Reducing Negative Impact of Webpage Login Form

[Kingalan1]

Our real estate website (www.metro-manhattan.com) now requires visitors to login in if they want to search our listing database.

The result is that. 9 out of 10 visitors leave without searching; they simply refuse to set up an account.

I have attached images of the search bar and login form.

Is there a way to increase the percentage of visitors that login? We have tried to make it as simple as possible, allowing visitors to login by Facebook, Google or by providing their email address. We do not send any verification email.

We are forced to. keep this login unfortunately. But is there anything we can do to reduce the visitor bounce rate?

Thanks, 
Alan

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[Nozzle]

One idea is to add a video explaining why you need them to create an account first.

[Kingalan1]

Hi Nozzle:

That is an intriguing idea, however I think it would take the user more time and they would  leave before investing the time to view the video.

[effectdigital]

It's horrible that you have been forced to adopt this as it's basically forced suicide of the website

You're likely up against large aggregator sites who have more commercial properties  (inside of and outside of New York) on  their books than you do. Places where users can go and just process one request, to see 20-30% of all available online results. These sites have a massive USP as for most of us who are lazy, they are one-stop shops we learn to trust

To assail and overcome these giants, even around the more-niche fringes, you need solid value-propositions and value-add for your site. Why go to you, instead of an easier, larger supplier?

Maybe you have some reasons:

• Better prices
• Better customer service
• Easier to use website once you register

BUT - being forced to register is a massive value-subtraction measure. It subtracts HUGE amounts of bonus points from your value-proposition, which is ultimately what you ride on to rank well

Not only are you having bounce rate issues, your search traffic may soon tumble into the dirt. Right now, your organic search (SEO) performance seems pretty solid, looking at the charts on Ahrefs (which I still think, are superior to the SEMRush ones by a long shot). This single change, could jeopardize all of that

By the way, even if I change my use agent to Googlebot, the form still comes up - so they will definitely be aware very soon (if not already) of this user obstruction. It's such a shame because it looks as if you guys started lifting in May 2018, and have been on the up-and-up ever since. To have such a change forced is literal insanity

Maybe there are some small CRO things you can do to get 3-15% more conversions or leads. But if your SEO traffic plummets 60% you will just be left thinking "wow, that was a terrible, terrible deal"

You've already given people the easy options by allowing them to log-in with Google or FaceBook. But people only really like to do that for big brands they can trust, otherwise they feel they are somehow connecting their personal accounts with a site they are not 'quite sure' that they trust yet

Sorry to say but I think this was a bit of a Doomsday maneuver

Your only real option is to incentivise account creation with deals and discounts or something like that. People are pretty astute these days, they will want something back for their trouble

In reality it would be better to wait until users were about to convert (going through whatever conversion funnel you have set up) and then at the very end, when you already have all of their info (which they need to give you to properly contact you) - set up an auto-filled form (based on the data they have already input) and ask if they want to create an account in a simple, easy 1-click style

That would have (probably) increased your uptake in account creations. But whomever was making the decisions, got too greedy and got forceful. It won't work and it may have severe repercussions