Buyers don’t buy a house, they buy a community. Being an authority on the communities you serve is key to building trust with buyers. A well-thought-out website with community pages is a great start.
The goal of any good real estate site is to generate leads, legitimize your brand, be an authority, multiply your web presence and have a home for your marketing. We call this G.L.A.M.R: Generate, Legitimacy, Authority, Multiply, Residence.
In 2024 this is still important but also requires you to adapt to new real estate trends. For example, following the recent NAR/DOJ settlement, IDX Broker is rolling out updates that allow agents to add custom offers of compensation to their own listings, more transparency and trust. This affects how listings will display on your site and keeps you compliant while serving your clients. Adding community pages helps optimize your G.L.A.M.R., you’ll be the local expert with clients and Google.
In the following tutorial, we will show you how to quickly set up community pages using IDX Broker, incorporating the latest IDX features.
Before we get started, you’ll need to subscribe to an IDX feed. For this tutorial, we’re focusing on IDX Broker because it’s one of the best. At Jason Fox Real Estate Marketing, we’ve been installing their plugins into WordPress websites for years, and the service keeps improving.
In addition to features like the Precision Listings Template Suite, Azure Maps, and Social Pro, IDX Broker remains highly customizable, giving you access to MLS data that can influence branding, lead production, and SEO. Themes like Houzes and WPResidence take advantage of IDX Broker’s flexibility, simplifying web design and optimizing performance.
Plus, their stellar customer service makes a big difference. While some IDX providers limit support to email, IDX Broker’s team offers real-time help, so you’re never left waiting during an issue.
The development team at IDX Broker also holds regular webinars and tutorials for anyone wanting to learn more about their service.
Once you’ve subscribed to IDX Broker, the next step is to integrate it into your WordPress site. Start by installing the IDX Broker plugin and activating it. This connects your site to MLS listings, allowing you to display dynamic, up-to-date property data.
In 2024, setting up IDX on WordPress remains straightforward. The IDX Broker dashboard provides easy access to customization tools that enhance your site’s functionality and improve the user experience for both agents and potential buyers.
In any MLS region there are several types of communities. At a high level you have counties, cities, and zip codes. At a hyperlocal level you neighborhoods, including unofficial or micro neighborhoods, and subdivisions. Subdivisions may include master-planned communities, villages, retirement, golf, gated, luxury, condo, townhome, etc.
For this tutorial we will be skipping the cities and regions and we will get ‘hyperlocal’, focusing on neighborhoods and subdivisions.
There are two basic ways to add a community page to your website:
Both options stream MLS data into your site and feature powerful lead capture tools. Depending on which option you choose there will be pros and cons.
Pros:
Cons:
Pros:
Cons:
Both options in IDX Broker—WordPress pages with embedded widgets or IDX subdomain pages—allow agents to display MLS data while capturing leads. Depending on your needs, either option provides effective ways to showcase property listings and enhance user experience.
The basic setup for an IDX community page is straightforward, but understanding how your MLS data works within IDX Broker can make the process smoother. Here are the key details based on the account level you’ve selected:
If you’re unsure which plan to choose, here’s a quick breakdown:
If you’re unsure which plan will meet your needs, start with Lite and see if it covers your requirements. Upgrading to Platinum gives you more customization options, such as drawing custom areas with polygon search.
To understand the options available with the two packages check out their website and compare the features for yourself.
Before building out your community pages, explore the data fields available in your MLS. Cities are typically easy to work with as they’re a standard field. However, communities within cities (like neighborhoods or subdivisions) can be more challenging.
Pro Tip: It’s worth noting that a subdivision name may not be the same as the name listed in the MLS. For example, if you have a subdivision called ‘Meadow Highlands’, you might assume the subdivision to be labeled as such. If however, the ‘Meadow Highlands’ subdivision resides in a larger community, that name may also be incorporated in the field name. Subdivision names may also be abbreviated or include building numbers.
If you want to put together a community page that focuses on a subdivision with multiple buildings you may need to select multiple subdivision names.
You’ll get a good sense of how the data is organized when you see it in your IDX account backend.
