“68 percent of people work with the first pro they have an actual conversation with in person. Knowing this, the real question is: How do we get consumers to reply to us so we can create a conversation?” ~ RealtorMag

 

Top Real Estate Brokers are always looking for more ways to create value for their online consumers. Understanding what pages your website needs to increase lead conversion and overall value to your customers can be a bit of a moving target.

Not every page needs to be specifically designed to capture leads, rather a collection of information (content) that builds your local real estate authority in general.  This overall strategy will make your lead conversion pages more effective.  This builds trust.

The idea a real estate website that simply offers a home search to keep the interest of the real estate consumer is not enough.

Today’s savvy real estate consumer is coming to your website wanting more…
 

Must Have Pages Your Website Needs to Increase Lead Conversion

 

1. Home Search

 
No question this is still the main priority for any real estate website. But what info can the consumer gather inside these searches to help them better understand the neighborhood, schools and market data. So much more goes into an overall home search than what was important just a few years ago. Price points and the number of beds and baths are no longer enough. On top of that, the type of search page has also changed. Today’s online home search page(s) should also consist of:

  • Address Search
  • Listing ID Search (HINT: Remember, there are some Multiple Listing Services that will not allow you to use the acronym ‘MLS’ for a search title)
  • Search by City

As mentioned earlier, consumers are interested in more than just seeing the pictures and the specifics of the home, they now want other information as well. Information such as:

  • WalkScore
  • Local Schools
  • Mortgage Calculators
  • Market Data

Finding the best IDX provider that offers all this can, in itself, be a bit confusing. Do your research by visiting our post on 7 best IDX plugins for WordPress.
 

2. How to Buy a Home

 
Having a simple “What we do to help you buy your home” page may not be enough anymore. Certainly an important piece for any real estate website but giving your online consumer a step by step ‘how-to’ page that walks them through the process can be a very nice value add to any real estate website.

Adding a sleek tab widget (we like tabby responsive tabs plugin) and a way for your visitor to start their home search makes it easy on the online consumer so they don’t have to scroll forever to see all your information. Here is a screenshot of what we mean:

Pages Your Website Needs to Increase Lead Conversion

Taking your How to Buy a Home Page a step further, create an ebook that is loaded with helpful links such as:

  • Local Utilities
  • Coupons from area restaurants
  • A page dedicated to your preferred Lender

How you give access to this ebook is entirely up to you. However, asking folks for their name and email in order to download your ebook is a smart lead capture piece!
 

3. How to Sell a Home

 
In the same fashion as what we talked about above, create a powerful ebook on the step-by-step process on how to sell your home. Again, creating an ebook for this is a very smart way to add value to your real estate website as well as capture a lead…here’s what we mean:

Pages Your Website Needs to Increase Lead Conversion
 

4. Home Valuation

 
Traditionally, a fairly standard contact form asking the online user to fill out a series of questions about their property was pretty much the norm for these. Our findings have shown these have a pretty low conversion rate and even worse, some real estate website owners don’t get back to these potential sellers quick enough which makes these forms almost useless.

Today we are seeing a fair number of seller valuation sites offer a sleek single page website for the online consumer to easily add their home address, name and email and in return, get an email with a market value of their home branded with the real estate agents contact info. Many of these websites are also equipped with a CRM integration piece as well as a drip campaign that allows the agent to send periodic “touch points” to the seller.

These websites can be given a look and feel just like your real estate website and easily linked from there too. Just Google Home Valuation Sites to check what’s available.
 

5. Blog

 
I know, I know…don’t most real estate websites have a blog? Well, yes…but what we are getting at is these blog pages should be a great resource point for your online visitors to garner how-to guides and links to other valuable information.

Blog pages are also a terrific way to drive traffic to your site from your social media pages. Here is a post on the best practices for driving traffic to your site to learn what we mean
 

6. Email Listing Alert

 
In our opinion, one of the more under utilized lead capture page options available to any real estate website owner. Not only can you get a name and an email for your troubles but more importantly, you are sending your prospective home buyer exactly what they want, and it’s coming from you…branded!

