Killer Tips to Dominate Your Market
More than 80% of home buyers begin their search for a home online, nuff said, right?
It’s okay to start with a terrible website, we did, and we’re constantly told that we still have a lot of work to do. The important thing is that you consistently work to make your site better. It’s a reflection of your company, but more importantly, your website can be the best sales tool you have. Today, just over 80% of home buyers begin their search online, imagine how many will in 5 years. Whether you don’t have a website, you have a website that needs work, or you have a great website, these 10 killer characteristics of a real estate website can help you dominate your market online.
1. Make Your Site User-friendly:
User-friendly sits atop this list of killer website characteristics because it’s the most important; there are three main things that make a website user-friendly: Navigation, Load time and Information.
- Navigation: I’ve been to one too many websites that have left me wondering what to do next and where to find the information I came for. Make it easier on users with easy navigation and a clutter free website. If users can’t easily find what they want, they’ll bounce, guaranteed.
- Load-time: In today’s high-speed world, load times are decreasing, but dial-up does still exist (I saw it at my Grandpa’s house a few months ago). Who wants to spend 5 minutes waiting for 1 page to download, does anyone have that much time? Speed your website’s load time up by decreasing HTTP requests. You can do this by making images smaller, eliminating images that aren’t needed, combining images and by combining scripts. More tips and details about speeding your website up can be found here.
- Information: It’s the age of information and the Internet gives buyers access to all of it. Give your users what they want by providing them with the best information possible, information about your homes, your company, your communities, your accomplishments, your awards, your past projects and happy home buyers. Make your information interesting and helpful; if you wondered something about an area while developing a section or page, chances are your visitors will too. Give your visitors enough information to pique their interest without giving away the farm
2. Web Analytics
Without web analytics you’re in the dark when it comes to tracking what happens on your website. Google Analytics is probably the best option for most websites. It’s free and comes with more features than you’ll ever need; it’s Google-easy to use. Thanks for recommendation Pip
3. Develop a Clean Property Search
Thanks Sam Chapman for letting us know this killer characteristic was overlooked. If you’re an agent, or home builder, you’ll need a clean property search feature that looks good and functions well. Keep in mind that images sell homes, so your listings should have multiple pictures that can be viewed as thumbnails and large images. Make it easy for home buyers to narrow their search and make sure your results load quick, users don’t like to wait.
4. Develop a Look & Feel that Can Impress:
It’s not the most important characteristic, but it ranks high on this killer list because presentation means a lot, especially when you’re selling someone the most important purchase of their life. It’s the same concept as a model home, decoration in a home makes it show better and helps bring out the most important features. A website’s design does the same thing, and more often than not, it’s the first impression a buyer has of your homes, your communities and your company. Create a website that makes your homes and company look good – develop a look & feel that can impress.
5. Make Your Website a Resource:
Making a website a good resource means more than just providing as much information as possible. Home buyers aren’t always familiar with the area they’re moving too; this is where you can standout. Make your site a new home resource that can answer any question a home buyer might have. This means giving them information or links to other resources about weather, schools, commercial centers, museums, national parks, lakes etc.. If it’s a selling point for an area, your website should do more than just briefly mention it. Make your website a resource for home buyers and they’ll visit it more than once.
6. Make Sure Your Website Looks Good in Every Browser:
Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, FireFox, Safari and Opera are all different browsers that made the short list because they’re the most popular. In some cases, a web page will look very different in each. Most good developers check to make sure any site they deliver looks good in all browsers, but things aren’t always as they should be, so check your site from time-to-time to ensure buyers can view your site the way it was built to be viewed. You use a lot of resources to attract home buyers to your website, make sure they’re able to use your website when they get there.
7. Highlight Your Websites Best Sections & Pages:
You just got a new visitor, now what? In some cases, buyers will land on a page that doesn’t meet their needs, that’s why it’s important to tell them about a new community, a can’t miss interest rate or an incredible deal on a new home with advertisements on your site. Use your site to highlight important communities, special events, informative sections or killer pages; highlight things that have the potential to make you standout in a crowded arena. When a home buyer is on your site, you have their attention, make sure you take the opportunity to tell them how you can exceed their expectations and why you deserve their business.
8. Asks Every Buyer to Take Action & Make Sure You’re Around When They Do:
Nothings worse than an ad that doesn’t ask the viewer to do something. Can you imagine a TV commercial meant to sell products that ends without a call to action? – no call now, no visit my site now, no come down today – the commercial would be a complete failure. If you don’t ask buyers to take action on your website, it too may be a complete failure. Use real estate on your website to ask for a buyer’s business and give them an easy way to contact you. A chat live button is a perfect way to ask a home buyer for business and to be around when they do. If you go the email route, make sure you answer their inquiries immediately. In today’s world of instant gratification you won’t win any business by contacting a buyer the next day.
9. Use Images and Videos to Highlight Your Homes:
Home buyers want pictures and videos when they’re looking for a home; it’s that simple. Most home builders have images on their website and some have video, the amazing thing is that some have neither. According to a survey conducted by the Realtors association, 83% of home buyers said pictures are very useful when searching for a new home and 60% of home buyers said videos are. Both percentages add up to a lot of home buyers; if video is out of your budget, make sure images aren’t. While we’re on the topic, I’d imagine a horrible image is worse than no image, when taking pictures, use a high quality camera or higher a professional.
