The current digital world makes it mandatory for all real estate professionals to have a great website that puts them ahead of their competition. Apart from including all important elements of a real estate website, keeping your website updated, creating detailed listings, and ensuring that potential buyers and sellers access the platform with ease are essential. Realtors, including those who work within a localized region and cash home buyers such as Mill City homebuyers, should consider the following tips to make their website outstanding.
Keep Your Real Estate Website Updated
Ensuring that your real estate website is constantly updated is overly critical. With widespread internet use, more people are turning to online platforms, specifically websites and social media channels, to search for properties. Potential sellers and buyers might be camping on your website, waiting for a new listing that suits their purchase needs.
Keeping your site updated means regularly removing or marking off properties that have already been sold. Leaving already sold properties on your platform can frustrate potential buyers with negative experiences. Fortunately, you can use various website plugins to remove sold properties from listings. You should also keep the following items updated:
- Phone number
- Social media links
- License information
- Email address
- Fax number
- Customer testimonials
In addition to these essentials, showcasing real-life success stories can significantly enhance your website’s appeal. For instance, featuring stories from satisfied sellers who have successfully navigated the selling process can offer potential clients valuable insights and reassurance. A prime example of this practice can be seen with Sell My House For Cash Dallas, where they highlight customer experiences to demonstrate their expertise and reliability in the real estate market. Including such testimonials keeps your content fresh and builds trust with your audience by showing the real-world value you provide.
Create Quality Blog Content
Content marketing is vital as customers leverage product research and crave personal relationships. Having a blog and ensuring that you produce quality content regularly is crucial. Google also favors and ranks websites that produce fresh content consistently. An Inman survey found that 51% of real estate website traffic is from organic searches. If your page only has your bio, your site will likely be invisible to Google and potential clients.
If potential buyers are looking for properties and your website has a great deal of real-estate content, your website will most likely be among the first on the results page. This is important because the first links get more than 30% of click-through traffic. Set a few days or hours to create relevant blog posts about various real-estate topics, such as tips for property buyers and sellers, home inspection, and more.
Simple Navigation
You should make it easy for potential clients to find what they want on your website. Clients who can’t find what they need from your website within a few minutes will simply search elsewhere. Navigating your website should be easy and intuitive. Essential features to include are:
- About Us page: Prospects should know who they are engaging. Your about page should feature a brief description of your agency, team members, and individual experience.
- Listings: This is an essential section for real estate websites. It should feature all the properties listed, whether for rent or sale, and their types (houses, condominiums, or commercial properties).
- Guides: Your website should have guides for buyers and sellers. The guides should outline the buying or selling process to ease client understanding.
- Financing: While not all agencies offer this, most real estate experts have close associations with banks and other financial institutions offering mortgages and property loans. This could be the reason why clients prefer your agency.
- Blogs: Use blog posts to improve website traffic. Your posts should cover a wide range of topics, such as financing options, property prices, and more.
- Contact: Include all your contact details.
Write Detailed Property Descriptions
Unlike other products, potential buyers looking to purchase your properties want to know the details of your listings. Unfortunately, most realtors make the mistake of providing Google Map links only for prospective buyers to check out details for themselves. You should be different by providing this information yourself. Do thorough research, list identifiable landmarks near the properties, schools or restaurants, and other details. Providing these details will keep your clients on your site longer and prove you are resourceful.
Use High-Quality Photos and Videos
The real estate business is highly visual, so it makes sense to employ high-quality pictures and videos on your website. Homes and listings with quality pictures sell 32% faster. Listings with more pictures also sell quickly. For instance, properties with only one photo sell after an average of 70 days, while those with 20 photos take only 32 days. Below are some tips on including pictures and videos on your website.
- Use high-resolution pictures: Grainy or blurry pictures are a big no. Poor-quality pictures make your website appear amateur, and potential clients can question your legitimacy. Spend some time and invest in photography for quality photos. Interestingly, pictures can be the deciding factor for potential homebuyers. While at this, remember that high-quality images have a large bandwidth and can slow your website. Use a compression tool, such as Kraken or JPEG Optimizer, which won’t affect image quality.
- Show the surrounding areas: You should also show your potential clients the surrounding community. This helps potential clients from different towns, cities, or countries know what to expect. Showing your prospects the community also indicates the types of properties in the neighbourhood. Drone footage is best for this.
- Introduce your team: You can also use photography to introduce your team. Putting a face to your website name makes your website look legitimate.
Avoid Using Standard Website Templates
You shouldn’t use a template if you want your website to stand out. While there are several customizable templates, the final layout won’t be different from other real estate websites. Employ some creativity and be unique by choosing different designs and color palettes representing your brand. You can try a semi-custom or fully-custom web design option. Unlike standard templates, semi-custom websites allow for advanced customization. For instance, you can customize your homepage to reflect your brand, choose specific features, add custom articles, and change the color of inner pages to match your brand color.
On the other hand, a fully custom website allows for maximum customization. In addition to a fully customized home page, you can choose your preferred content layout and inner banners. This will enable you to display your logo and branding features prominently.
Leverage User-Generated Content
Investing in user-generated content also makes you stand tall from the crowd in the real estate market. User-generated content includes reviews, social media posts, mentions, comments, and testimonials created by users online, primarily to share their experiences.
Sharing user-generated content effectively grows customer trust, capturing new leads, and potential customers. Several studies suggest that more than 85% of digital prospects trust user-generated content more than advertisements and branded promotions.
Advanced Search Options for Real Estate Website
If you have several property listings, potential buyers will feel overwhelmed if they can’t filter through them. However, with many variables in the current property market, different clients have unique needs. Your search options should be advanced to make it easy for clients to find what they want. Advanced search options should feature property types, square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, outside area, and other unique features.
Real Estate Website – Endnote
Unlike marketing other products and services, the small details make a significant difference in real estate success. Consider the tips mentioned above to make your website outstanding. If you aren’t versed with web development, don’t hesitate hiring a web developer for your real estate website.