One of the most powerful tools for your online real estate marketing is that of a website. With a website, you have great control over the appearance, content, and page layouts. Building a powerful real estate website takes time and money. Most real estate agents stay with the same website provider for years because it can be challenging to move all the content you’ve created. Since you will be investing time, money, and challenging to move if your needs change, it is important to take some time before committing to a specific vendor.
Every real estate agent has different needs and choosing the right company to help you with your website will require a combination of understanding your needs and what will give you the most success online. Here are some of the key features to consider before making a change or signing up for a new company.
- What kind of support is offered? – Technical support can vary greatly between companies. Take the time to evaluate the hours of operation to see if it will operate within your schedule. If you only have time to work on your website in the evenings, you may want to consider a company that has technical support open after 5 p.m. When you call the companies, ask if you can speak to one of their technical support representatives and ask them questions you’ve had before to see how they can help you.
- How often do you update your product? – Web technologies change and change rapidly. Ask them how they update their product to maintain their competitive advantage online. Some website providers have been using outdated technology and only real estate agents have suffered. Dig deeper and find out what new features they’ll be adding over the next year so you can see who has their eyes on the changing market.
- What is the start-up program and costs? – The first few weeks of having your new website can have a huge impact on your long-term success. When you consider that you will have this website for years to come, it is important to start with a training program that will steer you in the right direction. Find out if they give someone to help you create their basic pages to get started, and ask if there are any online tutorials you can follow.
There are many different providers of real estate websites. Each offers something unique and the real key is finding one that you are comfortable with that you can work with and that gives you a good foundation for your success online.
No matter who you choose, your ultimate success will be determined by the action plan you take to increase your rankings, get more traffic, get leads, and convert those leads into business. After you get to your final selection, take some time to plan how you will update your website each month, as that will help you generate business each month.