Improve your SEO and build relationships with potential clients by creating a helpful website.
As luxury real estate professionals set out to create or redesign their high-end real estate websites, it’s often easy to get caught up in a mindset of, “How can this page serve me and my goals?” However, the more useful question to ask when developing a real estate website is, “How can I make this page helpful to my ideal client?”
When you create a real estate website that truly answers visitors’ questions and helps them learn what they can expect from the buying or selling process, you begin to become a one-stop shop for those who are looking to understand the real estate world but might not be ready to begin a transaction.
Both for your potential clients’ perceptions of you and for SEO purposes, keeping visitors on your site is a wonderful thing. When you become a helpful resource, search engines take notice and continue to place you in front of those you can help. Providing the information your ideal clients are searching for gives them a reason to trust you and to come to you when they’re ready to make a purchase.
While it’s important for your website to reflect who you are and what you do best, most of the pages on your site should be more about your clients than yourself. When you make your website a helpful resource, you position yourself as a trustworthy and experienced real estate professional — one who would be great to work with! Here are a few must-haves for making your website a helpful one-stop-shop that your clients will return to again and again.
Clear audience
If you aren’t clear on who your website is designed to help, it will be hard to help anyone at all. Defining your real estate niche is the best way to start your creation of a great website.
Remember, there’s nothing stopping you from helping clients who fall outside of your chosen target audience. However, identifying a niche will allow you to create targeted content that serves your ideal client. When your ideal client lands on your website, you want them to feel like your content was created specifically for them! Streamline your content to be sure it’s relevant to the people you most want to work with.
From an SEO perspective, creating web pages and blogs that answer the specific questions your ideal audience is searching for will help you rank in search engines for the right people. As you repeat keywords and relevant phrases in your content, you’ll provide helpful insights and draw in your dream clients before you even meet!
For example, if you’ve identified that your niche is military clients, it makes sense to include plenty of information about VA loans, neighborhoods near your local bases, and community details that would be useful to someone who may need to relocate frequently. However, if your area of focus is nowhere near a military base, including too much in-depth information on VA loans or other military-specific aspects of the real estate process just ends up cluttering your site and diverting attention from the content your target audience needs most.
Crisp design
When it comes to choosing a real estate website design, clarity is key. You can invest in as many fancy graphics as you’d like, but if they don’t make sense or if they detract from the overall goal of a page, they’re unlikely to pay off. On each web page, make it easy for the user to understand the page’s purpose and what they can learn from it. Hidden links, confusing buttons, or busy design can take away from even the most helpful of content. Keep it clean.
In order to create well-designed web pages that establish trust and exude expertise, choose your colors and page styles and stick to them throughout your entire real estate website. Believe it or not, even choosing the right font for your real estate site can make a difference. This will help keep the attention on the content you share while also helping you build a consistent brand throughout all your marketing materials. And be sure to spend time confirming that your site is optimized for mobile use, or you’ll leave over half of your visitors feeling frustrated.
Meaningful images
Use images to convey the look and feel you hope your future clients will experience with your brand. The images on your website might include photos of current listings, photos that highlight the beauty of the area you serve or graphics that help explain a complicated process in the real estate world.
Regardless of the type of image, keep the quality professional and ensure that the resolution of all photos is high enough for your web page. Use images that draw the eye in the direction of the main content of each page, and allow them to do some of the heavy lifting in presenting your brand as elevated and polished. On your “About” page, be sure to include a professional and friendly headshot that helps visitors begin to feel connected to you.
Variety of formats
Especially as more and more marketers turn their attention to SEO, it’s easy to get caught up in the keywords and metadata on each webpage. However, it’s important to remember that a wide variety of formats — not only text — play a role in SEO and in fostering a helpful user experience.
In the real estate process, there are countless elements and complex contracts that are often better explained through showing than telling. Leaning on videos, flowcharts, and other visual formats can help set you apart while also helping to turn overwhelming concepts into digestible pieces for your future clients.
Useful content
The particular content on your website should depend on your niche as you set out to answer the questions your ideal clients are likely to have. Use these overarching categories as a guide to help you formulate the main sections of your website and to create resources that turn web visitors into leads and unsure clients into relaxed real estate adventurers.
Process walk-throughs
Especially if your niche includes first-time buyers or sellers, consider creating simplified walk-throughs of various processes in the real estate journey. What does a buyer’s contract look like in your state? What do the key terms really mean for your clients? What can they expect on inspection day?
Whether buying or selling, making a real estate transaction is a huge decision that can impact a family’s finances in the long term. This fact coupled with the sentimentality that comes with our homes means that emotions can run high on either side during the real estate process. Having a reference point to help them understand what to expect can make all the difference.
Neighborhood guides
Regardless of your niche, you’re an expert in your area. Commonly, if someone gets a job offer or relocation request and needs to move to a new city where they don’t know anyone yet, the first thing they’ll do is perform a Google search to find out a few basics regarding their future home and the communities within it.
Keeping neighborhood guides on your website will help these relocators land on your page as they search for intel on their new city, giving you the opportunity to quickly become the only real estate professional they’ve heard of in their destination area.
Create neighborhood guides with descriptions of each community, and develop helpful lists like “The Best Austin, TX Neighborhoods for Young Professionals.” These lists can act as a direct response to commonly searched questions and give your future clients a great jumping-off point for getting to know the area.
Recommended partners
Regardless of your skill as a realtor, no real estate transaction can take place without a team of trusted professionals for each step of the way. Include a page on your website where you list professionals in your area such as lenders and inspectors whom you’ve worked with in the past and know your clients can trust. This is a great way to give back to your referral network while also providing helpful information to your clients! If you work with buyers often, you might also consider including the names of some of your favorite local contractors like electricians, landscapers, and plumbers. Even once the transaction is over, you can continue to be a helpful and long-lasting resource for your clients.
Property search
Including a property search tool on your website will keep future buyers coming back to your page to browse listings, and future sellers coming back to understand comparable sales nearby. Do your best to offer plenty of search criteria types, from price range to a number of stories.
Easy contact method
One must-have page for every luxury real estate website is the contact page! Include multiple ways of contacting you: a professional email address that matches your domain, a phone number with a tailored voicemail message, and a fillable form directly on the page. Once you’ve provided enough value for someone to want to reach out to work with you, make it as easy for them as possible!
As you formulate your real estate website to help add value and knowledge for your past, current, and future clients, use your niche and your branding as your guiding light. From there, don’t be afraid to step outside the box and get creative — you know what your audience needs!
Want to Learn More?
Read more about our award-winning real estate website designs and then get in touch with our team at Luxury Presence to start building your brand, closing more deals, and expanding your network.
