Top Real Estate Web Design Mistakes

**HHI Golf Guy** · 02-14-2005, 03:11 PM

It goes without saying that an internet presence is no lunger a luxury for real estate agents - it's a necessity! However, most agents become quickly disillusioned with the whole internet process.

I'll be adding to this thread from time to time with some of the top mistakes of real estate web sites. Feel free to comment or add your own insights.

Field of Dreams Marketing
Having a great looking web site has absolutely nothing to do with developing traffic and conversions. Most businesses that enter into the ecommerce market employ the "Field of Dreams Philosphy" - if you build it, they will come. The fact is that most (not all) web designers - especially freelance designers - know very little about web marketing, search engine optimization, and pay per click. There are some companies that offer all of these services, but you may have to hire more than one company to get the job done correctly.

You need to have a marketing plan and budget for your web site just as you do with print media. Having a web site does not guarantee that anyone will ever find it!

The Toby Keith School of Web Site Content - I Wanna Talk About Me!
People use the internet to find information. When they are interested in real estate, especially if it involves relocation, they want to know about the area and the local residential communities. Too many realtors use their website to promote themselves with cutesy references about their family, kids and pets. While relationship building is an important part of real estate, your site should focus on one objective - selling homes! You build an online relationship with your web site visitors by providing extensive useful information to your readers. This will help brand you as a trusted authority on both real estate and the local area. Becoming a trusted authority is the key to getting web surfers to take action (i.e. fill out a form, call you, drop by the office, etc.).

It Takes Time - And Money - To Develop Your Web Presence
There are plenty of agents that have spent a ton of money on a web design, only to be discouraged when the only visitors to their site are themselves, friends, relatives, and a few people that got the web address of of their print media.

If you want immediate web site traffic, invest in a PPC program. Be aware that for competitive keywords you will most likely pay between $2 and $10 per click!

In the long run, your best bet is to hire a search engine optimization expert to increase your search engine rankings. One of the keys with SEO is to remeber that it takes time to develop your search engine rankings. In most cases it will take 6 months to 1 year to develop top rankings on Yahoo, MSN, and Google (the only SE's that you should care about). For top notch SEO services you can expect to pay between $5k and $20k per year.

While this is most definitely a lot of money, compare the costs with the amount that you spend on print media advertising. You could easily spend that much to run one ad in a major newspaper or magazine.

There's a heck of a lot more to developing a succesful real estate web site, and I'll touch on some of it at a later date. In the meantime, feel free to PM or email me with your questions. As always, I'm for hire

**frobn** · 02-17-2005, 05:41 AM

Very good summary. You should consider making it into an article and releasing it to be duplicated with the requirement it has an active link back to you.

**HHI Golf Guy** · 02-17-2005, 08:29 AM

I have the entire article on my web site, but I haven't actively distributed it yet. Good idea, though. I'll start looking for places to distribute it.

**Jade456** · 02-17-2005, 05:20 PM

There are lots of sites that would love to post your article. Although I think you are a little low on the se expert cost per year, especially when you consider the possible roi. IMHO

**HHI Golf Guy** · 02-17-2005, 08:42 PM

SEO costs will vary greatly depending upon the market and of course, the level of competition web in that market. In my experience, most real estate agents are cheap when it comes to web marketing.

Actually, let me rephrase that a bit. Gun shy is probably a better phrase. Many web design firms have convinced real estate agents that all that they have to do is load a web site and the leads and sales will come pouring in. So, the agent spends $5k-$15k on a site and gets zero ROI. They hear about SEO, but many are convinced it's smoke and mirrors ("You mean I have to pay $10-$20kk to optimize a site and you can't guarantee me top 10 placement - and I have to wait 3-12 months to see results?").

The one thing that I try to impress upon real estate agents is the difference between print media marketing and a well developed SEO program. Print media is a perishable item - people throw out the newspaper or the magazine after a few days. And depending upon your market, advertising in the Sunday paper can cost you an arm and a leg. A well optimized web site will continue to provide leads for an extended period of time.

We also teach agents how to effectively integrate web marketing with print media. It allows agents to extend their print media budget, and even target new print collateral and enter untapped markets.

You're right, Jade456, the ROI potential is huge. As real estate on the web continues to grow, agents that are willing to invest in SEO and web marketing are going to leave everyone else in the dust.

**San Diego Real Estate** · 02-21-2005, 07:26 PM

HHI Golf Guy,

Once again great information...I have spent the last two years researching and testing different SEO & PPC techniques & services! I can tell you that you are exactly right the amount of homes being purchased over the net is amazing! I get a lot of relocation traffic being in San Diego and without my sites I would not be able to afford to reach these people! This is the absolute best tool in the industry today! If promoted properly!!!!

**HMiller** · 02-21-2005, 08:43 PM

One mistake I think many webmasters make is trying to cram too much text and information on the homepage. It really makes for a bad user experience when one has to read through so many different paragraphs and columns. To me, the cleaner and simpler to read the homepage is the better.

Another related mistake is placing all of those link and awards banners on the homepage, or anywhere on the site for that matter. IMO, they look very silly and sloppy, cause the page to load slower (on a dial-up) and most seem to be of no benefit linkwise at all.

**San Diego Real Estate** · 02-21-2005, 08:51 PM

HMiller,

I agree I have even been guilty of that!

Last year I used to even have Flash on my home page! Until I was at a clients home that came through the net! And I saw what happened when on dial up! That was a listing for 1,500,000-1,900,000 and a purchase for 900k! I totally agree!!! Plain is GOOD!

**justicewhite** · 02-23-2005, 08:46 AM

Really good article.

I think the first 2 points are very valid for the UK market as well.

Agents seem to spend lots of money advertising in the local papers over here. Also, there are a few big property portals that the agents have to register with. The fees are high as well.

They don't seem to be paying for the PPC advertising on top of this.

**frobn** · 02-23-2005, 05:09 PM

This thread started as the mistakes the RE web sites make, however I like things in the positive as positives provide a plan forward while negatives often only tell you what you need to avoid.

I know that real estate professionals have a range of needs but what would be your ideal "basic" web site what pages would you include, what would you want for future expansion, etc?