Real Estate Website Design Basics: 16 Things Your Website Should Have

Given that the real estate industry is such a highly competitive marketplace, being seen online is of paramount importance. In order to truly thrive in 2020 and beyond, a real estate business must consider crucial things such as real estate website design. Additionally, to elevate themselves above competitors, real estate professionals must think about integral things like local SEO and mobile marketing services to attract new clients and buyers. In this article, real estate professionals and marketing experts discuss 16 things an excellent real estate website should have.

Pictures And Valuable Information For The User

“A real estate website needs to have several elements in order to give it an exceptional feel. One element a real estate website needs is it has to be easy to navigate and read. This can be accomplished by adding headings to break up pieces of content and avoiding long blocks of text that can be hard to read. Along with this, accompany the content you write with pictures that relate to what the column of text is about. This helps the reader with a visual guide as to what the content is all about.

Another element a real estate website needs to be exceptional is valuable information for the user. If the website is not providing some sort of value to the user landing on it, then it is basically useless. For example, if someone is coming to your website to look for available properties for sale, there should be a tab with properties for sale. Always make sure your website is giving the user the information they are coming for if not, they will immediately bounce from the website and this is never good for your clients or your Google search results.”

Nathan Claire, Founder, Buying Jax Homes

Property Search Page, About Me Page,  Videos, Mobile-Friendly, And Contact Info/Social Media Links

“A great real estate website nowadays should have five key components: 

1) Property Search Page – It is a real estate website after all, and that is what people come to your website for. If they have to go elsewhere to search for properties, they might not come back. 

2) About Me Page – People want to know more about who they (potentially) work with! A concise bio would be helpful in helping visitors gain a first impression when deciding if they want to work with you. 

3) Videos – There are many studies out there that show humans have the attention span of a goldfish now because of all the stimulation they get from everyday activities. Video greatly helps engagement and will help you get more attention. 

4) Mobile-Friendly – Nowadays most people browse on their phones. If your website is not compatible or user-friendly on mobile devices, visitors will go to the next website. 

5) Contact Info/Social Media Links – What good is a website if your visitors can’t get in contact with you? You can even step it up a notch from there and let your visitors connect with you on your social media platforms to get to know you even more!”

Leo Young, Realtor, Coldwell Banker

A Website That Can Easily Connect To MLS Listings

“An exceptional real estate website will have a couple of key elements:

First, you’ll want to have your contact information prominently displayed so someone looking to buy a home or property can easily contact you. We recommend putting your phone number directly on the website, so that a visitor can tap the number and call you immediately. It’s also a good idea to prominently displayed a simple contact form across your website so you can collect information from people in the area who are interested in purchasing a home or property.

Second, it’s helpful to have a website that can easily connect to MLS listings. This will help you cut down on the amount of content you need to manually enter into your website. There are a handful of IDX plugins on WordPress, which will help connect you to the MLS database of listings.”

David Lynch, Content Lead, Payette Forward, Inc.

Business Contact Information, Analytics And Performance Tracking, Messaging Capability, And Revenue Generation

“There are only 5 essential features every website needs:

1) Business contact information

2) Ability to generate leads

3) Analytics and performance tracking

4) Communication or messaging capability

5) Revenue generation (only if you’re selling online)

Anything more than these will only hurt your site. Focus on the foundation and you’ll find that you’ll achieve bigger success.

Most websites in the real estate industry use fancy graphics and animations. That’s why their website is so slow. With Google and other search engines favoring user experience, the more important it is for your website to load fast.

The rest is a given already:

1) Quality images (but don’t forget to compress them because it might slow your site down)

2) Searchability and filtering

3)  Guides and other content  (buying/selling and investing and flipping, etc.)

4) Videos

5) Industry-related content – I haven’t seen any real estate website showcase this”

Jon a.k.a The Marketing Introvert

A Blog, Resource Page, And FAQ Page

“The overall design should be neat, modern, and easily navigated by users. It should not be over complex with distracting features but instead should have a minimalist modern feel/design. It should include information such as the neighborhoods you specialize in, example homes you’re team has sold in the past, highlights from previous satisfied customers, and featured listings.

Other important items to include are lead capture elements. These should encourage visitors to take some sort of action, whether it be prompting them to contact you, filling in a lead form to be contacted by an agent, signing up to get information such as an e-book, a market report, exclusive pocket listings, etc.

Other key elements to include to attract visitors to your site are a blog, resource page, FAQ page, etc. where users can find more helpful information and answers to some common questions homebuyers/sellers might have. Some examples include offering a mortgage calculator, a home valuation tool, publishing glimpses of regular market reports (and encouraging users to sign up to view the complete report), guides for buying/selling, first-time buyer/seller guides, or even something like a lifestyle page that highlights the local markets you specialize in.

Finally, you will always want to use high-quality images. Nothing is worse than coming across a site that has blurry out of focus images.”

Suzanne Pope, COO,  Whiterock Locators

In our digital age, having an exquisite online presence in the life-blood of the real estate profession. To successfully attract, engage, and convert sales from potential buyers and new clients, realtors must have superb website design services in place for their respective firms. Ultimately, this will enable real estate companies to flourish in the future.