Competition in real estate is fierce.

Therefore as a real estate professional, you have to set your business apart from the rest.

The Association of Real Estate License Law Officials (ARELLO) estimates that there are over 3 million active real estate licensees in the United States.

The Association of Real Estate License Law Officials (ARELLO) estimates that there are over 3 million active real estate licensees in the United States.Click To Tweet

 

How you set your business apart is with a custom inbound marketing strategy.  The center, or hub, of that strategy is the website. Targeted to your custom real estate niche, your real estate website can build your business immeasurably.

 

The housing market has changed dramatically over the past few years. Buyers are educated and well informed because of the internet. They now go online to find houses and research locations even before contacting a real estate agent. If you want to keep up, you must have a modern, mobile-friendly website for clients to find you and search properties.

 

If your website is outdated or doesn’t conform well to a mobile device, you will lose clients. Don’t be left behind — find out below why creating a custom website is so crucial in the real estate industry and how to make yours convert.

 

Benefits of a Custom Website – Updated for 2022

 

 

The internet is littered with real estate website builder tools where you can create a good looking site in minutes. They often make big promises like showing up in search and instant lead generation.

However, there are quite a few drawbacks when using one of those systems.

First, you don’t own the website or the code. You cannot take your site to another hosting vendor; if you want out, you lose it all. In some cases they will offer to sell your content back to you at an exorbitant price.

Second, these cookie-cutter websites all look and work the same. There is no individuality and very little flexibility.

Third, while many of these sites do have good search ranking it’s because you are effectively renting a page on another site that has spent a lot of money to get there. The money you give them each month allows them to grow. Your site will lose any SEO advantage you had once you leave their service. It’s like having a page on Facebook. Your will be found because of the Facebook brand but you will never own the page.

It is hard, or impossible, to incorporate G.L.A.M.R. into these websites”:

  • G – Generate Referrals
  • L – Legitimize Your Business
  • A – Authoritize Your Self As The Local Expert
  • M – Multiply Your Web Presence
  • R – Residence, Own Your Website

When you build a custom website, you have full ownership of the entire site. It’s all yours, and you can take it with you no matter where you decide to host it. Plus, you can customize completely and make it something special.

You can focus on your real estate branding and brand it to match your logo, colors, and fonts used in other marketing materials. The bottom line is that you have complete control and this is everything.

Along with customizing the look and feel of your custom website, you can also add functionality that is not available in those web “services.” If you want to schedule appointments online, you can. If you want to add the ability to chat with clients, you can add that easily also with a custom website.

There is no limit to what you can build with a custom website. With a custom website you can offer your audience a truly unique experience.

 

Target Your Niche

 

When deciding to build your custom website, you first need to determine your audience. Do you sell million dollar houses to film stars, or do you sell cozy starter homes to young families?

Your website’s look, feel and language must all target a specific audience, or niche. To do that, you need to know who your perfect client is.  Your buyer persona.  Once you determine that, you can start building.

The imagery, colors, and even the tone of your new website must reflect your audience and be identifiable to them. If your target market is young hipsters, then you will write your web copy much differently than if you are selling high-end, modern homes to business professionals.

Your aim is to create a cohesive website that checks all the boxes for your target audience.

Even after you determine your target audience, you will be able to group your clients further into sub-segments. When you follow-up on real estate leads with promotional emails, send each group custom emails.

You can tailor your message to different ages, incomes and cultural groups to pinpoint your approach. Your clients will appreciate the custom marketing and respond better since you have them in mind when you craft each message.

 

Is WordPress the Right Platform?

 

WordPress is the number one CMS system on the market and is used by small companies and huge corporations alike. There are many reasons it is so popular, but the first and foremost is that it’s free.

WordPress is the number one CMS system on the market and is used by small companies and huge corporations alike.Click To Tweet

You don’t pay anything for the core program. Once you get it installed, you can use real estate plugin add-ons to enhance and extend the functionality, and you can install one of thousands of themes to change the look and feel within minutes.

WordPress is scalable, which means it can grow right along with your business and you’ll never need another system.

Many themes are free, but you can purchase some really great ones online that help you build million dollar looking websites for under $100.

WordPress is also great for SEO and online marketing. Plenty of plugins like Yoast make it easy to customize your pages with search engine-friendly practices.

Another great reason to use WordPress for your custom website is that it is “open source.” Open source means that if you don’t like something, your programmer can change the code instantly.

It’s also easy to use and extremely flexible as a blog or corporate website.

You can create landing pages in minutes, and even if you are not computer savvy, you can easily learn how to add content to your pages.

WordPress is flexible, updated frequently to stay safe and secure, and it has a great community support system if you run into trouble or have questions.

WordPress Can Connect You With Buyers and Sellers

Blogs

WordPress was originally developed as a blogging platform and is a great way to connect with potential customers. A real estate blog lets you get your message out so you stay ahead of the competition and develop a strong online presence. It’s also one of the best ways to establish yourself as the local area expert.

Adding a video to a blog post along with accompanying text is a powerful SEO tool to help you rank with Google. The video can help increase time on page which is a metric Google considers when determining a sites value. The added text gives Google something to index. Not sure what to write? Consider s transcription of the video.

Video Channels

If you already have a YouTube presence and want to stream the latest videos to your WordPress site there are plugins to help with that. This approach can help keep your site current and fresh. A dedicated video page on your website is like having your very own streaming TV.

Videos on a website can have the added advantage of increasing time on page which is another valuable SEO tool.

Need some inspiration? Take videos of the areas you serve, discuss real estate trends, or educate your customers.

Podcasting

Podcasting is hot. People are busy, sometimes too busy to watch a video. Podcasting is a great way to connect with future customers on the move.

Whatever you choose WordPress is the perfect platform to connect with potential buyers and sellers.

Build the Best Real Estate Website Possible

 

As you consider developing your custom real estate website, there are a few tips you should remember. First, your site is like your office manager: the first impression you make with clients.

Keep that in mind and make yours a good one.

Clients usually look you up to find out more information about you or what you are selling on Google. Have an easy way for clients to reach you right on the home page, whether it’s via email, phone, or both.

Connect your website to the MLS system so you can have thousands of searchable properties right there, front and center.

Don’t skimp on your About Us page. Flesh it out with detailed information about what your agency can offer and how your extensive experience helps you do your job.

Consumers love FAQs. Dedicate a page on your website to questions and answers that you receive frequently. Including FAQ’s is also a great way to rank with Google.

Consider having a live chat feature on your site where they can log on and ask you questions in real time.

 

Summary

 

Be sure your new site looks great and works on mobile devices.

Use an SEO plugin like Yoest to ensure your pages are search engine friendly and you will rank well with Google.

Finally, use high-resolution, good quality images throughout. Images and video are the best media to use for real estate. Nothing sells like a stunning image of a house for sale or a walk-through video!