Real Estate Website Hosting Explained

If you think choosing the wrong web hosting can’t have a negative impact on your income, think again. (HuffingtonPost)

 

The basic building blocks of a real estate website are as follows:

1. Web Hosting
2. IDX Feed
3. CMS
4. Domain
5. Content

There are many providers of the first 4 building blocks.  We recommend you use:

1. WPEngine
2. IDX Broker Platinum
3. WordPress.org
4. GoDaddy

Number 5 is not so easy.  But there are a ton of posts on this site and other to aid with that.

What Is Real Estate Website Hosting

 

I think it is easiest to explain real estate website hosting by relating a real estate website to a real estate flyer.

 

We have all created a real estate flyer.  You start with a blank template, on Publisher, Canva, or Indesign (for you pros).

We will get back to that blank template in a second.

Once you have put the pictures of listing, some text, your image and contact information and printed it onto a piece of paper you have your self a flyer.  Or for the sake of this analogy, a website.

In order for people to be able to see that flyer we need to put it/store it somewhere.  Like in a flyer box on a for sale sign, or a flyer holder in your clients house.

Those flyer holders are like website hosting.  They give the flyer somewhere to “live” that allows people to find them and view them.

In the same way that your flyers need a place to live… your website also needs a place to live.  Website Hosting.

 

What we are really doing is renting a space on a cloud based server.

 

If you are working with a proprietary website company like Wix or WordPress.com then part of the service includes web hosting.  You only need to worry about getting web hosting set up if you are running a self-hosted CMS.

 

Cloud Based Servers

 

I remember a few years back when cloud based was this ominous buzz word that was thrown around for all things web.  It seemed like a distant fantasy idea that I had trouble wrapping my head around.

Turns out the idea is quite simple.

Cloud Based just means that the processing power and storage power is derived by a high-powered server that you have access to via the internet and not on your own computer.

The majority of cloud based servers today are Amazon Servers.  Or as they call it the AWS Cloud.

They have gigantic server “farms”, or super computers, all across the globe that are finely tuned to be fast, secure, and reliable.  Amazon rents out space on these servers.

There are other cloud based server providers.  And some server providers actually rent the Amazon servers, and add a bunch of features and then sub-let that space.

The point is, for a small monthly fee you rent a portion of a high-powered server that is maintained by a team and backed up in the cloud to host, or store, your real estate website so that people have a place to go to see it.

 

Self-Hosted CMS

 

Remember earlier I mentioned the flyer templates… most of you are probably using Publisher to create your flyers.  Well think of WordPress for your website like Publisher is for your flyer.

Self-hosted means that you need a hosting provider to “serve up” or display your website.

CMS means Content Management System or the tool that you use to build a website.  Such as; WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla.

We prefer WordPress… mostly because that is just what we have always used and most tools are compatible with WordPress.

WordPress uses Themes, and Plugins to give the website a unique look, feel, and features.

 

Hosting Providers

 

Renting space on a server must be a highly profitable business model because there are a ton of hosting providers.

Not all hosting providers are created equal… and a good majority of them are just not good at what they do.

A few of the more popular website hosting providers:

1.  Amazaon AWS
2. Bluehost
3. Hostgator
4. GoDaddy
5. MediaTemple
6. 1&1
7. inMotion
8. DreamHost
9. SiteGround
10. WPEngine

These are just some of the big name brands.

I have used and or worked with most of these hosts at one point or another.  Many of them I refuse to work with… I will leave them nameless.

There is one that I use to host my website and all websites that I build:

WPEngine

 

Why I Recommend WPEngine For Your Real Estate Website

 

This is not a simple answer.  I will just list all the reasons that I switched to WPEngine and have never looked back.

 

WPEngine is a WordPress Specific Hosting Provider

The only thing that is on their servers is WordPress.org websites.  That means that their servers are tuned specifically for our needs.  It also means that when you talk to a technician they know how to fix WordPress issues.

