What does a converting website for a mortgage lender need?
Borrowers compare on rate, programme fit and how fast you close. Publish current rates with the date and required disclosures, explain each loan programme in plain terms, and offer a calculator plus a short pre-qualification start. Every advertised rate carries federal disclosure obligations, so treat rate copy as compliance material.
Build pages by situation, not by product
Borrowers do not search loan product names until late. They search their circumstances:
- First-time buyer
- Self-employed or 1099 income
- Buying after bankruptcy or foreclosure
- VA loan eligibility
- FHA with a lower down payment
- Refinancing to lower a payment or take cash out
- Jumbo, for higher-priced purchases
- Investment property
A page per situation, explaining what is typically required and what the process looks like, reaches people at the point they are deciding whether to bother enquiring.
Compliance shapes everything on this site
Mortgage advertising is heavily regulated. Anything mentioning rates, payments, terms or approval triggers disclosure requirements, and there are rules about how examples are presented and what must accompany them.
Assume that every number on the site needs review, that licence identifiers must be displayed correctly, and that state-specific requirements may apply. What exactly is required of your business is a question for your own compliance officer and counsel — it is not something a marketing page should improvise.
Build the site so rate and payment content lives in a small number of reviewable places rather than scattered through the copy.
Be useful without quoting rates
There is a great deal you can publish that helps borrowers without touching regulated claims:
- What documents to gather before applying
- How the process runs, stage by stage, with realistic timelines
- What underwriting looks at, in plain terms
- Common reasons applications stall
- What to avoid doing between application and closing
That last one is genuinely useful and rarely written well — opening credit accounts, changing jobs, large deposits.
Calculators help, with care
Payment and affordability calculators are among the most-used elements on lending sites. They must be clearly labelled as estimates, and whatever assumptions and disclosures your compliance review requires must accompany them.
Do not require contact details to see a result. Gating a calculator produces a small number of low-quality leads and loses everyone else.
Show the person, not the institution
Borrowers choose a loan officer as much as a lender. Real photographs, direct contact details, licence numbers, and something about how you actually work — response times, how often you update people, who they will speak to.
Communication during the process is the single most common thing borrowers complain about, so committing to it is a real differentiator.
Handle the enquiry form carefully
A short first-contact form — name, phone, situation, rough timing — is right. Full applications collecting financial detail need appropriate security and handling, and should be a deliberate separate step rather than an ordinary web form.
Never collect Social Security numbers or full financial detail through a basic contact form.
What it costs
Growth Engine — $5,500 setup, $1,500 a month for an individual broker or small team with situation pages. Authority Builder at $12,500 and $3,500 for a larger operation with multiple licensed officers and states.
The honest limit
Most mortgage business comes from real estate agent relationships and referrals. The site's job is to convert the referrals who look you up and to catch situation-specific searches — it rarely replaces the referral network.
Frequently asked questions
How should a lending site be structured?
By borrower situation — first-time buyer, self-employed income, buying after bankruptcy, VA eligibility, refinancing, jumbo, investment property — because that is what people search before they know product names.
What are the compliance constraints?
Mortgage advertising is heavily regulated: anything mentioning rates, payments, terms or approval triggers disclosure requirements, licence identifiers must display correctly, and state rules may apply. Your compliance officer and counsel decide the specifics.
What can I publish safely?
Document checklists, the process stage by stage with realistic timelines, what underwriting looks at in plain terms, why applications stall, and what to avoid between application and closing — the last is genuinely useful and rarely written well.
Should calculators require contact details?
No. Gating a calculator produces a small number of low-quality leads and loses everyone else. Label results as estimates and include whatever disclosures your compliance review requires.
What should the enquiry form collect?
Name, phone, situation and rough timing. Full applications with financial detail need appropriate security and should be a deliberate separate step — never collect Social Security numbers through a basic contact form.