How do you get one of the best real estate websites?

…does it even matter if you get web leads?

These are huge questions in real estate. Especially considering how much HUGE portals are dominating even neighborhood searches these days…

What’s a Realtor supposed to do online?

Instead of telling you my answers to these questions, I found successful Realtors online and asked them about their real estate websites.

They highlight various things about real estate SEO, social media, and paid ads. While I talk a lot about LeadSites capabilities in our posts, it’s very interesting to hear what these Realtors have to say.

Here’s what they had to write about creating the best real estate websites for gaining attention in your market:

The question they were asked is:

How do you see real estate websites impacting lead generation over the next 5 years, and/or what is your top example of how current internet trends (social media, smart phones, video, etc) are impacting your business?

If you’re a real estate agent now, this question has to be on your mind everyday. The trends with real estate are pointing almost entirely to online searching. This means you need to have the best real estate websites in order to stay afloat as a Realtor.

You can’t just rely on Zillow or your warm network. That type of business generation is fine for the short-term. But could prove unstable in the long-term. These tips will help you find the best real estate website that gets leads:

How Community Pages Impact Lead Gen As A Realtor And Are Used By The Best Real Estate Websites:

Bill Gassett – Website

Without a doubt, the internet and specifically online real estate marketing has become a major force in my business as a top producing Westborough Massachusetts Real Estate agent. It should come as no surprise to anyone as most consumers use the internet as one of the top search tools to not only find property but to also locate a top notch Realtor to work with. Most consumers are looking for someone who not only understands the local turf but knows how to market well online. This makes it critical for a Realtor to be among the mix of those websites that are found for localized searches. It stands to reason that this is not going to change over the next five years or so.

While I have a blog that provides helpful real estate content to both buyers and sellers, the number one source of traffic of people actually looking to interview me as a potential candidate to do business with are my community pages. I have previously mentioned the importance in having local real estate community pages when asked what you would tell a new agent breaking into the business do with their website.

If you can provide consumers with information they are looking for that is well written it stands to reason they will pick up the phone and call you. Keep in mind someone that uses the internet religiously understand the importance of online marketing. These same people are also very observant of how you market your listing inventory. Do you provide exceptional photography? Do you take the time to write thoughtful descriptions of the homes you are marketing. Do you use video or slideshow presentations in your marketing? Are you using any other types of creative real estate marketing beyond what the majority of all real estate agents provide?

These are the kinds of things that separate one real estate agent from the next when it comes to online marketing. If you think that both potential buyers and sellers are not checking up on these things then you are sadly mistaken!

The Best Real Estate Websites Adapt And Help Buyers:

David Feldberg – Website

Everyone knows the stat that 90% of all home searches start online. Technology is getting better every day and as we all get more and more connected it will be harder and harder to unplug. So, my thought is that lead generation online is the wave of the future. In addition, I think that a buyer’s ability to identify lead generation machines like Zillow and Trulia compared to a local agent is going to improve, leaving a hole for local agents to fill. For example, think of pay per click advertising on Google. In the beginning no one knew the difference and the conversions were incredible. However, these days many savvy users skip over the “paid results” to get to the organic ones. I think you will see the same trend with home buyers over time. Local agents will have more pages with local knowledge and over time I think those will be recognized as the better resource. As for what trends are impacting my business, definitely social media is the largest with everything else being a distant second. Facebook has become my best source for referrals and best of all its FREE! I post when I list a home, when it goes into escrow and when it closes on a lot of sales. It gives me that top of mind awareness that I need to be successful.

The Best Real Estate Websites Provide Information That Empowers Potential Clients:

Lynn Pineda – Website

We seek out information over the internet for everything from what ails us, to what is the “best of” what it is we want to purchase. Google calls this the “Zero Moment of Truth”. Seeking Real Estate industry specific information for selling a home and buying a home, isn’t any different. In fact, the numbers of Real Estate internet searches is staggering compared to just a decade before. The internet has simply made finding out about Real Estate a lot easier. It has enabled the Real Estate Agent to get in front of more customers faster and more often. This of course doesn’t mean it’s an easy task, however it is a required task if you want to truly service those seeking Real Estate and Real Estate advice; those selling and buying properties.

