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Top 5 Elements Every Realtor's Website MUST Have to Be Successful

By
Real Estate Agent

Most real estate agents know that they have to have a website to compete in today’s marketplace. Right?

Unfortunately, they end up building (or paying someone to build) a website that doesn’t make them more money or get them more qualified leads.

So, what’s the solution?

How do you build a highly successful website that generates qualified leads for you even while you’re sound asleep?

Here’s the top 5 elements every realtors website must have to be successful:

After reading them, be sure to watch this free presentation to learn how to easily get all of them (and more) on your site within the next 72 hours.

1. Wordpress

First of all, you should build your site with WordPress.

It’s really the best platform to build your site on, and best of all, you don’t have to have a degree, know html or any special coding to be able to use it.

It’s extremely easy to use, just a quick 5 minute install and you can get started building and customizing a website that is perfect for you.

WordPress is also the premier blogging platform, which will be very important to you (we’ll talk about that in just a minute).

Best of all, WordPress is FREE.

2. MLS/IDX

One of the most important elements your site has to have is MLS or IDX real-time search capabilities.

Guess who the best visitors are that come to your site...

Exactly, those who are looking for real estate to buy. And if you can give them the capability to search for homes directly on your site, they will stay on your website longer, and will return to find more homes and price changes later.

This is extremely important because the more someone comes to your site, the more they get to see you, your picture, and your services. The more contact they have with your website, the more likely they’ll be to trust you, and want to do business with you.

Believe it or not, they’ll actually be able to get to know you without ever talking to you because they spend so much time on your site. And the more they feel like they know you, the more likely they’ll be to hire you to be their real estate agent.

So your website MUST have MLS or IDX real-time search capabilities.

3. Lead Capture

Okay, so you’re getting some visitors to your site now, we need to turn these visitors into qualified leads.

Meaning, we need them to fill out a form with their name, email and phone number so that you can contact them personally and turn them into a client.

You see, you can have hundreds of visitors come to your site, but if you don’t know who they are, or have any way to contact them once they leave your site, it doesn’t do you any good -- right?

The fact of the matter is, rarely will someone pick up the phone and call you, especially if they’re searching for homes or real estate agents in the evening after business hours (which most people do).

Even if they do want to talk to you, they have to write down your contact info and maybe they’ll call the next day during business hours, maybe they won’t.

But if you have their information and permission to call, you can be the one to follow up with them. And you’ll know that they want to hear from you, which makes it so much sweeter.

Trust me, when you can call them and they already know who you are because they were on your site, you’ll already be 10 steps ahead of all the “cold calling” realtors who will just be begging for the scraps that you leave behind.

Listen, I’m a real estate agent just like you. And I know that if we don’t pick up the phone and make the calls, we’re not going to have any clients, which means zero commissions.

So, your website has to have a way to capture leads. But it can’t be just some form on the side of the page. You have to give them some incentive to give you their contact info.

You’ll want to come up with something unique yet simple that will have them anxiously waiting for a phone call or email from you. I talk more about this in my free presentation here.

4. Blog

The next thing that you want to do is have a blog on your website.

Blog is short for “weblog” and it’s simply a place where you can write about anything you want and share it with the world.

Let me be clear here...you can have a full blown corporate style website with all of your home offerings, MLS/IDX access, as well as having a blog. A blog is just a component to a website, so it doesn’t have to (and shouldn’t be, in my opinion) separate from your main website.

Your blog will give you a way to communicate with your base of potential clients, give them great information so that they will trust you more and more, as well as giving you a fantastic advantage for ranking in the search engines like Google and Bing.

In terms of having a blog on your website, you’ll want to write about things that pertain to real estate.

Now, don’t think that you have to instantly become a great writer and spend all of your time writing blogs.

You can essentially just copy and paste articles and news that is relevant to real estate from other websites and just put it on your blog. (You’ll have to do some edits to the articles so they aren’t exact replicas of the originals, but that’s easy to do).

So, why do you need to blog?

Well, there are two good reasons.

First, your blog is a great place to share local information about your real estate market and your visitors will love it. It adds a lot of value and a lot of great content to your site.

Second, Google, Yahoo, Bing and the other search engines love it when your website has new content added to it and they’ll reward you for it.

The more that the search engines “value” your site, the higher up in the search results you’ll end up.

Meaning, when someone searches for a real estate agent or for a home to buy in your area, your website will show up higher in the search results and you’ll get free visitors to your site (free leads).

Which brings us to number 5, because blogging alone won’t get you to the top of Google.

5. SEO

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.

What does that mean?

Well, most of your visitors will come from Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines.

When someone goes to Google and searches for “homes for sale in New York” Google will return search results showing all of the websites that are relevant to “homes for sale in New York”.

This list is usually in the millions and quite frankly, if you’re a real estate agent in New York, and your site isn’t listed in the top 20 (the first 2 pages) then no one will even see your site in the list, let alone click to visit your site.

We’ve all used Google to find something right?

How many times have you gone beyond the second page of results before you found what you were looking for, or just searched for something else.

Well, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a way to get your site to the top of Google’s results so that people find your site and visit your site.

There’s a lot of strategies for SEO and ranking high in the search engines and one of the most important ones is you’ll need to have quality content on your own site that is relevant to the search term that you’re going for.

