Many people don’t know how to go about creating a successful real estate website. It’s easier than you think, though, and just takes a little time and effort to complete.
The first thing you need to do is make a list of the things that you want your website to do for you. Do you want it to be easily searchable by potential buyers? Is it so potential buyers can see pictures of your properties? Do you want to use lead capture forms on your website? There are many different options for what can go on your website, so the key is to decide which features are most important to you.

1. Get Organized

Staying organized can be difficult, but it’s vital for creating an effective real estate website. You’ll need to start by choosing your website domain name and registering it with a hosting provider of your choice. Next, create a Google Analytics account that will help you monitor traffic on your site. Finally, install Google Webmaster Tools to set up your site for search engine optimization.

2. Think About Goals

The goals of any real estate website are to put your clients at ease and make it easy for them to find what they’re looking for. Your site should be clean, well organized, and full of content that caters to your visitors’ needs.

3. Decide What Type of Site You Want

This paragraph will talk about how you should decide what type of site you want. Will the website require frequent updates? Will the real estate listings are pulled directly from MLS or will you be managing the listings manually? These are the questions that you should have answers to prior to building your website.

4. Design your Real Estate Website

Don’t forget that your website will be judged by both what it looks like and how fast it loads. Be sure to have all of your pages load quickly and easily. Don’t clutter the website with information and leave enough white space to create enough balance between content and sections. It is important to optimize the website for speed. This can be done by ensuring that images and videos don’t exceed 250K in size, which is where most site’s bandwidth is used up. Finally, try not to have too many graphics on each page – they can make for some slower loading times as well.

6. Choose a Content Management System

Choosing your content management system is one of your most important decisions when building your site. Choosing an open-source CMS will help cut down on costs, as you’ll be able to use it for free and customize it according to your needs. In addition, open-source content management systems are typically easy to learn and use, allowing you more time spent focused on what’s important – putting up the great content!
Alternatives to open-source CMS are SAAS CMS products such as Wix, Squarespace and Shopify. Although inflexible, these products boast better support and security for inexperienced individuals looking to build their first website.

7. Choose a website builder

Choosing a website builder is one of those decisions that can be daunting and difficult because there are many different options. When you’re just starting, you may not know where to start or what kind of builder would suit your needs best. When choosing a builder for an open-source system like WordPress, it is important to consider flexibility and ease of use. Options like Divi by Elegant Themes, Elementor or Oxygen offer a flexible and easy-to-use interface and plenty of features to start with. In addition, SAAS CMS typically comes with an integrated website builder that works in sync with its management system.

8. Build the website

💡The final step is to actually build the website. When building the website, it is important to consider the tools and subscriptions that will be required. For example, MLS websites will require an MLS registration that supports RETS, RESO API or IDX-based system. Using these systems can be expensive and difficult to implement without a development team; however, solutions exist for every situation.

If you need help assessing the impact of these changes on your business contact us and we will be happy to help you prepare for the upcoming updates.