I was checking out one of our client websites today (Cathy Hoppough) http://www.cathyhoppough.com/ and all of a sudden noticed the following announcement on her website:
The Wall Street Journal and Lore Magazine just released their annual list of the top 100 Real Estate Agents Nationally. Cathy was ranked #1 in the state and #9 nationally with 487 transactions! Follow the link below to see the complete list on Wall Street Journal's website: http://online.wsj.com/ad/top100individualsides.html
I stopped checking the list after #20 but it feels great seeing 2 of our clients on the Top 20. We love working with winners here at RealtySoft.com and it feels great seeing Cathy and George making the top 400 list. Congratulations to both of you and I hope we see your name published again next year.
The following story was published few months ago on RISMedia. I hope you find it useful!
Peyman Aleagha President RealtySoft.com
Generating sales from your website can be a time consuming task and may require skills you do not have. A new integrated approach to websites from RealtySoft.com may make it a whole lot easier.
A few as five years ago, the real estate professional that wanted their own website could look forward to lot of technology-intensive work. Now, thanks to advances in technology, it is easy to create and maintain a quality website. However, having a website does not mean it will produce sales. In fact, according to the 2007 REALTOR® Technology Survey, while two thirds of real estate professionals do have their own website, only one out of five were satisfied with the ability of their website to generate leads.
If I build it, why don't they come?
Unfortunately, many real estate professionals have contracted for a website under the assumption that having a website is enough. Like in the movie ‘Field of Dreams', the tendency has been to think: if we build it, they will come. Turn the website on, leads will pour in. Not so. Simply having a website is no guarantee that you will get visitor ‘traffic' to your site and traffic is a pre-requisite for leads. No traffic, no leads.
This was the experience of Nina Kashefpour, a sales associate for Century 21 Your Number 1 Realty Inc. "I had a website from the very first day I entered the real estate business. Frankly, it didn't help. Having a website alone was not a very effective tool and getting traffic to my site seemed a lot more complicated than building the website in the first place!"
Getting a steady stream of visitors to your website generally requires certain coordinated activities and skills. Activities such as syndicating your listings with online real estate search engines and classified websites, using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques to improve the "findability" of your website, online and print advertising, and the coordination of your website to all your other marketing activities, all help. Unfortunately, all of that requires either skills, or time that a realtor typically does not have!
"In my real estate business, I'm busy; very busy. I'm always in a hurry, and it seems like I rarely have enough time to do the things I'd like to do for my website or Internet marketing program," says Ms. Kashefpour.
"Sticky" is tricky.
Visitors coming to your website do not necessarily add up to new leads. Once visitors do begin to visit your site, you have to find ways of keeping them there - of making your site "sticky." Web experts suggest that your site has less than 5 seconds to capture the attention of a web visitor. If they cannot find what they are looking for in that time, or if they find nothing else to hold their interest, they will leave. They will go on to browsing someone else's website instead of yours. Therefore, the content of your site has to be "sticky". It has to glue your visitors to your site to keep them from going elsewhere.
You can make sure your site is sticky by ensuring that the content on your site is updated frequently, has access to compelling information (real estate news, listings, community information, etc.) and by including content that is "actionable" - i.e. offers for services or information. Very few real estate websites have "actionable" or frequently updated content. This makes them "static" sites. Static sites are not sticky. But, once again, the time and effort necessary to make a site sticky, and to keep it that way, requires more attention, and sometimes more cost, than most realtors have available to give.
If I build it, if they come, and if they stick... then what happens?
Then you have to give your website visitor a good reason to contact you, and you must provide them with an easy way to give you the information you need to assist them. THEN, you have a true lead. The formula is simple: bring more traffic to your site, make your site as sticky as you can, make it easy to contact you, and you will get leads. And, if you want a high volume of leads, then do those things consistently and well.
"Who has time for doing all that fiddling with your website? I'm not interested in being a webmaster. I want to be a successful real estate agent."
An integrated approach to websites.
That was the frustrating part for Nina Kashefpour. "Who has time for doing all that fiddling with your website?" she complains, "I'm not interested in being a webmaster. I want to be a successful real estate agent." She began looking for alternatives and came across a real estate website technology company named RealtySoft. RealtySoft claimed to be able to provide a quality website and make it easy for the realtor to manage the site, keep it sticky and to get leads.
At $25 per month, Kashefpour was willing to try it. "The RealtySoft solution gave me the tools needed to turn my site into a true lead-generating engine," says Kashefpour of her experience with the company. The integrated website solution provided by RealtySoft made it easy to manage her Internet marketing. Every week, she updates her website with any new listings and then ‘tweaks' the community related information on one of the pages to boost her search engine rankings. "Generally, everything I need to do can be done in about 10 minutes," says Kashefpour. "The entire site is fully customizable including keywords, images, forms, and other content."
