I have spent the better part of my adult life working in the real estate space – training and consulting Brokers, Team Leaders, and Agents. I am still fascinated by the lack of understanding in the industry of what is important when it comes to a real estate website.
Since your website is the most important online marketing tool a real estate company has, it is important that we debunk the myths that exist within the industry. And then, it is equally vital to understand the truth about what your website really does need.
Myth: “If my website looks different – better, more customized – than my competition, I will get more business from it”.
This misunderstanding has cost brokerages and agents alike thousands of dollars in design, development, and ongoing development fees. They focus on having a fancy, custom website built on WordPress or worse, some proprietary platform, at the cost of the functionality required for a website to provide a company with what it needs for the success of the brokerage or agent.
Consider this. Nobody finds your website based on how pretty it is; there is nothing about the appearance of a website that influences Google or other sources to send visitors to your website. And while someone ending up on your website may have an experience that causes them NOT to do business with you, nobody has ever decided to use a real estate professional because “the website is pretty”.
True, you do not want your website to provide a “less-than-professional” representation of you or your brand. Images and videos typically need to be high-quality, and the site needs to appeal aesthetically to your target customer, but it does not have to be ‘completely different than any other website’ to generate engagement and get business.
Truth: Your website needs to be professional, simple, and educational.
While it is important that your website is aesthetically attractive, it is much more important that your visitors can quickly and easily navigate your site, get the information they need, and trust they can continue to get the information they need moving forward.
If someone has navigated to a real estate website, they are in search of something – but it is typically not an agent. The most recent NAR Buyer and Seller Survey indicates that only 18% of buyers contacted an agent before looking for a home. Of the remaining 82%, more than half of them (47%) reported that the first step they took was to go online and start looking at properties.
This report only takes into account those that actually made residential home purchases in 2022. Many others went online to do research – figure out what their existing home might be worth and see what was available for purchase, maybe even going as far as figuring out what they could afford. These prospects are also valuable as they represent the most likely group of people who will buy a home in 2023.
While those that purchased homes searched for an average of 10 weeks before deciding on getting serious about buying, those that have not yet pulled the trigger often continue to look at properties, check in on the market to see what they can get for their existing home and ask questions about market conditions and the economic factors affecting those conditions.
When one of these opportunities ends up at your website, they tend to stay on your site, and even return to it, if they can easily view properties, gather information and know that you are a reliable and ongoing source of information. If your website indicates that you understand and specialize in the type of buyer they are, the type of property they want, as well as the geographic area(s) in which they are interested, they will even register to your site, and to receive updates and ongoing market insights during their decision process.
One last important, and often overlooked, factor in how your website functions is its mobile access. 96% of buyers from this year’s survey admitted to utilizing the Internet in their search. Just as important to note is that only 34% of buyers utilized a desktop computer for their search, 2/3 of them searched with a phone or tablet.
While most large website providers these days have made their websites “mobile-friendly” – that is, that the sites can be viewed on a mobile device. However, it becomes more and more important every year, that we utilize website and other online tool developers that build their platforms ‘Mobile First’. These companies assure that prospects can quickly and simply access the information they need on a mobile device without causing navigation issues that might send them to another source.
*Experts Note: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is important, even if you are an individual agent. Google’s algorithms reward original content. Property updates and searches, as well as market insight updates – especially for specific Area Profiles on your website – are rewarded by Google. When you have a custom website created, providing search functionality for your website visitors typically involves having your developer utilize a third-party plug-in (IDX Brokers, IDX Showcase, FlexMLS, etc.).
When you use one of these plug-ins, the third party is stealing your SEO since Google can see that the content is coming from an outside source. When making a decision about the platform you are going to use, make sure that the platform is real estate specific, and has the data capacity to host your listings, market reports, and area profile information, server-side. This way, all the updates to listings and other IDX information is seen by Google as original content generated by you and not a third party.
If you would like to better understand what affects your site’s SEO, or other more advanced facts to consider, click [HERE] for more information.
Main Points: Before building your website, consider its functionality. Make sure it looks good, okay. But make sure that the visitors you attract can simply access the information they need, particularly from their mobile devices.
Additionally, make sure that your website has the tools to engage your prospects so that you can capture their information and nurture the relationship until they are ready to become a customer. This requires having a website that can simply provide ongoing information – from listing updates (text as well as email) to market insights, to economic factors that affect home values and purchases.
It is important to go into the process of creating a new website or updating your existing suite, with a plan to make sure your website represents your style, your expertise in specific markets (geographic as well as virtual), and your level of professionalism. It is even more important to determine what your ideal customer will need to access when coming finding you online so that you can make sure your site has the functionality to capture your prospects, simply provide the information they need – now and moving forward – and engage them in ways that nurture the relationship to the goal of their becoming your customer.
(This becomes easier when your website integrates directly with your CRM, which we will discuss in a future blog post).
If you are considering a new website or website/CRM platform, having a custom site built, or maybe just updating your existing website and digital marketing, sign up for a 30-minute consultation in which we can discuss your needs and options. Whether I can provide any services or not, I will make sure you have the information you need to have a more effective website for your needs.
