Every real estate business needs a website for its marketing potential, and most agents do, too. Because it’s such a common marketing outlet for agents, it’s difficult to stand out among the dozens of others targeting your area.
You can’t have a site and let it sit idle without any effort. The rewards are numerous, but it takes some effort to put a real estate site to work. Here are some ways to generate more traffic and leads.
1. Create and share authoritative content
As a real estate agent, no one can write authoritative content better than you. It’s this content that draws visitors to your site. You can put this content on your own site or on other authoritative URLs to draw traffic back to you.
On-site content is important, but there is a lot to be said for placing your content in high-value places online.
Content-sharing sites offer ways for users to find a collection of information, and they usually draw many professionals in the industry to the domain.
You can leverage the site’s traffic, share your opinions and perspective based on your expertise and increase your own site’s visibility.
2. Use real estate APIs for consistent, current data
You could have an older website, but the data should be current. Several APIs are available where you can pull the latest MLS data and display it on your site.
Trulia, Zillow and SimplyRETS are three examples of companies that distribute real-time data that you can curate and display on your pages.
Old outdated content is a killer for real estate websites because data changes every day. Users lose interest in a site that doesn’t contain the right data. Always provide the latest up-to-date information on any listing.
3. 3-D interactive video
You can have multiple images for your site, but the latest technology is interactive 3-D video. These images allow the user to turn the camera left or right and get a more realistic view of any room in the house.
This technology can put your site ahead of competitors who use standard flat images. A few vendors that offer this type of technology are HomeVisit, 3D Vista and Matterport.
You might need to take extra steps with your images, but the results are much better for your site’s quality, and it stands out from other, more simplistic websites.
4. Keep content optimized for search engines
Most real estate agents jumped on the website market early. They built their sites to keep up with trends in technology and reaching out to consumers. The problem is that their site design and user experience stayed the same through the years.
You should always keep your site up-to-date with the latest SEO and design optimization that make it easy for search engines to crawl and manage your content. If your site becomes too stale in content and design, it can mean a huge loss in traffic and readership.
Your site can be a huge benefit to your sales funnel, but you must keep it up-to-date, and use the right content marketing and distribution to maintain traffic. Always use the latest SEO techniques, and keep your design fresh for user interest and engagement.
Keith Shields is a partner and CEO of Designli in Greenville, South Carolina. Follow Designli on Facebook or Twitter.