How to create the best mortgage broker website in 10 key steps

As a mortgage broker, it can be easy to overlook the basics of branding when you are focused on lenders, products and processes.

This is why the first step to having a great website is creating a strong visual identity that is suitable for online use. Your brand is a fundamental part of the long-term success of your mortgage broking business, so it is important to consider how your brand and logo will be presented across your website and other digital touchpoints.

Google Business Profile uses square aspect ratios for profile images.

Most modern platforms, such as Google Business Profile, Instagram and Facebook, now use square-shaped favicons and profile pictures, so it is important to design a logo that is legible within this aspect ratio. Your logo and wider branding should also be versatile enough to maintain clarity across different sizes, resolutions and formats, as the same brand assets may appear in different contexts, such as a small mobile icon, social media profile image, website header, email signature or larger promotional graphic.

Google has stated that content plays an important role in improving search visibility, particularly when it demonstrates E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness. Content that reflects these qualities can help your website perform better in search results and improve the chances of being referenced in AI queries.

To remain effective, your content needs to be kept up to date, so scheduling regular reviews helps ensure your mortgage broker website content continues to accurately reflect your services and business information over time.

It is also worth focusing your content on what matters most to clients. For mortgage brokers, this may include clearly detailing your expertise, qualifications and areas of service, while highlighting any professional associations that help build trust.

Visitors to mortgage broking websites are typically conducting research on home loans or finance and, as a result, tend to browse on larger screens for a better informed experience. However, it is equally crucial to ensure your website adapts seamlessly to smaller devices, such as mobiles and tablets.

With mobile users in Australia accounting for ½ of all website traffic, a responsive design ensures that your website provides an optimal user experience at all times.

Responsive design means your website looks great across any device.

Our research has shown that a responsive website can correlate with improved website traffic, making responsiveness a key consideration for any broker website.

The digital tools at our fingertips have made it easier to gain business insights, yet most businesses are not using their data in any meaningful way. One of the most neglected aspects when brokers create a website is understanding what can be learned from the data collected through user behaviour.

Custom events and dimensions can help you improve conversion rates.

When creating your website, it is worth ensuring your analytics tools are configured correctly so the information gathered can inform better decision-making. A misconfigured setup can lead to months of valuable insights being lost, which can make it more difficult to identify what is and is not working.

When you start looking into which website design agency to engage for your mortgage broker website, you will quickly find there is a wide range of studios, platforms and content management systems on the market – some are even free.

However, the best mortgage broker website design is not about choosing the cheapest option. It is about finding a company that understands the industry and can deliver a website that supports your business goals.

One quick way to assess whether an agency is the right fit is to ask what industry-specific tools they can integrate with. If they are not familiar with the tools commonly used in the mortgage industry, they may lack direct experience working with brokers. This matters because, without industry-specific expertise, your website may miss important features that clients expect, such as tools to understand their borrowing capacity or estimate repayments before getting in touch.

The Dreamweaver mortgage broker website template is now available for A$980.

Mortgage Broker Website currently offers two ways for brokers to get a website because we understand that every broker has different circumstances. Through our experience working with brokers across Australia, we have identified the value of offering both a template-based website solution and a custom broker website design, so brokers can choose the option that best suits where they are in their journey.

Mortgage brokers operate in a highly competitive market where the options for alternative products or services are abundant. In order to differentiate your brokerage, clients are looking for what makes you special. Research has shown that for industries such as mortgage broking, locality matters more-so than other services, but bear in mind, locality by itself is not enough to win you deals.

When writing your website content, you need to present your expertise clearly and in detail. This can include your qualifications and anything else that adds credibility to your website, such as awards and testimonials. If there is a particular area your brokerage specialises in, consider creating dedicated content pages to highlight that expertise. It is also worth using other engaging content formats, such as videos and infographics, to position your business as a subject matter expert.

When you are looking to create the best mortgage broker website structure, you want to think about how your audience and users are going to be navigating between pages and content. This will allow you to create a structure that best reflects the information that users wish to find.

For example, if your main menu will have ‘Services’ in it, then it is best to create a sitemap that categorises all the respective services such as refinancing, pre-approval and business loans into that one section. Otherwise, not only does it become difficult for users to understand where to find content, but it also makes it more challenging for your content to be crawled by search engines.

The best mortgage broker websites structure their content in a way that can make a significant difference to your Google ranking. Search engines often try to imitate a ‘human user’ as they crawl through websites, therefore how your pages flow together will contribute greatly to improved ranking. We find that the best mortgage broker website designs all have a user experience that organically flows between information and content across the entire website.

The best mortgage broker websites have a great web address – also known as a domain – which is crucial to attracting more visitors to your website. We are often asked by our clients, what is a great domain? To help you determine how to pick a domain for your business be sure to follow these simple principles.