For example: If you want to your site to show up when someone searches “homes for sale in New York” you’ll want to have those exact words on your site somewhere. (and probably more than once)

SEO isn’t terribly complicated, but there are certain things that you have to do to get listed high up.

Another one of those things was already mentioned earlier - blogging.

There’s a formula to SEO and when you do it right, you’ll get listed in the top 20 and you’ll start getting a lot of free traffic.

Please keep in mind though, this doesn’t happen overnight. While I wish it did, it can take at least a month or more to get ranked in the top 20.

And you know what, it’s worth the wait. Here’s why:

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 94% of home buyers start their search online.

And where do you think they begin their searches?

Exactly, on Google, Yahoo, or Bing.

So, if you want visitors to your site, you have to spend some time on SEO and getting your website to the top of the search engines.

Okay, that’s a lot to do and a bit overwhelming -- right?

Not really.

I created a free 20 minute presentation that shows you exactly how to create a website in less than 72 hours that has all of these elements and will start making you more money and getting you more leads right away.

Go here to watch this free presentation

To your success in real estate,
Jeffry Evans

PS. Whether you already have a website or you’re just starting off, this presentation could be the most powerful learning tool for knowing how to effectively use the internet to become the #1 realtor in your area.

Comments (14)

Bob Caldwell
Fitzgerald Financial, a Division of Monarch Bank - Annapolis, MD
VA Mortgage Specialist and Military Relocation Services
Photos and/or videos are very helpful as well. Full screen photos and videos subconsciously make the web page's visitors feel more like they're actually *there* at the property.
Apr 14, 2012 05:37 PM
Tracy Oliva
West USA Realty - Arizona - Fountain Hills, AZ
The Oliva Team Arizona Agents

Jeff; this is some good Info for all,keep up the good work,And good work and good luck with your business in 2012.  E

Apr 14, 2012 10:41 PM
Jennie Miller, PLLC
Buy/Sell/Rent Your Home in Phoenix Metro Area - Phoenix, AZ
AZ Broker - Real Estate Services 480-382-9681

This is great information.  Your post made me start thinking about what I can do to improve my site!  Thanks!

Apr 14, 2012 11:35 PM
John R. Wuertz
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Fox and Roach, Realtors - Mount Laurel Township, NJ
Your Real Estate Connection

Jeffry, you list some very good points here.  I'm in the process of switching my site to a wordpress format. I like the flexibility with design and the ability to add content easily.  There are also a lot of widgets available that can be added for more features.

Thanks for posting.

Apr 15, 2012 12:31 AM
Carla Freund
Keller Williams Preferred Realty - Raleigh, NC
NC Real Estate Transition & Relocation 919-602-848

Thank you for the great info. I've heard Wordpress is good for building a website. I'll need to take a look at this.

Apr 15, 2012 01:52 AM
Christopher Lotte
Coldwell Banker - Lithopolis, OH
Central Ohio Real Estate Agent, 614-390-9243

I love using wordpress for real estate websites.... If you find a good template and make some modifications it can work very well... My favorite template I used on a Columbus Ohio Real Estate website is called OpenHouse which you can get at http://www.informatik.com/themeforest/openhouse2/

Apr 15, 2012 01:56 AM
Adrian Willanger
206 909-7536 AdrianWillanger-broker.com - Seattle, WA
Profit from my two decades of experience

Jeffrey, I agree with your list of 5 website must haves.  I changed to a wordpress site about 8 months ago and what a difference.

Apr 15, 2012 02:07 AM
Jeffry Evans
Temple, TX

Everyone: Thanks for the great comments. Here's to your success this year!

Apr 15, 2012 04:36 AM
Wanda Phillips
Success Investment Realty - Altamonte Springs, FL

Great Advice!

Apr 15, 2012 04:54 AM
Tammy Emineth
Personal SEO - Website SEO and Real Estate Marketing - Frenchtown, MT
Content Marketer, SEO Teacher, Website Fixer

Great advice and simple, straight-forward points. Wordpress is not the end all site but it is one of the most well-optimized type of platforms if you have optimized it properly. Good luck! :)

Apr 15, 2012 07:16 AM
Dave Ahrens
Sellstate Alliance Realty - Colorado Springs, CO
SFR,GRI,SRES,CNE

I listened to your presentation, lots of good advice which makes me think I should check into why I do not get much traffic on my own site.

Thank you!

Apr 15, 2012 09:09 AM
Leslie Ebersole
Swanepoel T3 Group - Saint Charles, IL
I help brokers build businesses they love.

Well that's interesting, AR featuring a post on building your own wp-based site. 

I've spent 1000s of hours and $1000s on website development. 72 hours is a tiny start, people should just be aware that it's a big step to take. Necessary, but not trivial or easy.

Apr 15, 2012 11:14 AM
Tibor I. Olah
Apex Results Realty Inc.Brokerage - Burlington, ON

I am glad you have narrowed it down to 5, let us know when oyu find more.

Apr 15, 2012 12:48 PM
Jeffry Evans
Temple, TX

Leslie:

The 72 hours refers to our offer to build out an initial website for realtors. For much less than the $1000s you mentioned, we will get realtors set up and give them access to a phenomenal training center to launch their site to the top of the search and provide their visitors with everything they are looking for when they hit the site.

Apr 15, 2012 01:50 PM