Once her changes have been made, RealtySoft automatically resubmits her site to all major search engines and automatically syndicates her listings with ten major real estate web online marketplaces including Google, Zillow and Trulia. The RealtySoft integrated website also solicits leads and uses ‘autoresponders' to automatically reply to queries that are received by her website.
Using RealtySoft's integrated approach has paid off well. Kashefpour now claims to get more than 35% of her business from her website. The NAR technology survey found that less than 12% of realtors get that level of business results from their websites.
Peyman Aleagha, founder and President of RealtySoft, the website service provider used by Kashefpour, does not find her experience surprising. "Her frustration with managing her web and Internet marketing is exactly what we've tried to confront," says Aleagha. "We've put everything associated with real estate Internet marketing into a single integrated package - website, listings, email, domain management, SEO, syndication - and it can all be managed from a single point, easily and quickly." The company also has recently introduced a free MLS®/IDX connection and will soon be adding a tool to their package to help real estate agents prepare online and print advertisements. "Our goal is to see that the agent or broker gets everything they need to market effectively, all in one place, managed through a single ‘control panel', and that they can get all that affordably," says Aleagha.
Putting it all together.
Internet and website marketing is complicated. Juggling listings, website content, lead capture forms, SEO, syndicating listings in other sites, and keeping up with Internet advertising, is not a small task. It is particularly daunting if these things must be performed separately. An integrated approach, like that of RealtySoft, may well be the only way to get good sales results from a real estate website and still have time left over to be a successful real estate agent.
We all know that location is arguably the most important aspect of real estate. You won't be buying a home where you can't get to work, school or the other things important to you and your family. So, if location is so important, then it is only logical to assume that mapping, and lots of it, is going to be a valuable and important feature of your site.
Of course, we do want to use maps in our IDX results displays. Seeing the location of a home in relation to area sites, businesses, schools, and other important locations is critical. It would be hard to have too many map choices on a successful real estate site. The IDX mapping would of course show the homes that come up in the searches. The ability to zoom in and out to orient better is also a big advantage. But, are there other uses for maps on your site that your visitors would appreciate? There are, and they revolve around specialized mapping.
Sample RealtySoft.com Website Integration with Google Maps
Before we look at the types of maps that have been proven to make for happy site visitors, let's look at some of your best online mapping solutions that make it easy to embed maps into a website.
Google Maps & Google Earth - You can easily map locations with Google Maps on a public map, then take the code Google provides, and embed that map into your site. The visitor need not leave your site to wander through the locations they want. An added value of this hosted public map is that it will be found in Google searches with a link to your site as well. You can even put a video that will pop up and play in the bubble from a map pin.
MSN Maps - MSN Maps Live offers a lot of the same features as Google Maps, including birdseye views, satellite views and street level views of cities.
Okay, we know where to produce public maps at no cost, and provide very user-friendly features for scoping out your area. So, what type of maps will our visitors appreciate?
Shopping - When someone is new to the area, they may want shopping close to the home they intend to purchase. And, this shopping could be large shopping centers, specialty food markets, or department stores. Having a map dedicated to shopping would appeal to many of your visitors. They may not even be in your area yet, and they want to get a feel for areas with multiple choices of the type of shopping they want.
Parks & Outdoor Recreation - Recreation is becoming more important all the time. And cities that provide a great number of parks, hiking and biking trails and outdoor sports facilities are where people want to live. Selecting a home will many times be greatly influenced by how near the recreational areas are. Using the mapping services, you can even choose icons that indicate hiking, biking, etc.
Schools & Libraries - Though state and local government sites have maps, why send a visitor away from your site when it isn't necessary. Map public, private and secondary education locations. Get the libraries on this map as well. Knowing that their children can be educated and do research close to home is important to many buyers.
Museums, Art & Culture - This is a very popular map offering as well. Your site visitors will appreciate being able to locate art museums, historical and cultural venues, and entertainment locations. Get the music venues in this map. Let them know where the movie theaters are as well.
Restaurants & Fast Food - This is a big one. We're a nation that eats out a lot. Locating the types of restaurants they like is important to our site visitors. Knowing they can eat out near their home, with varied food choices, will make this map page a popular one on your site.
RealtySoft.com Free IDX displaying nearby Schools and other POIs
We're also doing some Search Engine Optimization with mapping. We get exposure on the large map sites. However, we also write some text for each of these pages. This text talks in general about the buildings, services and locations on that map. It's a pitch for the area, but also a lure for search engine traffic.
