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Having a website for your real estate business is a must for today’s real estate agent. It is important to have your own slice of real estate on the web where you can showcase to your clients and prospects who you are, your listings, expertise, how to contact you, and also to use the platform as a tool to share valuable information when it comes to the homebuying and selling process.
More than just a tool for generating leads, your website should showcase your personality and the flair you bring to the business. Below are five items to keep in mind when it comes time to create or refresh content for your real estate website.
Refine your aesthetic
When it comes to creating your real estate website a world of possibilities awaits. You can select from many elements — a bio, testimonials, new listings, sold listings, neighborhood guides, blogs, social media feeds and more.
Whether you are building your website yourself or working with a website creator, determine what exactly you want to include on your website and what you want it to look like. This is the first step to creating your content as you need to know what you are going to include.
Create a plan
Now that you know what your website will include and have an idea of what it will look like, the next step is to create a content plan. This is simply listing out all the pages you will include and what headlines and sections you need to write.
I personally like to write in a Google Doc so I can invite people to collaborate with ease, work offline or even write on my phone when I have a spare minute or two. Creating a plan will help you stay focused and on task, and you will be able to check items off the list as you go.
This will give you a clear timeline as to when the project will be finalized, and will also provide a sense of accomplishment along the way as the to-do list becomes shorter and shorter.
Make it strategic
You will want to make your content engaging and easy-to-read for your audience and to employ search engine optimization (SEO) best practices so your site is ranking well. When you set out to write your copy, make sure you are researching keywords to include in your content and weave them in organically — don’t forget that the humans reading the copy will want to still be able to enjoy and understand.
Having a blog on your website will help with this as you can incorporate trending keywords in new articles and it will also encourage your audience to keep coming back so they stay informed.
Keep it succinct
We all know people want their information fast and efficiently these days, so keep your website content short and to the point. If you do find yourself writing long blocks of text, take a break and come back with your editing hat on.
Editing is an important part of the writing process and you need to make sure that your copy is digestible enough that the audience will keep engaged and want to read to the end. The best way to capture a website reader’s attention is to keep the copy short and make sure every word means something.
A great book to read further into honing impactful writing skills is The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr and E.B. White. Keep their mantra in mind — omit needless words — when it comes time to edit your website content.
Spring clean your copy
Once you have published your website, spring cleaning your content should become a permanent to-do on your list. It’s a great way to refresh and incorporate keywords and ensure you are current with your advice and information.
You should certainly set and stick to a cadence should you have a blog on your website, as you will want your audience to know that you will be consistent in delivering valuable information to them.
Putting it all together
Creating engaging, creative content that utilizes best practices for search engine optimization can be achieved if you follow these easy steps. Understand what your website will look like and determine what information you will want to include.
From there, create a plan and a checklist of all the content that you need to create. Make sure your copy is succinct and that you are being strategic with your wording — researching and incorporating keywords in your copy is paramount if you want to rank high in online searches.
Finally, don’t just write and publish your content and then forget it, especially if you have chosen to include a blog as part of your website experience. Spring clean your real estate website copy with fresh keywords and timely information and elements.
Laura Stace is vice president of luxury marketing for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices.
