Building a successful real estate website in 2023 is more than just showcasing listings and contact information. it’s about strategically marketing marketing your brand and ensuring you are easily discoverable in search.
One of the best ways to do this is through real estate community pages.
A community page can help establish your brand as the local market expert and set you apart from the competition.
To enhance your site’s appeal, focus on mobile optimization. With many users browsing on smartphones and tablets, a mobile-friendly site is essential for engaging potential clients. Additionally, incorporating AI like ChatGPT can make your website more interactive and responsive, offering quick, intelligent answers to visitor inquiries. This modern approach to web design demonstrates your commitment to innovation and enhances the user experience.
A lot of new agents ask this question and the short answer is yes. It’s a lot of work but it can really pay off.
Real Estate Community pages give you, the local expert, an opportunity to show potential customers that you are an authority on the area you serve. It’s a great way to establish your local brand.
A popular expression in real estate is ‘location, location, location’. So, show them you know the location.
A well designed community page can be a great marketing tool to share across social media, landing pages, email marketing campaigns and print.
If establishing yourself as a local expert isn’t enough of an incentive think about your biggest customer online, Google. When someone decides to buy a home they’ll usually start with Zillow, Redfin, Trulia, or Realtor.com. If they don’t already have a realtor the first place they will go is Google.
To find someone local they’ll use a search term that includes the neighborhood, city, or area. If you don’t have any unique content to be indexed you may have trouble showing up in Google search. Sure you may show up a few pages down the list if you include some keywords and meta data in your website but that won’t do you any good.
Let me put it this way, 93% of browsing experiences start with search. 87.35 % of the search engine market is Google. There’s a reason ‘Google it’ has become a part of our vernacular.
The first page of results gets around 88% of the traffic which means you need to be found early. Since most customers are going to search for an agent based on an area you should have content in your site that reflects the area.
Community pages are particularly helpful as a ranking factor. A community page creates on-page signals which communicate the presence of NAP+W (Name, Address, Phone, Website) in relation to your Google My Business account, as well as keywords and domain authority. In short, Google sees that you are authentic and have something of value to add the the community. On-page signals make up 13.8% percent of Google My Business signals (25.1%), link signals (16.5%), and review signals (15.4%).
You’ll probably have several real estate community pages on your website so deciding on a format will help with the planning.
A few suggestions:
There are three basic types of community pages:
When kicking off your real estate community page project, don’t overlook one crucial aspect – mobile optimization. In today’s world, where everyone’s glued to their smartphones, ensuring your pages look fantastic on a smaller screen isn’t just a bonus; it’s a must.
First things first, mobile traffic is huge these days. More and more potential buyers and sellers are likely to first check you out on their phones. So, if your community pages aren’t up to scratch on mobile devices, you’re missing out big time.
Here’s how you can make your community pages shine on mobile devices:
Get mobile optimization right, and you’ll not only give your visitors a better experience, but you’ll also likely see better engagement and longer visits. Plus, Google loves mobile-friendly sites, so it could give you a leg up in search rankings. It’s a win-win!
Copying text from a local page will only hurt you. In addition to possible copyright infringement you will be penalized by Google. Remember, content is king, and Google prioritizes compelling and useful content.
Keeping in mind that community page content will vary depending on the area there are several things which can be included.
Bounce rate is a measurement of a websites ability to retain users interest beyond the pages they came in at. In other words, when someone comes to your site you want them to stay and look around.
IDX Broker allows you to display your MLS data on your real estate website.
Creating lots of neighborhood pages stuffed full of IDX listings and nothing else won’t cut it with search. Google knows this trick and may even penalize you for it. It’s referred to as ‘thin’, or ‘duplicate’ content.
Highlights. I like to include a few key bullet points promoting some of the communities best features as well as general information. A few examples:
Home Resources. Give your readers a list of well-reviewed resources. They are thinking about moving here so connect them with their new neighbors. This is also a great way to promote people in the area who will appreciate it and may end up being your client one day. A few examples:
Helpful links for resources in the area.
Livability Score. AreaVibes will give you a list of all the statistics you need from amenities, cost of living, crime, employment, housing, schools and demographics.
Transportation. An overview of traffic in the region along with commuting options like bus, rail, bike lanes, and a WalkScore can influence a potential buyers decision. Proximity to airports can also be useful.
Weather. If weather a relevant selling point in your area consider including a chart of monthly temperature and precipitation averages.
Widgets can make a nice addition to any real estate community page but don’t overdo it. A few widgets can compliment a site nicely but there is no substitute for original content.
Writing your own content about the areas you know and love will reflect in the details. However, it is time consuming and you may need some help.
This one seems like a no-brainer. However, while there are several great tools there are a few things you should know if you want to peruse this option.
One place AI really shines is in writing outlines. A good outline can guide the entire page. If you are using ChatGPT try using the following prompt:
‘Generate a comprehensive outline for a real estate community page about [City Name], covering key aspects such as history, geography, economy, real estate, education, healthcare, culture, transportation, safety, and community events.’
You may need to run the prompt a few times to get your perfect outline but it will certainly give you a ton of ideas to work with.
An obvious solution to this is to find content writers online. The problem with this, besides trying to find a quality content writer, is it may not sound authentic. A good writer may deliver well-structured content full of relevant information from online sources like Wikipedia and your local city website but they won’t sound like a local.
One of the best content writing services we’ve personally used is WriterAccess. Their platform connects you with thousand of freelancers all over the world. You can select writers who specialize in just about every topic you can imagine. Better yet, you can find writers who are familiar with your communities.
WriterAccess has a team to help you get started and they even provide managed services if you don’t have the time to do it yourself. They even have a free trial if you want to check them out. Of the freelance writing services we’ve tried they are our favorite. They are more expensive than AI but less work and better results.
Sometimes writing about a subject can be a laborious task. When this happens the writer runs the risk of not sounding genuine. The work can seem overly crafted and canned. If you want to create content that sounds authentic, like your real voice, one neat little trick I’ve seen used to good effect is video.
Creating YouTube content is a great option for any website and it has SEO value. Plus, it can help with your writing.
You heard right. All you need to do is create a video of you talking about the community, it’s characteristics, the local real estate market, and some of your favorite places.
YouTube has a transcription option that you can use to get a written copy of the video. You’ll need to clean it up a bit, take out the ums and ahs, add some punctuation, a few headers and images and you are all set. I’ve seen entire web pages created this way.
You can of course use AI to clean up the transcription. The best AI assisted tool we’ve found for converting audio to text is Transkriptor. There’s a fee but it’s really reasonable, especially when you consider the amount of time it saves you. They will also let you try it for free just to be sure.
Side note: We are not affiliated with, nor do we receive any compensation from WriterAccess or Transkriptor. We just think they are awesome tools.
Finally, in case you were wondering, this blog post was not written by AI. It was entirely manual, as is evidenced by the typos and grammatical errors.
Ultimately you want to get a lead and a well-crafted page will engage the user, build trust and get them excited about their new neighborhood. Show them you are the local authority and they will want to give you their contact information.
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Greetings!
Nice blog and thank you for sharing it.
This article is an invaluable guide for real estate professionals looking to maximize their online presence through community pages. Jason Fox's insightful tips provide a strategic approach to creating engaging content that converts visitors into clients. A must-read resource for those seeking to leverage community-focused marketing strategies effectively.