Do you have a real estate website?
Of course you do.
Maybe your broker has one… or maybe your nephew Tommy who’s in college made you one.
However it came into being, you probably have some type of Realtor website.
But is it actually helping your business grow?
Probably not.
The ease of creating a website has led a lot of Realtors to create websites that aren’t up to par. And this is a huge problem. Over 96% of your traffic simply won’t turn into leads at the end of the day. And what use is your website (no matter how cheap it is) if it isn’t helping you reach your goals?
Today, I’m going to break down 8 Deadly Reasons Why Most Real Estate Websites Fail (And Show You How To Have One Of The Best Realtor Websites Out There)!
Let’s dive in:
Do you remember this:
Oh, the early days of the internet. Heck in these days, the MLS looked like this:
The funny thing is…
As far as real estate websites have come, there still is a lot to be desired!
- Over 40% of websites are still mobile unfriendly!
- A whopping 72% received a grade of 59 out of 100 or below, which essentially means 72% of websites are failing to attract new visitors and convert leads.
Yet, we live in an age when over 43% of home buyers start their search online. And that number is SKYROCKETING up every year.
And 92% of buyers use the internet in some way in their home search process.
Let’s face it:
Your website matters. And it matters now.
Here are the 8 things that are killing the number of leads you get from online lead sources:
1) Being One Size Fits All
Have you ever seen a website like this:
These websites help no one!
They are too hard to read. And by trying to help everyone, they confuse everyone.
The key thing to keep in mind while building the best Realtor website is
FLOW
Your website needs to have one goal in mind for each page.
And the visitor has to flow through the site in a way that helps them achieve that goal.
For example, LeadSites have call to action boxes all over them that help filter traffic:
You’ll see that people can get to where they need to go very easily.
The key here is making your Realtor website as focused on driving traffic to specific pages as possible.
Go look at your website, if you find that there are various menu options and more than 10 links on any given screen you probably don’t have a good flow to your website.
…onto tip #2:
2) Ignoring Mobile Is A Deal Breakers For The Best Realtor Websites
30% of your traffic is now using their phones to view your site…
That’s terrible news if you’re using a typical broker website. As major brokers like Keller Williams and Coldwell Banker have stock websites that aren’t mobile responsive.
Here’s the deal:
You need a mobile responsive website (and not a mobile site).
Why? Because mobile responsive websites will actually grow and shrink depending on the screen they are on.
Here’s an example of our LeadSite:
The thing with mobile is that you can’t simply stop at having a mobile responsive Realtor website.
In order to have one of the best Realtor websites, you need calls to action that act differently on mobile.
According to WordStream, “Users searching for something on their mobile phone are often looking for “instant gratification” or fast results.”
That means, your calls to action on mobile need to be massive, colorful, and give traffic what they want now.
Here’s how you fix this:
Make sure your website has calls to action, lead capture, and landing pages that look fundamentally different on mobile.
We do this for you with LeadSites.
But, you can do it on your own with a variety of tools like LeadPages, SumoMe, and WordPress.
3) Bad Animations That Simply Aren’t Helpful
Have you ever been to a website that simply tries to do too much through animated graphics?
Like this:
These graphics not only slow down your website’s load speed, but they also clutter the user experience.
According to Google, “Users love simple and familiar designs”
Why is this?
Think about it:
Where do users spend most of their time on the web?
On other business websites!
They want websites that are similar to other websites. Not drastically different!
Because, that makes it a lot easier for them to navigate and use the website.
The human brain typically prefers things that are easy to think about.
That’s why they enjoy visiting websites that are similar to other websites they frequent. Because they already know how to navigate and use them.
4) Trying To Do Too Much Kills Websites
The average attention span online was 12 seconds in 2000…
That’s really short. And the drop off from 2000 is very significant.
So, what can you do if your traffic isn’t very focused? You can be focused for them!
You need a website that is focused on doing one thing. And one thing only.
Here’s a great exercise to help you do this:
If I could give you 1 closed transaction a month, what neighborhood would you like that transaction to be in?
Then:
Would you like that to be a buyer or a seller transaction?
Finally:
What price range would that transaction be in?
The answers to these questions will give you a very specific avatar for your target audience.
This will help you farm your website down to a very specific niche in the market.
Anytime you focus your marketing efforts in real estate, the results grow.
Look at this:
You can’t get any type of echo effect marketing or multiple interactions online if you spread yourself too thin.
If you focus, however, users can easily find you 5+ times during their online search.
It’s statistically proven that people have to see your marketing 7 times before they contact you.
This cannot happen if you dilute your marketing across an entire market.
5) Using Over The Top Marketing Slogans Is A Deal Breaker
Here’s the thing:
People trust reviews a lot more than they trust your catchy slogan.
There are tons of ways to use a slogan to market your business.
But:
None of it matters if your reviews say the exact opposite of that slogan.
The best Realtor websites focus on providing trust building blog content or featuring reviews.
They don’t:
- Have spammy looking domain names
- Terrible slogans that don’t live up to what Yelp says
6) Focusing On “Me” Instead Of “You” Does Not Happen On The Best Realtor Websites
Listen:
No one cares about you online.
They don’t want to see your bio the first time they hit your website.
…or your headshot.
They want the following:
- Helpful blog articles that make the buying or selling process easier
- Easy to use IDX
- Helpful contact information
You need to give to get anything online. The best way to do this is through a helpful blog!
7) No Clear Calls To Action Are On All Top Realtor Websites
One of the easiest ways to improve almost any website is through proper addition of Calls to action.
Do you have these landing pages implemented on your website?
Do you have popups or active calls to action that give people more information in exchange for their contact information?
If not, it doesn’t matter how much traffic you get.
Your website simply will not produce leads! The best real estate websites have clear and consistent calls to action!
8) Slooooow Load Speed Dominates All When It Comes To The Best Realtor Websites
Let’s face it:
Slow load speed kills traffic and lead capture.
It’s shown that load speed actually impacts SEO rankings as well.
That’s why our LeadSites typically load in under 2 seconds:
If you’re looking for a website that loads fast, you’ll need a few things:
1) A dependable host: Bluehost, Godaddy, etc just isn’t going to cut it. Invest in a faster host!
2) Look into caching elements for your header.
3) Hire someone to properly setup your server settings for ultimate loadspeed.
These 3 things can trim TONS of time off your Realtor website’s load speed. And help you get better Google rankings, lead capture, social media shares, and more traffic in general!
What do you think?
Do you have one of the best Realtor websites out there?
Are you interested in LeadSites?
Let me know any of your comments below! I’ll try to answer questions within 24 hours of you asking.
Want to learn more? Check out our article on the Top Ten Real Estate Websites and what they know that you don’t.