A recent press release from Thehomepage.com.au has indicated that 32% of their traffic is via a mobile device.
When it comes to ways house-hunters prefer to view Thehomepage.com.au, our users have well and truly spoken (with their fingers).
Over 32% of visitors to Thehomepage.com.au now use a mobile device to do so. As Dave Platter points out, that figure is only going to rise, and quickly at that. We’ve seen the graph rise dramatically. See for yourself.
To embrace this trend Thehomepage.com.au has just launched a mobile version of their portal. You can visit Thehomepage.com.au on your iPhone, Android or other mobile device (or check it out here http://m.thehomepage.com.au/ through a normal device) and have a look around.
Here are a few screen shots of the mobile site:
In a previous post I discussed the portals in the Australian real estate industry who currently have mobile version of their site. In my opinion, REA had the best mobile site but I think Thehomepage’s mobile site challenges REA for this position. The user experience is much more enjoyable than the other portals. Things like being able to save open times to your calendar, the finger slider for images, property options at the bottom of the screen and the general style of the site. They’ve done an excellent job and have set the benchmark across the industry.
7 Comments
Dave Platter
Interesting post, Ryan. Well done.
vic Del Vecchio
Hi Ryan.
An interesting post. Can you tell me the start point for the graph and % at that time. Our own data shows that we are now averaging 27% from mobile devices with the greater majority being from iPads. The same time last year we were around 10%. The engagement rate from mobile devices shows similar data to other browsers excepting for Mobile phones. This data is slightly lower on time on site and page views. But that was to be expected.
We overhauled our site in January with a focus on being more iPad friendly. We are now looking to do same with phones.
Well done to the home page guys though.
Ryan O'Grady
Vic, I was provided with the image from THP so perhaps someone there can provide more info for what time frame it relates to?
Glad to hear you guys are focusing resources in this area. Cheers
Glenn Rogers
Do mobile sites need updating via XML or do they reflect the main web site automatically, we all need some clarification on how they work, I understand changing the web site means the mobile site needs to be changed also but just adding content such as listings and locations/regions to the existing framework/web site would appear on the mobile site automatically..is this correct ?
I’ve no doubt this is now vitally important for any real estate web site but there needs to be some education put out there.
Glenn Rogers
Got the answer, it auto updates so no problem there.
Jason
Realestate and Domain have mobile sites, iphone and ipad apps.
Hows this news?
Ryan O'Grady
given their budgets you’d expect them to have them. THP have no where near the budget those guys do yet their mobile site provides a better user experience. Great effort THP.