 

WPEngine is a Managed Hosting Provider

There are 4 types of hosting providers:

1.  Shared Hosting
   • Shared hosting is cheap.  It is an attractive idea to many real estate agents because you can host a WordPress website on a shared server for around $5 month.
   • Shared hosting crams a ton of websites on each server with no monitoring.  A limited amount of bandwidth is shared.
2. Virtual Private Servers
   • Rather than just cram a bunch of websites onto a server… here you rent a specific percentage of a server.
   • You know how much bandwidth you get, and what types of speeds to expect.
   • The monthly fee for VPS’s range between $20 and $100 month depending on how much speed and storage you need.
   • For amateur webmasters only, they require an understanding of hosting, programming, and server maintenance.
3. Dedicated Servers
   • Rather than renting a space on a server you rent the whole server.
   • You know how much bandwidth you get, and what types of speeds to expect.
   • The monthly fee for a dedicated server can range between $100 and $150 month depending on how much speed and storage you need.
   • For amateur webmasters only, they require an understanding of hosting, programming, and server maintenance.
   • There is no need to have a dedicated server for your average real estate website.
4. Managed Hosting
   • You are renting a specific space on a server
   • The hosting company is responsible for managing the hardware and connections.
   • The monthly fee for managed hosting is about $15 month.

 

There really are only 2 realistic options for most real estate websites, Shared Hosting or Managed Hosting.

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TYPE OF HOSTING

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SHARED

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MANAGED

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PROS

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Cost

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Performance

Support

Security

Scalability

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CONS

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Lack of Performance

Lack of Support

Lack of Security

Lack of Scalability

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Cost

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In my mind there is no doubt that a little piece of mind is worth an extra $10 month when it comes to website.  I mean it is your Internet Marketing Hub after all.

 

WPEngine Has  A Proprietary Caching System

Time to nerd out a bit… but have you heard of a W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache?  These are popular WordPress plugins that people use to try to get their website to load faster.

They are a bit complex and often times can “break” parts of your website.

WPEngine won’t let you use those plugins, because they have a similar product baked in to their managed hosting service.

This caching system is designed to get your real estate website to load lightning fast.

The faster your site loads the more Google likes, the more visitors stick around, and the better your conversion rate is.

 

WPEngine Has WordPress Experts Available 24/7 Via Chat

I really should list this first because it is so awesome.  If you have a problem with your WordPress website the folks at WPEngine can diagnose it and more often than not fix it for you or with you.

This will come in real handy when you go to your website one day and all you see is a white screen.  It happens.  And you start panicking… what happened and what the heck do I do.  If you have WPEngine you open a chat window and talk to an expert.

 

WPEngine Does Auto Backups

Every 24 hours WPEngine takes a snapshot of your website and saves it in a file and does this for a rolling 30 days.  If you mess up your website or your hacked you can roll your site back with the push of a button.

 

WPEngine Has Extra Security Layers

We all know hackers broke into Equifax but did you know that some like to target small business websites like yours?

They can use them to transfer viruses, send a message, or just gain access to your personal information.

WPEngine adds extra security to prevent that from happening.  And if they do get through… you can jump on the chat with a WordPress expert and roll your site back to a safe version.

 

WPEngine Offers Many Easy To Use Tools

Like easy to install SSL, CDN, Website Performance Reports, A 1 Button Staging Area to test any changes before it goes “live”, Analytics, Easy Domain Setup, Easy Domain Redirect, Access to Error Logs, Easy Access to Database, and more.

WPEngine Offer Free Migration

Even if your Real Estate Website is already sitting on a shared hosting service that you are not happy with you can switch to WPEngine and they will migrate your website to their server for free.

 

Summary

 

If you are going to build a real estate website that can grow with your business, that you own and operate, and that can (over time) start to generate you leads and referrals… we suggest that you build a WordPress website.

You will need to get Web Hosting, IDX, WordPress.org, and a Domain.

There are 2 realistic choices for a real estate website host type; Shared Hosting, or Managed Hosting.

We switched to Managed Hosting many years ago, and have not looked back.  The many advantages and features that you get over shared hosting is worth the extra $10 month.

We have been using WPEngine for over 3 years now and have never had any problems, and in fact they have saved our bacon on numerous occasions.