Real Estate Website Design: How to Become the Local Zillow

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The All-In-One Real Estate Company

Website Design Handbook

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The design of your real estate company’s

website plays a significant role in

determining how many closed sales will

occur as a results of someone visiting your

website.

As a matter of fact, it maybe the biggest

roles in converting new clients as well as

keeping past ones.

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realWITS.comPhone: (855) real-WIT | e-mail: [email protected]

Attracting new buyers and retain past ones.

Providing visitors with the ability to share your

content and help it go “viral.”

Customer engagement and loyalty.

Accelerate brand awareness and trust worthiness.

Recruit and retain agents.

Amplify creditability and authority with Google.

It is not fresh news, but important

to reiterate that buyers begin their

home search online.

As a results, you’ll need a website

that is purposefully designed so

those clients will be the most apt

to do business with your

brokerage.

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There are numerous real estate

company website design traits

that will inspire online exposure,

create meaningful conversations

with new perspective buyers and

sellers, grow your contact base

and close more transaction.

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There are two types of visitors that will

come to a real estate company website:

1. New visitors

2. Return visitors

It is important to have both.

A new visitor is someone who has come to

your website for the very first time. Therefore,

before a visitor can become a returning visitor

they first need to be a new visitor.

Creating an experience that captives and

makes each and every new website visitor

feel compelled to stay is important. And on

their first visit, the average consumer pays

more attention to the surface aspects of a

website such as layout, typography, and color

schemes.

Within just moments will take an action. They

will stay or they will leave.


They immediately leave your website. I call it website abandonment.

Think about this. You work hard for each and every new visitor and losing them is costly. Especially if

they leave yours to only land on your competitors website.

We just established what you want new visitors to do. Stay on your website. When a new visitor stays

on your website, you increase the chance they will become a returning visitor. A returning visitor is an

encouraging signal they may do business with you at some point.

Having a balance of new visitors and returning visitors is a healthy mixture to generate more business.

So how do you encourage those first time visitors to stay on your website?


A company’s website design affects its

credibility and professionalism.

This is universal and does not just apply to

real estate website development, but all

industries. Think about the last time you

landed on a website, and hit the back button

within moments.

Why did you do this?

Who is a home buyer or seller more apt to do

business with? A company whose website

commends professionalism or one that does

not demonstrate immediate clout?

A website has just moments to produce

creditability and these precious moments

begin with the design of a real estate website.

Only after a visitor consciously decides to stay

on a website do they take more time to interact

with the website. Therefore, establishing

instantaneous trust is a must.


So how do you establish this instant trust factor? How do you know if your real estate website

development incorporated the necessary features? Luckily we can eliminate most of the

guess work by learning from the online real estate giants.

These companies spend millions of dollars to test and learn what keeps visitors on their

website. Why? A visitor is valuable to them. A returning visitor is more likely to make them

money.

According to Experian Marketing Services (formerly Experian Hitwise) 10 real estate listing

portals capture nearly “half” of all non-mobile traffic to U.S. real estate-related websites with a

total of 482 million visits in January, a 12-month high. These top 10 real estate websites

captured 42 percent of total visits in this space!


Zillow (9.17 percent market share)

Trulia (7 percent market share)

Realtor.com (6.09 percent market share)

Source: http://www.inman.com/2013/02/13/top-10-real-estate-websites-get-nearly-half-traffic

If these websites are the most popular amongst buyers and sellers what can we learn from them?


Zillow Trulia Realtor.com


1. Clean and non-cluttered.

2. Property search feature front and center.

3. Easy to navigate.

It is not a coincidence these top 3 online real estate destinations all have real estate website

design commonalities.

They have harmoniously integrated elements that instantly establish credibility, they make it

incredibly simple for website visitors to search for properties and they make it uncomplicated

for their visitors to quickly find what they are looking for using a clean site structure that

provides a good user experience.


Use proven concepts to develop your own ideas and inspiration.

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The better you understand

your visitors behavior on your

real estate company’s website,

the more progressively you

can effectively enhance it’s

design to convert them into

closed transactions.


We just established a real estate website needs both new and repeating web visitors to reduce

missed sales opportunities and lost company revenues.

Brand awareness?

Recruit & retain top agents?