The effects of the use of digital media over the last decade has been huge. We see it in the social media platforms of Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest and others. From texting, to tweeting, to posting, to audio and visuals with videos to graphics, it’s simply common place now in our day to day life. It’s not being used by a few, but rather the masses. As Real Estate Agents, figuring out how to be a part of the digital media hysteria can make all the difference in the success or fail of our Real Estate business. I know it has made a massive, positive impact on my Real Estate business.

How can this affect our ability to generate leads, this digital media frenzy? It really is a gold mine if you choose to use it for increasing your business with the generation of leads. How we participate through this digital media world with our customers and industry professionals, determines our ability to generate leads.

It all begins with a Real Estate Agent’s website. A website is a Real Estate Agent’s hub, where everything comes to and from. What am I talking about, you ask? Think of it as digital media flowing like rivers, to cross the lands to reach their destination; the destination being the customer. How do we get the rivers flowing, so to speak, to get ourselves in front of the Real Estate customer?

Follow these 4 Tips below to get you started in your internet lead generation:

• Create Real Estate Content

Creating content shows your expertise and how you can help the Real Estate customer. Post your content and interact on all the various Social Media platforms. Choose the platforms that you like best and be consistent.

• Participate and Engage in Social Media

This includes not only sharing your Real Estate content, but also engaging with others and sharing another’s valuable content. Remember it’s not all about you. Social Media has no place for narcissism; practice it and see how you do with generating leads. It’s never about me, myself and I.

• Enable a Mobile Friendly Website

The increased use of mobile devices has grown tremendously as more and more consumers search with mobile devices; how you choose to participate in the mobile world will dictate your success for lead generation. Your website must be mobile friendly.  I’m sure you’re familiar with Google’s recent notification on the importance of a mobile-friendly site where they view such sites as more relevant than those that are not.

• Use Video for Your Real Estate Business

Are you doing videos a lot, a little or not at all? Videos are a fabulous way for customers to get a lot closer at you knowing how you’d work for them. It would be wise to add this to your digital media mix, as I know I will be increasing video usage. It doesn’t always have to be you on video, as there are many ways to offer up videos to benefit a local home Seller or home Buyer.

Don’t delay. Get started now and be a part of these internet trends to succeed in your Real Estate business.

Think Like A Consumer Would Think:

Anita Clark – Website

Real estate websites have had a huge impact on lead generation in the past 5 years and I do not see that trend subsiding in the near-term. That is especially true because of the increased emphasis and use of smart phones to help find relevant real estate information quickly. Whether they are performing an IDX search, wanting more information about a subdivision, looking for buyer or seller tips, checking out a community video, evaluating schools/neighborhoods, or just casually searching, active real estate consumers want quick access to information that is local in nature. As long as agents think like a consumer, and provide content along that vein, real estate websites will continue to play a role in generating new leads that can be converted into clients.

Agents that regularly produce quality real estate data, utilize social media to engage with local consumers, and maximize their reach through the use of video and content curation have every opportunity to thrive online in the next 5 years. If your site has a robust IDX solution for property searches, is easy to navigate and quick to load, and has content that consumers are seeking, you can bet both Google and real estate buyers and sellers will come visit!

Competing against the best real estate websites is a huge challenge, but here are the tactics that have worked for us:

Chris and Karen Highland – Website

How do you see real estate websites impacting lead generation over the next 5 years?

Getting leads from your own real estate website has always been challenging, but we have reason to believe it will become even more so in the next 5 years. We are very interested in seeing what will happen to the local search results after Google’s “mobilegeddon” update on April 21st. It will make it even more imperative for a real estate website to be custom, mobile friendly, and full of local, niche, and helpful information in a blog. The template website will not perform well without paid search promotion. Add to that an active social media presence to promote your content, and you have a winning combination.

I (Chris) attended an event with a representative from Realtor.com, and the chairman of our local MLS, as well as others, where I learned that the big syndicators are making investments in local, niche, authoritative content to make their sites even better. That is the area where local real estate bloggers have always been able to outshine the big aggregators. It will be a different environment altogether if that happens, with even greater competition from the large sites.

