7 Easy Ways for Realtors to Improve a Real Estate Website

I know, it’s intimidating. You didn’t get into real estate to design websites, so you just created a basic site with maybe a few pictures and left it at that. But take heart, it’s not that hard to create a killer site that can boost your lead generation.

We’ve compiled seven tips that will have a big impact on your bottom line for just a little bit of effort on your part.

Start a blog

You could get as many as 55% more leads if you have a blog than if you don’t, according to research from Hubspot, and that’s just if you blog one or two times per month. The reality is you can’t get leads from your website if you don’t get traffic, and one of the best ways to get traffic is to offer some fresh content that will draw people to your site.

However, don’t just blog about your cat. You need to connect with your potential clients.

Commit to writing at least one post per week on topics that are of interest to anyone visiting your site. A good way to come up with comment is to ask yourself what questions your clients have asked you. Take one of those questions and turn it into a blog post, and you’ll be speaking directly to your customer.

Reach out to other real estate professionals you’re connected with and invite them to guest post on a topic they’re interested in. It raises the authority of your blog and takes a little bit of the burden off of yourself.

Show, don’t tell

Great blog content will get people in the door, but once they’re on your site, they want to see some beautiful homes and neighborhoods. And one great way to show is to create videos — after all, listings that incorporate video get 400% more inquiries.

With video, you can take visitors on a tour of the house, walk through the neighborhood, or talk about the local restaurants and schools.

And it doesn’t take much to do it. Buy a tripod and mount your phone to record your videos, and then just upload them to YouTube for easy embedding on your site. You can also walk through a house or a neighborhood with your phone in hand, providing commentary along the way. There’s plenty of excellent virtual tour software to help you do this.

Provide step-by-step guides to buying a home

Most new homeowners are intimidated by the whole process. It’s a massive financial commitment, probably the biggest they’ll make in their lifetimes.

Put their minds at ease by creating easy step-by-step guides on what the home-buying process looks like so it doesn’t seem so daunting.

You might even incorporate the tips above and do a series of blog posts or videos on each step in the buying process, so it’s almost like you’re holding your customer’s hand through the entire process.

Avoid excessive ads and pop-ups

I know you want people to subscribe to your newsletter, but sites that are too spammy are a real turn-off to people coming to your website.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t use pop-ups at all. They’re a great way to capture emails that could turn into sales.

But there’s a limit. Did you know 68% of searchers want to block a site from search results because of too many ads?

Make your site an unobtrusive experience for your prospective clients, and they’ll appreciate you for it. Sell My House Fast Boca Raton

Optimize your site for mobile

The Internet landscape has greatly changed in the last 10 years. About 52% of all home buyers use an iPhone to find listings. That means more than half your customers are going to be searching on a mobile device, and if your site is not optimized for those little screens, it’s just going to be a mess that your customer doesn’t want to deal with.

Google changed their algorithm last April to rank mobile-friendly sites higher than those that aren’t, so that’s another incentive: more traffic.

Is your site mobile-friendly? Run it through Google’s quick test. If it’s not, you’ll need some software. One option is to use the popular publisher WordPress on your site, which automatically makes your content mobile-friendly and even offers mobile-optimized themes for visitors who browse your blog on their smartphones.

You can also build a mobile site from the ground up with tools like bMobilized or Mobify.

Combine your testimonials and your contact page

Potential clients will be more motivated to reach out to you if your contact page is filled with glowing reviews.

You should have a contact form on your site where people can enter their name, address, and other contact info. And testimonials are a great to convince them to fill out that form.

Reach out to people you’ve helped find homes in the past to ask for a quote you can put on your website, and place the quotes you get above your contact form for all to see. Or, better yet, record a video of them saying the same thing and embed it.

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Speak Google’s language

If people can’t find you, they can’t visit your website, and therefore can’t buy homes from you. People use Google to search for homes, so you’ll need to make your site Google-friendly in order to be found by prospective home-buyers.

It’s called Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and just about every business uses it to rank high in Google search results and draw more organic traffic.