Even better, with a simple question, “Would it be beneficial for your (Mr./Mrs. homebuyers) if you could received an email daily with new listings of homes you’re looking to buy?” With a resounding yes, you’ve been given permission to go in and set them up yourself. Now, these wonderful folks are getting daily notifications from you on new listings on the market…C’mon, how easy it that!

Pages Your Website Needs to Increase Lead Conversion
 

7. Account Sign Up/Sign In

 
Making it easy for your online visitor to set up their own account so they can receive updates or start their own search should be a standard page on any real estate website. Again, a simple way to get a name and an email but more importantly, a way to send branded information on homes to prospective home buyers as a way to have folks come back to your site time and time again!

Pages Your Website Needs to Increase Lead Conversion
 

8. School Info

 
Most online home buyers are going to be interested in schools. Not just where they’re located but things like class size, ratings and even alternative educational options available. Until now, using a simple real estate plugin would have sufficed. Now we are looking at options such as GreatSchools.org for their super easy widget that is very easily customize and even easier to add to your real estate website. Simply go to https://www.greatschools.org/schoolfinder/widget/customize.page#widgetCode and give it a whirl. Once you create your custom widget, you simply click on the ‘Create Widget Code’ button and copy/paste the code onto your site. No need to know a single thing about code to use this awesome widget.

In just 6 steps, you can customize a smart-looking widget that allow your online consumers the option to visit public, private and non rated schools with in their search area. This widget is attractive and gives your visitor an easy and user-friendly resource for all their school informational needs.

Pages Your Website Needs to Increase Lead Conversion
 

9. Testimonials

 
Believe it or not, most real estate agents and brokers do not have a testimonials page on their website. Nothing could be easier and with simple plugins like easy testimonials https://wordpress.org/plugins/easy-testimonials/ you can add all your reviews in no time.

In addition, this plugin offers a short-code so you can separate your reviews by buyers and sellers or really any way you wish!
 

10. Sold Properties

 
With some Multiple Listings Services not allowing sold data (or making it very difficult to display your recent solds) through your IDX plugin, some real estate agents and brokers have no option to display their past sales.

If you’re in this boat and you have an Agent Evolution theme, you can use a nice widget called WP Listings. Although the purpose of this plugin is to help you build sexy single property pages on your website…see our recent post to learn more… you can also use this functional plugin to display sold listings as well.

Pages Your Website Needs to Increase Lead Conversion
 

11. About Page

 
Most often the 2nd most visited page on a website is the About Page!  First is of course the home page.

Price will always stay important but we only need to look at brands like Mercedes, Nordstrom,  Toms, and Verizon to see that price is not the only concern.  Why do people pay more for these products when they can find similar goods for a lower price?

Quality of product, Custom Service, User Experience, Mission… we care about the character of the brand and product.

The about page is where you can illuminate your best qualities, and answer the question:

“What can this agent do for me?”

Make sure that your about page has built-in Calls To Action such as:

  • Phone Number
  • Email
  • Contact Form

It is also a good idea to add images of yourself and your team.  Let them get to know you a bit.

 

12. Contact Us Page

 
And last, but certainly not least is a good working contact page.

This is my favorite page.  Because when we get an email that says:  “Contact Form Has Been received” that means someone has thought enough of us, our content, and our work to reach out and let us aid them.  Most of the time it is a lead, a HOT LEAD.

A simple form with a welcoming message is good here.  You should also have your contact information listed her if they would rather call or email… yes please.

 

Other Pages Your Website Needs to Increase Lead Conversion

 

  • Home Page
  • Video/YouTube page
  • Market Data
  • Vendors List
  • Mortgage Calculators

We use a Free WordPress CRM Plugin called Leadin to make sure we capture leads on all of our pages.
 

Summary

 
Adding value to your real estate website is an ongoing process. As we all know, your website will never be ‘done’ as we see new needs and new items of value to increase our traffic as well as our ability to give our online consumer what they’re looking for.

A well-built real estate website should give you every opportunity to create dynamic pages to generate leads, offer value and become the resource today’s real estate consumer is looking for when it comes time to buy, sell or invest!