Success in today's Real Estate market without a viable, integrated web presence can be like trying to get your dog to catch a frisbee without practice - It could happen, but it's going to be erradic, subject to the whims of fortune and your dog may end up chasing Land Cruisers on the expressway as a result. Success for service-based, small business without an effective web strategy can be no less daunting or without significant, unintended consequences.  

Current studies have found that over 75% of home buyers and sellers now utilize the Internet for searching for homes . That's not a number that an agent can afford to ignore without financial consequences, especially in a market like we are experiencing today. Yet old habits are hard to break for many agents. It's no longer 1985 and Kinko's Copy flyers are no longer cutting edge marketing. Today's sophisticated, qualified buyers and sellers use the Internet for extensive research and they give their business to agents who are equipped to facilitate that approach.

Websites for better or for worse, have become the main portal for access to these clients today. This has become their shopping mall. They expect an interactive, media-rich experience with photos, videos and virtual tours with a simple, easy-to-use interface. Once they get confused or bored they're gone - Studies show that takes just 8 seconds. We've become a nation of impatient surfers, born with a remote in our hand, an eager trigger finger and immersed in compelling visual images. Bore or confuse your website visitors at your own peril. It's no longer enough to put up a simple website and expect results. 

Serve up a website filled with confusing links, endless text and an outdated photo or two and you will lose 9 out of every 10 visitors that you worked so hard to direct to your site. These are the simple, brutal facts of today's Internet market. The average monthly conversion rates for websites are staggering stats - 1% for text-based sites and 11% for media-rich, easy-to-navigate sites. That means for every 100 visitors to your website a text-based site will receive 1 phone call and a media-rich site will receive 11. Some would argue that's a difference that's worth a great deal.   

The Internet rate of technological progress has been dramatic within the last 18 months. New Adobe flash technolgy enabled website designers to now seemlessly incorporate internet video into sites without the previous issues of waiting for the video to download to your hard drive. The flash-encoded video now plays instantly and with all the clarity of a TV broadcast. The explosion of social network platforms, blogs, vloggs, more focused search engine paremters, and numerous online marketing innovations have all quickly and dramtically changed the web landscape.   

You have just 8 seconds to tell visitors to your website who you are and what you can do for them and why you are qualified to handle the largest financial transaction of their lives. If you think they don't care who you are or what you are like as a person then they will search for someone who does. Web surfing habits have changed  and viewers now seek the same transparency in an online transaction that they require in a personal transaction. Most agents would agree that if they can connect with a client emotionally during a personal visit, they will usually get the listing. The online user is now seeking the same experience when surfing the Internet for homes - A personal connection.

What does your site say about you? Your website landing page should not be the confusing array of navigational links and text that so many Real estate sites are filled with today. What many agents feel is an impressive array of extensive content has the opposite effect on today's actual surfing habits. People simply get confused and leave. Studies show that people prefer information and visual composition in groups of three. That has always been well understood by artists throughout the ages. Whether it was the great painting masters of the Renaissance or the Greeks in constructing three-act plays - people are emotionally comfortable with no more than three concepts, visually or intellectually.  

There has been an explosion of over 100 new websites for social-interaction sites recently and they all have access to huge databases of clicking habits of their of users. They all quickly learned what works to get a click and what doesn't and there doesn't seem to be any disagreement over the results. You will see all of these sites utilize simple landing pages with no more than 3 choices because they have learned that this works dramatically better than a cluttered page with too many choices. You will begin to see more and more new sites follow this prescription as the numbers are indisputable. 

That may seem counter-intuitive to a Real estate agent sitting atop a mound of housing information. However, you don't need to remove any of your content. Re-packaging your info.in an easily digested format can dramnatically change your response rate. A Real Estate landing page should be uncluttered, visually enhanced but with plenty of white space and have only 3 initial choices: 

1. Buyers 

2. Sellers 

3. Meet me.     

You still have all of the same extensive content on your site, but you now allow the user to get past that all-important first click from within the 8 second portal. Studies show that once they click once within your site, they achieve a stronger emotional commitment and comfort level with your information. That comfort level is what determines a user's willingness to pursue and endure a search for information within your site. Studies show that the first click results in an average of at least 2 more (Again the rule of 3) . If they can get to your pertinent info. that is visually enhanced and without clutter within 3 clicks your chances for a connection increase substantially. I'm sure many of you have experieced when you click into someone's site you often unconsciously will click at least one more time because you've gone that far already.  

A recent study confirmed what many agents already knew. That given limited information, that potential clients often selected an agent based on image or emotional appeal. When questioned, more than half the respondents of this study said that they sometimes selected an agent on the Internet based on nothing more than their photograph. If that is true then how important is the look and feel of your site? Some might say in today's market it can often be the difference between a successful client list and afternoons spent trolling Active Rain leaving sarcastic comments on people's blogs.

Many agents will often go to great lengths in creating a professional, upscale image with respect to their office, attire and mode of transportation because they understand that image matters in sales, yet they almost completely ignore their website. The one electronic storefront that more than three-quarters of today's market utilizes for access and yet they simply ignore it. Outdated photos, a cheap, cluttered interface, confusing navigation, an unused blog, an unused email newsletter list, the list could go on. You will hear things like "I don't have time to update my website." "I'm not a technical person." "Real marketing is through personal networking. I have a stack of business cards at the cleaners that I'm excited about."

While the value of personal networking will never be in dispute, ignoring new emerging market demands is rarely the prescription for success. Today's clients demands are quite clear - They want to research homes, supporting information and agents through the Internet and they want a simple, easy-to-use, media-rich, interactive experience with genuine transparency. If you are not offering them an Internet experience that they seek, then this part of the market will not likely be accessible to you. That market is getting increasingly difficult to continue to ignore today in an industry that has been at times, slow to embrace technology.

Mark Selmi - Avanti Films, http://www.avantivisuals.com/