Why Wordpress is Good for Real Estate Websites
When most people hear "Wordpress" they think about is its popular blogging platform Wordpress.com; however Wordpress.org, the content management system (CMS), is quickly becoming one of the most popular choices for setting up a small business website. As a real estate professional - be it a REALTOR®, mortgage broker, appraiser, or even a real estate brokerage - Wordpress is a great option for setting up a dynamic, interactive, and professional-looking website. Here are just a few reasons why you should consider using Wordpress to set up your real estate website: (in no particular order)
1. Cost
First off, Wordpress is a free platform. Second, hosting fees can be as low as $4 per month (in order to get prices this low you pay for several years at a time though). Even if you pay month-to-month you can easily be under $10 per month. Keeping your website updated is so easy you won't have to worry about paying a high-priced developer to do it for you.
2. User-Friendly and Excellent Support
You're not required to be an expert to use Wordpress effectively. You don't have to know HTML, PHP, or CSS to use it. As with anything you will need to spend a little time becoming familiar with the aspects and tools. Installing Wordpress is easy too; almost all hosting providers now offer one-click installation for Wordpress. Updating content is a breeze using the rich text editor; if you've ever used Microsoft Word you'll have no trouble creating new posts and pages for your site. In the event you run across something you don't know how to do help is only a Google search away; there are thousands of Wordpress developers writing and video-blogging about how-to's, tutorials, troubleshooting, expansion, customization, and practically every other topic you can think of.
The user interface (UI) is so easy you can't help falling in love with it. What's more is that with every update Wordpress releases the better the UI gets. It's clean, concise, and self-explanatory. What more could you ask for?
3. Look and Feel
You shouldn't have any problems fining a theme that suits your needs and style. There are thousands of themes available and hundreds that are real estate specific. Some themes are free and some are not. My advice, spend a little extra money and invest in a quality premium theme. Conducting a simple Google search for "free Wordpress themes" or "premium Wordpress themes" will provide you with a plethora of options to choose from.
Pro Tip: You can easily set up your website yourself or you can spend the extra money and have a theme customized by a professional for you.
4. Extensions
There are tens of thousands of plug-ins and widgets for Wordpress and more being developed each day. Plug-ins and widgets add specific abilities to your site. A few examples of types of plug-ins and widgets are social sharing, search engine optimization (SEO), maps, real estate listings, IDX integration/MLS search, RSS feed subscriptions, polls, contact forms, and local weather displays. Don't think that these are all the types because as my husband put it "There's a plug-in for everything! I wouldn't be surprised if there is one that will come cook us dinner."
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Out of the box, Wordpress provides great SEO with just a few easy tweaks on your part. Matt Cutts, head of Web Spam at Google, says that "Wordpress is made for SEO." Click here to see the full interview (although this video is several years old it is still very relevant).
6. SPAM Protection
Out of the box WordPress comes with very robust tools such as an integrated blacklist and open proxy checker to manage and eliminate comment spam on your blog, and there is also a rich array of plugins that can take this functionality a step further." - original content posted here.
7. Cross-browser Compatibility and Web Compliance
Wordpress has made sure that all generated code is W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Standards compliant. This insures browser interoperability and compatibility with future tools.
8. Full User Registration
WordPress has a built-in user registration system that (if you choose) can allow people to register and maintain profiles and leave authenticated comments on your blog. You can optionally close comments for non-registered users. There are also plugins that hide posts from lower level users.
9. Let's not forget blogging!
Blogging is a fantastic way to increase your site ranking. Blogging allows you to keep fresh, current content on your website thus enabling web spiders to regularly index your web page (think SEO). It also helps to establish you as a real estate expert in your area.
There are so many other reasons but this is just a quick list of some of the top reasons. Want to know more? Subscribe to my blog!
Comments (3)Subscribe to CommentsComment