Charcol

Charcol is the UK’s leading online mortgage broker, offering somewhere in the region of 700 – 800 products from a panel of 35 reputable lenders.

Since starting its online service in 1999, the company has won no fewer than 19 awards, including the prestigious industry award, Mortgage Broker of the Year 2007, and the What Mortgage? Online Mortgage Broker of the Year title for 2007, voted for by consumers.

Liquid Light was asked to revitalise the Charcol site in order to refresh its online presence and, ultimately, increase its sales conversion rate. Naturally, as a phone and internet based mortgage broker, creating an efficient, easy to use website that provides the right impact is vital. Our brief was to come up with such a design – one that was dynamic and exciting, reflecting Charcol’s positioning as the leading online mortgage broker without compromising the integrity and heritage of the brand and its values.

The Challenge

The mortgage sector is a particularly competitive area, with brokers, price comparison sites and lenders all competing with each other online.

• The main challenge for Liquid Light was to design a website which:
• Developed a trust relationship with the customer
• Improved search engine visibility
• Increased visitor traffic
• Improved conversion rates

The Result

The result is an intuitive and vibrant website, that enables visitors to improve their understanding of their mortgage needs, find the best mortgage deal for them and finally to apply online. The site also includes a number of key devices to help increase Charcol’s SEO ranking, capitalising on the benefits of social media.

Key benefits of redesign:

• Application process dramatically simplified – 47-page form reduced to 7 simple steps without compromising captured details
• Increased number of inbound links due to social media initiatives
• Google listing Charcol stories as news items within 20 days
• Significant return on initial redesign via advertising/sponsorship revenue

The redesign not only offers visitors a dramatically improved user experience, it is also delivering real world business benefits to Charcol.

An enterprise level content management system Typo3 underpins the redesigned website, empowering Charcol to manage their website effectively and efficiently.