10. Use Page Titles & Headers:
- Page Titles are what a buyer would see at the very top of their browser, the top left of the screen. If you look up, this page’s-page title is Home Marketing: 10 Characteristics of a Killer Real Estate Website. Page titles are important because they tell the buyer and search engines what they’ll find on your page e.g. a page about your new home community in Riverside, California should have a page title that looks something like this – New Home Community in Riverside, California: The Meadows at Riverside or the minimum could be something like The Meadows at Riverside in California – if a buyer comes across this page in Google, Yahoo! or Bing search results, they’ll see the page title and know what to expect. It paints a better picture than a title like – Home: XYZBuilder.com. Another thing to watch out for is using the same title on every page, take the time to create a unique title for each page, your visitors will appreciate it, and more importantly, search engines will reward you for it.
- Page Headers are just above the main content on a page, at the top. They tell the buyer and search engine spiders what they’ll find on the page. The heading for this page is 10 Characteristics of a Killer Real Estate Website, and it’s located at the top of the page next to the image. Headers do a lot for search engine optimization too, so make sure every page has a descriptive header. Your developer should know how to make a search engine friendly page header, and if not, you can always inquire in the comments below.
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The goal is to get visitors to your site and keep them there so they will want to contact you regarding properties. Therefore, it is essential your web site is impressive and user friendly. I had not considered adding links to my site regarding local activities, but this information would be very interesting to people considering buying property in the area. Thanks for the tip!
Augusta Real Estate´s last blog ..All Brick 4 BR 2 BA In Columbia County
Thanks for the information. Got an answer from here. I will bookmark this for reference.
Kris´s last blog ..Motorolla Walkie Talkie
I totally agree, endure and also would like to recommend your points on navigation and loading time. I have seen so many realtors insisting on using flash for their webpage. Unfortunately they are not aware of the disadvantages of using flash especially with search engine crawling and the time it takes to load when a potential customer enters the url. Also confusing navigation and stacking important pages at the bottom is also quite common. My personal recommendation would be no flash or use it only for the banner.
Mack@Las Vegas Real Estate´s last blog ..Commercial Real Estate Bubble
Great tips Paul…All too often I myself start a site and forget about it. I believe that if you focus on a highly targeted niche like Arizona Real Estate, you are going to do so much better than if your focus is all over the place.
Great tips, I think you hit the nail on the head. Make your site easy to use, loaded with useful info, and make it look pretty:) Do that; combine it with a little SEO knowledge lots of hard work and a little time and you have a winning site.
@Mike – in a nutshell man. Hardwork’s the most important part
@Adam – It is always great to see you here my friend!
Great tips. I’ve been at the internet thing for a while now, but it’s great to get a refresher occasionally.
Excellent advice. And I cannot stress enough the importance of using original, unique content to your local area. Offer something of interest and value to the consumer, in a well-formatted and easily readable manner- and they will come back every time. Also work at it every day. Set aside time to schedule improving one of (if not THE) most important advertising mediums available –your website.
Nicely put Mike Ciucci, thanks
SEO, SEO, and more SEO – If your web site don’t have a perfect SEO, then it doesn’t matter how good or bad your web site looks. You must be on the first page on Google, Yahoo or Bing with your the right keyword for your area. 85 – 90 % of people look only on the first page. When you are there, and then is this very good 8 killer characteristics the next step for get the buyer.
A GREAT property search feature is also a must.
These are all great tips. Also, as Sam said, a property search feature is a great idea to have.
Some great points in this article. I’m in the process of getting our site up and running and will be using some of these tips.
@Sundream – I’ve worked with several people that get tons of traffic from good SEO and don’t convert anything; they have, err had an 85% + bounce rate. Your point is understood though and thanks for stopping chiming in
@Sam – definitely should have had that on the list – thanks for the recommendation.
@Max – Fine guys, I’ll add the property search – YEESH!!!
@Josh – stopped by your site and it looks very clean, nice job
What about analytics? you can’t manage what you can’t measure.
@pip – thanks for the recommendation, I added it to the list
A good website is never complete. It takes work, work, work. And then when you get it just about where you want it… Start over, the technology has changed. That’s the way that it’s been with my San Diego real estate site anyway. It becomes a lifestyle to keep up a good website.
San Diego Homes´s last blog ..Carmel Valley Luxury Homes Down
@Jayson and Sundream – I hear you on the SEO, but I agree with Jayson who cares where you rank and how much traffic you have if you site looks like crap and you can’t convert anything. I think it is just like anything else, everything in moderation. You certainly can’t ignore SEO and maybe you can’t rank #1 for the big terms w/o some pretty decent knowledge, but you can still generate enough business online without being an SEO expert.
I would say keeping it simple and user friendly like you point out and make sure you have a good search feature (idx) where you are able to capture your users contact information.
Dan @ Tampa Real Estate´s last blog ..There is no Short in Short Sale