In the competitive world of real estate, where every lead counts, making strategic changes to your website can be the key to unlocking higher lead conversion rates.
The majority of real estate websites actually have pretty good traffic numbers but miss out on lead opportunities by not getting some basics right.
In this video, we’ll discuss six simple website modifications designed to turn visitors into valuable leads and ultimately, into satisfied clients.
1. Bespoke Content, Images & Messaging
Spend some time writing copy for key landing pages (home, sell, manage as a minimum) on your website. We see too many real estate websites that look and feel completely empty.
Avoid overused stock imagery or videos on your website, we’re talking the typical images of someone handing keys over or carrying boxes into an empty room. These are boring and have no relevance to yourself as an agency or what makes you different to your competitors. Our advice would be to engage your photographer to take some footage of you in the field as well as some candid images of yourself/the team (both at properties and at the office) and some location shots. This is far more appealing and personable to users who are researching trusted agents in their area.
2. Provide Value To The User
By this, we mean creating useful and downloadable resources that will provide users with helpful knowledge during their selling/buying process. Things such as market updates, suburb profile reports, seller guides, blog posts about the local area and handy tips for the sale process. The download of all of these should be monitored however it’s advised to heavily monitor the seller guide as this is indicating that someone is actively looking at what they need to prepare for when selling – a potential appraisal opportunity for you!
3. Less Is More!
There is already so much content available for you to incorporate into your website including listings, reviews, team profiles, open homes. Don’t bog down your user experience with large essays about your whole life and real estate journey (let them experience that in person when they appoint you 😉). It’s more effective to include short, sharp and targeted messaging, and that goes for any of your marketing. Your website should also include what’s referred to as a ‘call to action’, things that require the user to engage with your agency and as a result, provide their contact information and potentially a listing opportunity.
4. Reviews
Reviews/Testimonials are one of the most effective methods to convey how your agency operates to your audience. They’re social proof of your performance and reputation as an agent in your local area. If potential clients are seeing that someone that is also in their area has had a recent and positive experience with you then they are more likely to engage with you. It’s also important to note that they should specify where the listing was and whether they were sellers or buyers otherwise they’re too broad and don’t send the correct message. Specify where the review was left as well ie Google, REA, RMA, Facebook etc. – feel free to funk these up by using an icon too.
5. Performance
Ensure that your website is optimised for performance. This means your website should be loading at a fast pace, enough to keep people engaged – if it takes too long to load a page every time they click something, they will lose interest in it. The quickest way to see how your page is performing is to run the website through Google Page Speed Performance. It will provide you with a breakdown of 4 points which are different for both mobile and desktop views – Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices and SEO. A score less than 70 for any of those indicates room for improvement and can be easily fixed by contacting your web developer or engaging in one if you don’t currently have one.
6. Building Landing Pages To Convert
Don’t just rely on one appraisal page for your entire website, this is far too broad and gives a ‘one size fits all’ feel to your clients. Your agency will look far more experienced and professional by creating multiple landing pages and tailoring them to be for vendors, landlords and buyers.
By implementing these few changes, you’ll be putting your agency in the best position to start seeing increases in website traffic and lead conversions. You may also find that these tweaks and having a much cleaner, engaging and user friendly website will make you stand out from your competitors.