Match your domain with your brand

If your business is called ‘John’s Mortgage Broking’, then don’t call your website ‘Adam’s Kitchen’. This is an extreme example of course to demonstrate the point, but you want to make sure that your domain name reflects the content that a user will see when they click through and visit your website.

All visitors expect to view a website that is relevant to their search query so if you are presenting a domain that may be misinterpreted or misunderstood then it is best to avoid the name altogether. When visitors are mislead, not only could this adversely affect your brand, but it may also result in a penalty by search engines for misconduct.

Make your web address easy to spell

If your web address is unnecessarily long then it could be losing you traffic. A large number of searches on the internet are what we call ‘brand searches’. This means that a user will type in your website or brand name and expect to see your website appear at the top. The problem that often arises is that when your web address is one that is difficult to spell, then some visitors may get lost along the way. If this were to happen, your brand goodwill that you’ve spent years to foster could very well be going to your competitor.

A simple trick we like to use is the test of ‘can my 16 year old niece spell my website address’. If the answer to this question is no, then your domain may be too challenging. The best mortgage broker websites match their business name with their domain name.

Due to the nature of how websites are designed and developed, it is easy to be overly focused on the initial ‘going live’ period. And while the process of designing and getting a website online is an exciting one, often this pales in comparison to the importance of creating content and maintaining your website over time to keep it fresh and secure.

It is important to think of your website as an evolving entity that grows as you do. This means that updates, patches and content shouldn’t stop when you go live, but rather, going live merely represents the first milestone of becoming a digital brand. This is why the best mortgage brokers always perceive their websites as long-term assets that grow with the business.

Keep your website up-to-date with mortgage broker content

Keeping your website up-to-date with relevant mortgage broker content is essential for attracting potential clients. As the mortgage industry evolves, your website should reflect the latest trends, regulations, and market insights to position your brokerage as a trusted source of information. Regularly publishing fresh and informative content, such as blog posts, articles, and educational resources, not only helps in attracting organic traffic but also establishes your expertise in the field.

In addition, keeping your website current with timely updates and news shows visitors that you are actively involved in the industry and committed to providing valuable guidance. By consistently offering valuable content, you can enhance your website’s credibility, drive user engagement, and ultimately generate more leads for your mortgage brokerage.

Protect your mortgage broker website with security updates

Did you know that due to the way browser updates take place on computers around the world, your website could be out-of-date as early as next week? In the same way your computer goes through updates of its own, security patches for your website system are also released on a regular basis. A security patch could include server updates, an application release or even just a database backup.

The main difference is that if you aren’t updating it, then nobody is. This means that if you aren’t routinely updating or patching your website, your business could be at risk.

The true cost of a website

If the digital agency who created your website is planning to ‘love you and leave you’ once your mortgage broker website is complete, then you may want to reconsider using them. Inversely, if your current website designers are charging you an arm and a leg to regularly maintain or make changes, then you may want to look into a more cost-effective solution.

The true cost of your website is not just the fees you pay to get your website live, but also the time and money that goes into keeping it running, ongoing updates and any additional content changes. You may even want to consider the costs of disaster recovery in the event of an incident.

By making sure you consider the total cost and not just the initial website design fees, you are properly protecting one of your businesses most valuable assets. Finding the right company who can properly manage this asset can alleviate any potential incidents that may occur, and more importantly give you the platform your business needs to grow.

Now that you’ve made the best mortgage broker website in Australia the last thing to make sure to check is the process of getting in touch with you and your company. One common mistake that we see time and time again is that a business’ contact details can be too difficult to find.

Most visitors look for a contact page when they want to connect with your business, but we recommend our clients try to make things as easy as possible for visitors by putting both their number and links to forms on key pages, as well as having a contact page.

Different customers want to connect in different ways

Another thing to consider is that some customers may have preferred methods of connecting. In this day and age, you cannot expect every customer to get in touch via a phone call. You should know that the best mortgage broker websites offer a wide range of communication methods to their website visitors so that they get in touch with you in the method that is most comfortable for them.

Alternatives to the phone could be an email address or contact forms on your website that allow you to capture and qualify leads without being overly intrusive. For each form you have on your website make sure to have a clear call-to-action. This way you are giving your business the best chance of being contacted by those customers that aren’t quite ready for a phone call or face-to-face.

Provide your mortgage broker business credentials

When you are creating your mortgage broking content strategy you may want to consider the overall marketing funnel. Understanding the various steps in the decision making process for a new customer will help you to create a website that will turn traffic into leads, and leads into sales.

Towards the latter end of the marketing funnel, a visitor may be considering their intent and evaluating the service on offer. This is where you want to be clearly demonstrating your value proposition and business credentials including your ABN, trading license and even the aggregator group your business is associated with to reaffirm your credibility. Things like this can sway an uncertain customer from considering to actually getting in touch with your team.