Last Updated on April 9, 2017
You’re a real estate professional in the 21st century, which means a website is a marketing necessity. But like most agents, you’re busy working with clients and don’t have time to keep up with all the latest and greatest “web marketing” strategies. Lucky for you, the folks at iHouse Web Solutions put together a “top 10 list” of proven, easy and effective strategies to turn your website into a profit center instead of a sunk cost. You can use these strategies on your current site or to start a brand new real estate website. Remember, a good website is a “destination” for homebuyers and homesellers that they bookmark and refer back to for helpful information. It provides the resources BUYERS want and need for home searching, and gives SELLERS information on their home value and how you can help. Then, it converts these visitors into leads, aids in the conversion process from lead to client, and gives clients the tools they need to complete their transaction. The strategies presented below are divided into 2 categories – Lead Generation and Lead Conversion, because even a destination website is pointless if it fails to achieve these two main objectives. PART 1 of this two part article will focus on Lead Generation for the first 6 of the “top 10” strategies (PART 2 will be closely behind):How To Generate Real Estate Leads Online
90% of the visitors to your real estate website will want to search for homes. Buyers will search for their dream home and sellers will want to keep tabs on home values in their neighborhood. This means you’re losing business if all you have is your phone number with a one-liner like: “contact me for current home prices.” If you want leads from the web, you need to give visitors to your site something valuable for them to exchange their contact information. Since the #1 thing visitors want is information about homes for sale, it’s critical to your web marketing success that your site has a tool to search the MLS listings right from your website. This is known as IDX search.
INTERNET STRATEGY #1: Add Your MLS Search Option to the HOMEPAGE
By including a homepage search, you prevent people from quickly bouncing off your site because they didn’t see what they were looking for. You’re also demonstrating how useful and easy-to-use your website is – two very important qualities for Internet users.
INTERNET STRATEGY #2: Get Your MLS Search Option Noticed
Adding a search module to your homepage is important, but you should also do something to make it stand out. It’s not enough to include it as an option in the navigation. Instead, include an image or text that points out your search so visitors can’t miss it.
INTERNET STRATEGY #3: Use Custom Search Links To Grab Attention
If you use an IDX search tool, another great way to catch visitors’ attention is to have links that take them directly to the exact listings they would be searching for, without them actually having to do the search. How is that possible?
INTERNET STRATEGY #4: Add WIDGETS To Your Web Pages
In the online world, a widget is a small application or piece of dynamic content that can easily be placed into a web page. Here are two main categories of widgets for real estate websites: A. Listing Display and Search widgets are available from a variety of sources, but the most prominent are Trulia and Zillow. These two websites have become wildly popular among homebuyers, sellers, and real estate professionals nationwide. Not only do they offer their own listing database search, but they have their own forums and communities and dozens of widgets to choose from. If your listings can be found on Zillow or Trulia, you can use their widgets to add slideshows, quick listing search boxes, lists of recently sold homes, and much more.
“How do I get visitors to MY website instead of another agent’s site in my area?”
If every other agent in your area has a simple website with no unique content, they won’t get a high search engine ranking and their websites will be indistinguishable to homebuyers. By offering information and opinions that are thoughtful, knowledgeable, and relevant your services will stand out. This type of unique content can be found in many forms, from blog posts, original videos, and links to other relevant resources. This leads us to the next set of strategies that focus on how to quickly create ORIGINAL CONTENT for your website…INTERNET STRATEGY #5: Create Unique Articles On Your Web Pages
To show up in a search when a local buyer or seller searches for “[city] homes” or “[city] condos” … you need to provide quality information about your local real estate market that’s unique and relevant to the most common search terms. For most real estate professionals, this means brainstorming the main keyword phrases you’d like to have a high ranking for, and then plan a “content strategy” to create unique editorial content (articles) around a handful of key search phrases. Side note: Here’s a past real estate marketing article about this topic of keyword research. Once you have your primary keyword phrases, you will be creating and writing the content yourself focused on those topics. Sound intimidating? It probably does, but it doesn’t have to be all that difficult. Let’s cover how to get started. Content that focuses on your specialties, local area, and expert knowledge are a good place to start. Here’s a list of broad topics that should help guide your thinking, but don’t hesitate to get creative!
INTERNET STRATEGY #6: Add VIDEO To Your Web Pages
Here are 4 reasons you should be using video on your website:- Online Video creates a personal touch. When visitors feel like they know you and like you, you’ll have an easier time getting them to work with you.
- Online Video is exciting! It’s easy to stand out from the crowd with an interesting and interactive website.
- Online Video indicates expert knowledge of both real estate and the Internet that will extend to helping the visitor buy or sell a home.
- Online Video increases visitor traffic to your website. It’s a simple truth: video is a great way to get more visitors from the search engines and from searches directly in YouTube, which has over 300 million users – many from your local area – searching for information every day.

At this point you may be saying…
“OK, I’ve learned about adding unique content in the form of articles and videos to my web pages to get a high ranking for local real estate searches, but I’m still not clear on how I get people to my site??” Here are 6 proven ways to get visitors (traffic) to your site without spending a lot of money:- Print the URL of your website on all letters, postcards, and business cards
- Include the URL of your website in your email signature
- Create offers for free MLS searches or free reports in your monthly email newsletter
- Create a postcard campaign to announce your new or improved site to your past clients, friends, family members, and strategic partners
- Word of mouth — if you provide great content on your site, people will tell their friends
- Links to your site — again, if you create valuable information on your site, others will link to your website opening up new streams of unique visitors
What a comfort to find a person that really understands what they’re talking about online.