So, it isn't just the homes for sale that make location, location, location so important. Give them maps for the businesses and facilities that your visitors will be using in your city.
Biography: Peyman Aleagha is the founder and President of RealtySoft.com. RealtySoft provides real estate professionals with affordable Real Estate Website Design, Real Estate Print Marketing and Free IDX & MLS Search solutions. Find out more about RealtySoft by visiting RealtySoft.com
When you're developing a real estate website plan, there are a great many things to consider. From a very broad perspective, there are two major areas of concern:
Site Look and Design - This is important, but don't place your planning emphasis in the wrong areas. You want a pleasing site, with colors and presentation that invites the visitor to stay a while. If you're working with a site design or theme vendor, they have probably researched visitor behavior, and their template and design choices likely are structured with this in mind.
A major area of design is the navigation structure. Well designed real estate websites make it easy for the visitor to get around, and to locate specific information they need. Part of this is your responsibility, though. Naming of links and buttons to clearly indicate where they will take the visitor is critical.
Content and Marketing Focus - You simply cannot short-change planning in this area. What are you trying to accomplish with your site? Most of our clients tell us that they want their real estate website to actually bring them qualified leads and business that becomes commissions. With that as the mandatory goal, you'll want to provide content on the site that is in demand by the real estate consumer, whether a buyer or a seller.
What do your customers want? Consider what they ask you about as your first hint. All of the questions you answer on a regular basis become your web page content topics. Statistics, information about the area's businesses, shopping, cultural activities, education and employment are all the subject of search engine queries.
Taking these ideas into account, you'll want to provide a lot of content that answers questions about real estate and your area. But, what else can you do to provide value to a site visitor that will make your site more "sticky?" You want them to "stick around." Widgets, or gadgets, are useful tools to provide added value and services to your visitors.
Think a bit about what a real estate site visitor is searching for on your website. Of course, they want to look at listings, but what goes along with that desire? Once they locate a few homes that are appealing to them, what else might they want to know?
The Calculator Widgets - Whether first-time homebuyers, or they've been around the block a few times, nobody has payment tables in their brain. There are a number of calculator widgets of value to your site visitors. There is the payment calculator, where they can enter the sale price, mortgage interest rate, and expected down payment, getting the amount of the monthly payment returned to them.
There are widgets for loan qualification, determining the visitor's purchase ability based on their income and expenses. There are loan amortization gadgets to show them how their payments are broken out to interest and principal over time. All of these calculators are not of value to every visitor, but one or more of them will be useful to many of your site visitors. They will appreciate their availability on your site, plus they'll stay longer.
Featured Properties - Let's forget for a moment the thrill of getting a buyer for one of your listings, with a chance to handle both sides of the deal. A featured property widget allows you to display your listings prominently on your home page or elsewhere, with images and basic information to prompt a click for more info. The real value here is to show a prospective listing client how you'll prominently display and showcase their home. It's one more nail in the lid of the listing presentation box.
Weather and News - You want to present yourself as the local real estate expert, but you also want to bring your visitors other real estate news, even from a national perspective. Again, everything they can find pertaining to real estate on your site is one more reason to stick around a while. For those who don't already reside locally, a weather widget is usually appreciated. If they are relocating from far away, they may return to your site regularly to see how the climate is in your area.
Language Translation - The Internet allows your site to be viewed by prospects world-wide. Don't assume that they all speak English. A language translation gadget will allow a European site visitor to read your site in their own language. They will appreciate it, and likely continue to visit your site until they make a decision to do business.
There are other widgets and gadgets, with more being made available on a regular basis. Always evaluate them in relation to their value to your site visitors, as your screen real estate is every bit as valuable as your area's real estate.
Biography: Peyman Aleagha is the founder and President of RealtySoft.com. RealtySoft provides Realtors with Real Estate Web Design (http://www.realtysoft.com), Real Estate Print Marketing and Free IDX (http://www.realtysoft.com/freeidx.php) solutions. Find out more about RealtySoft by visiting RealtySoft.com
RealtySoft will be introducing a new version of its Realtor websites this fall and we want to be sure that the content we provide for agent websites in this version will be the very best it can be. That's where YOU come in ...
Give us your opinions and get a chance to win one of TEN availbale Starbuck's cards!
1. Pick a website category that you would most like to see on your "dream website". (Please pick only one) :
A) Residential Real Estate Website B) Commercial Real Estate Website C) Rental Website for Realtors with a rental focus D) Neighborhood Website (a website built for a specific neighborhood) E) Single Property Website (a website built for a specific property)
2. Now, select what groupings of web pages you would like to have on your "dream website"?
These groupings would be what you would see on the website menu. For example, you might want groupings like "About Me", "Buyer Info", "Contact Me", "Local Resources" or others. (Please brainstorm 8 groups).
