There was a time when painted walls, fresh flowers, and ‘For Sale’ boards would fetch home buyers to your listing. However, times have changed, and buyers have started approaching the internet for all their queries, including home searches. 93% of all homebuyers overall used an online website in their home search. If you’re a real estate agent who is yet to create your website, now is the time to act. The right real estate website will help you get noticed by the new candidates in the market while retaining your old clientele searching for homes. Read on as we take you through how to build a real estate website from scratch.
1. Get a Website Domain and Hosting
A domain name is a unique address/ name for your website; for example, styldod.com is our domain name. It needs to represent your business name and be unique, short, and sweet as it will be the hub of your digital marketing strategy including real estate SEO. Therefore, your domain extension should ideally have .com. However, if it is unavailable, you can go for locations or other creative ones, for example, .nyc, .house, etc.
Web hosting is the space on which you are going to base your website. If your website is your house, hosting is the land you will be leasing to build your home. Hosting is necessary to build a real estate website. GoDaddy is a web hosting service where you can purchase your domain as well. Search on this platform for your shortlisted domain names. If they are unavailable, GoDaddy will show you a list of related names. You can register and make a payment to purchase your selected domain name and web hosting plan.
2. Building Your Website
The next step is to choose a website builder that will help you build a real estate website quickly through set templates for the different web pages. Here are a few website builders that won’t require a single line of coding:
WordPress is a free and open-source CMS. It is excellent for beginners. It has enabled a lot of people to create their websites without having any technical knowledge. WordPress has various themes - business websites, real estate, events, etc., and plugins to stretch the potentials of your website.
GoDaddy also has a website building wing that lets you create custom websites with innovative themes, royalty-free images, SEO optimization tools. It is fast, secure, and keeps your customer data protected. GoDaddy’s e-commerce solutions take care of everything on your real estate website, and their excellent customer care support is available 24/7 to answer all your queries.
3. Key Website Pages
As a real estate agent, you need 5 essential pages on your website:
Your homepage creates the first impression about you as a real estate agent. So, it should give a brief about yourself, your works, your blog article, client testimonials, and your listings.
The about page should furnish all relevant information about you from your qualifications, background to your interests.
Your contact page should contain your email address, phone number, and links to all your social media channels. These details can be present on every page for ease of contact.
Your listings page should be the most attractive page on your whole website. Write interesting descriptions and include alluring property pictures. Use virtual staging to digitally furnish your listing and provide potential clients with a clear idea of the home. In addition, 42% of homebuyers find virtual tours useful as they offer them an immersive experience.
Your blog is the best place to inform home buyers and sellers about the updates in the real estate market and the latest home design trends.
4. Mobile Responsiveness
Mobile accounts for half of the worldwide website traffic, and 76% of home buyers found their homes via a mobile device. Hence it is inevitable to mobile-optimize while creating a real estate website. A responsive website adapts easily to different screen sizes. They work well on tablets, mobile phones, and PCs. Homebuyers can search for homes at any time of the day- during gym while hanging out with colleagues or before bedtime, open doors for leads to come through mobile devices.
5. Additional Website Features
CRM System
Customer Relationship Management is an arrangement that helps with the multiple requirements of real estate agents. It manages inquiries, prepares quotes for listings, and helps in the selling process. It is a dynamic tool designed for both desktop and mobile. Install CRM software while creating a real estate website to track all details of the customer journey.
User Registration and Property Submission
Create a system that allows users to register their accounts and log in to them quickly. Also include features that will enable the admin to submit properties and manage them.
Payment Portal
Set up a payment gateway to receive payments securely when the user decides to buy a property submission package.
6. Website Design
Your website design needs to be handsome enough to get the curb appeal, just like your listings. Make wise color and font choices to connect with your audience. Let us take a leaf out of psychology for this. Blue is an industry favorite and is used by biggies like Berkshire Hathaway and Coldwell Banker. Blue signifies trustworthiness and dependability. Red stands for excitement and strength, and that is why Keller Williams and RE/MAX have incorporated it in their logos. Yellow, the color of happiness and optimism is the color of Weichert. There is a tinge of green in Camden’s logo which stands for nature and growth. The user-friendliness of your website is also a crucial factor in the popularity of the website. The easier it is to get around your website, the lesser your bounce rate will be. Remember to include your brand logo on every page of your website to establish it in the minds of visitors.
7. Leverage Your Website
Once you have built your website, there is a lot you can do to leverage it. As mentioned before, your website should be the heart of your digital marketing strategy. Add links to your social media channels on your website and vice-versa. Include website links on every single email sent out. Promote a new blog post, listing, or testimonial on all marketing channels, and run online ads directing viewers to your website. Remember to add your website address to offline marketing attempts, such as business cards, brochures, letters, and print ads. You can also lend out space on your website for clients to advertise their listings. These listings can be given better visibility.
Bonus Tip
No matter how aesthetically pleasing and organized your real estate website is, it won’t fetch you results if it does not show up in search results. Therefore, prioritize getting SEO right. SEO will ensure your website ranks higher in search engines and generates leads even when you are sleeping. Implement the above tips to build a real estate website that will help you grow your business. Here are 10 amazing real estate websites to inspire you in creating a terrific website.
Styldod is a design tech company that aims to simplify real estate marketing and help agents present homes in their most favorable light online by reimagining and automating the listing photography process. Having begun as a virtual staging company, today, Styldod has affordable and best-in-class products and services for every facet of real estate marketing and photography. Styldod’s suite of services include virtual staging, image enhancements, floor plans, virtual renovation, 3D renders, 360 degree virtual tours, and Matterport virtual staging, to name a few. We're trusted by over 10,000 realtors from all over the US and from agencies like ReMax, Coldwell Banker, Keller Williams. Know more about us at https://www.styldod.com.
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