Your real estate website is the first sign that tells someone your business is legit. People need to work with credible, honest, and reliable agents. Showing people an authentic representation of you can bring in your ideal clients.
Ready to launch the real estate website of your dreams? First, you will need to ask yourself these questions.
1. Who Is Your Target Audience?
Give your target audience some thought before your website launch. Most sites have a global reach, but your real estate marketing campaigns aren't for everyone. First, you need to identify the type of real estate client you want to attract.
Your target audience is the person who'll consume your content and show a deep interest in your homes. They might be of a specific gender, age, location, earning potential, and general preferences.
Profile the people who often buy homes from your company or use your products. Connect with them and collect their demographic and online behavior information. You can also look at your primary competitors to see the kind of home buyers they're attracting.
2. What Type of a Real Estate Website Are You Creating?
It's crucial to be clear on what you want so that the final website supports your marketing goals. Real estate websites can be person, group, or niche-based. For example, you could use your website to display your portfolio, list realtors, or target a specific group of home buyers.
Real estate websites can also focus on either educating users or trigger buying interest. By defining the type of website, you can plan for effective content creation and marketing campaigns. The kind of website you create guides SEO, especially in doing keyword research.
3. How Will Your Website Help Your Prospects?
Before you launch your website, make up your mind on how you want to help your prospects. Homebuyers have different interests and pain points. If your website is the answer, it pops up on top of search results when your prospects conduct their search.
To make your website helpful, think like your target prospects. You need to align your brand with customers' expectations. Your values and brand identity should differentiate your company from other realtors.
Make sure your real estate website projects your identity and unique value propositions. Overall, people want to know if they can trust you with their money. So let your “about us” page clarify what you do and why you're in real estate.
4. What Are My Goals?
Websites can help attract traffic, boost conversions, and enhance brand awareness. First, define what you want your website to accomplish. Be specific with each goal, and track analytics to keep up on your website's performance.
5. What Message Do I Want to Convey?
Most buyers do all the research work online before they pick a realtor. The National Association of Realtors says that 92% of buyers start their house hunting quest on the internet. This means a real estate website is one of the first contact points between prospects and a realtor.
Your site should send an impressive message to prospects. Make it professional and keep it updated to avoid bounce rates and poor rankings.
6. How Do Your Users Interact With Your Website?
One of the website launch goals is to fulfill the user's needs. People want a smooth experience interacting with your website. Therefore, you have to make your website user-friendly to keep new visitors and attract referrals.
Before the website launch, collect user feedback about their experience using your website. Track how they interact with the various components using heat maps and analytics.
First, make your website mobile-friendly and easy to load. 50% of web traffic comes from mobile searches, so use a responsive web design. Also, make life easy for your users by making your website navigable.
Create relevant content and use eye-catching images. Combine methods of lead generation to boost engagement and increase conversions. For example, you can use landing pages, live chats, ebooks, blogs, videos, user reviews, and virtual tours.
7. What Digital Marketing Campaigns Do You Use?
It typically takes between six months and one year for a website to rank on Google. This also depends on the effectiveness of your SEO strategy. It can take longer if your keywords don't match your user's search queries.
To attract traffic, you can't wait on your SEO efforts to pay off. You need to start website marketing right off the bat, which calls for the right strategies. Website marketing will bring quick results if you focus efforts on your audience.
Research your audience to establish which sales channels suit them.
8. What Strategies Do I Use to Rank Top on Search Engines?
SEO is one of the cost-effective real estate marketing strategies, but it's not always the easiest. Most of the time, you have to compete for ranking against established brands like Zillow.
Take advantage of local keywords if you're listing homes in a particular location. Set up Google My Business accounts and list them on online real estate directories. That way, you'll pile backlinks on established websites which can boost your rankings.
An effective SEO hack is to work with experts through the optimization process. Get help from people who have experience ranking real estate websites. You'll save time and start attracting free traffic way before the usual estimated waiting time.
9. How Do I Ensure Regular Flow of Traffic and Conversions
Often, buyers tend to use their real estate agent again or recommend them to others. But for the same to happen in your business, you need proper strategies to ensure repeat business. First, you need a system to track and keep in touch with old clients.
85% of online shoppers trust reviews as much as recommendations from friends. So build an email list and send regular emails to update them on new listings. Most clients will forward attractive listings to their friends.
10. How Do I Grow My Real Estate Website?
A great real estate website takes enormous hard work. You have to watch its performance to ensure it's always working.
Before the website launch, install analytic pixels and heatmap trackers. Then, after some time, analyze it to establish sources of traffic. Finally, look at your best and worst-performing content and create strategies for improvements.
Launch Your Real Estate Website
A website is the heart of digital marketing. The success of digital marketing campaigns depends on the effectiveness of the website. Your real estate website can be a hit if you consider these factors ahead of time.
It's vital to get the help of experts from the onset to avoid mistakes that can cost you time and conversions. Contact us today to make sure your marketing efforts get the best results.
Need more local marketing tips? Check out our entire Guide to Local Marketing for Real Estate Professionals