For example if you picked "Residential Website" as your website category your Main Page Groups might look like this:
My Dream Residential Real Estate Website:
Home
Properties
Communities
Buyer Info
Seller Info
About Me
Contact Me
Local Resources
3. For each grouping you created in Step 2, fill in the sub-pages you would expect to see on pages in that grouping. For example for page Properties you might create the following sub-pages:
2. Properties 2-1. Search Homes 2-2. View My Listings 2-3. View My Office Listings 2-4. View My Sold Listings 2-5. ...
How to Submit Entries?
It's simple. Post it here on this forum. Your final submission should look something like this:
My Dream Residential Real Estate Website:
Group Name
Group Name 2-1. Page Name 2-2. Page Name 2-3. Page Name 2-4. Page Name 2-5. ...
Group Name 3-1. Page Name 3-2. Page Name 3-3. Page Name 3-4. ...
Group Name
Group Name
Group Name
Group Name
Group Name
The contest starts June 9, 2009 and ends June 23, 2009. 10 lucky winners will be announced here on June 24th. Winners will be contacted via email to arrange shipment of prizes.
The ultimate success of your business will probably be tied closely to your success on the Internet. Your website or blog is your storefront in a very big world. It's easy to get a dry cleaning customer if they pass your store every day on their way home from work. It's a lot harder to capture a real estate lead from an armchair buyer or seller clicking around the World Wide Web.
Just entering the key phrase "real estate" into a Google search yields a whopping 589 Million results! In your area, county, or town, there are thousands of web search results related to real estate. They're not going to drive by, so how do you stand out and get found? We all know that we need to continually work on SEO, and many pay to advertise with pay-per-click marketing. Those are fundamental and effective things we must do. But, what else can we do that's cost effective and will bring us more site visitors?
Signage - Whether it's yard signs, decals or magnetic vehicle signs, or our sign over the door of the business, they should all display your website address. They'll remember it, and go home to see what you have to offer on your site. In today's highly mobile world, phones are browsing the web, so they may visit your site from street-side.
Business Cards - You'll find that your website address and email address are now more important than your phone number on your business cards. They don't stop calling, but will go to your site for information that they'd rather get anonymously than with a phone call.
Printed Materials - This is everything in print about your company, and in your marketing. Your letterhead, signature blocks on email, newspaper ads, homes magazine ads, and promotional items. If it's in print out there with your company name, then your web domain should be there as well.
Social and Business Networking - I've mentioned in other articles about writing content for your website that comes from questions asked by your prospects and clients. If one person asks, there are many on the Internet searching for that same answer. If you are doing this, then there's another very valuable traffic generation tool right in front of you.
Many real estate professionals have recognized the value of the social and business network sites. They set up their profile and answer questions from consumers about real estate in their area. Too many of them miss an opportunity here though. Write the answer as a page on your site, or a post on your blog. Then, when you get a question on a social site to which that page pertains, place the link in the answer. You still answer the consumer's question, but you add value with the link, and you get a new site visitor. It's far better than just the generic link to your site with your answer, and they're far more likely to click on it to learn more about the question they asked.
The networking is intense at ActiveRain. Real estate professionals discuss virtually every topic related to the business of real estate, serving customers, and marketing. Leads are referred the customary way through this network, however, with the addition of the new Listing Router tool, ActiveRain routes site visitors to local real estate professionals who participate. When a visitor to a site on one side of the country uses a special search function requesting information in an area on the other side of the country, a local participating ActiveRain member will get that visitor routed right to them.
Let's talk about a few of these social and business sites and how you can use them to generate business and website traffic.
Myspace - This is the younger set, but many real estate professionals are making contact with first-time homebuyers here. As with any of these sites, don't hover and attack if you see the words real estate or home buying in a post. Be there as a helpful resource, and don't force yourself on other users.
Facebook - This site is growing very fast, and it is bringing in a great many business people as well as consumers. It's a bridge from the social to the business community, and can be an excellent place to establish yourself as the real estate expert in your area. Again, the value of these sites is placing yourself out there to be found when someone has a need. Be responsive but not forceful. Your knowledge will be appreciated when it's presented as helpful advice in response to their questions.
LinkedIn - Business is the main focus of this network. Comprised of industry groups, including several Realtor groups, LinkedIn is more for Business to Business networking. However, it's one you don't want to slight. Think about it. Referrals from other real estate professionals, mortgage brokers, title companies, inspectors and others can be cultivated with strong business relationships on this site.