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9 Real Estate Listing Tips to Get Your Property Noticed

You’ve got a house to sell, and you’ve listed it.

Now what?

With so many homes on the market, how do you make sure your listing isn’t drowned out by all the noise?

It’s not an easy task to market your listing in a way that will get it noticed. Below are some relatively simple real estate listing tips for getting that listing noticed, and sold, faster.

Use good SEO practices

Search engine optimization is essential for getting your listing noticed online. You need to conduct thorough keyword research and choose the right keywords—or, phrases that very narrowly define your listing so that the niche audience you’re going for will find it in search results.

As a real estate agent, you’ll want to use keyword phrases between two to four words long that ideally include location terms such as the city, state, or neighborhood where your listing is located. Put yourself in the customer’s position, and figure out what they’re likely searching for. Then, work that keyword phrase into your listing and marketing materials.

Take excellent photos

If you really want your listing to be noticed, a mind-blowing photo of that backyard pool or huge gourmet kitchen is really going to get eyeballs. Get a good tree service to trim the trees it makes a difference.

So rather than snapping a few pictures with your mobile phone, get a decent camera and some artificial lighting to take professional-looking shots. Take some classes on shooting techniques if you have to. And if you don’t have the time to do all that, hire a professional.

Use your email list

Email is a great way to get your listing in front of potential clients, so take advantage of it.

Drop that listing in their inboxes with an eye-catching headline such as, “Just listed: ranch house in Bridgeville with hardwood floors, 2-car garage.” Embed those awesome photos you took into the email as well.

Share your listing on social media

I don’t have to tell you just how important social media is in marketing in today’s world. So why aren’t you doing it?

Maybe you aren’t really sure how. It’s daunting to figure out ways to cut through the clamor of social media in a meaningful way. But chances are, you already have a social media account set up—maybe it’s Facebook, maybe it’s Twitter—where you’re connected with a lot of friends and family, or even colleagues.

A quick, simple post letting people know your listing exists, as well as a plea for any tips on someone who may be in the market, can be an effective way of finding that elusive client.

Reach out to your personal network

Sometimes it’s best to get away from the computer and into the real world to market your listing.

The great thing about real estate is that everyone is a potential customer. Start with people you know. Meet friends or family for coffee and talk about your listing. Perhaps they know someone who is in the market.

Leave no stone unturned. The more people you contact about your listing, the more likely you are to eventually find someone with real interest in it.

Connections are absolutely vital in the real estate business, and the connections you make with this listing could lead to opportunities down the road as well.

Cold call and knock on doors

Cold calling is tough, but it can be an effective way to find new clients. Keep calling until you get someone with at least a passing interest, and offer to meet with them in person to talk about their needs. Give them a chance to tour the house.

Keep track of everyone you call on a spreadsheet so you can clearly see who you’ve already contacted, and who might be worth a follow-up call.

Reach out to past clients

By now you probably have plenty of past clients who happily purchased a home from you. They are an excellent source to connect with as they may know someone who’s in the market for a home and can puff you up as an excellent real estate agent to work with.

Host an open house

Someone out on a leisurely Sunday drive through the neighborhood sees the bright balloons and the “open house” signs, and says, “Why not?”

Open houses are a great way to get people who are from the area and in the market for a home to check out your listing. And there’s no better marketing than actually showing someone the inside of a house rather than just a few photos. It’s also a great way to build your network—even if they don’t want to buy this home, you’ve found someone who’s interested in buying a home.

Persevere

Making a sale in real estate is all about persistence. It’s cold calling and knocking on doors. It’s having hundreds of conversations with people who may never buy from you. It’s following up and following up and following up with that home buyer that doesn’t quite have the nerve to push ahead with such a big decision.

The difference between a successful real estate agent and someone just selling enough to get by has nothing to do with a magic formula and everything to do with their perseverance to get out there and do the hard, grinding work to make a sale happen, day after day.

But it gets easier: the more sales you make and the more relationships you forge, the less effort you’ll have to make to get your real estate listing seen in the future.

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