By Adam Jennings
There is a big difference between simply owning a website and having a digital presence. For any real estate company, having a well-maintained, functional website is extremely important and the first step to building a digital presence that can turn leads into customers. Is it sufficient to have a website with only listings and opening hours? Obviously, the answer to that question would be no. While those factors are important to include, there are several other real estate website components that carry significance. One of them is the written content that is displayed on your website, messaging is critical and your content acts as your online sales pitch.
If you talk with serious buyers, they are not only interested in the details of property listings. Users read through the content uploaded on the website, testimonials, reviews, on-page content and more. All of these pages are up for scrutiny, helping an interested party decide whether to pursue their enquiries further. If the text is not up to the mark, you will fail to gain the trust of a user and your bounce rate will reach new heights, leaving your traffic to go down; the probability of getting top-quality leads at an all-time low.
Throughout this article, we will take a look at the critical importance of your website content. At Property Webmasters, we have seen first-hand the importance of quality content and how it can affect lead generation. Whether that be for our own website (see our new brand website design page) or the AgentPlus/Bespoke website solutions we work with clients to build on a regular basis.
Do you know that a lot of online realtors fail miserably even when they keep their websites updated? Of course, updating your content regularly is great, but it is a common misconception that this is the most important factor in finding success with your online content.
Quality over quantity
What is far more important, is the quality and tone of the text and the information delivered within your content. At times, estate agents use a very promotional style of writing, which actually turns off the website users. They develop the feeling that your estate agency and the promises you claim to provide are almost too good to be true.
A good real estate website should have a conversational tone as if you are communicating with the visitors. Keep the sentences short and to the point. Do not make promises and claims about being the best real estate company since that is for the customers to decide. If the tone clicks, then visitors spend longer spans on the website. In other words, the chances of getting more leads increases.
Are you aware that organic rankings for even a couple of keywords can be a game-changer for your website and overall online presence? Suppose that your website is present on the 3rd page of the results. Would most people make the effort to check the link by going through the first two pages? The answer to this question is no. More than 70% of online real estate visitors do not go beyond the first page of results and website owners should never overlook this fact.
In fact, more than 90% of those users do not even go past the first 3 organic listings!
There are several factors that contribute to deciding the rank of the website. One of them is the insertion of relevant keywords. When the relevant keywords/phrases are used regularly, the website is set up to rank more efficiently within the SERPs. This leads to a higher traffic count and again, a higher potential chance of converting visitors into leads and then paying customers.
Keywords should be inserted naturally and no stuffing should be involved. Keyword stuffing reduces the readability level and quality of content. As a result, it becomes hard for any website to acquire a first-page position. In other words, do not write your content for the search engine specifically, but instead for an actual human, just make sure to throw some of your important keywords in there. Research tools should be used to determine recent real estate keywords that are gaining traction, at Property Webmasters we recommend using Google Keyword Planner, it is free and easy to use!
We have a further in-depth blog regarding SEO if you would like some more information on this topic!
Having the best and most attractive real estate deals on the website is great, but there is so much more to your website than the listings, original content matters. A good chunk of real estate companies uploaded plagiarized content on their website with minor changes without knowing about the adverse effects. Usually, websites with copied content are removed from the search results. Thus, the investment made by website owners goes to a complete waste.
Quality original website content is not about filling pages. It has to be relevant to the specific niche in which your business is dealing. You need to reflect your listings and USPs within the content at a low down level. Creating generic content can be seen as a waste of time for potential customers visiting the website.
Sit down with your team and write some content from scratch, only include extremely relevant content that actually matters!
The importance of providing a top-quality user experience is integral and every estate agent website should offer it, no questions asked. On the other hand, a poor standard of user experience can increase the bounce rate by a big percentage. It is important to understand that the attention span and patience of most online customers can wear thin very quickly. They do not have the patience to wait or revisit a website if there is a user experience issue.
Consider that you are browsing a property selling website and the property advertisements are not loading properly. You would undoubtedly look for alternate websites which offer a better user experience. With a poor standard of user experience, your real estate website will lose customers at a rapid pace.
It is important to keep a check on the standard of user experience so that customers do not fade away. Ensure that all pages and features are loading without any kind of glitches or delays. This would help in getting a good traffic count and potential increased leads as well.
Google Analytics is a great free tool that we here at Property Webmasters use to monitor bounce rates, keeping a keen eye on which pages are causing users to leave the most.
To sum it up, having a strong online presence is mandatory for a real estate company that aims to excel in an increasingly competitive market. These days, a major chunk of sales are generated through the website, with more and more fees driving up the costs of portals. If your website is not performing up to the mark, it would be impossible for your business to generate revenue consistently through online means. To develop and retain a strong online presence, some parameters play pivotal roles. One of them is content quality. If the website offers content readability and originality, getting a good chunk of leads becomes immensely easy. The tone of the content is important as well and should be selected in accordance with your target audience. Lastly, keywords should be inserted after researching for the latest search preferences as this can have a bearing on your website’s organic rankings.
When we build websites for clients that are starting out, we always make sure that the content they provide is as we would recommend. The importance certainly cannot be understated, if you are looking for ways to improve your website, this could be a quick win for your business. We also offer content writing services for website copy and also blog posts, that way, you know your content is up to scratch, keeping best practices in mind!
By Millie Taylor
By Ben Spowart
By Ben Spowart