Twitter - The short 160 or fewer character posts on Twitter started out to be just "here's where I am or what I'm doing" posts. However, business is using Twitter quite effectively. If you have RSS feeds available from your website or blog, you can feed your site excerpts to Twitter with links back. Once set up, you don't do anything extra for it to happen.
Those are the "big four" of networking, but there are other sites with more narrow focus. They all have some value, but you can decide which are the best to accomplish your goals.
Biography: Peyman Aleagha is the founder and President of RealtySoft.com. RealtySoft provides Realtors with Real Estate Web Design (http://www.realtysoft.com), Real Estate Print Marketing and Free IDX (http://www.realtysoft.com/freeidx.php) solutions. Find out more about RealtySoft by visiting RealtySoft.com
The Internet is changing the way that Realtors do business and market themselves to such an extent that some will just not be around in a few short years. Survival of the fittest is the way of the world, and the fittest in real estate will be those agents and brokers who understand the new Internet consumer and how to engage them from first contact through a commission.
The very first contact that most of you with websites or blogs will have with a consumer will usually be their visit to your site to search for listings. And, you will probably never know that they were there. They come anonymously, and they want to stay that way. They want to find homes or land that meets their requirements and, on this first visit, they do not want to be contacted or to talk to you. If you ever want to talk to these people, ever, then pay heed to the TEN COMMANDMENTS OF IDX.
1. Thou shalt not underestimate IDX. It doesn't matter whether it's a buyer or seller visiting your website or blog for the first time. Surveys have shown that 95+% of first time visitors for listing searches want to see all of the listings in the MLS, not just yours. Not having IDX will cost you huge amounts of future web-generated business. Again, no IDX, no leads, no business.
2. Thou shalt not make assumptions about your visitors. Successful Web real estate lead generating site owners will all tell you the same thing. They have had clients tell them that the business came to them because other online Realtors dismissed, ignored or underestimated them. They were visiting the sites months before they were ready to talk to anyone, and the site owner didn't serve them well in this phase. Though they aren't ready to get into the car with you right now, they do not want to be ignored until you think they are a "hot" prospect.
3. Thou must take ownership of your IDX. Do you think you've diverted a bullet, getting an IDX link for your web presence by linking out to your broker's site? Would you take every one of your walk-in prospects into your broker's office, introduce them, and leave them there to be served? Don't send your prospects off to be served by others by not having an IDX solution ON your site.
4. Thou shalt not secret away your IDX. How does a site visitor get to your IDX search page? Don't make it a tiny button, or make them go through several clicks to find it. If you're doing PPC, bring them straight to the search page if that's the key phrase you're marketing. Make it a highly visible one-click link from your home page.
5. Thou shalt make IDX easy to use. Web visitors are not patient people. They want to locate listings by characteristics, location, price, school systems, and in other ways. Make the search process easy for them to find homes the way they want to find them.
6. Thou should be generous with other information and tools. If you were buying a home in a new area, what would you want to know? Give your visitors interactive maps, calculators for mortgages, gadgets for climate information, shopping and banking locations, and more. Give them easy access to information and tools to determine what it will be like to live in the home on the screen. And, lots of photos!
7. Thou shalt deliver. Once a visitor has decided that your IDX search is a good one for them, don't lose them to another who makes it even easier to use. Give them the ability to create custom searches with their criteria and have new listings delivered to their email. This is the delivery that will keep them coming back and keep you on the top of their mind when the timing is right.
8. Thou shalt promote your visitors to management for leads. Once these visitors are using your site and IDX, give them the ability to log in to manage their accounts, including multiple saved searches. This is great for them, but it's even better for you ... now you have that email address lead to market.
9. Thou shalt always be right there. No matter what screen they are looking at, no matter how many homes they view, always have an easy one-click link to email you. When they are finally ready to ask a question and get personal, don't make them search around for contact information.
10. Thou shalt never sit still. The most difficult target to hit is the one that's moving, and the Internet and your prospects are moving constantly. Use an IDX solution provider who understands this and stays on the leading edge of Internet consumer engagement.
There you are. If you can live by those 10 IDX commandments on your website or blog, success will be yours in online real estate business generation.
Biography: Peyman Aleagha is the founder and President of RealtySoft.com. RealtySoft provides Realtors with Real Estate Web Design, Real Estate Print Marketing and Free IDX solutions. Find out more about RealtySoft by visiting RealtySoft.com
As real estate professionals who want to make a success of our Internet presence, we should know some of the terminology. But, we should also know how to concentrate our time and efforts on what's important when it comes to tracking visits to, and activity on, our websites. These two goals go hand-in-hand when it comes to sorting out website traffic statistics. Let's look at some terms and see how we want to use these site traffic statistics.
