As a Real Estate Agent, one of the most critical components of your website is the ability for site visitors to be able to search for homes. Think about it, they’re on your site to begin with for one of three reasons:
- They’re in the market to buy (or sell) real estate right now,
- They want to know what they’re home is worth,
- They want to know what the market is like.
Today, let’s focus on the first point: Searching for Homes.
A great IDX will not only get indexed in search and drive traffic, it will keep site visitors engaged long enough to consider your offer (a.k.a. hiring you as their real estate agent). But in order for your IDX to effectively engage visitors (and convert them), it needs to accomplish a few things. Your IDX should…
- Generate traffic
- Be easy for buyers to navigate
- Capture leads
- Increase listing awareness
Let’s look at these points in further detail…
Generating Traffic:
In order to generate leads, you need to focus on driving some traffic to your site first and a good (indexable) IDX is going to help do some of that for you.
The next step is to look at your site traffic and determine your conversion rate. For example, ~800 site visitors = 2-3 leads generated. If you know that number, then you know that you’re daily goal minimum is 800. From there, you can work on finding ways to increase that number and estimate conversions.
A few questions you need to ask yourself about your current IDX are…
- How much of your IDX content is indexable?
- Where does your IDX content currently rank in search engines?
- How much of your traffic enters from a listing page?
- How many site site visitors to hit “X” number of conversions?
Ease of Use:
If you’re making consumers jump through hoops just to be able to search for homes you can bet they’re going to click away from your site and go to your competitor’s site. In the end, the easier you make it for people to search for homes, the better. Give them what they’re looking for by placing an easy link to your Home Search page in your navigation and by placing a Quick Home Search form on your sidebar. Remember, the more they engage with you on your site, the greater the like-hood they’ll consider choosing you as their agent.
A few questions you need to ask yourself about your current IDX are…
- What percentage of your site visitors view an IDX page? Can you increase this number by making your site easier to navigate?
- How many listings views does your IDX average? Are you displaying results effectively? Are you making it easy to search for homes?
- What feedback have you received from users? Have you ever taken a moment to poll your readers and ask them: “How can we make our IDX search tool easier for you to use?”
Capturing Leads:
At the end of the day, if you have a ton of people visiting your site and few conversions, then there’s a disconnect somewhere and your number one priority should be on figuring out where that leak is so you can patch it up and increase that number. So ask yourself:
- What percentage of your IDX users register? Can you limit your registration fields to ask for less information and increase the number of registrations?
- How much control do you have over registrations? Are you able to modify the number of listing details views and results views before requiring registration?
- What incentive does your IDX provide users for registering? Listing updates via email? Save favorites? And…?
Increasing Awareness:
Lastly, how are you bringing attention to your own listings (and/or your office listings)? Do you have a Featured Listings page? How easy does your IDX tool make it to embed listings on your website? A couple of questions you should ask yourself are…
- How can you incorporate listings on your site? Can you embed listings on a post or page? Can you create and embed map modules with property markers that link to listing detail’s pages?
- What are the various ways that you can use your existing IDX to promote your own listings?
Maintaining a Website is Like Maintaining a Home:
Every week you have to mow the lawn and occasionally, you have to trim the hedges. A few times a year you might plant flowers and re-seed the lawn. And if you don’t do these things, the landscape becomes overgrown and well, it looks like no one cares.
What happens then?
Site visitors start to click away in search of another, more reliable source of information. One that’s updated often and neatly maintained.
Action Step: Spend some time look at your site and giving yourself a bit of a self-audit. How can you improve your site lay-out and navigation? How can you make your IDX tool easier to access to increase awareness for your listings and increase your lead capture?
August 10, 2011 at 8:03 am
These are great tips and reminders.
Remembering the importance of serving our clients and how naturally seeking to serve people will always yield more business. No more jumping through hoops on the websites.
Great information. Thank You.
August 10, 2011 at 1:57 pm
Katee: Agreed! The more you make people jump through hoops, the harder it’s going to be to earn their attention. As consumers, we get frustrated, give up and just opt to get our information elsewhere (where it’s easier to access).
Thanks for the comment!
August 10, 2011 at 8:37 am
1. They’re in the market to buy (or sell) real estate right now,
2. They want to know what they’re home is worth,
3. They want to know what the market is like.
What about #4, Neighborhood Information (ie: http://explore.msqrealty.com). This is one of the most overlooked aspects of real estate websites. Sorry folks, but #1 is not as important as it once was. It pains me to see so much focus on indexability of IDX listing detail pages and the like, when there are far better, more effective ways to not only generate traffic, but more importantly, convert said traffic during their visit.
Just as much, if not more of your time should be spent on optimizing your user experience as optimizing your search engine rankings. After all, traffic is worthless if it doesn’t convert.
Let’s build our real estate websites for tomorrow, not yesterday. And speaking of tomorrow, I urge everyone to take a peek at Diverse Solution’s new native interface for iphone and ipad. This is truly second to none.
August 10, 2011 at 2:00 pm
Dominic: I agree with you… All that traffic is pointless if you can’t convert it. And I do agree with the idea of “selling the community before you sell the house.” After all, people aren’t just buying real estate, they’re buying the community.
BUT still, I don’t want to under-play the importance of a good IDX – an easy way for consumers to access listing data. At the end of the day, that’s what they’re doing. They’re looking for homes, then they’re looking for information on the community, and then, they’re looking for that right agent.
You earn those prospects attention by doing two things:
1.) Providing solid, local, community info,
2.) Giving them access to the listing data (which also acts as you’re lead capture).
Having one without the other isn’t all that effective.