It’s difficult to predict what the next 5 years will be like for internet lead generation, but one thing is for certain: agents will need to be “all in” for the marathon of creating great content, or they’ll need to stop wasting their time. That being said, there is still fertile ground for networking, both online and IRL. The basics still work: getting out into your spheres and networking, offering value, and keeping in touch with your database. Building trust and authority are both an online effort and a real life effort.

How are current internet trends impacting your business?

At the Highland Group, our online content has been patterned after consumer behavior. Our neighborhood pages generate a lot of traffic to our site, as well as our blog posts that answer specific niche questions. “The nicher the richer” is still a worthwhile model to follow. Buyers and sellers have become more sophisticated in their internet searches, looking for answers to their specific questions. We’re doing all we can to be the ones to answer them. Buyers are looking for niche, local information about neighborhoods, and quality of life. Our content is working to provide that information. We use a lot of local photos and videos to showcase living in our communities. The eyes of people as well as search engines love this information.

One of our best neighborhood pages is very niche, about a condominium development in downtown Frederick, Maxwell Place Condominiums. We get inquiries quite often. The community page that gets the most traffic, ironically, is about a retirement community, Homes for Sale in Crestwood Village. [I (Karen) suspect that none of our competitors even consider targeting the active adult population!] But, what we find is that more and more seniors are searching online, and if they aren’t, their children are searching for them. In the previous year, Crestwood Village was the third most trafficked page on our website!

To succeed in the future, agents who want to generate online leads will need to continue to keep a breast of consumer behavior online. We will need to study how Millennials think and what they value to be able to provide the information and service that they’re looking for.

Best Tips And Practices:

When it comes to finding the best real estate websites for you, we believe we sell them at Easy Agent Pro. You can find more about our flagship Real Estate Website called LeadSites here.

It’s a tough thing to crack the lead generation code online as a Realtor. But we give you the suite of tools you need to start generating more leads today!

Let’s review:

The industry experts we interviewed are using community pages to get more leads. Their Realtor websites are also adaptable and deliver helpful information to empower potential clients. Lastly, they put themselves in the shoes of the consumer when creating content.

Best Tips And Practices:

Ready to create like an industry pro? Follow these two tips to start today:

1) Give Value To Get Leads

If you’re not quite sure where to start when it comes to creating content, think about what information you’d like to have, or better yet, what you already know that others may not.

Try making videos about surrounding neighborhoods or local communities. If you were moving to a new city, wouldn’t you want to get to know the area? And the quickest way to do that for most folks on the move will be to consult Google or Youtube. You can become the virtual tour guide by posting short, educational videos about parts of your city.

Create these three neighborhood pages to get going:

For Parents-

This is an easy one. Start by providing quality answers to these questions and you’ll be well on your way to becoming the real estate expert:

What are the best schools?

What family-friendly activities are there?

And how about things to do just for kids?

Is the community safe?

For Yelp-

Yelp can be a great community and Realtor resource. Seriously, browse different Yelp categories and talk about the top 3 things in each one. What are the best restaurants in the city? How’s the nightlife? Where should a newcomer go to shop, or workout? There’s so much content on Yelp! Now go get it.

For folks over 60-

Some of your information from the two previous pages will also apply here. Things to do, topics about neighborhood safety. You’ll also want to look into rating retirement communities, the weather and seasons, and amenities that would appeal to this demographic.

Share Your Links To Get Traffic

Once you’ve got the content flowing it’s time to start sharing your expertise. A great place to start is Facebook. Here’s how I do it:

You can take things a step further and get more listings with this Facebook formula.

You can also get more eyes on your content and more traffic to your site with Youtube ads. See how I’m using these ads to get $2.00 motivated seller leads.

When it comes to finding the best real estate websites for you, we believe we sell them at Easy Agent Pro. You can find more about our flagship Real Estate Website called LeadSites here.

It’s a tough thing to crack the lead generation code online as a Realtor. But we give you the suite of tools you need to start generating more leads today!

What do you think?

Are you looking at the best real estate websites out there and not knowing what to do? Leave a comment below and I’ll try to help you out!

Do you have one of the best real estate websites? If so, leave a comment below and let us know what’s helping you succeed online!

If you read something above and need to make a change now, check out Easy Agent Pro’s LeadSites. They help you succeed online as a Realtor and give you a fighting chance against even the best real estate websites.