Hits - This one has been around since the beginning, and you'll still hear a great many people say things like "How do I get more hits on my website?" The truth is, you really shouldn't look at hit count for any meaningful measure of what's happening on your site.
A "hit" is a file sent to a browser by a web server. If you have text and 10 images on a page, the stats will record 11 hits for every time that page loads in a browser. That's because each image is a hit. 20 images, 21 hits. As you can see, this doesn't tell us anything valuable at all. So, hearing someone bragging about 20,000 hits a day doesn't tell you how many visitors were there, or how many pages they viewed, only files downloaded.
Visits - Each time a user comes into a site, it is recorded as a visit. One user may visit a site several times in one day. In real estate, they may be coming in at different times of the day to search for listings. Obviously, the more visits your site gets, the more likely you are to generate business from it.
Visitors - There are a great many statistics measurement software and online solutions out there. But, they all definitely measure visitors, as this is a very important metric for your future success. Properly recorded, you'll only show one visitor count if the same visitor enters the site several times that day. The site will attempt to track the IP address of the visitor, or set a cookie on their hard drive to uniquely identify that visitor and not count them twice in a day. Their visits will get counted, however. So, one visitor stat may yield multiple visit counts.
Your goal is to use SEO (Search Engine Optimization), various forms of marketing, and maybe some PPC (Pay-Per-Click) marketing to continue to increase your visitors over time. If you're not growing the visitor count, you're not going to generate more business from your website or blog.
Page Views - This is another very important measurement of how effective your site is, and how useful it is to your visitors. It counts the number of pages viewed, and most will give you an average page views/visit in their statistics. This tells you if your site visitors are finding their way around, as well as if they are locating other information from your navigation that they want to view. Another word for this is "stickiness." Are they sticking around. You want lots of page views, and definitely a reasonable average per visit, indicating they are moving around in the site.
Another way some statistical tools report this is as "depth of visit." How deep into the site did the visitor go? You can see a graph of the number of visitors that only viewed one page, and another with those who viewed 20 or more pages, as an example. Watching these statistics, and trying to improve on them, means that you want to create content that visitors want, and give them easy ways to locate it and navigate to it.
One thing we need to remember as real estate sites with IDX searches is that many repeat visitors will be coming back over and over directly to the search page. They bookmark it, search for a while, and they leave without moving around elsewhere in the site. So, we shouldn't beat ourselves up if your average page views aren't growing like we want, but our time on site is getting longer ...see the next item.
Length of Visit - The statistics tool should also give you data as to how long visitors are staying on your site. Of course, the longer the better, as that means they're finding what they want. As mentioned above, many of your repeat visitors may only come to the site to search for listings. They have bookmarked the IDX search page, and they never leave it on most visits. That's OK. You'll see that the time on site is excellent, meaning they like your search interface.
You should always be tracking your site's performance with these statistics, no matter which analytical tool or software you choose. The goal is to grow the number of visitors, while increasing the time they stay and the number of pages they view. That's how you build a loyal audience who eventually become leads and commissions.
Biography: Peyman Aleagha is the founder and President of RealtySoft.com. RealtySoft provides Realtors with Real Estate Web Design (http://www.realtysoft.com), Real Estate Print Marketing and Free IDX (http://www.realtysoft.com/freeidx.php) solutions. Find out more about RealtySoft by visiting RealtySoft.com
RealtySoft now offers FreeIDX service for NTREIS, REGIONALMLS, MLSPIN, HEARTLAND, HBR, GHVMLS, MCAR, VBR, DUBUQUE, CRMLS, CHATTANOOGA, GACAR, CRAAR, SPARTANBURGMLS, HELENA
May 11, 2009 -- RealtySoft.com has today announced the integration of RealtySoft IDX with 15 new MLS Associations across North America. Listing data from the following associations is now available through RealtySoft's Free IDX program.
ActiveRain, since its inception, has proven to be an innovative force in real estate practice and marketing. It's no wonder that they've produced yet another innovative marketing tool that is set to take the real estate online community by storm.
The new Listing Router tool is not only an amazing idea, but a triumph of planning and cooperation between real estate agents and brokers from every area of the country. Let's look at what it does and how it promises to bring business to you from traffic to agent sites, no matter where they are located.
The search engine exposure of the ActiveRain platform - ActiveRain members know that the reach achieved by posting to their ActiveRain and Localism blogs is phenomenal. Many are getting the majority of their site visits from Internet searches, and these searches are on all kinds of keywords and phrases.
The "long tail" and non-realty topics - When a searcher comes to a blog with a key phrase unrelated to real estate, it's still valuable traffic. If they have searched on mountain hiking and come to an ActiveRain blogger's post about it in their area, it shouldn't be opportunity lost. They'll get the information they wanted about hiking in the mountains. What if they are interested in real estate in that area? Then they're at the right place. But, what if they are from a mountainous area a thousand miles away?