If you’re using IDX Broker Platinum, the polygon search feature offers significant advantages. Rather than relying solely on predefined MLS data, you can draw custom boundaries around neighborhoods, subdivisions, or even unofficial/micro-neighborhoods.
Under Website, select Saved Links to begin building your community pages.
From here you will have a list to ‘Select Your Criteria’. To keep it simple we will just focus on neighborhoods, unofficial neighborhoods, and subdivisions..
If your MLS has a neighborhood field you can select it from the list. Simply begin typing in the name and the neighborhood should show up.
If there is no neighborhood field you can check with IDX Broker to see if one is available to be added.
If there is not one available you will need to refer to the subdivisions. The only problem is you will need to know the names of the subdivisions. Without a list the easiest way to do this is using the ‘Zillow Trick’:
Pro Tip: “The Zillow trick”. If there is no neighborhood field available you will need to get a little creative. The easiest way is to use Zillow. Zillow has invested millions ingesting and normalizing MLS data and it’s all there to see, for free.
Simply go to Zillow and search for the neighborhood you want to create a page for. They will have a map and listings for the area. From the map go through each of the listings and look for the listed subdivisions. You should be able to get most of the subdivisions this way.
There is a chance a subdivision may not be listed at the time you are doing this so it’s not a bad idea to revisit this from time to time.
I did this recently for the Shore Acres neighborhood in St Petersburg Florida and got a return of 15 subdivisions using this method.
On the off chance Zillow doesn’t feature your neighborhood try a competing site like Redfin or Trulia. If that doesn’t work, Google it.
This one is tricky and much better suited for a polygon search. If unofficial neighborhood happens to be made up of subdivisions and you know the names then you should be set. Otherwise you will need to refer back to the ‘Zillow trick’.
The Zillow trick doesn’t always work though. I tried this method for the unofficial neighborhood Tangletown that I mentioned earlier. I found one listing on Zillow which referenced Wallingford as the neighborhood. The search picked up Tangletown in the description data but listed no subdivision.
If I were to want to build a page for this unofficial, or micro neighborhood I would need the Polygon search to really do it justice. I would also need to decide whether it was worth adding to begin with.
Watch for these, sometimes there are spelling errors and multiple versions of the same name. A subdivision made up of multiple buildings with units may be listed separately. I’ve seen subdivisions with the same building listed three times because a unit number was included or there was a spelling error.
Once you’ve selected your neighborhood or subdivisions click on the ‘View Results in New Window’ button. You will see a page view with a map. Be sure to verify that the neighborhoods or subdivisions you’ve selected are correct. If the map shows a listing that is far away from the area you are trying to represent check the listings details to see what the subdivision is listed as. An MLS may have multiple subdivisions with similar names. If you find one that doesn’t belong just go back to the page and delete it from the list.
Give the page a title and add you Meta Tag description. You also have the option to add a Sub-header. The sub-header will display on your page above the listings.
Pro Tip: If you copy/paste your text from a webpage or a Word document into the ‘Sub-header’ editor the formatting may not carry over. A quick way to fix this is to past the text plain text editor like Notepad or TextEdit. You can copy /paste the plain text into the Sub-header editor and format it from there.
Once you are done filling in everything to your liking click on the ‘Save & Create another link’ button.
Here’s how to set up a page:
A map will appear for you to define the borders of your community.
On the top left side of the map you have the zoom in/zoom out buttons. Zoom out and move the map manually to find your community.
Pro Tip: If you don’t know the borders for the community you want to outline simply Google the neighborhood and search for a site that has already mapped the area.
Neighborhoods.com covers a lot of the major metropolitan areas and features maps of most of their communities. Zillow is also a great reference for maps but a little less consistent with how they are outlined.
Once you have located the area you will be ready to draw your outline. On the left side of the map there will be two buttons containing a polygon and a circle shape.
The circle option selects a circular area, often used to show homes within a certain distance of a specific location.
The Polygon option is used to draw custom boundaries around an area. We will be using the polygon option as it offers the flexibility we need for our communities.
