Today, a buyer’s house hunt starts with a Google search. And that Google search will lead them to a website. If your real estate business doesn’t have a website, you will have very few chances of being found. Learn how an optimized website can attract more clients and retain your current ones.
If your real estate business isn’t online, it might as well be invisible. According to Pew Research, over 93% of adults actively use the internet. Apart from using it for work or school and keeping themselves informed on current events, people use the internet to research products and services they want to buy.
If your potential clients are online, your real estate company should be, too. One of the best ways to be visible online is through a website. It has the power to boost your business’s marketing and customer service efforts with helpful features for REALTORS®, agents, buyers, and sellers.
However, it’s rare to find success by merely creating a basic website on a free site builder. To have better visibility and ranking, you also need to optimize your site for search engines and clients. These website strategies will improve your real estate company’s online presence.
Use Valuable Website Features
Engaging Visuals and Updated Info
Internet users love sites that engage. Make yours stand out with a custom theme that reflects your business image and location of properties. Use interesting icons, graphics, and animation. Provide complete and updated information about your company so clients can easily find you through searches related to your location and business category.
Tracking Features
Many real estate web developers use WordPress. This site-building program offers useful analytics tools that show you how well your page is performing. You can track every activity on your site, from the volume of visitors your web pages get every day to the number of people engaging with and sharing your posts. You’ll have an idea of what interests them and what listings get the most views.
Live Chat
With better messaging technology, websites today provide live chat options that let your clients contact you and your agents through the website. Alternatively, sites may have AI features that enable your clients to get details about properties through chatbots.
Photo and Video Galleries
You and your real estate website designer can create photo and video galleries for your listings. It’s especially helpful during the pandemic, with people’s limited movement. You can post virtual tours of your properties so potential buyers can check out homes without needing to travel to the site.
Make Your Site Mobile-Responsive
Google’s mobile-first indexing rule indicates that the search engine uses the mobile version of any website content to index and rank the page’s relevance to a search query. It means that your site should be responsive to mobile devices to have a better ranking chance on search engine results pages (SERPs).
“But more than fulfilling a Google requirement, making your site mobile-responsive increases your visibility to buyers doing local or “near me” searches to find a house.”
If you want to learn more about how local search works, read our article on local SEO.
Integrate Social Media
It’s not enough to have an optimized website, though. Branch out to social media networks to further increase your online presence for better business performance. Put social media icons on your web pages so your visitors can easily share your listings.
Your personal Facebook page is a nice way to promote your open houses to friends and family, but it’s not the best way to expand your client base. You can get your personal and business posts mixed up, making your profile confusing for both your customers and loved ones. Instead, create a separate business page for your real estate posts.
Facebook’s user base is undeniably large, with around 223 million users in the US in 2020, but it’s not the only platform you should use. Another important one is the photo-sharing app Instagram. Use Instagram to share high-quality property photos or links to your site. Pair them with engaging captions about the properties you represent and details like the address and your contact information.
This is another valuable social media platform. It’s different from Facebook and Instagram because you can only place up to 280 characters per post. It’s more useful in providing quick updates about your listings. Announce the sale of a popular house or update clients on the progress of renovations in a property you’re handling. You can also tell followers that you’ve added properties to your listings.
Use Testimonials to Your Advantage
Your clients can provide feedback on review websites, social media posts, and others. These are user-generated content that you should use to your advantage. A study found that over 66% of its respondents heavily rely on user-generated content (UGC) when making purchasing decisions. They trust reviews and posts from their fellow customers. So, how can you utilize UGC to your advantage?
- Respond ASAP — Clients appreciate it when you respond quickly to their feedback, whether it’s to say thanks for a positive review or to offer assistance for a negative one. If there’s a comment function for their post, craft a well-written response.
- Repost Their Content — Ask permission if you could repost their content on your page. Make sure to indicate that you’re going to give them credit for the post as well. Thank them for their testimony in the caption and advertise your business after it.
- Create Opportunities for UGCs — If your clients aren’t fond of creating UGC, provide them with opportunities to make some. After a sale or viewing, ask them to review your services on Facebook and other review sites. Hold contests for holiday decorations or local trivia. Have them post their entries on their pages or your page’s posts. Use these entries to create UGC that intrigue and attract clients.
Write Converting Calls-to-Action
Calls-to-action (CTA) are essential because they tell your site visitors what to do next. After every post or at the end of your page, tell people how they can contact you or inquire about your listings. The best CTAs are direct and concise. Ask your real estate website developer to add a pre-written CTA at the end of every post or page.
Work with Expert Website Designers
If you want to take the first step in creating the best website for your business, contact Dadri io. Our team will be happy to help.