The Listing Router gets them to the listings they want - With the Listing Router in place, the searcher at the initial mountain hiking blog post can enter the area, town or city where they would like to find real estate. They'll be taken to the ActiveRain member's site who has signed up to receive these leads. So, John's great hiking article for the California mountains will take a searcher to the IDX search page for Mary's site in the Appalachian Mountains on the other side of the country.
How does it work?
ActiveRain members who sign up to participate in the program pay a small per-click charge to get that focused click to their IDX site. Remember, the visitor must enter the area or city, so they definitely want to search real estate in that area, as the line on the screen reads "Find Homes for Sale In ___________."
John isn't losing a client, as they were never interested in real estate in his area or they would enter his city. If they do, they'll go right to his IDX, and at no cost to John. However, since they want to look in another area, they'll be taken to the participating agent's IDX there. For John, there's a small piece of what Mary paid for the click, and he can accrue that money to buy his own clicks from other sites.
Why you need RealtySoft.com Free IDX?!
The value of this visitor who entered your area into the search box is huge. By doing it, they are telling you that they are interested in local real estate. They may be from yet another area of the country, not near you or John. All of this started from a hiking search, and now they are at your site looking for real estate.
How can you lose this customer who has crossed the country online to search for listings? Simply, don't give them what they want. And, it's more than just a list of homes for sale. It's all about a comprehensive IDX solution that's consumer-focused, here is some of the features:
Display MLS Listings on Your Website 78% of home sales begin with an Internet Search and viewing listings is the #1 reason. Make sure your site can display them!
Client Friendly Interface Your website visitors will find the RealtySoft IDX search solution easy-to-use, fun to browse, informative and intuitive.
Advanced Listing Search Capabilities Your visitors can easily find listings by location, property type, price, number of bedrooms, bathrooms or other search criteria. It's easy!
Search by Map Listings can be located and browsed via a convenient and familiar Google Map interface. Searching the MLS has never been this easy!
School & Points of Interest Data Schools and other important community information (e.g. Banks, Restaurants, Airports etc.) is already indexed & mapped for your prospects.
Visitor Can Save Their Listings & Searches Your website visitors can save properties they like or save the search criteria they're using in a profile within your website!
Visitors Can Sign Up For Email Alerts Website visitors can sign up to automatically receive listings that match their search criteria on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
Automatic Listing Updates Listing information is updated with your local MLS data every day to ensure that your clients get current listings and status.
Feature & Market Seller Listings Feature your own listings on your website and other popular search engines such as Google Base, Trulia, Zillow, Vast and ...
Showcase Your Listings Showcase your listings automatically - Using your agent or office codes, RealtySoft IDX will automatically display your listings on your website.
Create Custom Search Displays Feature Sold, Pending, Open Homes, Residential, Commercial and other categories of listings on separate website pages.
Complies With All MLS / IDX Regulations RealtySoft works closely with your local MLS insuring that RealtySoft IDX complies with all MLS®/IDX standards & regulations of your board.
Customizable Look & Feel Choose from 2000+ high quality stock photos in over 20 different categories to make your site look its best.
Agent Roster System (Broker Version) Agent roster page creates individual agent bios for each agent within your company, with agents personal listings, photo and more.
Office Roster System (Broker Version) Office roster page creates individual office profiles for each office and conveniently maps it on a Google Map.
Customize Your Own Listings Customize your own listings with links to virtual tours, photos tours, custom description, open house information, and more.
Multiple Gadgets Mortgage Calculators, Contact Page, Schedule a Showing, Virtual Tours, Google Map, Points of Interest and more ...
What you get.
You get a visitor from John's site across the country, but they want a home in your area. They learn to respect your site's information, and they become a loyal repeat visitor for searches, just because your IDX solution provides precisely what they want. You get:
- Their contact info from their account signup or automated alert requests - A LEAD - Their loyalty because no other site is necessary. Your IDX solution provides it all. - The ability to feature and showcase your listings in the IDX search ... an exclusive RealtySoft feature.
Don't hesitate. This is a far better way to spend a few PPC dollars than butting heads on Google's Adwords. Get the Dream Team of Lead Generation - ActiveRain Listing Router and RealtySoft.com.
