Real estate websites are an on-going project that need concerted effort to be successful, says real estate online marketing specialist, Placester.
Setting up the site, adding some blog posts, neighborhood pages, contact and brand details is just the start of marketing activity.
Regularly publishing fresh content that enlightens and advises home buyers and sellers keeps them coming back for more, says the Boston, United States-based company.
Now, Placester has come up with top tips of what realtors, brokers and developers need to improve on their websites as well as vital points to takeaway.
1) Prominently display listing photos, branding and contact details
Your website homepage is the first digital interaction the bulk of your audience will have with you, so make sure it offers every detail they would want and need to know about your brand, including your agency name (ideally through a stunning logo), your social media accounts (through social sharing buttons), and your contact information. Moreover, you need to constantly update the photos featured on your homepage — ones that ideally showcase your latest listings if you’re a seller’s agent or the most notable (a.k.a. visually appealing or interesting) homes for sale in your area if you’re a buyer’s agent. When optimizing your homepage, think of it as introducing yourself at a networking event to someone you’ve never met before. It’s your first opportunity to explain your brand in a clear and concise fashion, so you need to make the most of this chance and relay all of the important info you want the world to know. Get some of your friends, colleagues, or associates to look at your homepage and ask them if they get a complete picture of your brand’s value proposition and details: who you are, what you do/sell, where you’re located, how they can get in touch with you, where they can learn more about you, etc.
Key Takeaways:
Frequently change listing photos on your website’s homepage to keep it fresh and ensure it features the most attractive homes
Make sure all types of contact information — phone number, email address, and social media accounts — are listed atop the page
Put yourself in your audience’s shoes: Would they know who you are just by looking at your homepage? If not, adjust it accordingly.
2) Show off the most noteworthy real estate listings in your market
Internet Data Exchange (IDX) integration, which allows you to add listings in your area via your local Multiple Listing Service (MLS), is paramount for North American real estate websites. Not only do you need to spotlight the latest, most intriguing homes for sale on your homepage, but it’s also best to have a listings page that shows all of the properties on the market nearby, yours and others’, as well as put together area and community pages that give the lowdown on specific streets, neighborhoods, and areas of your market and feature listings in those areas.
Key Takeaways:
Integrate with IDX to display the most recent and relevant homes for sale on the market in your community
Your homepage must exhibit at least a handful of listings, but don’t forget to spread them across your site as well
Visuals can significantly aid your click totals for featured listings, but property info needs to accompany each one.
3) Tease your blog by showcasing a small sample of your most recent articles
In the age of the internet, one thing that can really separate you from the other agents in your market is content. No longer are the days when 300-word blog posts stuffed with half-relevant keywords can distinguish yourself from the pack and help your website make headway with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Instead, you need a robust editorial calendar for each month that includes lots of interesting, in-depth content your home buyer and seller audience will want to click on, consume, and — in turn — make them come back for more.
By teasing some of this detailed content on your homepage, you can drive traffic to your real estate blog: the place where all of your articles, ebooks, infographics, and other long-form content should exist. Just as with your homepage photos, though, you need a fresh stream of content created routinely so you can feature new blog posts there often. Visitors who come back to your site’s homepage after visiting a couple of weeks earlier only to find the same articles from months earlier will find out you’re not providing regular articles, market updates, and other revealing content — and then they’ll seek out agents who do offer this content.
Key Takeaways:
Do you want to be perceived as the all-knowing agent for your market? Create content and tease it on your homepage
Leave short, keyword-stuffed blog posts back in the early ‘00s where they belong. Craft consistent, comprehensive, compelling content
Ensure you have a fresh stream of content to share with your visitors and promote on your homepage to keep them coming back.
4) A contact form on every page is a must to capture lots of home buyer and seller leads
Only after the first few months your website is live and you’ve conducted the necessary promotion and implemented the necessary SEO strategy can you truly understand which pages work best (generate the most traffic and leads), which need work, and which need to go altogether. One thing that needs to happen from the first day your site is operational, though, is to place a contact form on each and every page. This constant element on each page will give you a crystal-clear picture as to which pages are performing up to your standards, enhancing your prospecting goals, and loading up your customer relationship management (CRM) database with new real estate leads to nurture with your drip marketing.
Think of it this way: If you include one of these forms on every site page and one page generates far more leads from the form than any other page, you can take a deeper dive into what makes that page so special and, eventually, mimic its layout, content, and/or form location (among other possible factors) on other pages to try to replicate that success. And just like that, you’ve performed one A/B test for your site — one of about a dozen real estate website experiments you should conduct to ensure it’s working the way you want and need it to.
Key Takeaways:
Contact forms offer one of the best means for you to collect new real estate lead information and add new prospects to your CRM database
Add one of these contact forms to every page and, over time, you’ll be able to determine on which pages it works best
You won’t get many contact form fillouts if you don’t promote each page and optimize them for search, so plan your site marketing accordingly.
5) Spotlight social proof on every page to earn your audience’s trust
Roughly nine out of 10 consumers read online reviews from other consumers to determine the quality of a business and whether they should buy from that business. That means reviews and testimonials from your clients, case studies of those clients, and even video interviews with those clients need to be conspicuous components of your real estate website. While including the basic info about your business atop your homepage and on your about page is crucial, so too are these highly convincing forms of social proof, so don’t forget to incorporate them across your site, chiefly via their own dedicated landing page featuring feedback from past buyers and sellers whom you’ve worked with.
Securing positive comments for your agency generally requires outreach on your part. It’s a rarity for many agents to have clients immediately sign their closing papers and say, “Now I’ll give you a 1,000-word review!” So, implement a marketing plan following each deal you close to get in touch with your clients and ask them (politely) for some praise for your work in the form of either an in-person interview (one that can be recorded), a phone conversation, or an email exchange. Assuming they’re happy with your help, your buyer and seller clients should be willing to give you at least a few-sentence review that you can use across multiple marketing channels. If you can get longer responses, though, do so.
Key Takeaways:
Consumers — including home buyers and sellers — want to see lots of positive reviews for agents, so get as many as possible for your site
Remember that reviews can come in many forms — testimonials, case studies, video reviews, etc. — so get a variety to promote online
Few clients (if any) will come to you to offer their insights about your brand. Reach out to them shortly after closing to request a review.
Placester has more tips on how to get the most out of real estate websites on its blog. The company enables clients to quickly launch mobile-ready real estate websites and offers everything clients need to market online, including IDX, hosting, blogging and lead capture services.
The main image is designed and produced by Freepik.com.
The post Top tips on how to improve your real estate website appeared first on OPP.Today.