Real Estate Websites - How To Be Buzz-worthy Instead Of Boring
Real estate agent websites are a dime a dozen online. Many are carbon copies of one another, both from a design and content perspective. To enjoy greater success (such as lead generation) from their real estate websites, agents must break free of this “clone” trap.
Here’s how agents can stand apart with their real estate websites, in order to capture readers’ attention and drive them toward action.
1. Create 20 Pages of Original Website Content
When creating content for a new website, it’s always wise to start out with original content — and the more of it, the better. That way the first time a search engine finds, crawls and indexes your website, it will only find original content. This will go a long way toward the ranking potential of your website, and will make the search engine more inclined to revisit your site often.
2. Give People What They Want
When building a new site, I like to start out with a list of the top 20 key search phrases for that website. I would then write a page of content (at least) for each of those top phrases. This creates a solid base of content that’s tightly focused around phrases the target is audience is searching.
If you follow this technique on your real estate website, you will be building the site based on what your audience wants to read, not what you want them to read. This is a basic building block of search engine visibility, satisfied readers, and overall website success.
3. Bring the Real Estate Data
Most visitors to a real estate website seek the same thing upon reaching the site — real estate data! They want to know about the local real estate scene, property listings, etc. The more of this information you can provide on your real estate website, the longer you’ll keep people on the site. And the longer you keep them on the site, the better the chance you’ll have of generating website leads.
4. Keep Your Website Organized
I hate to make the following statement, but I am professionally obligated to do so. The majority of real estate agent websites that I visit are horribly unorganized — I mean to the point that you can’t even find your way around. I don’t know why this happens so often, but I have a feeling it’s due to a lack of planning combined with the desire to put EVERYTHING on the home page.
Here’s the bottom line. If you make it hard for people to navigate your real estate website and find the info they’re after, they will bail out on you quicker than you can say “back button.” First-time visitors to your website do not owe you anything, and they will judge you harshly. (Information overload makes this necessary.) So if you give them a good reason to leave, such as rampant disorganization, they will oblige you by leaving.
5. Strive for Real Estate Website “Talkability”
Most websites belonging to real estate agents are the same. Buyer Tips, About Us, Properties, etc. It’s as though most agents by their real estate websites from a “one size fits all” web design firm. In certain cases, this is actually true.
If your real estate website is “cookie cutter” redundant, lifeless and boring, then there’s very little chance people will recommend it to others. On the other hand, if your website is remarkable from both an information and design perspective, people will take notice. They will reward you by forwarding your website link to others. It’s human nature — we love to “scoop” new and interesting things to our friends and family.
The more remarkable you make your real estate website, the more people will remark on it. Here’s an example. There is an agent in the Fort Bragg area of North Carolina who has found a unique way to brand himself. As you know, Fort Bragg is an Army town, full of Army personnel and their families. Naturally, the military sector creates a lot of housing turnover as soldiers transfer in and out of the area.
This agent also happens to be an Army veteran. So he has branded himself as the Army agent in town. His website is called something like “Captain Bill’s Real Estate.” It has a camouflage color scheme, and even an illustrated caricature of Captain Bill in fatigues and drill instructor’s hat.
(I wish I could remember his actual name so I could show you his website. It’s been a couple years since I saw it.)
Now let me ask you this. In an Army town like Fort Bragg, how effective do you think this branding strategy is? I served in the military, and I can tell you that I would have called this guy over a “civilian” agent in a heartbeat. His website (and persona) are easy to talk about. “Hey, have you seen this Army real estate agent guy…”
That’s what I call “talkability.”
Good luck with your real estate website!
* You may republish this article online if you retain the author’s byline and the ACTIVE hyperlinks below. Copyright 2007, Brandon Cornett.
Learn More
If you like this article, you will also enjoy the authors guide to real estate web design and similar items on his informative website. For more tips and tutorials, visit http://www.armingyourfarming.com
Tags: internet marketing, real estate agent, real estate websites, web design
