5 Key Things Your Real Estate Website Is Lacking Right Now

At DESA NINJA we are always working hard to deliver the best possible results to our new and loyal clients. The real estate website is our top-1 priority when we onboard new agents. For those who do not take real estate website seriously, we compare it to a digital business card, which everyone online can have access to.

Just imagine, there are thousands of real estate website out there. And most of them, unfortunately, were developed more than 7 years ago. Therefore, the layout, plugins and overall technology are most likely outdated and do not meet a “user-friendly” criteria.

If you own a real estate website and feel like something is wrong, this post will give you some tips and suggestions on how to improve your website performance and increase the amount of organic and paid real estate leads coming to you.

User-Friendly Website Layout

The success of a real estate website strongly correlates with how easily your website can guide a potential client to a conversion point.

It sounds like an easy job, however, there are hundreds of websites that are uncomfortable to browse and find relevant information.

Your website literally needs to be a “no brainer” for visitors. Everything needs to be well-organized by topics. As a rule of thumb, for all our clients we breakdown a website into these main topics:

• Homepage
• Services (Buy, Sell, Invest, Rent, Free Home Evaluation etc)
• Freebies (guides, checklists)
• Blog
• About me
• Contact me

Obviously, every topic and page needs to be unique and well-thought before going live. If your website is a journey, think of your layout as a map. It guides people, leading them to important and relevant information and, ultimately, a conversion. If it’s not done right, then they’ll be lost from the very start.

Highlight Your Main Service Areas

What we found out is that not all real estate agents mention the primary area they specialize in. At first, it might seem like a good idea as you broaden the reach, right? Not really.

Following this strategy, you are narrowing down organic reach through Google Search for example. Your area specialization does not need to be limited by a neighbourhood or street. It can be an entire city, a collection of several cities or even a province (if you have a team of real estate professionals).

Another big question is where to highlight information regarding the service area. Personally, I prefer mentioning it in the website title, on the “About Me” page and on the homepage as soon as the user lands on the website.

Clear Call-to-Action

From our own research, we noticed that almost 50% of real estate websites are missing CTAs. In brief, a website call-to-action button helps online users understand what step they need to take next: contact a realtor, subscribe to an email newsletter or download a buyer checklist. Either way, CTA brings potential clients closer to a transaction.

Some of the CTA’s best practices are:

• Well-positioned
• Fits the website flow
• Engages the user with convincing copy
• Offers a form that is simple to fill out

For multipage websites usually, a single CTA is not enough. Rather than having only “Contact me” call-to-action, we strongly suggest include some kind of freebie like PDF guides or checklists that are easy to download inputting the name and email only.

Do not underestimate the power of CTAs. It is one of the most important parts every real estate website must have to be successful online.

Show Active Listings

Real estate clients, both buyers and sellers love to see listings on the website. Not to mention, they want to have it presented professionally, to the point and are easy to find and navigate.

Make sure to have a separate page for all of your listings on the website. Include a variety of filters for easy browsing, follow information hierarchy by highlighting data that matters the most first and show details at the bottom.

Condos.ca has a great user interface paired with detailed information including price, photos, virtual tours, address, size and call to action that connects visitors with the listing agent.

Install Google Analytics

I bet you’ve heard about Google Analytics many times. But did you ever bothered installing it on your website? I not, you are missing an opportunity on the table.

Have you ever wanted to find answers to the following questions:

• Do I have more potential Sellers or Buyers?
• Which page is the most popular?
• How people find my website?
• Who are my visitors? 
• How much time do people spend on my website?

That is exactly why Google Analytics was made. We have an extensive blog post regarding Google Analytics and report that are essential for real estate agents and their websites.