What should a home page look like?

Real estate agents will continue to debate this. For me, I know what clearly works.  I have many different successful websites and have had many that have failed. So, I speak from experience. I have wasted TONS of money and time on sites that did not work. 

The biggest misconception is website home page should be short and sweet. I wholeheartedly disagree with this. I think a real estate website should be very busy and have different avenues for all the different buyers in your specific region. The best way to think about it is if you were looking for electronics.  Check out www.bestbuy.com or www.abesofmaine.com.  These sites can send you in many different directions.  There is something for everyone and once you point in a specific direction it continues to narrow.  The same should hold true for real estate.

Many webmasters place a great deal of emphasis on landing pages as well. These pages should have a ton of content and additional links. Talk at length about the community or region. Be lengthy and specific. If someone is truly interested in that area they will spend time reading and learning. Valuable content is critical.

I know there are agents that will disagree with me on this. They think that you bring a browser to your site and convert them to a lead as quickly as possible. All of my sites require registration to view properties. While I think converting a visitor to a lead is important, I believe it is more critical to have a page that the individual will return to. Also, if you have great information the potential buyer or seller will consider you an expert in that particular market.

Another thing to consider is to make your home page very graphic. Buyers love images to guide them and won't spend a lot of time reading the content on the home page (though the content is helpful with SEO). If you can add helpful videos they will be appreciated and watched.

Be sure that you sour home page provides many options and narrorws as a potential client navigates.