Allow buyers to search for properties for sale?

Inform sellers why they should list their home with your company?

Create exposure?

All of the above are good answers. But…


What happens when a real estate website creates

brand awareness, aids in agent recruitment, helps

retain top agents, provides buyers with online

robust property search tools, informs sellers about

your superior real estate services and increases

exposure to the World?


The purpose of a company real estate website is to generate quality sales leads for its agents.

More leads equal more closings. This may be obvious, but what might be surprising to most, is the

fact there is a direct correlation between online real estate lead generation and real estate website

design.

Frequently real estate websites are designed with standard pages such as our agents, about us, why

sell with us etc. that are cluttered with content that confuses the online visitor. Often little conversation

in the website development process is devoted to designing a layout based upon preferred lead

capture results.


What are the goals of the web visitor?

When designing a real website the visitor

intentions have to be prioritized. After defining

these intents, an optimal real estate website

design will cater to visitors by making it easy for

them to quickly navigate to the section or pages

on the website that target their desired

information.

What are the real estate company’s goals?

Acquiring visitor contact information,

understanding where they are in the sales

cycle, enticing them to share your content,

inviting them to pick up the phone to inquire

about a home for sale or requesting a property

market valuation are all ligament website goals

for the real estate company.


Incorporating suitable design elements into real estate websites increases lead generation by

eliminating confusion for the visitor.

1. is clean and non-cluttered.

2. incorporates property search front and center.

3. it is easy to navigate.

Use these proven best practices to encourage your website visitors to do what you want them to do.

Give concise call to actions with prominent placement and reduce unnecessary noise.

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Today real estate companies

need to masterfully design a

real estate website to draw in,

engage and convert web

visitors to buyers and sellers.

However, that is not enough

to effectively capture the

whole targeted audience.


In early 2013 two industry leaders came together and conducted a survey to better understand the

evolving role of digital media in the consumer home search process.

NAR’S and Google’s findings are not surprising, but for those who need hard facts to justify investing

in real estate mobile web technologies, the results are in and they cannot be ignored if the broadest

reach is desired.

49% of home buyers and sellers used a mobile device at the beginning of their real estate search

according to the study.


How much real estate

business is lost if a

company or brokerage

does not market to the

mobile user, when 49%

of those 90% who used

search engines in the

beginning of their home

buying process began

their search on a mobile

device?


89% of new home shoppers use a mobile

search engine at the onset and throughout

their research.

Mobile applications are used by 68% of new

home shoppers at the onset and throughout

their research.

Realtors® can employ various mobile

marketing techniques to make sure they are

discovered at the mobile zero moment of

truth.

The study states “mobile new home shoppers

offer an additional source of qualified leads for

Realtors®.”

The following graph represents a breakdown

of how home buyers used mobile devices as

part of their home searching process.

This data should help brokers understand the

financial benefits of real estate mobile apps.



Gathering home information, getting directions, comparing property prices and features, searching a

real estate companies inventory, calling a real estate company, locating a local agent, reading

reviews, researching mortgage financing, starting a conversation with a brokerage, watching a

property video are all common home buyer activities.

Today, these actions are occurring on mobile devices at rapidly swelling numbers.

Interestingly, 77% of these mobile searches were conducted at home and 31% at work, locations that

a desktop or laptop computer are more than likely accessible.

Home buyers are choosing to use their mobile devices to research and learn about properties for sale.


The Google study looked at all the screens consumers use over the course of a week and found that a

full 90% of all media interactions are now screen-based: they take place on a smartphone, laptop, PC,

tablet or TV. Radio and print now account for only 10%. If your real estate company still allocates

marketing dollars for radio or print, today it is time to change that.

Source: Real Estate Mobile Marketing NAR Google Study

On June 11th, 2013 Google published an article titled “Changes in rankings of smartphone search

results.” And when Google talks, brokers need to listen, learn and take action.

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…smartphone users are a significant and fast growing segment of Internet users, and at

Google we want them to experience the full richness of the web. As part of our efforts to

improve the mobile web, we published our recommendations and the most common

configuration mistakes.

Avoiding these mistakes helps your smartphone users engage with your site fully and helps

searchers find what they’re looking for faster.

