For years I have subscribed to an IDX service, paying those high monthly fees. At the time there was no choice and every penny was worth it as this brought me almost all my business. But as time went on and Google kept changing its algorithm rankings started to drop across the board for people with IDXs. Not to mention that with hundreds of people showing the exact same information Google got bored.
I would have stayed with my IDX but there were way to many problems over the years with little or no fixes forthcoming. Initially I was going to move to a different IDX provider, but I hesitated for a long time because I was worried about what would happen with the thousands of indexed listing pages that I would lose. Eventually I bit the bullet and found a fabulous guy who really knows his stuff.
I was initially looking for someone to just redirect all the listings to the relevant link with the new provider, but in talking to the developer I realized that I could buildi my own. I am a broker so was able to get the raw RETS data from my MLS. My developer had built RETS feeds before and I could tell he undertsands our business and the right way to show listings.
With the new listings feed he built a whole new theme and cleaned out years of bad code in the backend. He also inserted SEO into both the theme and the listings, and peppered good calls to action around the site.
My site looks amazing and he has added some great features like this building page. The site is not completely finished, but I am thrilled.
If anyone ever needs to amp up their web presence I highly recommend going this route. And did I mention that there are no monthly fees!
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