Does your website need a facelift? Take the test

Some sites are good, others are ineffective

Throughout my many years of assisting real estate agents with their marketing efforts, I have seen a number of real estate agents’ websites. Some are great. They have clear call to actions, quality content, an eye-catching aesthetic and they’re easy to navigate.

Others have a website that is, for lack of a better word, ineffective. The site doesn’t have the power of speech that is needed to get today’s consumer interested in finding out more about what they have to offer as an agent.

Take the test

Before deciding whether or not you need to give your site some serious work, answer the following questions:
•    Do you have a blog?
•    Do you have testimonials on your website?
•    Does your site include a community or news section?
•    Is there clear call to actions on your site?
•    Do you have a section of your site where viewers can opt-in to email updates?
•    Do you offer video content?
•    Do you have a mobile version of your site?
•    Does your site encourage feedback, commentary or sharing?
•    Does your home page change often?
•    Do you use analytics to view how visitors use your site?

If you answered “no” to any of the above questions, then I have news for you: your website might need a little bit of improvement. Before you go about making the necessary changes to your site, however, it’s important to understand why you need to make them. I’ll take it one update at a time.

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Understanding why changes must be made

The blog. If you don’t have a blog either built in to your website or linked from your website, this is the absolute first thing that you need to change. Blogging will increase your website traffic, boost your rankings in search engines like Google and Bing and give you authority in your industry. If you’re not blogging at least once per month, you need to start. You’ll soon find that you will get more traffic to your website and more leads coming in.

Testimonials. People like to hear what others have to say about your services, so having a testimonials page is crucial. It gives your website visitors the opportunities to find out more about how you do business and hear your success stories. You should be asking your clients for testimonials after you’re finished working with them and always add new ones to your site.

Community information. As a real estate agent, you want to establish yourself as more than just a housing expert. Remember, you’re assisting people as they move to a new community. You should be marketing yourself as a neighborhood expert in your area. That’s where having community pages, all of which are optimized with keywords and hyperlinks, will be helpful on your website. You can market yourself as an expert and boost your SEO at the same time.

Clear call to actions. When you first visit a website and are looking for service, you want to know what it is that makes the business you are looking at stand out from their competition. Whether you offer first-time home buyer seminars or a complimentary coupon book, you need to advertise what makes you special on the front page of your website so people will see it right when they first visit. Once the calls to actions are clicked, there should be the section where your website visitors can “opt-in” to your newsletter and email updates, as well. This will bring you more leads.

The latest technology. There are two well-known facts about today’s consumer. The first is that they’re more visual. People are more responsive to video content than they are to written these days, hence the success of sites like YouTube. The other well-known fact is that people are using their mobile devices and tech tablets more than their laptops. With that in mind, you need to tweak your web content to keep up with the trends. Offer video content that is easily accessible to website visitors and make sure you have a mobile-friendly version of your site or app for smartphone and iPad users.

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Switching it up. You should always be adding new content to your website. Whether it’s through updating your blog regularly or creating various monthly promotions, it’s the little changes that will keep visitors coming back for more. One way to monitor the changes you could or should be making is by using analytics programs to see your website’s stats. You can monitor the activity on your site and see what its visitors are really doing. Using these as a guide, you can make certain features of your website more prominent and make the appropriate changes.

Now that you know why you need to make these changes, make a plan, get in gear and start giving your website a little TLC. It will take your site from ineffective to a fully-functioning roadway between you and your leads. No excuses. Now that you know what you need to do, it’s time to start doing it!