These days, a website for your business is an absolute must-have. With the vast majority of buyers and sellers taking to the internet to embark on their real estate journey, it’s critical that you not only have a website, but that it’s appropriately set up and regularly tweaked.
The idea is obviously to drive as much traffic to your website and convert as many users into bonafide leads as you can. In order to do that, your website will need to be optimized accordingly. Here are 5 ways to adjust your website to send more real leads your way.
1. Include a Contact Form on Every Page Throughout Your Site
If you want to grab a ton of leads from your website, then make it easier for visitors to get in touch with you by including a contact form on each one of your website’s pages. This will allow you to gather new real estate lead data and add potential clients to your customer relationship management (CRM) database.
You’ll be able to identify which web pages the majority of the contact forms are being filled out and submitted from. This will provide you with invaluable information about which web pages are working the best, and which might need some tweaking.
You can then take a closer look at the high-performing pages to see what it is about them that are working so well so you can reproduce these elements on the rest of your site’s pages.
2. Keep Important Images at the Top of Your Homepage
Images are critical elements to any website. Studies have shown that our brains process images faster than text and retain a lot more information when it’s provided in a visual format. Images help viewers increase the amount of information that is absorbed and remembered.
As such, you should take advantage of this fact and ensure that your most important images are placed at the very top of your website’s homepage. Give your visitors the information they’re looking for in a visual format.
Include details they’re looking for about your brand, such as the name of your agency (via a logo), social media sharing buttons, your contact information, and even pictures and information about your most notable listings.
Your homepage is essentially the first chance you get to impress visitors and reel them in even further. Make sure that you regularly change these images to keep your website fresh and engaging, and update any contact information that may become out-of-date.
3. Show Just a Sample of Your Most Recent Blog Posts on Your Homepage
A blog is an essential component of your website, so if you don’t already have one, your first step is to get one started. A blog is a great way to generate awareness about your brand and establish yourself as the go-to expert in your local market. Regularly posting on your blog will provide you with the opportunity to add fresh new content to your site and target a new keyword each time.
Anyone who might be following your blog or who regularly visits your site will expect new content, and a blog is the perfect platform to make this happen. New content on your homepage will encourage prospects to keep coming back to your website. If visitors return only to be met with the same old stuff they saw a couple of weeks ago, the chances of them coming back will be slashed.
Giving visitors a sneak peek at your latest blog posts on your homepage can entice them to go further and actually head over to your blog where the long-form of these teasers are located.
You don’t want to inundate your homepage with too much content, so including just a small blurb of your most recent posts helps provide just enough information to spark your visitors’ interest, after which they’ll be more likely to go to your blog to read the full content.
4. Showcase Your Most Interesting Listings on Your Homepage
Buyers who are on the prowl for a new home will want to see what’s available for sale. They’ll want to see pictures and all the relevant listing data to go along with them. As such, make sure you make the most of your homepage by adding your latest listings that your visitors will likely find the most appealing.
In addition, include other agents’ listings, both in your market and in nearby markets. Offer interesting details about the area, including school ratings, local amenities, and average prices for specific types of housing. Including a few of your most prominent listings – along with the relevant info for each – can help drastically boost your click-throughs.
5. Include Testimonials
Most people feel more comfortable working with certain professionals if they’re convinced that they have a solid track record of satisfied customers. That goes for just about every industry, including real estate. Reading positive online reviews from previous clients gives prospective customers more incentive to work with a particular industry professional.
Make sure to ask every client to leave a review about your services and include them as testimonials on your website. Ideally, you should have a page dedicated only to testimonials – the more, the better. Not only that, you might want to sprinkle these testimonials across your site to gently remind prospects why you are the real estate professional they should be working with.
The Bottom Line
A website is always a work in progress and is never completely finished. It’s not a “set it and forget it” type of scenario. Instead, regularly updating your site to ensure it’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing – generating leads – should be a part of your overall marketing strategy. Incorporate these tips to help optimize your real estate business’s website to help drive more leads.