Websites are the most tried and true online presence a REALTOR® can have.
Ask yourself, if you were a consumer, what are you looking for when you go online for real estate? The overwhelming answer to this question is listings.
Listings
When making decisions about website providers (custom designers or templated sites) consider how listings are presented to the public. Be aware that as a member of an MLS® Board/Association, that a data feed is available to you to make available all the listings on the system – there are specific rules that govern how the feed can be used (such as acknowledging whose listing is whose and only showing those properties that are actively being marketed) but it still is a powerful tool that you can couple with a property inquiry tool to create your own lead generation tool. Your local MLS® rules will clearly outline how you and the website administrator you are using must set up and manage this feed.
Linking to the rest of your online presence
Your website should also be a central link to other aspects of your online presence – your blog, social media feeds, industry partnerships should all be found here. Read more on social media in coming weeks.
Search Engine Optimization
In order to maximize the effectiveness of your website take some time to understand Search Engine Optimization or SEO. Here is a quick article from Hubspot that introduces the subject. If you are going to hire a professional to create your website, then it is enough to have a basic understanding of the idea and let them do the critical background work.
Picking a URL
Depending on your brokerage or franchise there may be some rules around the URL you pick. You might also be able to pick a URL that is customized to your own identity.
There are certainly advantages for a new REALTOR® in using the cache of name recognition that a large office or franchise has to create an aura of “instant trust”. However, it is possible to do that within a website URL branded to your own identity. Your URL could be properly designed to identify your brokerage/office/franchise etc. per regulations, but the URL and rest of the branding is focusing on you. This way if for some reason you make a business decision later on and move, there is no need to recreate your web presence and brand – just the acknowledgement on who you are affiliated with.
Example Scenarios
Two REALTORS® start at the same time. Both go to work at the same office which is part of a national franchise brand.
REALTOR® A decides to use a website that is a templated site offered by the franchise that is included for a very small fee for upkeep but doesn’t require any major work other than if they don’t want to use the standard templated blog posts etc. but rather write their own. It has listing data from the local MLS® that the franchise import through its own data agreement with them. The public finds the site through the franchise’s portal or sites such as realtor.ca where the member is featured in agent searches or through pasted link the REALTOR® uses to paste the URL long address i.e. www.franchise/officename/realtorname.
REALTOR® B decides to hire a 3rd party provider to create a more customizable but still templated site which gives them a few more option on content and will cost a bit more in monthly fees. The 3rd party provider still will “skin” the site with the franchise branding and the office information. REALTOR® B goes online and purchases a domain name of their own choosing www.mymomsfavagent.ca and has the 3rd party provider redirect the website there.
At some point down the road both agents make business decisions to leave the office. REALTOR® A moves and suddenly has no web presence and has to start from scratch again as everything they had online was controlled through the franchise’s product. REALTOR® B on the other hand. has much more control over their online presence – they still need to have their 3rd party provider change the skin of their website to match their new brokerage (and/or franchise affiliation) but since they own their URL and to a certain degree their content, there will be considerably less down time from having that critical web exposure to possible consumers.
The next post in this series will cover blogging and social media.