To improve the search experience for smartphone users and address their pain points, we plan

to roll out several ranking changes in the near future that address sites that are misconfigured

for smartphone users.


Not only do we know home buyers use mobile devices to search for real estate, Google will favor and

reward mobile friendly real estate websites or those that direct to a well-crafted real estate mobile app

more than those that choose not to cater to this rapidly growing audience.

Real estate companies that choose to ignore this information provided by Google will more than likely

suffer financially if they reply upon or desire traffic from the search engine giant.

Source: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2013/06/changes-in-rankings-of-smartphone_11.html

A laptop or desktop computer website experience is much different than viewing or researching real

estate on a smartphone or iPad. The biggest difference, of course, is the screen size.

Real estate mobile apps must incorporate features that satisfy users on the go by offering an equally

superior experience on these popular smaller screens.


Today, most real estate company

websites are responsive.

A responsive website is one that will

adjust its size based upon the device

being used. This type of website maybe

ideal for some industries, but not for real

estate companies.

Simply shrinking down the website size to

adjust to a smaller screen, most often will

provide a bad user experience.

Therefore, a real estate mobile app is

preferred over a responsive website for

maximum marketing outcomes.


The previously mentioned “New Home

Shopper Activity on Mobile Devices”

graph (viewable in previous the How

Important is Mobile Marketing for Real

Estate Business section) tells us what

information, mobile real estate visitors

are seeking.

The best mobile real estate app will

masterfully accommodate these

needs, making it effortless for the

visitor to find and view this material,

no matter what size screen they are

using.


The temptation to put too much into a real estate mobile app is tempting. After all, you want the

visitor to see all of the services and information you offer.

However, when someone has to scroll down on a real estate mobile app to find what they are

looking for, they are apt to go. They are looking for every specific real estate information, don’t

make them scroll or dig for it.

Remember, it is all about uncluttered, easy to navigate and intuitive property search functionality.


People stay on the front page of a web app 7 to 15 seconds. For that reason, you have 7 to 15

seconds for them to find what they are looking for.

Buttons are innate and offer easy navigation. However, the more buttons presented to the user at one

time, the more difficult it is for them to make a selection, especially for the first time user.

Maximize the screen’s real estate by keeping to less than 7 buttons on your apps front page and

include the most useful ones such as a click to contact, directions, social sharing such as Facebook

(use one social button and link that to a page that has all social media links), property search, property

pages, save favorite properties and neighborhood highlights.


Think of your real estate mobile app as

a communication channel.

The objective is make it effortless for

the app user to call, send a text or email

message and communicate to your

agents or company.

Button sizes should be large

enough so without difficulty larger

finger sizes can click them.

Make sure your real estate

mobile app communicates with

GPS. If it does not, the app will

be useless.

Take your smartphone out.

Open Safari or Chrome and navigate to your website. Is this a website or app you would use when

researching for property information on your mobile device? Now navigate to your competitors

website. Which one is more user friendly?

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It is an IDX vendor or

company that has the

technologies that allow MLS

property search functionality,

property detail pages plus

more that directly impact an

appropriate real estate

website design.


IDX (Internet Data Exchange) uses a type of data feed provided by your MLS membership to display

information about real estate for sale on a website. This data feed typically mirrors the data available

on your MLS’s website.

If your MLS provides access to this data feed, you may use that access to promote all listings on your

website, not just your featured listings.


As earlier discovered, property search is frontand center on the homepage of the top 3 mostpopular online real estate website destinations.

Because every IDX vendor has its own uniquetechnologies that ultimately impact the visuallook and feel of property search features,property detail pages, map search functionalityplus more choosing the right IDX vendor shouldbe an intricate part of your real estate websitedesign development.

Many brokers are unaware of this and end upusing the IDX provider their website developerpartners with.

the layout of property detail pages.

map search functionality.

the ability to search by price and other

sorting capabilities such as waterfront,

subdivisions, neighborhoods, property

type etc.

property showcases such as featured

properties or open house listings.

contact forms.

social sharing.

lead registration and generation.

lead management.

extras such as mortgage calculators.


Real estate website developers either use their own IDX technologies or third party IDX solutions to

bring property search and property details into a website. This facet of real estate website design

maybe the most important, but often least discussed when choosing a company to build a website for

a real estate company.

