep refinancing to a lower rate with no closing costs. There is no limit to how many times they can do this.

No cost loans are one of the most misunderstood mortgage loans that exist. Many mortgage brokers believe that they are a gimmick or scam, but the simple truth is that the math does not lie. Most homeowners are simply no in their loans long enough to justify closing costs. If you are unsure about whether a no closing cost or no cost refinance is right for you, simply have your mortgage professional run the numbers!

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Trace Richardson is the CEO of TraceCapital.com, your source for No Closing Cost Refinance Loans and No Cost Mortgages. TraceCapital.com enables you to find a home loan without having to pay closing costs!

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]>