How to Design a Great Real Estate Website

From brokers to investors, real estate professionals will need to build a solid online presence to attract clients and boost growth opportunities. Building a well-performing real estate website remains to be the most effective way to attract attention to your real estate services. However, with all the creative and technical considerations that go towards the process of building a website, you could be spending too much time and resources just to set up your online presence. To get around these challenges, it helps to know what website elements to include that will boost your presence. Let’s look at a few tips to help you build a great real estate website for your practice.

Start with an Objective

Just like in any other project, you need a clear-cut plan for building a real estate website. Depending on the nature of your practice, you need to ensure that your website can deliver the outcomes you want. Are you a real estate broker? You can use your website for promoting listings and generating leads. If you are an investor, your website can be a great way to educate people who want to venture into real estate investing.

As you come up with a custom web development plan, Identifying your objective is a basic process. Still, it allows you to focus your time and resources on website components that bring you closer to your goals. Without a clear goal-oriented plan, you could be wasting precious time and money on a website that won’t bring out the best in your business.

Great Real Estate Website – Build Your Brand

Your website is a reflection of who you are as a real estate professional. You can use this to stand out from other professionals in your industry.  Brand-building is crucial to your real estate practice. You need to bridge the gap between you and your audience, so it’s important to create an authentic identity for your real estate services. Developing your brand allows you to communicate the value you can bring to potential clients and partners.

In developing your brand, make sure to come up with a logo and an enticing brand story that talks about your passion for real estate and how the real estate market is helping people build their dreams. In addition, consider how you are going to communicate with your audience. Should it be in a friendly and easy-going tone? Do you treat real estate as a serious business? It pays to know the kind of personality your brand should adopt.

Once you have laid down the specifics of your brand identity, you can incorporate them into your website. Everything from your brand colors to the tone of writing should be considered so that visitors can build familiarity with your brand.

Real Estate Website – Find a Content Management System

Now that you have a vision for your real estate website, you will need to find a content management system or CMS that helps bring the creative and technical parts together. A CMS is a platform that allows you to create and publish content on your website. With a CMS, you can add dynamic features like videos and graphics that will make your website visually appealing to visitors.

You can do the same with website builders, but these provide less space for customization. Then again, you can always look towards real estate website builders that have presets and templates you can readily use. Creating a great website requires an effective and highly flexible CMS. WordPress is definitely the best one since it provides more customization options. Look for a hosting provider to make the most of your WordPress account.

Select the Right Hosting Provider

A hosting provider helps you make the most of your content management system. They act as a “host” for the content you are going to include on your website. Apart from that, they also help you with maintaining and securing your website from online threats and improving your searchability. Getting a hosting provider can be pricey. Most real estate professionals would pay hundreds of dollars monthly to keep their websites up and running. If you want to make the most of your real estate website, it pays to choose a hosting provider carefully.

To ensure you end up with the right hosting provider for your needs, consider preparing a shortlist of major hosting providers you can find online. A few of the most popular ones are HostGator, GoDaddy, Bluehost, and SiteGround. From there, compare their rates, uptime scores, security scores, loading speeds, and extra charges for maintenance and security. To be safe, steer clear of hosting providers that offer below-than-average prices, even for advanced hosting plans. You can also check for reviews and note negative comments from real estate professionals using their services.

Pick an Eye-catching Theme for the Real Estate Website

A real estate website needs to be appealing to visitors. If you want to keep them engaged long enough to convert them, you need to choose a website theme that matches your brand identity and allows for a flawless user experience across different platforms. Whether you are using a website builder or a CMS, you should look for a theme that could accommodate the plugins or features you would like to add. Apart from that, you should also pick a theme that matches your brand’s personality.

It’s always safe to pick a theme that’s simple and straightforward. A cluttered website is more likely to turn away visitors instead of engaging them. It’s also essential to choose a theme that’s optimized for different devices. Visitors could be using tablets or mobile phones to view your website, so you will need a theme that adapts to any screen size without affecting the user experience. To be sure, test a theme using different devices and pick the one that allows for a reading pattern that feels natural.

Include the Right Plugins

Plugins are add-ons that perform a wide range of tasks. Some plugins create unique features, and there are others that help with website maintenance. You should be able to find plugins that match the goals you are looking to accomplish through your website. If you are an agent or a broker, you will need a form builder so you can provide potential clients with a convenient way to reach out and book a consultation. For this, use plugins like Formidable Forms or IMPress. These plugins are also great for showcasing detailed property listings imported from your MLS database.

In case you’re a home-buying company like Ocean City Development, you will need a simple home evaluation tool that allows homeowners to enter details about their property so you can come up with your best cash offer. Apart from these plugins, you will also need tools that will improve security and searchability. Regarding security, you need plugins like Wordfence, JetPack Security, or Bulletproof Security that ward off malicious IP requests and detect malware.

For improving your website’s search engine visibility, look towards RankMath and SEOPress, which can help you apply the proper optimization.

Great Real Estate Website – Final Words

Web development is long and tedious, but it’s worth the time and money you put in. If you want to grow your real estate practice, look at these tips and maximize your potential for success in the online arena.