August 10, 2011 at 10:41 am
Excellent post Ricardo. Obviously, you know a thing or two about IDX and what it can bring to the table. I see a lot of IDX that doesn’t look pleasing to the eye and I think that’s another thing to consider. If it looks bland, people will go elsewhere. I’m not saying your should have flash-whiz-bang stuff going on, but it should be comfortable enough that users want to stay and search for homes.
August 10, 2011 at 2:03 pm
Matt: Agreed! It does have to be user-friendly otherwise, consumers are going to look for access to information elsewhere. I’ve heard Agent’s say that consumer’s (registrants to their IDX) tell them: “Oh we already have an Agent, but your home search tool is better.”
But it’s not just the IDX either. It’s how easy to present data on your website and how easy it is to navigate from one page to another. You have to think about Calls To Action and ease of use. Is it clear what you want people to do next?
Thanks for the comment Matt!
August 10, 2011 at 1:22 pm
I was a real estate broker for almost 20 years, and taught internet marketing and tools as well. This is a clear and easily understood article. Good job!
August 10, 2011 at 2:03 pm
Thank you Sally, much appreciated!
August 10, 2011 at 1:29 pm
I would further suggest inter-linking listing pages to community pages. So if there is a listing for unit 123 in complex abc, then there is a link to the complex abc page (which hopefully has been written well and is informative). Good post, Richard.
August 10, 2011 at 2:06 pm
Ah, very good point Alex! Perhaps that’ll serve well for an upcoming blog post
What I’ve seen a few people do effectively is link to a page in their navigation titled: “Communities.” Then, create a bunch of sub-pages with a paragraph of introductory text on that community, some pictures and lastly, links to the listings grouped by price and property type.
A structure like that (in my opinion), works very well.
August 10, 2011 at 1:33 pm
When I was looking to make a move I spent countless hours searching online. It is such a valuable tool.
August 10, 2011 at 2:06 pm
Gabriella: You validate my point… Home Search is one of the most important tools to consumers!
Thanks for the comment!
August 10, 2011 at 1:54 pm
Very glad to have met you on Empire Avenue. All the best!
August 10, 2011 at 2:07 pm
Why thank you
August 10, 2011 at 2:41 pm
Great article Ricardo!
August 12, 2011 at 9:25 am
Thanks Stacey!!
August 10, 2011 at 5:26 pm
Very comprehensive – step by step. It should be an e-book and you get paid… very valuable stuff!!
August 12, 2011 at 9:26 am
You know Stephanie, that ebook is not a bad idea (though I’d probably give it away for free or in exchange for an email address)
August 10, 2011 at 5:27 pm
As a buyer, I can tell you that I will not stay on a real estate site that makes me register first to get information. I wil go someplace else to read community content and look at a few listings. I’m more interested in the real estate agent’s profile, friendliness, and ease of contact. Phone numbers should be easy to find!
Times have changed since I sold 9 houses in one day back in 1984. How nice it must be to have computers and phones to carry around with you!
August 12, 2011 at 9:27 am
Hey Jeanette,
Very interesting perspective… I agree, that community info should be easy to find. And it should be just as easy to be able to contact the agent. I see too many instances where Agent’s try to be stealth and hide their phone number/email.
Thanks for the comment!
August 10, 2011 at 7:18 pm
Good luck with this!
August 10, 2011 at 7:33 pm
Excellent work
August 12, 2011 at 9:27 am
Thanks Sally!
August 10, 2011 at 7:37 pm
Awesome post, Ricardo! Though I’m not involved with real estate, I think the strategies you provide about marketing and knowing what your customers are after are universally applicable.
August 12, 2011 at 9:28 am
Thanks Debbie, appreciate the compliment!
August 10, 2011 at 11:24 pm
Great tips
August 12, 2011 at 9:28 am
Thanks Zack!
August 10, 2011 at 11:46 pm
This is a great resource, Ricardo. Excellent write-up!
August 12, 2011 at 9:29 am
Thanks Suki!
August 13, 2011 at 7:01 am
Our office is in a rural area where customers coming in are looking for acreage.
IDX does not provide a means for searching, 10-20 acres for example. Our local MLS has this info however it does not or will not convert to the IDX program which is very frustrating.
August 13, 2011 at 7:06 am
Sigh….I’m still waiting for the day that my board comes out of the dark ages and allows agents to have their own IDX search.
August 13, 2011 at 2:03 pm
I still think you can get pretty far with no idx at all… While everyone out there is trying to still get folks to “opt in” for property search results, your time and money might be better spent creating juicy content along with lead capture offers your audience will want.
Stuff like vids, free reports, quizzes, or even a promise to send a “deal of the week”.
Create that stuff first… test it, get some leads…
Later, grab the idx as an add on (afterthought feature meant to hold people longer.)
Everyone has a juicy idx these days, do somthang different…
August 14, 2011 at 11:57 am
I cannot believe all of the agents who do not get on board with a great IDX!
August 15, 2011 at 9:50 am
One of the the challenges we have out here is finding a quality IDX feed that is supported by our MLS. I’d love to see a more open policy from boards (not just ours!)
August 22, 2011 at 11:49 am
I installed DSIDX on my sight and in the first 2 weeks my traffic has doubled!
September 10, 2011 at 1:54 pm
Its article and yes I agree that lead capture is important. I use a wordpress Diverse Solution which has no lead capture capability . Is the author suggesting I should look for a wordpress vendor that does?
October 12, 2011 at 8:14 am
IF you guys want to check out an open source CMS IDX systems that has everything and has the ability to be customized check out galtlinedesign.