MLS Coverage
RealtySoft Free IDX is currently available for the following MLSs:
AL - MLS of the Shoals Area Association of Realtors (SHOALS)
AK - Alaska MLS (AKMLS)
AR - Cooperative Arkansas Realtors MLS (CARMLS)
AR - Jonesboro Board of REALTORS (JBOR)
AR - Russelville Board of Realtors (RBOR)
CA - East Bay Regional Data (EBRD)
CA - MRMLS Inc. (MRMLS)
CA - Bay East Association MLS (BAYEAST)
CA - Southern California MLS - CrisNet MLS (SOCAL)
CA - Contra Costa Association MLS (CONTRACOSTA)
CA - Sandicor, Inc. (SANDICOR)
CA - Pasadena-Foothills Association of Realtors (PFAR)
CA - Madera MLS (MADERA)
CT - CT Statewide MLS (CTSTATEWIDE)
DE - Trend MLS (TREND)
FL - Mid-Florida Regional MLS (MFR)
FL - Naples MLS (NABOR)
FL - Miami MLS - Miami-Dade County (RAMDC)
FL - Pensacola Association of Realtors (PENSACOLA)
FL - Miami MLS - Greater Fort Lauderdale (RAGFL)
FL - Ft. Myers MLS (FTMYERS)
FL - Miami MLS - Greater Miami and the Beaches (MIAMI)
FL - Miami MLS - South Broward (SOUTHBROWARD)
GA - First MLS (FMLS)
GA - Georgia MLS (GAMLS)
ID - Intermountain MLS (IMLS)
IL - Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED)
IL - Peoria Association of REALTORS (PEORIA)
IN - Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors (MIBOR)
IA - South West Iowa MLS (SWIAR)
KY - MetroSearch (LOUISVILLE)
MD - Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS)
MI - Grand Rapids Assoc of Realtors (GRAR)
MN - Southeast Minnesota MLS (SEMARMLS)
NV - Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors (GLVAR)
NJ - South Jersey Shore Regional MLS (SJSRMLS)
NJ - Trend MLS (TREND)
NJ - Garden State MLS (GSMLS)
NJ - Monmouth/Ocean MLS (MOMLS)
NM - Southwest Multiple Listing Service (SWMLS)
NY - Brooklyn New York MLS (BROOKLYN)
NY - Binghamton MLS (BINGHAMTON)
NY - MLS of Long Island, Inc. (MLSLI)
NY - Westchester-Putnam Mulitple Listing Service (WPMLS)
NC - Carolina Multiple Listing Services, Inc. (CAROLINAMLS)
NC - Triad MLS (TRIAD)
OR - Intermountain MLS (IMLS)
PA - Trend MLS (TREND)
SC - Charleston Trident MLS (CTARMLS)
SC - Coastal Carolinas Association of REALTORS, Inc. (CCAR)
SC - Piedmont MLS (PRAR)
TN - RealTracs (REALTRACS)
TX - Austin Board of Realtors - ACTRIS MLS (ACTRIS)
TX - Highland Lakes Assoc. of REALTORS (TXHL)
TX - Houston Realtors Information Service (HAR)
TX - San Antonio Board of Realtors (SABOR)
VT - Vermont Real Estate Information Network (VREIN)
VA - Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS)
WA - Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS)
WV - Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS)
WV - Huntington MLS (HMLS)
WI - Northwestern Wisconsin MLS (NWWMLS)
AB - Medicinehat MLS (MEDICINEHAT)
ON - Toronto MLS (TREB)
RealtySoft expects to have the following MLSs released in March/April 2009:
CA - Fresno Association of Realtors (FRESNO)
CA - Merced County MLS (MCAR)
CO - Vail Board of Realtors MLS (VBR)
CT - Massachusetts MLSPIN (MLSPIN)
HI - HiCentral MLS (HBR)
IA - Dubuque MLS (DUBUQUE)
KS - Heartland MLS (HEARTLAND)
MA - Massachusetts MLSPIN (MLSPIN)
MN - Regional MLS of Minnesota (REGIONALMLS)
NY - Greater Hudson Valley MLS (GHVMLS)
NC - Western NC Regional MLS (WNCR)
OH - Northern Ohio Real Estate Info Systems (NORIS)
TX - North Texas Real Estate Information Systems (NTREIS)
Biography: Peyman Aleagha is the founder and President of RealtySoft.com. RealtySoft provides Realtors with Real Estate Web Design (http://www.realtysoft.com), Real Estate Print Marketing and Free IDX (http://www.realtysoft.com/freeidx.php) solutions. Find out more about RealtySoft by visiting RealtySoft.com
Peyman
Aleagha is the founder and President of RealtySoft.com. RealtySoft provides
Realtors with
Real Estate Web Design, Real Estate Print
Marketing and
Free IDX solutions. Find out more
about RealtySoft by visiting
RealtySoft.com
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
I was checking out one of our client websites today (Cathy Hoppough) 
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