The property search functionality and property listing page design elements utilized by an IDX

supplier play a critical role in the overall usability of the real estate website design.

Equally important, when choosing an IDX vendor, or a real estate website developer is

understanding how they convert the MLS data feed onto a website.


Some IDX vendors use frames (aka iframes) to embed property details onto a website. Google and

others have problems reading content contained within a frame, making this content invisible to the

search engines. This means Google may not know about the properties listed on your real estate

website if frames are used.

Non-framed IDX cohesive listings are view-able by Google and other prevalent online reference

resources. Landing pages, such as property displayed page results, created by quick links or

predefined searches can be optimized and entirely detectable for the search engines to deliver

targeted traffic to the website for relevant search queries.


Google supports frames and iframes to the extent that it can. Frames can cause

problems for search engines because they don’t correspond to the conceptual model of

the web. In this model, one page displays only one URL.

Pages that use frames or iframes display several URLs (one for each frame) within a

single page. Google tries to associate framed content with the page containing the

frames, but we don’t guarantee that we will.

Source: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=34445


If Google does not

know your website has

information about a

particular property

listing, because the

listing content uses

frames, Google is

probably not going to

display your website in

its search results.

Therefore, when a prospective buyer has driven by a property for sale or heard about a particular listing

and uses Google to search online for information about the property, a website using frames is most

unlikely to appear in the search results. This is a huge missed opportunity.


The easiest way to determine if your real estate website uses frames to pull in and display properties

is to call your IDX vendor or real estate website developer and ask if they “use iframes, or frames” to

display property listings.

There can only be two responses, either yes or no, making this is a straight-forward discovery method.

Another is intuition. When a real estate website struggles to get high search rankings on Google for

active listings, this may be a signal frames are being used.


Visuals are processed faster in the brain than text.

According to a research by 3M Corporation, we process visuals 60,000 times faster than text

because our brain deciphers image elements simultaneously.

Text content is decoded in a linear, sequential manner which takes more time to process.

90% of information that comes to the brain is visual.

People respond better to visual cues.

Visual content stimulates engagement.


This one, or…


this one?


Amazon, Pinterest, Instagram, the wide spread usage of info-graphics, Google image search

and the list goes on of successful online marketing strategies that use imagery to engage web

visitors.

Remember “copy what works, ideas are less important than execution.

The best real estate website company design will incorporate takeaways from others who have

mastered the usage of imagery by providing visually appealing property display and property

search pages to engage their online visitors.

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To become the local online go to

resource a company real estate

web design must satisfy and

provide prospective buyers with

more than just the standard

property search functionality

most commonly associated with

a real estate website.


To fully participate and offer

meaningful information a real

estate company’s website

must purposefully present local

information in such a manner

that keeps buyers connected

with the website.

This material must help them

determine if the neighborhood

or communities they are

looking for properties in

coincides with their desired

lifestyle expectations.


How does this phrase impact a home buyers

buying decision?

Location influences housing pricing, but

location also speaks to the lifestyle

associated with locations.

In a perfect world your company real estate

website has been optimally designed to

become the online “go to” resource for its

locality. In order to achieve best results, it

must provide valuable content specifically

related to a vicinity that goes beyond what

every other real estate website offers.

Neighborhoods are the greatest shared and

most natural way for people to talk about an

area, whether having a dialogue about where

someone lives, outdoor recreations, the best

pizza parlor, social events, shopping, schools

and the list goes on and on.

The most popular mobile apps and websites,

such as Facebook or Zillow strategically

incorporate the usage of neighborhoods to

selectively target a specific audience and

cater results to what that audience cares

about most, their living environment.


Boundaries make searching for a home easier by focusing on specific locations that fit a

desired lifestyle.

The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens are all different New York neighborhoods.

These well-known communities each have their own unique characteristics and a home

buyer could expect to have different living experiences depending on which

neighborhood a home is located.


Provides unique and useful

neighborhood information that

makes a buyer say, I want to live

here.

Empowers neighborhood home

searches that take buyers to the

right listings.

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There are numerous factors

that ultimately determine

how Google and other

major search engines

conclude which web pages

to display when a search is

conducted.

To get free real estate leads

from Google, a company

real estate website must be

developed to be SEO

friendly.