With the polygon option selected find a good starting point on your map and click to set your first marker.
Now, find the second point on your map and click to add another marker.
Pro Tip: If you make a mistake when laying out your border markers you can select ‘Delete last point’ from the polygon editor. Click once for each point you want to delete. Or select ‘Cancel’ to start over.
Repeat this step around the area you want to select. If the area is a square you will just need to select the four corners. If the area has an unusual shape you may need to place several incremental points through the map to get everything.
When you have selected the areas you intend to outline you will need to close the outline by selecting the first point. Your community should now be outlined.
Pro Tip: When you build a page using the polygon search you are creating a location based query. Each point you add is a coordinate based on the latitude and longitude. These coordinates are added to the query which can get rather long and create a problem with some browsers. Not to worry, you’ll get a helpful message if you exceed the recommended length. If it’s too long try removing a few of the points to simplify your outline.
If your map isn’t perfect don’t worry, you can easily edit it. On the left side of the map towards the bottom of the button options there is an edit and a trash option.
Select trash if you want to delete your selection and start over. Select the edit to see the map points you’ve laid out. You can select any point and drag it to the desired spot. If you don’t like the edits you’ve made click edit/cancel to undo them.
With your area completed you can now add any additional filtering you’d like such as Property Type, price ranges, bedrooms, etc.
Step 3: Name your search and set the preference.
Give the page a title and add you Meta Tag description. You also have the option to add a Sub-header. The sub header will display on your page above the listings.
Once you are done filling in everything to your liking click on the ‘Save & Create another link’ button.
Once you’ve got your first page done you simply repeat the steps for each additional page you want to add. When the page are ready you can add them like you would any other menu page in WordPress.
The pages will IDX Pages displayed in WordPress under the IMPress widget navigation. You will want to make any edits to the pages in the IDX account but you can see what the page will look like here.
You may notice that some of your IDX pages aren’t showing, this is normal. It takes a few minutes for a newly created page to show up in the menu.
Note: If your site is not yet live your pages will not display the wrapper settings of map pins. Wrapper settings are your websites header and footer. Once the site is live the pages will look like any other page on your website. The pages will evening take on the font attributes from your sites global settings.
Setting up community pages using IDX Broker, whether Lite or Platinum, is a powerful way to enhance your website’s SEO. It positions you as a local real estate expert.
With IDX Broker, you can create tailored, data-driven pages that improve user experience. This gives you a competitive edge in the market.
Features like polygon search and customization tools make it easier to build hyperlocal pages that stand out.
Let us know if you have any questions or need further assistance!
Lite is more budget-friendly and provides essential IDX features. Platinum offers advanced options like Polygon Search, which lets you draw custom boundaries for hyperlocal areas.
Polygon Search allows you to outline specific areas on a map to display listings within custom-defined neighborhoods, subdivisions, or unofficial/micro-communities.
Yes, you can start with Lite and upgrade to Platinum if needed. IDX Broker allows flexibility to meet your evolving needs.
You can either embed IDX widgets into WordPress pages or use IDX subdomain pages. Both options stream MLS data and include lead capture tools.
Using the Polygon Search in IDX Broker Platinum is ideal for creating custom hyperlocal pages, especially for unofficial or micro-neighborhoods that don’t appear in standard MLS data.
Look for neighborhood or subdivision fields in your MLS. If your MLS doesn’t include these fields, use subdivision data or rely on tools like Zillow for additional research.
Choose the WordPress page option for better SEO potential and customize your page with titles, meta descriptions, and relevant keywords. IDX subdomain pages are also indexed by Google but offer slightly less SEO flexibility.
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View Comments
Very useful information. Thank you for sharing.
Hey Jason Fox,
Aadarsh this side. It is my first time commenting on your blog page and am glad to say that you have shared an excellent content providing great tips for creating real estate community page with Idx broker. I appreciate the way you have explained and presented things along with helpful steps that are so clear to understand. Your each listed steps are well-elaborated and easy to follow. Considering your steps will be helpful.
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Thanks,
-Aadarsh
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