I am not going to quote numbers and tell you why it is important to be found on Google when a home

buyer or sellers searches for real estate for sale or a real estate company in your local marketplace.

We all know online search is where people go to for information and services. Being listed on the top

of Google for search terms relevant to your business can have a tremendous impact on the number of

closings or sale transactions that occur.

As a SEO expert, I can tell you there are numerous factors that ultimately determine how Google and

other major search engines conclude which web pages to display when a search is conducted.

Did you know the design of a real estate website can play a major role in search rankings?

A great real estate design accomplishes much more than converting new visitors into returning

visitors. It also is intensifies real estate SEO (aka search engine optimization).


Lowers bounce rate: a bounce is when someone

comes to your website and immediately leaves.

Increases page views: a visitor navigates

different sections or pieces of content on your

website.

Increases time on site: a visitor shows

engagement by staying longer.

Receives more links: people will naturally share

your website by creating links to your content.

Earns online mentions: a mention can occur

anywhere online, such as Facebook or Twitter.

Establishes Google trust: signals authority to

Google.

Google knows your websites

bounce rate, how many pages

or how deep into your website

visitors go, how long they stay

before they leave, how often

others refer to your content with

links and how popular your

website is due to mentions and

social likes.

Trust me, Google uses this data

to establish “website authority”

and all of these factors directly

affect your ability outrank online

competitors.


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Much of the data necessary to discover ways to

evolve your relationship with Google can be found in

your website analytics.

I suggest you take time and regularly view these

reports to learn how visitors interact with your

website. Use this powerful information to identify

areas that need improving. And because data

doesn’t lie, you will know what your website visitors

think about your real estate website design elements

and content.

More than likely if your online visitors like you,

Google will too.

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But what does

actually mean?


But you do need to know what makes

a “smart” website and change

accordingly.


Property pages that can be found and indexed by Google.

Usage of SEO friendly URL structures.

Optimized and unique meta tags for all pages including property and agent pages.

Fresh content with integrated on-site blog.

Google analytics in dashboard (be proactive, not re-active!)

Fast loading web pages

The real estate website takes advantage of on-site real estate SEO best practices. These features are

built into the website and not an after thought.


Ability for visitors to save and share property searches.

Leads are viewed and tracked – you can “spy” on or view visitors activity.

Leads can be auto forwarded to appropriate agents in real time.

Auto email generation alerts when a similar property hits the market, or a saved property has a

price change.

A well thought out website design integration with strong call to actions.

Generating closable leads for your sales agents should be your number priority.


Pictures sell homes. No matter how well written a property description is, it will never grab the attention of

a buyer better than a picture will.

The visual emphasis of any real estate website should be on imagery that tells a story and conveys “I

want to see more” from buyers.


It incorporates best practices that satisfy both online visitors and your objects.

A/B testing is conducted to learn what your visitors like and change what they don’t respond

favorably to.

Website analytics are reviewed monthly to look for trends and opportunities.


Customize. Separate yourself from others.

The ability create custom landing pages for

neighborhoods, or just condos, or waterfront properties,

or featured properties or foreclosures etc.

Agent pages should auto-populate their listings.

The capability to pull in specific properties to create

slideshows and showcases.

Property display and property details page layout

options – don’t be limited.

On-site SEO built in.

Crawl-able an index-able property pages for search

engines.

Engagement with web visitors.

SEO friendly URL structure for property pages – get more clicks.

Get found online for highly targeted search queries – such as high

rise condos or waterfront properties and short sales.

Offer customizable and multiple property search functionality

options.

Use interactive maps searches – custom and unlimited – very

popular with online home shoppers.

Ability to narrow searches by any field offered by your MLS.

Subdivision property searches.

New listings updated every 24 hours (or sooner).

Social sharing – encourage visitors to share listings on Facebook,

Twitter, Pinterest and more.


It takes hours or days verses weeks for

updates or change requests.

Technology is updated regularly.

An online WYSIWYG editor to make it easy

to update, change or create pages and

posts.

Minor tweaks should be the norm, not the

exception

While I did not devote a section of this EBook to

this topic, it is imperative you control your website.

After all, it is your website. You should control it,

not your real estate website developer or vendor.

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